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Today, 20 November, is the feast of ... * Dasius, martyr (303?) - beheaded for not accepting the role of 'lord of misrule' in pre-Saturnalia celebrations * Nerses, bishop of Sahgerd, and other martyrs (343) - killed by Sapor II of Persia for refusing to worship the sun * Maxentia, virgin and martyr (?) - an Irish princess, she fled to France (place now known as Pont-Sainte-Maxence, near Senlis) to escape a suitor; he tracked her down and cut off her head * Edmund, martyr (870) - at age 14, elected king by nobles and clergy of Norfolk; a talented leader and pious man, he memorized the Psalter as a way of emulating king David; part of his martyrdom involved being shot with arrows by Danes until he looked 'like a hedgehog whose skin is closely set with quills, or a thistle covered with thorns'; buried in Bury St Edmund's * Bernward or Berward, bishop of Hildesheim (1022) - guardian of the young emperor Otto III; the Hildesheim Gospels are supposedly written and illuminated by the saint's own hand; was also a fine metal-worker * Felix of Valois (1212) - co-founder of the Trinitarian Order, with his disciple St John of Matha, dedicated to redeeming captives * Ambrogio Traversari, abbot (1439) - a true Renaissance man, he collected a fine library for Camaldolese monastery of Our Lady of the Angels, Florence (not Paris); became abbot general of the Camaldolese Order, then helped achieve short-lived union between Western and Eastern churches ******************* Carolyn Muessig Department of Theology and Religious Studies University of Bristol 3 Woodland Road Bristol BS8 1TB UK fax: +44.117.929.7850 phone: +44.117.928.8168 [log in to unmask] %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%