Today, April 24, is the feast of:
Mary (of) Cleophas and Salome (d. 1st century) are jointly celebrated today in the modern RM. See April 9 for Mary, October 22 for Salome.
Alexander of Lyon (d. 177, traditionally)and his supposed fellow sufferer Epipodius (April 22) are early martyrs of Lyon who according to St. Gregory of Tours (In gloria martyrum, 49) were entombed in the crypt of that city's church of St. John on either side of the altar containing the relics of St. Irenaeus of Lyon. A late antique sermon (BHL 2575d) seemingly written for delivery at Lyon likens these saints to Peter and Paul and claims that the dust of their tombs is miracle-working.
Epipodius and Alexander (the customary order of their naming) have a brief, legendary Passio (BHL 2574, 2575; earliest witness is twelfth-century) making them martyrs of the persecution under the emperor Antoninus Verus (Eusebius' name for Marcus Aurelius; cf. his Historia ecclesiastica, 4. 18). According to this, they were friends residing in Lyon who went into hiding together and who were betrayed, arrested, and imprisoned. Epipodius, the younger of the two, was interrogated first. Neither blandishments nor torture could persuade him to abandon his faith; he was then further tortured publicly and finally was executed by a sword blow. Epipodius' death increased Alexander's thirst for martyrdom; his turn came two days later. The two were buried secretly and later were given a martyrial church, where they operated many miracles.
The saints' tombs were destroyed in 1562 but their altars remain.
Sabas and Companions (d. 272) Legend reports that Sabas was a Christian officer of Gothic descent, martyred in Rome along with 70 companions. He may be the same person as the Sabas commemorated on April 12.
Anthimus of Nicomedia (d. 303 or 311/12) was bishop of Nicomedia in Bithynia (today's İzmit in Turkey). Unfortunately, Nicomedia was a favorite residence of Roman emperors in the period c300. Thus, persecution of Christians was especially stringent there - especially after a Christian zealot tore down the imperial edict against Christians. Christian clerics were then ordered to offer incense to the state gods whenever they appeared in public. Bishop Anthimus refused to do so and was beheaded. He was put to death either under Diocletian just after the start of the Great Persecution or under Maximinus. Justinian erected a basilica over his tomb. In Orthodox churches he is celebrated on September 3. The (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology lists him for April 27, which is also where he was in the RM until its latest revision, which follows the late antique Syriac Martyrology in placing him under today's date.
Anthimus as depicted in the (either c1263-1270 or slightly later) frescoes of the monastery church of the Holy Trinity at Sopoćani (Raška dist.) in southern Serbia: http://tinyurl.com/27moqlq detail: http://tinyurl.com/29fz55a
Anthimus as depicted (in the roundel at left; the standing figure at center is Antipas of Pergamum) in the (1330s) frescoes of the church of the Hodegetria in the Patriarchate of Peć at Peć in, depending on one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija: http://tinyurl.com/ybd9mq8
Anthimus as depicted in the frescoes (betw. 1335-1350) of the altar area in the church of the Pantocrator at the Visoki Dečani monastery near Peć in, depending on one's view of recent events, the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's Kosovo province of Kosovo and Metohija: http://tinyurl.com/ylz5zgq
Daniel, hermit and martyr (date uncertain) The story of this saint is that he was a hermit in the East, who, at the call of God, came to Europe, and visited Arles. At Arles a furious persecution was being waged, and Daniel was condemned by the governor to be cast into the fire, but as he came forth unhurt, he was flung into the Rhone, but also without effect. Then he was cast to wild beasts; but they would not touch him, so the governor ordered his head to be struck off.
Gregory of Elvira (d. c400) was bishop of Elvira in southern Spain. He was staunchly anti-Arian, refusing all compromise during the fourth-century struggles for preeminence between the catholics and the Arians.
Mellitus (d. 624) Abbot Mellitus was the leader of a group of clerics sent in 601 by pope St. Gregory the Great to England in support of the mission of St. Augustine of Canterbury. He brought the pallium for Augustine, along with vessels, altar cloths, priestly vestments, and many books. One of the latter may have been the Gospels of Saint Augustine. Prior to Augustine's death in 604 Mellitus became bishop of the East Saxons, with his seat in London where King Æthelberht erected for him that city's first St. Paul's but he was banished in an anti-Christian reaction after his royal protector (King Sabert) died. He had excommunicated Sabert’s sons (heirs). In 609 and 610 he was in Rome. In 619 he became archbishop of Canterbury. According to Bede, Mellitus suffered from gout. We learn from his brief Vita by Goscelin of St-Bertin that eleventh-century pilgrims to Canterbury who suffered from this disease were directed to his tomb.
