Today, 28 February, is the feast of ...
* Martyrs in the Plague of Alexandria (261)
- this feast commemorates the charity shown by Alexandrian
Christians in helping victims of this great plague; many of
those who assisted others did themselves suffer and die
from the plague
* Proterius, patriarch of Alexandria, martyr (457)
- victim of theological and political disputes, he was
killed in his church during Holy Week
* Romanus and Lupicinus, abbots (c. 460 & 480)
- brothers, they lived as hermits but then built
monasteries in the Jura mountains for the many disciples
they attracted
* Hilarus, pope (468)
- buried in the church of St Lawrence outside the walls of
Rome, where he had provided a library and two public baths
* Oswald of Worcester, archbishop of York (992)
- he actually died on 29 February, on that day in 992, he had
just wiped and kissed the feet of a poor man (as he did
every day) when he died peacefully
* Angela da Foligno, widow (1309)
- Franciscan tertiary and mystic
* Villana da Firenze, matron (1360)
- became a Dominican tertiary after looking in the mirror
one day to see not the beautiful woman she was, but the
face of a hideous demon
* Hedwig (Jadwiga) of Poland, matron (1399)
- married at age thirteen to a non-Christian, she converted
him by her example, and the two of them set off to convert
many Lithuanians
Last year Tom Izbicki added the following helpful info:
Jadwiga was the daughter of Casimir, the last Piast king of Poland. Her
husband, Jagiello, was ruler of Lithuania. His conversion, and that of
his people, deprived the Teutonic Knights of much of their claim to be on
crusade against the pagans. And their defeat at Tannenberg also reduced
the military power of the knights. The vehement polemics of John
Falkenberg, the apologist for the knights, were denounced by the Poles to
the Council of Constance as heretical.
* Antonia da Firenze, widow (1472)
- one of several great Franciscans (including Bernardino of
Siena and John of Capistrano) to spend time and die in
L'Aquila, she ran a large convent of tertiaries in the city
* Luisa Albertoni, widow (1533)
- she would bake bread for the poor and give it to them,
but only after placing gold and silver coins in the bread
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Carolyn Muessig
Department of Theology and Religious Studies
University of Bristol
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