Today, 23 November, is the feast of ...
* Clement I, pope and martyr (c. 99)
- third successor of Peter, yet a contemporary of his;
famous for a letter (found in some early biblical
manuscripts) he wrote to the Christians of Corinth
* Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium (c. 400)
- gave up a promising career as a lawyer to become a
hermit, but was soon elected to be bishop; often assisted
St Basil the Great, and well known to Sts Gregory of
Nazianzen and Jerome; known for his theological works
defending the divinity of the Holy Spirit
* Gregory, bishop (c. 603)
- a Sicilian, he went on pilgrimage to Palestine, where he
lived as a monk; after ordination, went to Constantinople
and Rome, where he was made bishop of Girgenti (Agrigento);
there, he made enemies, who reportedly placed a woman of
ill repute in his chambers, where she was duly
'discovered'; however, Gregory was cleared of all charges
by the pope
* Columban, abbot of Luxeuil and Bobbio (615)
- considered the greatest of the Irish missionary monks to
the continent; he became a monk in order to escape the
attentions of women; founded his first monastery in the
Vosges, c. 590, then another nearby at Luxeuil; he was
later ordered deported to Ireland, but circumstances
prevented this, and he ended up going to the Alps, then
Milan, where the Lombard king gave him a ruined church and
some land at Bobbio, between Genova and Piacenza
(Jim Bugslag asked the other day if St Columban's feastday actually fell
on 21 November. Butler gives the feastday as the 23rd, but Butler has
been been known to be wrong. So does anyone out there know the true
feastday of St Columban?? Is it the 21st or 23rd?)
* Trudo or Trond (c. 690)
- preached and founded a monastery and a nunnery in his
native Brabant
* * * * * * * *
Dr Carolyn Muessig
Department of Theology and Religious Studies
University of Bristol
Bristol BS8 1TB
UK
phone: +44(0)117-928-8168
fax: +44(0)117-929-7850
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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