Wilfrid of York (d. prob. 710) The scion of lesser nobility in Northumbria, Wilfrid was spent much of his early life at the royal courts of Northumbria and Kent with a few years' training at Lindisfarne in between. In the 650s he went as a lay pilgrim to Rome where, according to his Vita by Stephen of Ripon, he daily visited shrines of the martyrs, was instructed in Roman liturgical practices by the archdeacon of Rome, was presented to the pope, and left with a collection of relics. Reaching Lyon, he halted there, made his monastic profession, and studied for several years. When he returned to England royal patronage made him abbot at Ripon. He was ordained priest in 663. In 664 he helped to secure the victory of the Roman party at the Synod of Whitby. Shortly thereafter he was named bishop of Northumbria.
Making sure that his consecration would be both splendid and perfectly canonical, he traveled to the Merovingian capital at Compiègne, where in the royal palace he was enthroned in a ceremony attended by twelve bishops. But he stayed too long abroad. When he returned in 666 he found that he had lost favor at court and had been replaced as bishop by St. Ceadda. He withdrew to Ripon and with the help of friendly kings acted as bishop in Mercia and in Kent until archbishop St. Theodore restored him to his see in 669. Over the course of the next decade Wilfrid restored the cathedral of York, founded new churches and the monastery of Hexham, and extended his episcopal influence across the north of England.
In 678 he again lost royal favor; between then and 706 he was twice deposed and twice restored to a considerably smaller diocese. During the interims he again functioned as bishop in other kingdoms and had a leading role in the conversion of Sussex to Christianity. He seems to have been outspoken and genuinely committed to missionary activity. His cult was immediate in the North and spread slowly elsewhere. Today, his probable dies natalis, is the day of his earliest feast. One on October 12 is recorded from the tenth century onward.
His daily visits to the martyrs in Rome bore fruit in his construction of the surviving dressed stone crypts for his now vanished abbatial churches at Ripon and and Hexham.
Egbert/Ecgberht of Northumbria (d. 729) was a Northumbrian who became a monk at Lindisfarne. In a great plague outbreak in 664, he vowed that if he survived he would spend the rest of his life as a missionary away from his native land. He survived and wanted to become a missionary on the contenent but was prevented by a vision and instead undertook voluntary exile as a pilgrim in Ireland, where he studied and where he later became a priest at the abbey of Rath Melsigi. In 716 he moved to Iona, where he instituted both the tonsure and the Roman method of calculating the date of Easter. From his days at Rath Melsigi onward he was also a leading figure in promoting the first Anglo-Saxon missions to continental Europe. The day he died is supposed to have been the first time the Iona monks celebrated Easter in accordance with the Roman calendar.
Ives/Ivo (?) Four bodies were discovered in the village of Slepe (Huntingdon) in the year 1001, one with episcopal insignia. A peasant's dream revealed that this was the remains of a Persian bishop with the unlikely name Ives (or Ivo). He is supposed to have come to England and lived as a hermit. The relics were translated to Ramsey Abbey and were soon confirmed with miracles. In time Slepe got the new name St. Ives.
William Firmatus, hermit (1090): William was a native of Tours. He was a rather worldly canon, practicing medicine on the side, until he was converted to the religious life after having a dream in which he saw an ape sitting upon a money chest. He interpreted this ape as a symbol for his tendency to avarice. He became a recluse, as did his mother. When she died, he relocated to Laval. William, like many other saints, had a great power over animals. In fact he was able to convert a destructive boar into a tame and God-fearing animal by making the boar fast for twenty-four hours. He gave his property to the poor and spent the rest of his life on two pilgrimages to Jerusalem with breaks to be a hermit.
Happy reading,
Terri Morgan
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From the Book of Kerric:
"It requires great strength to be kind, whereas even the very weak can be brutal. Likewise, to speak hard truths fearlessly is often the hallmark of greatness. Bring me one who is both gentle and truthful, ...and I will show you an iron oak among hawthorns, a blessing on all who know them."