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Today, July 15, is the feast of:
The Separation of the SS. Apostles (40) Eusebius, in his Ecclesiastical History, says, "The holy apostles and disciples of our Savior, being scattered over the whole world, Thomas, according to tradition, received Parthia as his allotted region; Andrew received Scythia; and John, Asia; where, after continuing for some time, he died at Ephesus. Peter appears to have preached through Pontus, Galatia, Bithynia, Cappadocia, and Asia, to the Jews that were scattered abroad; and finally coming to Rome, was crucified, with his head downward, having requested to be allowed to suffer in this way."
Antiochus and Cyriac (3rd century) Legend reports that Antiochus was a physician, beheaded at Sebaste in Asia Minor. When milk instead of blood spurted from his severed neck, his executioner, Cyriac, converted. Cyriac was then martyred, too.
Felix of Tibiuca, and Adauctus, Januarius, Fortunatus, and Septimius (d. 303, supposedly) This is the commemoration, now of Felix alone, that prior to the RM's revision of 2001 was that of Felix, an African bishop; Adauctus and Januarius, presbyters; and Fortunatus and Septimius, lectors. These less well known putative saints, not to be confused with the Roman Felix and Adauctus of August 30 (though of course that Felix, thanks to a translation in 1673, is now also a saint), are the principal patrons of Venosa in Basilicata and are co-patrons of the diocese of Melfi - Rapolla - Venosa. Venosa's medieval cathedral, pulled down in 1470, was dedicated to Felix. He and companions are the subjects of a set of legendary Passiones that make Felix a bishop of the African town of T(h)ibiuca (variously spelled, incl. Tubzac and Tubzoc) who at the outset there of the Great Persecution refused to surrender his church's Christian books and who was sent on to Carthage. There, in the earliest accounts, the fifty-six-year-old bishop was tried, convicted and, on July 15 (in some texts, thanks to a confusion already alluded to, on August 30), duly executed. By the ninth century, when Felix appears in the martyrologies of Ado (under August 30) and of Usuard (under October 24), he had acquired companions and all are said to have been tortured in Africa and in Sicily before they are put to death. Later Passiones have all put to death in southern Italy, either at Nola (where they also had a cult) or at Venosa (in whose Passiones the companions are named Januarius, Fortunatianus, and Septiminus).
James/Jacob, bishop of Nisbis/Nusaybin, (338) was made the first bishop of Nisibis (Turkey) in 308 and was a noted ascetic. The Syriac writer Ephrem considered him his spiritual father. He was also a fierce opponent of Arianism - legend tells that it was the combined prayers of James and Alexander of Constantinople that brought about the death of Arius (making his bowels gush out). He is a signatory at the First Council of Nicaea in 325. He founded the theological school of Nisibis and built the cathedral. His school was modelled after that of the one in Antioch founded by Diodorus of Tarsus. He seems to have died during the siege of the city by Sapor II (he was buried in the city walls). Later his relics were taken to Constantinople. He was the first Christian to search for the Ark of Noah, believing that he had found a piece of it on a mountain, Cudi Dagi, near Ararat (which is within 70 miles of Nisibis). According to the story, St. James of Nisibis wanted to climb Mt. Ararat in order to find Noah's Ark. Despite his old age, he set out to climb the huge mountain. On the way, he stopped to rest and fell asleep. In his sleep an angel approached him and told him that he was too old a man and that it would be humanly impossible for him to climb all the way to the top, but to satisfy his ardent desire and deep faith, the angel gave him a piece of Noah's Ark, saying to him, "Take this and satisfy your desire." St. James, being content with this piece from Noah's Ark, returned home. According to tradition, this piece of Noah's Ark is in the Armenian See of Etchmiadzin.
Vexed at seeing some girls washing linen with unveiled faces and clothes tucked up, in a manner which he thought inconsistent with propriety, he cursed them, and their hair turned white. It was in vain that they implored him to restore the natural hue to their long locks. The stern old man remained obdurate, and the poor girls went about Nisibis, a living warning to the washerwomen to be more particular when engaged in cleansing linen. In the Armenian Church, his feast falls between December 12th & 18th. He is commemorated in the Coptic Church on the 18th day of Tobi, which is usually in late January. In the Roman Church, his feast is today.
Barhadbesaba (d. 355) was a deacon of the church at Arbele, Persia, during Sapur II's persecution of Christians. While being martyred his torturers continually cried out to him: "Worship fire and water, and eat the blood of beasts, and you shall be set at liberty." A Christian apostate was ordered to behead Barhadbesaba, but seems to have been a) nervous or b) not properly trained, and had to whack at him quite a bit before he succeeded in getting his head off.
Apronia (end of 5th century) was sister of St. Aner, bishop of Toul, and was born at Tranquille, a village in the diocese of Troyes. Drawn by her love of Christ to a religious life, she led on earth a virginal and angelic life, in imitation of her brother, a man of the highest sanctity.
