Today, October 2, is the feast of:
Modestus, once venerated at Benevento (and elsewhere in the Beneventan cultural area) (d. 303, supposedly) has a brief but fulsome Passio by the eleventh-century rhetorician Alberic of Montecassino that makes him a deacon of Sardinian birth, of noble parentage and ancestry, possessed of many virtues, and martyred (somewhere) under Diocletian. It is apparent that Alberic knew either nothing or next to nothing about Modestus; assuming for the nonce that tradition rather than Alberic made our saint a deacon, a Sardinian, and a martyr, we have no means of verifying that tradition's age or accuracy.
Modestus’ Passio was written for the Beneventan monastery of S. Modesto, founded under Arichis II between 758 and 774. Early modern ecclesiastical historians purveyed an equally legendary translation account whereby the future pope Gregory I persuaded Pelagius II to send Modestus' remains to a Beneventan monastery of S. Maria ad Olivolam where subsequently an altar was erected to him. The monastery of S. Modesto lasted in practice until 1820 (in 1926 the title of abbot was granted to the pastor of the successor parish of the same name), had many holdings, and was otherwise influential over a broad area. Consequently Modestus’ cult was disseminated more widely and for a longer period than that of the similarly questionable Severus of Orvieto.
Remains said to be those of Modestus were discovered at Montevergine in 1480 along with those of Januarius and other Beneventan saints. Whereas Januarius was subsequently translated back to Naples (where he had been prior to his early ninth-century repatriation by prince Sico of Benevento), Montevergine managed to hold onto Modestus, who has an altar and a display reliquary in the crypt of that abbey's "new" basilica (opened to the public in 1961).
Eleutherius of Nicomedia (d. c303?) The (ps-)HM records under today an Eleutherius who suffered at Nicomedia and whose gesta, it says, are known. But no authentic gesta of this Eleutherius are known now and possibly none were known to St. Rabanus Maurus in the ninth century, as his entry for Eleutherius under this day reads simply: “In Nicomedia, sancti Eleutherii”.
The also ninth-century St. Ado of Vienne has in his Martyrology a circumstantial elogium of Eleutherius (greatly abbreviated by Usuard) that makes him the leading victim of a number of Christians falsely blamed for a fire in Diocletian's palace at Nicomedia, has him survive various tortures before being put to death by fire, and ends with Christians stealthily removing his remains and giving them honorable burial in Nicomedia. This very succinct Passio, sometimes thought to be of Ado's invention, could be based on a longer one now lost. But as it is a close verbal adaptation of the identically caused suffering of bishop Anthimus of Nicomedia and companions as recounted in Eusebius as translated by Rufinus, the likelihood that its details accurately reflect Eleutherius' fate is remote. Prior to its revision of 2001 the RM used for this commemoration an elogium based on Ado's and honored Eleutherius and companions.
Warin/Gaerinus (d. 676) was St. Leodegar's brother and the count of Poitou. He was arrested with Leodegar at the order of Ebroin, mayor of the palace under the Merovingians. Warin was stoned to death near Arras, on suspicion of conspiracy.
Leger/Leodegarius/Lutgar of Autun (d. 679) was born c616 and raised at the Merovingian court of Clothar II and by his uncle the bishop of Poitiers. Uncle made him an archdeacon, he was ordained, and in c651 Leodegarius became abbot of St. Maxentius. He remained well-connected politically, helping the queen widow Bathildis govern for a time. In 663 Leodegarius became bishop of Autun. In both offices, Leger was an active reformer, introducing the Benedictine rule, building churches, holding synods, fortifying his town, and so forth. But he won the mayor of the palace Ebroin as his enemy – he was for a time banished to Luxeuil, then restored, but in time, Ebroin convinced several supporters to attack Autun. Leodegarius surrendered to save his town, and Ebroin had him blinded, his lips cut off, and his tongue pulled out. Several years later, he arranged to have Leodegarius arrested, tortured and imprisoned on a false accusation of regicide. The aged bishop was taken into the woods and murdered, the four servants sent to do the deed begged for his forgiveness first, and he granted it. They then beheaded him. Leger's political death was regarded as a martyrdom. He is sometimes charmingly depicted in art with his eyes, tongue, and other parts of his face on a plate.
After a contest for his body among the dioceses of Arras (in whose territory he had been executed), Autun, and Poitiers, Leger was buried at St. Maxentius, where in about 682 a church was erected in his honor. His cult spread rapidly in the aforementioned dioceses, in the Franche-Comté (because of his association with Luxeuil), and in his native Alsace. The Sacramentary of Autun (c800) has a Mass for him. He entered the historical martyrologies with Florus of Lyon, who recorded him under today.
An expandable view of Leger's martyrdom as depicted as in a late thirteenth-century copy of French origin of the Legenda aurea (San Marino, CA, Huntington Library, ms. HM 3027, fol. 138r): http://tinyurl.com/2cq7f5u
Leger before Childeric II as depicted in a copy (1348) of the Legenda aurea in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 241, fol. 267v): http://tinyurl.com/yazqlvl
Expandable views of two fifteenth-century manuscript illuminations portraying Leger are here: http://tinyurl.com/3wxdbu
The fifteenth-century wooden statue of Leger in the église Saint-Léger at Cheylade (Cantal) in Auvergne: http://tinyurl.com/29elfaq
Beregis/Bergis/Beregisus (d. sometime after 725) was a priest, the confessor of the Carolingian Pepin of Heristal. With Pepin's support, he founded the monastery of St-Hubert in the Ardennes (Belgium).
