Today, July 4, is the feast of:
Hosea, prophet (8th century BCE) today is his day of commemoration in the Roman Martyrology.
Theodore of Cyrene (d. c304, supposedly) A bishop Theodore of Cyrene in the Libyan Pentapolis and his companions Irenaeus the deacon and Serapion & Ammonius the lectors are entered variously in manuscripts of (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology under April 7 and March 26 (the same commemoration differently recorded through a confusion of Kalends and Ides). In the ninth century Florus of Lyon entered them in his martyrology under the latter date; in this he was by followed by St. Ado of Vienne and by Usuard. A saint of the same name has been venerated in Eastern churches on today's date since before the tenth century, the date both of the Georgian-language version of a calendar from Palestine pre-dating the Byzantine liturgy and of a menologium entry summarizing a now lost and seemingly legendary Passio of Theodore.
That summary omits his aforementioned companions but gives him new ones in the form of the Christian ladies Lucia, Aroa or Rhoa, and Cyprilla (who have their own Passio) and has them all martyred under Diocletian. The Coptic synaxary of Alexandria attributed to the thirteenth-century Michael, bishop of Atrib and Malig records under today separate feasts of Theodore, bishop of the Pentapolis and Theodore bishop of Corinth, the latter with the female companions and other personages. These are clearly the saint with two hagiographic traditions; less clear is our Theodore's relationship to the similarly named Theodore of Cyrenia in Cyprus, said to have been martyred under Licinius. In the later sixteenth century cardinal Baronio entered two Theodore's of Cyrene, one on March 26 from the Western martyrologies and one on today from a Greek menologium. Following the aforementioned calendar from Palestine (as this records for today a St. Andrew who is probably Andrew of Crete [d. ca. 740] it's no older than the [ps.-]HM), the RM commemorates Theodore on today only and dispenses in this commemoration with his companions.
Ecclesius of Ravenna (d. 532) was archbishop of Ravenna between 522 and 532. He was responsible for the construction of the basilica of San Vitale (with imperial financing) and also the Ravenna church of Santa Maria Maggiore.
Laurianus/(French)Laurien and/or Laurian (?) is a saint of Berry whose cult is first attested from the ninth century in the earliest manuscripts of the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology, two of which place his death at Bourges with one of these further specifying a locality now identified with today's Vatan (Indre). He has a legendary Passio in two forms: a brief version whose earliest witness is of the tenth century and a longer one whose earliest witness is of the eleventh century. The latter makes him a Pannonian who is ordained priest at Milan and who having fought Arianism at Seville for seventeen years as its bishop moves on by divine inspiration to Rome and then to Tours and finally to Vatan where after being decapitated by soldiers sent from Seville by a king named Totila, he gets up, holding his head, and enjoins his slayers to take it back with them in order free that city and its territory from a great drought. They do this and the drought is ended.
The manuscript of the (ps.-)HM that specifies his veneration at Vatan (in the Passio he is first buried in a cave and later translated to a chapel erected to him there) also notes the translation of his head to Seville. A cult of Laurianus is attested in two fifteenth-century breviaries for the Use of Seville; his absence from the lists of that city's bishops indicates that at the very least his episcopal dignity is a Berrichon invention. Back in Berry, a chapel dedicated to him at today's Chapelle-Saint-Laurian (Indre) staffed by canons was already in existence by 1012. Liturgical manuscripts attest to his veneration at Moissac in the tenth century and in Tours in the twelfth.
Bertha/(Latin) Berta and/or Bertha/(French) Berthe of Blangy (died c725) is the saint of the former abbey at today's Blangy-sur-Ternois (Pas-de-Calais). Apart from one later Miracle account, her dossier appears to have been written for that house's foundation or re-foundation from Fécamp in 1031/32. These give her a genealogy in the upper reaches of Frankish and English nobility in the time of Clovis II and make her a pious widow with five daughters who founds the monastery, retires there with her two eldest daughters, and lives there as a simple recluse until her death. The same set of documents has her remains brought in the ninth century under pressure of the Northmen first to Mainz and ultimately to today's Erstein (Alsace), where they are said later to have been discovered and returned to Blagny, all non sine miraculis. When the Benedictine abbey of Blangy was closed in 1791 and its buildings were sold off (most are gone now), the relics venerated there as hers were preserved in their châsse from 1627. Now housed in the town's église Saint-Gilles, they have remained the focus of a local cult.
Andrew of Crete/-of Gortyn (d. c740) We know about Andrew chiefly from his perhaps ninth-century Bios by Nicetas the Patrician and from his homilies and other writings. Born in Damascus, he was dumb until he received his first communion and early in life entered the monastery of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, where in time he became a notary of the Great Basilica. Sent to Constantinople in 685, he governed an orphanage and a poorhouse there. At some time between 692 and 713 he was made bishop of Gortys (also Gortyn; the metropolitan see for Crete). In addition to his homilies he is known for his hymns, especially for his lenten Great Kanon in 250 strophes. He died on this day at Erissos on Lesbos.