Donald/Domhnall/ Donevaldus (8th century) lived at Ogilvy in Forfarshire. He was married, and tradition tells that he had nine daughters. When his wife died, his and his offspring lived together as a religious community, where the girls are still remembered as ‘the nine maidens’. After his death, all the daughters are supposed to have entered the nunnery of Abernethy - or gone there to live in a hollow oak. An ancient poem commemorates them thus:
Sainct Donwald was a seely bloak;
His doghtres dwelt in a holwe oak.
Gumbert of Ansbach (d. after 786) is a poorly attested bishop of Würzburg who according to a charter of Charlemagne from 786 as copied c1600 had founded on his own property a monastery dedicated to the BVM at what is now the Middle Franconian city of Ansbach. In a later but undated charter of Charlemagne's the monastery is already called monasterium sancti Gumberti episcopi. Gumbert has a very brief, legendary Vita that makes him a noble and a disciple of St. Burkard of Würzburg. He remained the local saint of the monastery through its conversion to a canonry in the eleventh century to its final suppression in 1563.
Plechelm (d. 8th century) We know almost nothing about the historical Plechelm, who said to have been a missionary and monastic founder in the Low Countries. He has a very unreliable late tenth- or eleventh-century Vita that was probably written at the abbey of St. Peter at Odilienberg near Roermond. This makes him an Irishman and a companion of saints Wiro and Otger, whose own Vitae (Wiro's, at least, is considerably earlier) are cut from the same legendary cloth. Plechelm appears in a tenth-century calendar from Utrecht and is commemorated in the twelfth-century church dedicated to him at Oldenzaal, where he is said to have founded a church dedicated to St. Sylvester and where in 954 an earlier church had also been dedicated to Plechelm.
Joseph of Thessalonike (d. 832), born c762, was a brother of Theodore the Studite. The two became monks together, and Joseph also became a noted hymn writer. In 807 Joseph was made archbishop of Thessalonike but was banished, along with his brother, in 809. He returned from exile in 811, but was then banished again from 815 until his death in 832.
Reginswinda, virgin martyr (about 840) The daughter of the steward of Count Ernest, she was strangled at age three and her body thrown into the Neckar river. The little body was found floating with arms expanded, and was solemnly translated and buried at Lauffen by Humbert, bishop of Würzburg.
Swithun/Swithin (d. 862) was a native of Wessex who became a royal chaplain to King Egbert of Wessex and then bishop of Winchester in 852 or 853; his charter record (not devoid of forgeries) begins in 854. He has a late 11th-century Vita that links him to king Æthelwulf (d. 855) and that includes the building of churches and his inviting the needy rather than the rich to his table among his activities as a model bishop. William of Malmesbury says that this good bishop was treasury of all virtues, and those in which he took most delight in were humility and charity to the poor. He died on July 2, 862. He had asked to be buried in the common graveyard, according to William of Malmesbury (c.1125): 'On the point of bidding farewell to earthly life, on his authority as bishop he ordered those present to inter his corpse outside the cathedral, where it should be exposed both to the feet of passers-by and to the dripping of water from the eaves.' A cult developed around his gravesite and miracles began to be recorded. When they attempted to transfer his relics inside the church, it began to rain, and continued to rain for 40 days, until the bones were reinterred back in the yard. Healing miracles continued after the translation and a few years later a jeweled reliquary donated by king Edgar was placed in a shrine built over his former gravesite. The latter was incorporated in the Minster's west work of 980 (other of his relics were kept on the main altar). On July 15, 1093 Swithin's wonder-working remains were translated to the present cathedral, then new, where they remained until their profanation in 1538. His cult spread to France and to Norway. Stavanger's much rebuilt cathedral, originally erected in the 1120s by a bishop who came from Winchester, was dedicated to him. Closer to Winchester, the eleventh-century church at Corhampton (Hamps) preserves wall paintings depicting scenes from his miracles. It includes among Swithin's miracles a tale of an elderly woman of Winchester who had been sleeping at home with the door open when a wolf entered and carried her off to the woods, where its howling threatened to bring other wolves to the scene. The woman prayed to Swithin, the wolf fell asleep, and the woman was able to get away safely pursued by a now awakened wolf that no longer was able to harm her.
Folklore still holds that if it rains on St. Swithun's Day it will also rain for the following forty days.
"If St Swithun's Day be fair,
For forty days 'twill rain nae mair [= no more];
If on St Swithun's Day it doth rain,
For forty days it will remain."
The 40-days' rain legend dates back at least to the early fourteenth century: 'In the daye of seynte Svithone rane ginneth rinigge Forti dawes mid ywone.' [On St Swithin's day it usually begins to rain for forty days.]
