Today, January 24, is the feast day of:
Felician/Felicianus of
Foligno/-of Forum Flaminii, and Messalina (d. c250) Felician is the legendary
protobishop of the Umbrian city of Foligno. According to his Passio, he
was born at Forum Flaminii, now the Foligno suburb of San Giovanni Profiamma,
and from there exercised from the time of pope St. Victor I (189-99) onward the
only archiepiscopal authority that then existed in Italy in north of Rome. The
earliest trace of the use of the pallium is found in the description of his
consecration. Felician is said to have preached widely in Umbria, to have
consecrated the first bishop of Terni, and as a very old man to have died a
martyr at Foligno during the Decian persecution. Legend says he was 94 when he
died. Messalina, a consecrated virgin of the city, ministered to Felician's
needs in prison and was in turn arrested and clubbed to death.
Foligno's frequently reworked cathedral of San Feliciano is built over that part
of an early Christian cemetery where, it is claimed, Felician was
buried.
Felician seems to have had two transalpine translations:
one in 965 to Minden in today's Nordrhein-Westfalen and one in 969 to Metz, the
latter as part of the well known collecting activity of its bishop Theodoric
(Thierry; Dietrich) I. A bit from Felician's putative remains at Metz was
given to Foligno in 1673. He is presumably the titular of the now Lutheran
Felicianus-Kirche in Weyhe (Lkr. Diepholz) in Niedersachsen; despite its
proximity to Bremen, in the Middle Ages this area was part of the diocese of
Minden.
A portrait of him in glass from 1488 now at Assisi in
the Museo-Tesoro del Sacro convento della cattedrale di Foligno: http://tinyurl.com/24c2m6
Vera (2nd
or 5th century) There are two accounts of a saint named Vera. One was a woman of
Clermont in the fifth century, who was a great doer of good deeds. The other
Vera appears in legend as a twelve-year-old girl who, with her mother and two
sisters, was martyred in the reign of Hadrian, because they refused to sacrifice
to the gods of the state. The second legend is especially popular in Russia,
where Vera's cult is still alive and well today.
Sabinianus/Savinien
(French) of Troyes/-of Samos (d. c273, supposedly) is a poorly attested martyr
of the diocese of Troyes. His first mention in any source comes in the probably
early eighth-century legendary Passio of his supposed sister St. Sabina
(Savine) of Troyes (BHL 7408), in contradistinction to Sabina he is not recorded
in any martyrology prior to that of Usuard in the later ninth century, and his
own legendary Passio (BHL 7438), whose earliest witnesses are of the
tenth century, is calqued on that of St. Sidronius of Sens (BHL
7702).
According to that text, Savinien was young pagan nobleman
on Samos when the truth of Christ was revealed to him by an angel. He traveled
to Gaul, was there baptized, and through his miracle-accompanied preaching made
many converts. Savinien was brought before the emperor Aurelian (270-75)
at Troyes, refused to abjure his faith, was sentenced to death by fire but
emerged unscathed, and was then shot at with arrows, none of which struck him
but one of which injured Aurelian in an eye. Savinien escaped briefly, crossing
the Seine on dry feet, but was recaptured and was then decapitated on this day
at a place called Rilliacum.
Savinien then carried his head for
forty paces to the place where he was buried (cephalophory seems to have been as
common among the martyrs of Bourgogne as it was among the apostles of France).
At his recommendation, a cloth soaked in his blood was used to heal Aurelian.
Later, the blind Syra (Sainte Syre) with God's help found Savinien's grave,
miraculously recovered her sight, and erected a church over his tomb. Thus far
his Passio.
Usuard, followed by cardinal Baronio in the early
RM, entered Savinien under January 29 (which is still Sabina's feast day). In
2001 the RM moved this commemoration to Savinien's dies natalis as
given in the Passio (a change probably founded on the not unreasonable
assumption that this was Savinien's feast day at the time of its
writing).
Savinien's putative remains are said to now
repose in the cathedral of Troyes, where scenes from his Passio are depicted in
one of the thirteenth-century upper windows of the choir (no. 209): http://tinyurl.com/d345wv
Artemius
of Clermont (d. after 400) lived in Trier, but at the end of the fourth century
was sent to Spain, apparently on a political mission. He fell ill on his journey
and had to stop at Clermont, where he stayed and became a priest. In c400 he
became bishop of Clermont. The cult that developed soon after his death
apparently from an early age especially valued Artemius as a protector against
the danger of fire.
Macedonius Kritophagos (d. c430) was a Syrian
wandering hermit. He wandered for 40 years, living on nothing but barley
dampened with water ("kritophagos" means "barley-eater"). When 90,
though, he switched over to eating bread as a concession to stay alive.
Macedonius healed the mother of the church historian Theodoret, and appears as a
prominent miracle worker in the pages of Theodoret's history.
Suranus of
Sora (d. c580) Gregory the Great tells of Suranus in his Dialogues. Suranus was
abbot of Sora and gave all his monastery's goods to aid refugees from the
Lombards - even the herbs in the garden. When the Lombards came to loot the
place and found nothing at all to take, they were so mad that they killed
Suranus on the spot.
Cadoc/Cathwy (6th century) Not to be mistaken
with Cadoc of Wales, whose feast is celebrated on September 25. This Cadoc was
from Scotland. He abandoned his inheritance and made pilgrimages to Jerusalem
and Rome. Later he founded numerous churches and monasteries in Wales, including
Llancarfan. It's really not clear where he ends and Cadoc of Wales
begins.
Arno of Salzburg (d. 821) was one of the leading churchmen of his
time. He was born in Bavaria in c746, and became a monk and then abbot of
St-Amand-les-Eaux (Belgium). In 785 Arno was named bishop of Salzburg, and was
raised to archiepiscopal status in 798. Arno was especially notable as a
mediator and advisor in the service of Charlemagne.
Marcolino da Forli'
(1397) spent so much time in prayer that his knees developed calluses; he was
very withdrawn, but his funeral was attended by throngs of people who had been
informed of his death by an angel in the guise of a child.
happy reading,
Terri Morgan
--
"Nobility depends not on
parentage or place of birth, but on breadth of compassion and depth of loving
kindness. If we would be noble, let us be
greathearted." -
anon
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