Today, 26 January, is the feast of ...
* Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, martyr (155?)
- a disciple of John the Evangelist (a.k.a. the Divine), and
teacher of St Irenaeus, he was a hater of heretics (example:
on meeting the heretic Marcion in the streets of Rome,
Polycarp ignored him; Marcion, offended, called out, 'Do you
not know who I am?', to which Polycarp replied, 'Yes, I know
you, the first-born of Satan')
- the *acta* of his martyrdom were widely known throughout
the Christian world
* Paula, widow (404)
- mother of St Blesilla (see FEAST 22 January), friend of St
Marcella, she cared for material well-being of St Jerome: not
an easy task, looking after the curmudgeon of the century! --
no wonder she's considered a saint :-)
* Conan, bishop (seventh century?)
- teacher of St Fiacre, preacher in Man and the Hebrides
* Alberic, abbot of Citeaux (1109)
- co-founder of the Cistercian Order, with Robert of Molesmes
and Stephen Harding
* Eystein Erlandsson, archbishop of Nidaros (Trondheim)
(1188)
- second archbishop of this see, he wrote a *vita* of St
Olaf, and oversaw the first royal coronation in Norwegian
history (that of the eight-year-old king Magnus)
* Margaret of Hungary, virgin (1270)
- daughter of king Bela IV of Hungary, she was consecrated at
age twelve by Humbert of Romans, and moved into a convent on
an island in the Danube near Buda; her fanatical penances and
self-deprivations, as well as her ecstasies, brought her
great fame
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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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