Today, 11 February, is the feast of ...
* Saturninus, Dativus and companions, martyrs (304)
- arrested in Abitina, this group (including Saturninus the
priest and his family, and Dativus the senator) was sent to
Carthage, where they died in prison
* Lucius, bishop of Adrianople, martyr (350)
- exiled from his see by the more powerful Arians, he met
in Rome fellow exiles St Paul of Constantinople and St
Athanasius; the latter wrote on several occasions of
Lucius's constancy and courage before dying in prison
* Lazarus, bishop of Milan (c. 450)
- apparently, he was the first to introduce Rogationtide
litanies
* Severinus, abbot (507)
- on a trip to Paris from his monastery of Agaunum, he
healed of various ailments both Eulalius, bishop of Nevers,
and king Clovis; on way back home, he was recognized as a
holy man by people who had never seen him before
Last Bill East added the following information:
There are several St Severini. Another, of course, is no less than
Anicius Manlius Torquatus Severinus Boethius, author of the De
Consolatione, who was in fact canonized at St Severinus, and whose tomb
is honoured at the church of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro in Pavia.
* Caedmon (c. 680)
- 'the father of English sacred poetry', his feast was
celebrated in the abbey of Whitby on this day
* Gregory II, pope (731)
- after rising through the ranks from subdeacon to the
pope's treasurer and librarian, he himself became pope in
715; he was involved in many building programmes, such as
the re-erection of a great part of Rome's walls, the
construction of a hospital for old men, and the conversion
of his late mother's house into the monastery of St Agatha
* Benedict of Aniane, abbot (821)
- as a youth he served king Pepin and his son Charlemagne
as cupbearer; after converted to the eremitical and
monastic life, he re-entered the royal sphere of influence
when he was obliged to live in monasteries close to where
lived the emperor Louis the Pious; did much textual work on
monastic rules
* Paschal I, pope (824)
- known for his attempts to fight iconoclasm, and for
translating the remains of many martyrs from the catacombs
into churches; a small portrait of him exists in a mosaic
in the Roman church of Santa Maria della Navicella
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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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