Today, 19 August, is the feast of ...
*Andrew the Tribune, martyr (300): Andrew was a captain under Antiochus in
the army of Galerius. During a battle against the Persians, Andrew called
on the name of Christ and told his men to do the same, and thereby won the
battle. As a result of the victory, Andrew decided to become a Christian.
*Timothy, Agapius, and Thecla, martyrs (304): Martyred during the reign of
Diocletian.
*Sixtus III, pope (440): Sixtus restored many buildings in Rome, perhaps
the most famous is the church S Maria Maggiore.
*Mochta, abbot (535): It is recorded that he never uttered a false word
and that he never ate a morsel of fat. It is also recorded that he lived
for three hundred years
*Bertulf, abbot (640): Originally a monk at Luxeuil, Bertulf succeeded
Columban as abbot of Bobbio.
*Sebald (eighth century?): Among the miracles attributed to him are using
icicles to heat a cold cabin, restoring sight to a blind man, and causing
a heckler to be swallowed up by the earth. (patron saint of the heckled?)
*Louis of Anjou, bishop of Toulouse (1297): Grand-nephew of Louis IX of
France. Pope John XXII canonized him at Avignon in 1317, at which ceremony
Louis's mother was present. (Are there any other saints whose parents were
present at their canonizations?)
Two years ago to this question Paul Chandler gave this helpful reply:
Dionisia, mother of the hermit Galgano of Chiusdino (d. 1181), gave
evidence at the process for his canonisation in 1185, which I think is the
earliest formal canonisation process whose acta have survived. (Galgano,
however, was not formally canonised, so maybe it is better to keep your
mother away from that kind of thing.)
It's interesting, by the way, how many hagiographical topoi occur in
Dionisia's testimony about her son's life. When Arbesmann made his
comparative study of three vitae of Galgano, he seems not to
have been aware of the close similarities between the vitae and the
depositions at the canonisation process. He dismissed as hagiographical
conventions details which seem to be drawn directly from Dionisia's
testimony: a vision of St Michael with which hagiographers were
supposed to have clothed a "severe inner crisis"; the Roman pilgrimage,
perhaps "a later fiction" modelled on that of St Francis; the round
hermitage, which Arbesmann thinks an etiological story to explain the
round church which later rose over the grave; the omens, voices and
miracles which he considers merely "stock incidents of medieval
hagiography", etc. Even if conventional elements had shaped his
mother's memory of the saint, they were apparently not the conventions of
hagiographers alone. Perhaps a warning to make our scepticism more
measured, or at least more careful and more precisely focussed?
References, in case anyone is interested: R. Arbesmann, "The Three
Earliest _Vitae_ of St Galganus", in S. Prete, ed., _Didascaliae: Studies
in Honour of Anselm M. Albareda_, New York, 1961, 1-38. The acta are
edited by F. Schneider, "Die Einsiedler Galgan von Chiusdino und die
Anfa"nge von San Galgano", _Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen
Archiven und Bibliotheken_ 17 (1914-24): 61-77
Thanks Paul!
Last year Rozanne Elder reminded the list of the following feast:
19 August is also the feast of Blessed Guerric of Igny (1157), Cistercian
abbot and spiritual writer.
Thanks Rozanne!
*Emily of Vercelli, Dominican nun (1314): Emily was elected prioress,
against her will, to the convent that her father had built especially for
her.
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Carolyn Muessig
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