Athanasius of Naples (d. 872) became bishop of the Parthenopean city in 849, succeeding at the age of nineteen his mentor John IV 'lo Scriba' (June 22). As bishop, he is Athanasius I. He was a son of duke Sergius I of Naples (r. 840-65) and thus by birth as well as by office a member of Naples' ruling elite. He became a familiaris of both Lothar I and Louis II and was a leading figure in the Synod of Rome that deposed archbishop John VII of Ravenna in 861. At Naples he established a ransom service for Christians captured by Muslims, founded a hospice for pilgrims, and instituted a body of canons devoted to sacred music. He proved to be austere, prayerful, and committed to clerical training.
Athanasius seems to have gotten along well with his father and with his older brother, duke Gregory III (r. 865-70). But he differed with the latter's son, duke Sergius II (who comes off very badly in our sources), on important matters of policy and resisted his nephew's attempts, it is said, to interfere in ecclesiastical appointments and to confiscate church funds. To remove this obstacle, the new duke imprisoned Athanasius on the island at Naples where the Castel dell'Ovo now stands. In the same year (870) Louis II rescued Athanasius by means of a naval force under the command of the prefect of relatively autonomous Amalfi. Athanasius was taken to papal territory, where two years later he died in exile at Veroli in today's Lazio. His remains were brought to Montecassino and in 877, with Sergius still in power, they were translated to Naples where he was soon venerated as a saint.
Edith of Polesworth (tenth century?) was the sister of King Athelstan of England. She married Viking king Sihtric at York in 925, and when he died the next year, she became a Benedictine nun at Polesworth, Warwickshire, where she was noted for her holiness and may have become Abbess. She may also have been the sister of King Edgar and aunt of St. Edith of Wilton; or possibly these were two different woman of Polesworth.
Vladimir of Kiev (d. 1015) was the bastard son of Grand Duke Svyatoslav of Kiev, born c9060, and after fighting with various half-brothers, seized the throne in 978. In c989 he converted to Christianity, married Anne, a daughter of Emperor Basil II, and his conversion marked the true beginning of Christianity in Russia. He discarded his previous wives and concubines, then began actively promoting his new religion: building churches, destroying cult statues, strongly attacking his people's native religion, demanding conversion as a sign of personal loyalty, etc. In Russia he won a Constantine-like veneration as "equal of the apostles." He is regarded as the founder of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Henry, emperor (1024) Henry II was son of Henry, Duke of Bavaria, and Gisela of Burgundy, and was born in 972. "Henry persuaded one of the canons to scratch a syllable out of the collect for the dead of the imperial family, and by this means to change 'de famulis et famulabus' into 'de mulis et mulabus.' Next time the bishop said mass, he read as was written, but instantly, hearing the titter of the court, corrected himself. After Mass, the emperor said to him, 'Bishop, I desire you in future to pray for my dead kinsfolk, and not for my mules and she-mules.'" He was canonized by Pope Eugenius III in 1146, and Pope Pius X declared him the patron of Benedictine oblates.
Ansuerus/Ansver/Answer and companions (d. 1066) Ansuerus was a noble from Schleswig. He became a monk and then abbot of St. Georgenburg near Ratzeburg - right among a Slavic population that was undergoing Christianization at the time. There was an anti-Christian rebellion, in the course of which Ansuerus and 28 of his monks were stoned to death. They were canonized in 1147.
David of Munktorp /-of Sweden/-of Västerås (d. c1082) is the saint of today's Munktorp whose Benedictine monastery venerated him as its founder. According to his very brief Vita, whose credibility, one would think is severely impeached by its dependence on the legend of St. Sigfrid of Sweden (February 15), David was a monk of English origin who, when he heard about the death of St Sigfrid's three nephews, offered himself to the English mission in Sweden. He was sent by Sigfrid to missionize in Västmanland. There he is said to have founded the aforementioned monastery, to have baptized locals in an adjacent spring, and to have operated miracles. According to tradition he was first bishop of Vasteras. He lived a long life, died peaceably, and miracles were reported at his tomb. His relics were removed to the cathedral at Munktorp in 1463, but the shrine was destroyed at the time of the Reformation.
Bonaventura/Giovanni di Fidanza (d. 1274) This is the date for the modern commemoration. See July 14 for the medieval.
Angelina of Marsciano (d. 1435) (see July 14)
Bernard II of Baden (blessed) (d. 1458) Bernard was margrave of Baden. He left his brother as regent and went around the European courts as ambassador for Emperor Frederick III, trying vainly to drum up support for a crusade against the Turks. He failed and died in the Piedmont before ever making it home again.
Ignatius Azevedo, S.J. (1570) “There was at this time a famous buccaneer, named Jacques Sourie, who infested these seas with five ships. he was a zealous Calvinist; full of implacable hatred against the clergy and religious of the Catholic Church. His ship found that of Ignatius and his companions. Raising his eyes at the sound of their approach, the father calmly said, "Courage, brethren let us yield up our lives for Jesus Christ, who shed His blood for us!" and stepping forward, confronted the heretics. One of the soldiers with a sword struck him on the head, and he fell with his skull fractured - they heaved the martyr, and cast him, still breathing, into the sea.
Happy reading,
Terri Morgan
--
Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad. - Anon