medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

Today,  April 2,  is the feast of:

Apphian(us) and Theodosia (d306) We know about Appianus (also Aphianus and Amphianus) from Eusebius' On the Martyrs of Palestine. A Lycian from a wealthy family, he had converted to Christianity and studied at the then famous university of Berytus (today's Beirut). His family having rejected him on religious grounds, he moved on to Caesarea. He was living with Eusebius when, one day, he grabbed the local governor, Urbanus, by the hand as he was about to conduct an official sacrifice and attempted to prevent the performance of this act. This caused him to be beaten by an irate crowd, thrown in jail, and brought to trial on the following day after having been further thoroughly beaten. Convicted, he was executed by being weighted down with stones and thrown into the sea. A seismic disturbance witnessed by Eusebius later caused Apphianus's body to be washed up before the city gates. Today is his probable dies natalis. 18-year-old Theodosia suffered the same fate two years later on Easter day, after drawing attention to herself by speaking comfortingly to Christian prisoners awaiting execution.

Theodosia/Theodora (d308) She was a Christian virgin of Tyre, still in her eighteenth year and staying in Caesarea, who consoled Christian prisoners who were about to be martyred. For this she was brought before governor Urbanus. When she refused to sacrifice to the idols, he - according to Eusebius - became outraged and ordered her to be flayed alive. She survived that assault and even managed at the end to stand up with a smile on her luminous visage. When she again refused to sacrifice she was thrown into the sea. By the beginning of the ninth century T. had a Latin Passio derived from Eusebius but expanding on her torments. This furnished the data for her entries in the martyrologies of Florus, Ado, and Usuard, in which she was listed for today (one of the dates given in texts of Eusebius) following the earlier Bede. The Passio itself and the (pseudo-) Hieronymian Martyrology give 3. April as her dies natalis. In the Marble Calendar of Naples T. is entered for 29 May, also her feast in some Eastern calendars.

Abundius of Como (d. 468 or 469) was a Greek bishop of Como (Northern Italy) who in 450/51 led a mission to the emperor in Constantinople on behalf of pope St. Leo I that was part of the run-up to the council of Chalcedon. His cult in Como, where he is the principal patron saint, is attested from the ninth century onward. In his diocese Abundius is celebrated liturgically on August 31. Today is his dies natalis and, unless there's been a recent change, his day of commemoration in the RM.

Victor of Capua (d554) Victor succeeded St. Germanus of Capua as bishop of that city in 541. A Bible scholar of mathematical bent, he wrote on the paschal cycle, on the dimensions of Noah's ark, and on the hour of the Crucifixion, as well as commentaries in catena form on the Old Testament and on the New. He commissioned one of the principal early manuscripts of the Vulgate, the codex Fuldensis. This contains the Gospels in an originally Old Latin version of Tatian's Diatessaron altered, on V.'s instructions, to show the Vulgate text. Victor's death on 2 April 554 is recorded in his epitaph.

Nicetius of Lyon (d573) We know about Nicetius (in French, Nizier) chiefly from the account of him in the Vita patrum of his great nephew, St. Gregory of Tours as well as from references in other of Gregory's writings. Born in 513 in Burgandy, Nicetius came from a priestly family (his father had declined an offer to be bishop of Geneva and an uncle was bishop of Lyon) and was trained for the church from an early age. Ordained priest at the age of forty in about 513, he became bishop of Lyon, succeeding his uncle Agricola, in 552/53. Gregory, who had been a deacon under him, remembered him as concerned for the quality of liturgical chant, charitable, chaste, and a forceful administrator. Him became famous as an exorcist. A miracle was reported at his burial in Lyon's church of the Apostles; others followed and in time the church became named for him.

Musa, virgin (6th century) Musa was a little girl in Rome, who in a dream one night saw a great company of girls in white, and the Blessed Virgin Mary, who stayed her when she wished to run among them, telling her that if she desired to be of that happy company, she must be a good and serious little girl.

