Today, 21 January, is the feast of ...
* Fructuosus, bishop of Tarragona, martyr (259)
- along with two deacons (Augurius and Eulogius), burned at the stake
on the orders of the governor, Emilian; Augustine wrote a panegyric
on this bishop of what was Spain's major city
* Patroclus, martyr (259?)
- a cleric (a lector, in fact) responsible for the upkeep of the tomb
(near Troyes) of this unkown saint claimed that one day a stranger
visited and lent him a copy of a hitherto unknown manuscript of the
*acta* of Patroclus, which he hurriedly copied; the next day the
stranger disappeared, and the cleric presented his manuscript to the
bishop, explaining what had happened; the bishop derided the cleric,
thinking he had invented the story to bring attention to this saint;
however, Gregory of Tours tells us that when a military mission
returned to France, it bore a *passio* of Patroclus identical to the
lector's
- surely, a patron saint for hagiographers!
* Agnes, virgin and martyr (c. 304?)
- her riches and beauty excited the desires of young Roman men, yet
she resisted them in favour of Christ; martyred at age 13, she was
one of the most popular saints of the Middle Ages
* Epiphanius, bishop of Pavia (496)
- he rebuilt Pavia after it had been destroyed by Odoacer
* Meinrad, martyr (861)
- established a hermitage at the aptly named Einsiedeln, later the
site of the famous abbey of the same name
*********************
Carolyn Muessig
Department of Theology and Religious Studies
University of Bristol
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