Today, 20 March, is the feast of ...
* Photina and companions, martyrs (no date)
- according to a Greek legend, Photina was the Samaritan
woman who spoke with Jesus at the well; she and her
companions were brought to Rome, where they were killed in
a variety of ways
- a Spanish legend says Photina converted and baptized
Domnina, Nero's daughter
* Martin, archbishop of Braga (579)
- famous for his great learning, among his works are a
*Formula vitae honestae*, written as a guide to a good life
at the request of King Miro, and a description of
superstitions held by peasants, in *De correctione
rusticorum*
* Cuthbert, bishop of Lindisfarne (687)
- as a shepherd boy, had a vision in which St Aidan went
gloriously to Heaven, then converted
* Herbert (687)
- a disciple of Cuthbert, they died on the same day;
Herbert spent much time as a hermit on an island on the
Lake of Derwentwater
* Wulfram, archbishop of Sens (703?)
- resigned his office to join the abbey of Fontenelle, but
even here he couldn't stop his homiletic impulses, so he
went to work for the evangelization of the Frisians; ended
up returning to Fontenelle, where he died
* Martyrs of Mar Saba (796)
- monks of the laura of St Sabas, between Jerusalem and the
Dead Sea, killed by Moslem invaders; martyrdom recorded by
a survivor, Stephen the Wonderworker (known also as 'the
Poet')
* Evangelist and Peregrine (c. 1250)
- close friends throughout their lives, these Augustinian
Hermits died within hours of each other, and buried in the
same grave
* Ambrogio Sansedoni (1286)
- Dominican, who died as a result of bursting a blood
vessel while preaching against usury
* John of Parma (1289)
- seventh minister general of the Franciscans, involved in
the Parisian debate with William of Saint-Amour
Last year Gary Dickson added this interesting bit of info about John of
Parma:
On whom, see the chronicle of Salimbene and R. Brooke, *Early Franciscan
Gov't.*. John was a great Joachite, a learned and saintly man. The Paris
'affair' of "the eternal gospel" was his undoing. He was tried by his
hand-picked successor, Bonaventura, at Citta della Pieve, if I remember
correctly. Thereafter, he 'retired' to a hermitage.
* Maurice of Hungary (1336)
- Hungarian noble, he left his wife (another noble) and
became a Dominican
* Mark of Montegallo (1497)
- great promoter of the Italian monti di pieta', he was
famous for his preaching on the theme of love
* Baptist of Mantua (1516)
- prior general of the Carmelites, and so esteemed as a
poet that his fellow townsmen of Mantua set up a bust of
him in rivalry with that of a rather more famous Mantuan
poet: someone named Virgil
* Ippolito Galantini (1619)
- founded a secular institute in Florence, for the
education of children as well as adults
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Carolyn Muessig
Department of Theology and Religious Studies
University of Bristol
Bristol BS8 1TB
UK
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