Today, 31 March, is the feast of ...
* Balbina, virgin (date unknown) - All that is known to us is that midway
between the Via Appia and the Via Ardeatina there was a cemetery of
Balbina. On the other hand there seems to have been a Balbina, called
daughter of Quirinus, but she cannot have been identical withe first-named
Balbina because she lived at a much earlier date. Balbina was honoured in
a little fourth-century church on the Aventine which bore her name, but it
is difficult to decide which Balbina was intended. Will the real Balbina
please stand up!
* Acacius or Achatius, bishop (third century) - Acacius is called a martyr
but there is no evidence that he was put to death for this faith.
* Benjamin, martyr (c. 421) - During the persecution of Christians in
Persia, Benjamin a deacon refused to stop preaching the gospel.
Consequently he was tortured by having reeds thrust into his nails. After
this torture had been repeated several times, a knotted stake was inserted
into his bowels to rend and tear him.
* Guy of Pomposa, abbot (1046) - At certain seasons of the year he was
accustomed to withdraw to a cell about three miles from his abbey, where
he lived in such unbroken abstinence and devotion that he seemed to be
sustained by fasting and prayer. He happened to die in Parma where he was
stricken with a sudden illness. A contest took place for the custody of
his body between Pomposa and Parma; the Emperor Henry III settled the
matter by having the relics taken to the church of St John the Evangelist
at Speyer!
* Jeanne de Toulouse, virgin (fourteenth century)
- when her body was translated in 1805, a manuscript prayer book
was found beside her -- does anyone know anything about the practice
of burying books with their owners?
* Bonaventura da Forli (1491) - Preacher from the Order of Servites. He
was commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV to undertake preaching throughout
Tuscany and the Venetian province. Toward the end of his life he was
elected vicar general of his Order. In Udine, he died after just finishing
preaching on Maundy Thursday, 1491.
* * * * * * * * *
Carolyn Muessig
Department of Theology and Religious Studies
University of Bristol
Bristol. BS8 1TB
UK
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