Today, 20 January, is the feast of ...
* Fabian, pope and martyr (250)
- in an assembly of people and clergy held to elect a new pope, a
dove flew in and settled on Fabian's head; the people and clergy got
the message
* Sebastian, martyr (288?)
- shot full of arrows, so that he looked like a porcupine (hedgehog
for you English?); miraculously restored to health after a stay with
Irene, the widow of St Castulus, he returned before the emperor to
denounce his attitude to the Christians; upon reflection, the emperor
then ordered that Sebastian be clubbed to death, and his body thrown
into a sewer
* Euthymius the Great, abbot (473)
- miraculously cured and converted so many Arabs who visited his
monastery that the patriarch of Jerusalem made him a bishop in order
to better cope with the converts' spiritual needs
* Fechin, abbot (665)
- born in Connaught and trained by St Nathy, he founded and ruled a
monastery in Westmeath; perished in a great plague
* Benedict of Coltiboni (c. 1107)
- a hermit attached to a Vallombrosan monastery, his death was made
known by the abbey's bell ringing by itself; his body was found
kneeling, with hands joined and eyes raised upward
* Desiderius or Didier, bishop of Therouanne (1194)
- resigned to spend his last years as a Cistercian monk at Cambron
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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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