An English-language translation of Andrew's Great Canon, divided into four portions for lenten liturgical reading, is accessible from here: http://tinyurl.com/24phfdg
Andrew as depicted c1300 in a fresco attributed to Manuel Panselinos in the Protaton church on Mt. Athos: http://tinyurl.com/yfp528t
Detail (Andrew): http://tinyurl.com/yg8a8cu
Andrew as depicted in a somewhat degraded June calendar portrait in the frescoes (betw. c1312 and 1321/1322) of the monastery church of the Theotokos at Gračanica: http://tinyurl.com/26xxsyn
Odo of Canterbury (d. 958) was born in East Anglia to Danish parents. He served as a counselor to King Athelstan, who made him bishop of Ramsbury in 927. In 942 he became archbishop of Canterbury. Odo supported the monastic reforms of his age, played a very active role in both religious and secular affairs, and got the nickname "Odo the Good," especially for his work restoring churches and improving clerical standards.
Ulrich (in Latin, Udalricus) of Augsburg (d. 973) We know about Ulrich chiefly from his late tenth-century Vita et Miracula by Gerhard of Augsburg and, to a lesser degree, from the earlier eleventh-century Vita by abbot Berno of Eeichenau. A scion of the counts of Dillingen in Swabia, he was educated at St. Gallen before becoming chancellor to his uncle bishop St. Adalbero of Augsburg. He had not become a monk – on the advice of St. Widborada. Upon Adalbero's death in 909 he withdrew to his family's estates; he returned to Augsburg as its Henry I-appointed bishop fourteen years later. During his lengthy episcopate he personally exercised monastic austerity and demanded the same of his household, rebuilt the monastery of St. Afra, worked to remedy losses caused by raiding Magyars and built at Augsburg a defensive wall against them, and got along very well with Otto I. He was criticized for nepotism late in his life when he abdicated and appointed his nephew to take his place while he retired to St. Gall. His cult, fortified by miracles at his tomb, was immediate. His canonization by John XV at the Lateran synod in 993 is said to have been the first papal canonization. In 1187 his relics were translated to Augsburg's newly rebuilt abbey church of Sts. Ulrich and Afra (Ulrich's joint titulature is first recorded from 1061). He is often shown in art with the fish that, when he was accused by a guest of having offered him meat on Friday, miraculously appeared on the guest's plate in place of the meat that Ulrich had served him the night before.
Ulrich asleep, with St. Afra, as depicted in a panel painting (c1480) kept in Augsburg's Basilika St. Ulrich und Afra: http://tinyurl.com/253x3d2
Ulrich as depicted in a mid-thirteenth-century fresco in the church of St. Michael at St. Michael im Lungau in Austria's Land Salzburg:
http://www.burgenseite.com/faschen/st_michael_faces_5.jpg
Ulrich with a fish in this fresco of c1400 in the church of St. Martin at St. Martin im Lungau in Austria's Land Salzburg: http://tinyurl.com/lzt84e
Hatto (d. 985) was a Swabian noble. He gave all his property to the monastery of Ottobeuren and became a monk there. He became a hermit after that, and got a chance to show his humility and obedience when the abbot called him back to the community, arguing that Hatto was getting too attached to his former property.
Procopius of Sazava (d. 1053) This Bohemian saint was educated at a Basilian monastery in Prague, married and became a cathedral canon. Later he became a hermit and finally founded the Basilian monastery of Sazava near Prague.
William of Hirsau (d. 1091) started out as a monk at Regensburg, and was sent as abbot to the restored monastery of Hirsau in Wurttemberg. He introduced Cluniac observance, founded a monastic school, and was in general a good abbot. His saintly fame seems to rest mostly on his support of Gregory VII against Emperor Henry IV, which was pronounced and controversial. He wrote a treatise on music (De musica) and one on astronomy (De astronomia); he invented an ingenious clock.
Andrew Bogoliubsky (d. 1174) was a grandson of Vladimir Monomakh and son of Yurii Dolgoniky, and succeeded them as prince of Kiev in 1157. He got his nickname (which means "God-loving") in his youth, and grew up to be an odd combination of good soldier and peace-maker. Andrew worked with his father building cities and churches, and as prince himself kept up the good work. In 1174 he was murdered in a palace conspiracy led by his second wife and her brothers.
Elizabeth (in Portuguese, Isabel and Isabella) of Portugal (d. 1336) A grand-niece of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, Elizabeth was a daughter of Pedro III of Aragon and of his queen Costanza, daughter of king Manfred of Sicily. She was married at the age of twelve to king Diniz of Portugal, bore him two children including his successor Alfonso IV, took care of his many bastard ones, lived very piously, and made charitable donations to pilgrims, to the sick, to the poor, and to reformed prostitutes. When Elizabeth's son grew up, he took arms against his father, and she acted as peacemaker. She also tried to make peace between the kingdoms of Iberia, her most notable feat was preventing a war between Portugal and Castile. After Diniz's death in 1325 she adopted a Franciscan habit, made a pilgrimage to Compostela, and retired to a convent of Poor Clares she had founded in Coimbra. She died at Estremòz while undertaking a diplomatic mission of peace. She made her vows as a Poor Clare on her deathbed. Her body was brought back to Coimbra, where a cult ensured. A canonization cause was begun in 1576; in 1612 her body was exhumed and found to be incorrupt, and she was canonized in 1625. She is Coimbra's patron saint and one of the patron saints of Portugal.
Peter of Luxembourg (blessed) (d. 1387) was born to a noble family of Lorraine. His family connections got him a large number of important benefices, and at the age of 14 he was made bishop of Metz; by age 16 he was a cardinal (created by Antipope Clemen VII). But Peter didn't want all that. He retired to the Carthusian monastery of Villeneuve-les-Avignon, where he died at the age of eighteen. He was beatified in 1527. (see July 2)
Happy reading,
Terri Morgan
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Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad. - Anon