Eustasius/Eustache, Eustace (French) of Luxeuil (d. 629).  We know about Eustasius, the second abbot of Luxeuil, from his mid-seventh-century Vita by Jonas of Bobbio (BHL 2773), from the same author's Vita sancti Columbani, and, less reliably, from the Vitae of other  saints.  A nephew of a bishop of Langres, he was St. Columban's disciple and became a trusted lieutenant.  Early in the second decade of the seventh century, not long after Columban had been driven out of Luxeuil by the opposition both of the Burgundian court and the local bishops, Eustasius succeeded to the abbacy there, helped perhaps by his membership in an influential family of the region.
   As abbot Eustasius restored order and over the objections of others preserved most of the house's Irish ways, though it appears that he ultimately accepted the Roman calculation of Easter. Jonas, who traveled to Luxeuil shortly before Eustasius's death in order hear his recollections of Columbanus (whose Vita Jonas had been charged with writing), calls him learned, eloquent, and active; he also credits Eustasius with curing the blindness of St. Sadalberga, then a girl. Among Eustasius' pupils were several who became bishops as well as Sts. Agilus of Rebais, Fara (Burgondofara) of Faremoutiers, and Walbert (Waldebert) of Luxeuil, Eustasius' immediate successor.  Eustasius is also credited with bringing into the Roman fold a tribe along the Doubs that had followed teachings of the heretic Bonosus of Sardica/Serdica.
   Jonas gives March 29 as Eustasius' dies natalis. The revised RM of 2001 moved Eustasius' commemoration from that date to today, the date under which he is entered in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology.  Relics believed to be Eustasius came to the women's abbey of the BVM at Vergaville in today's Flavigny-sur-Moselle (Meurthe-et-Moselle), a tenth-century foundation, fairly early in that house's history, whereupon Eustasius was added to the abbey's titulature.  The nuns kept these when they were forced to leave Vergaville in 1792 and brought them to the Prieuré of Flavigny-sur-Moselle when they settled there in 1824.  In 1904 the community emigrated to Italy.  

Ebba the Younger (d. c. 870) Ebba was abbess of Coldingham on the English/Scottish border. During the great onslaught of the Vikings in 870 Ebba mutilated her face (to make herself so repulsive that the Vikings would respect her virginity) and convinced the other nuns to do likewise.  So the Vikings did them no harm except to sack the nunnery and then burn it with the nuns inside.

Constantine II of Scotland (d. 874) Constantine was a king of Scotland who was killed in battle against non-Christian Viking invaders. He was buried at Iona and venerated locally as a martyr.

Francis of Paola (d. 1507) Francis was born at Paola in Calabria's Cosenza province, the child of small-farmer stock. His parents, though, had spent several childless years, so they vowed any son they might have to Francis of Assisi. Sure enough, they then produced a son, who was named after the great saint, and raised to be pious. When he was twelve he spent a year at the Franciscan friary at San Marco (Sammarco), today's San Marco Argentano, after which he joined his parents on a pilgrimage to Rome and to Assisi. By then he already had begun to gain a reputation for his piousness and miracle working (his specialty was miracles at sea, for which he was declared patron of seafarers in 1943). With their permission he then became a hermit at Paola. By his 20th birthday he had attracted followers and founded a community of back-to-basics Franciscans. These became the Order of Minims, whose first rule was approved in 1493 and whose second was approved in 1501. In addition to the three usual monastic vows, he imposed upon the Minims a fourth vow - perpetual fasting with abstinence not only from meat but from eggs and anything made with milk. Well before then Francis had attracted the attention of his king, Ferrando (Ferrante) I of mostly mainland Sicily, as well as that of the king of France, Louis XI, who called for him in 1483 when near death. He spent the remainder of his life in France, dying at his hermitage on the royal estate at Plessis-les-Tours in 1507. He died in the reign of Louis XII and was buried in a chapel on the estate that already housed the body of the deposed last Aragonese king of mostly mainland Sicily, Ferrando I's second legitimate son, Federico (d. 1504), who as duke of Maine had been living in exile at the chateau here. In 1562 Huguenots ransacked the chapel and burned both bodies. He was canonized in 1519.



Happy reading,
Terri Morgan

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