Theophilus the Confessor/-of Seleution/-of Bulgaria (d. betw. 727 and 741, supposedly). We know about Theophilis, a victim of Byzantine First Iconoclasm, from Greek synaxary notices that seem to derive from a now lost Passio of at least largely legendary character. According to these texts, Theophilus was born in the vicinity of Tiberioupolis (now Strumica in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia but from the central Middle Ages until 1919 part of Bulgaria, whence he is also still referred to by some as Theophilus of Bulgaria). At the age of thirteen, following a miraculous call, he slipped away from home and entered a monastery on Mt. Selenteia; three years later he made his profession there.
In time Theophilus' parents discovered his whereabouts and asked that he be sent with some other monks to live near them in a monastery they would found. A voice was heard in the monastery church giving approval for this move and since the message was clearly of divine origin, Theophilus received his new foundation. He was hegumen there during the iconoclastic persecution of Leo the Isaurian (Leo III, r. 717-741), rebelled against the latter's decrees (promulgated in 726-729), and was beaten, publicly humiliated, and exiled under the supervision of a high official named Hypatius. Theophilus convinced Hypatius of the rightness of his iconophile position and Hypatius obtained the emperor's permission for Theophilus to return to his monastery. Theophilus died there not long afterward.
Thus far the synaxary notices. Theophilus' story smacks of anti-iconoclast propaganda and even the names Theophilus and Hypatius, though common enough in Byzantine nomenclature, are suspiciously reflective of their bearers' roles here.
Ursicinus of Chur (d. c760). The Benedictine churchman Ursicinus is said to have entered the monastery of Disentis in today's Disentis/Mustér (Graubünden/Grisons) in 721 and to have become its abbot in 730. With the assistance of successive bishops of Chur he rebuilt the monastery (work completed in 739) and saw to the erection of its churches of the BVM, of St. Martin, and of St. Peter. In 754 Ursicinus was elected bishop of Chur (as bishop, he is Ursicinus II). He resigned that office in 758 and retired to Disentis, where he is thought to have died within a very few years. Ursicinus, characterized as a bishop, is entered in the Liber confraternitatum of Reichenau. After his death both that abbey and Disentis commemorated him as one of their saints.
The Guardian Angels: A votive mass, *Missa ad suffragia agelorum postulanda*, was in use at least from the time of Alcuin (d. 804). In Spain, guardian angels not only of people but also of cities and provinces were commemorated. A feast day in their honor was widespread by the sixteenth century. In 1608 this feast was added to the general calendar. Clement X made it a more important, fixing its date at October 2.
Andrew of Constantinople (d. 936) was a Slav who lived in Constantinople. After a visionary experience, he became a "fool for Christ" - wandering around the city in rags and pretending he was mad. He begged and gave the proceeds to the poor. He was also a prophet.
Thomas Cantelupe /-of Hereford (d. 1282) The English nobleman Thomas was born to a good family in Hambleton in c1218 and educated in Theology at Paris, and in law at Orleans and Oxford, then put on the fast-track for ecclesiastical preferment thanks to his family connections. Thomas was the grandson and son of barons who had served as steward to a king of England (John and Henry III, respectively). An uncle, Walter de Cantilupe, became archdeacon of Gloucester. He held a number of church offices (at the same time), but distinguished himself from most pluralists by taking his various positions seriously, even visiting his vicars to make sure they were doing their work. In 1262 he became chancellor of Oxford, in 1264, chancellor of England. He left England shortly after the death of Simon de Montfort (and the loss of his seat as England’s Chancellor) and lectured in Paris, then returned to Oxford c1272, becoming Oxford’s chancellor again. These were difficult times at Oxford: students were allowed to carry arms and were divided according to whether they were northerners or southerners; a tough disciplinarian, Thomas acquired a significant armory by confiscating weapons that had been misused. In 1275 he became bishop of Hereford. He was noted for his strongly penitential demeanor and strong sense of justice. As bishop, Thomas reformed his life, wearing a hair shirt, zealously doing his job, and being careful to maintain episcopal authority in his diocese. Though this led him into disputes with neighboring bishops and with secular nobles, his eminence was such that he also managed to serve as a member of Edward I's Privy Council in at least 1276. His resistance to what he considered unjustified encroachments upon his rights by John Pecham, archbishop of Canterbury from 1279 to 1292, led to dissension between the two and to Thomas' withdrawal to the Continent in 1280 and 1281. A return late in the latter year was followed by Pecham's declaring Thomas excommunicate in February of 1282. Thomas appealed to the pope (Martin IV), whom he met with personally at Orvieto in June of that year. The pope moved shortly afterwards to Montefiascone on the Via Cassia; Thomas followed, taking up lodgings at nearby Ferento. He fell ill there and died on the night of August 25, while his appeal was still under review.
On the Sunday following his death Thomas was accorded a solemn funeral, attended by several cardinals (one of whom later became pope Nicholas IV), at the monastery of St. Severus outside of Orvieto. His heart and his bones were brought back to England, where his successor at Hereford, Richard Swinfield (d. 1317), opened a campaign to have him canonized as a saint even as Archbishop Pecham was attempting to deny him Christian burial. In 1307 papal commissioners held hearings in this matter both in Hereford and London; their report treats Thomas' excommunication as invalid and records an impressive number (over 400) of miracles credited to him in the years following his death. Thomas was canonized in 1320. From 1283 until 1538 his bones reposed in Hereford Cathedral. His table tomb in the north transept (his [partial] resting place from 1287 to 1349) is here: http://tinyurl.com/2bah6j and http://tinyurl.com/2y4w2o
Happy reading,
Terri Morgan
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The fundamental particle of confusion is the jargon. If a jargon and an anti-jargon collide, they annihilate each other, with the emission of a pair of high-energy grammar rays. - Jordin (indefinite particle) Kare