medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (24. June) is the feast day of:
the nativity of John the Baptist (1st cent.) John's birthday was one
of the earliest ecclesiastical feast days, one of the very few saints
whose major feast commorates birth, rather than death or translation.
Bartholomew of Farne (d. 1193) Bartholomew was a native of Whitby
who followed the example of St. Cuthbert by becoming a hermit on one
of the Farne islands. He had a rather complicated and many-named
life. B. was of Scandinavian descent, and his parents named him
Tostig---a name he changed to William. He went to Norway, where he
studied and was ordained to the priesthood. then he returned to
England, perhaps to avoid pressure to marry (I gather that Norwegian
clerics tended to be married in those days). He then became a monk
at Durham and changed his name to Bartholomew. B's ascetic specialty
was to wear a tunic and trousers of ram's skin, which he refused to
wash, claiming "the dirtier the body, the cleaner the soul." The
monks of Durham, perhaps a bit tongue-in-cheek, said that B "made the
island fragrant with his virtues."
--
Dr. Phyllis G. Jestice
Associate Professor & Chair
History Department
University of Southern Mississippi
118 College Dr. #5047
Hattiesburg, MS 39406
(601) 266-5844
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