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Today, November 1, is the feast of:
Austremonius/ Stremonius (his name form in writings of St. Gregory of Tours)/Austremoine (French) of Clermont-Ferrand (1st or 3rd century) Gregory of Tours recounts the legend that during the reign of the emperor Decius, a pope sent seven missionaries to evangelize Gaul and that one of them was Austremonius, who preached in the Auvergne and is venerated as first bishop of Clermont-Ferrand. Another legend tells of him being one of the 72 disciples of Jesus, sent to Gaul by St. Peter himself, and buried at Issoire after being decapitated by a Jewish rabbi whose son he had converted. Austremonius' true date is unknown. Gregory (In gloria confessorum, 29) records the presence of Austremonius' wonder-working remains at the Iciodorensis vicus, today's Issoire (Puy-de-Dôme). Various early medieval translations are recorded from the later seventh century onward.
Austremonius as portrayed on the twelfth-century châsse of St. Calminus in the abbey of Mozac: http://tinyurl.com/3am5bxz
An illustrated, French-language page on that reliquary chest: http://tinyurl.com/35bvgcn
Two illustrated pages on the originally twelfth-century basilique Saint-Austremoine at Issoire: http://tinyurl.com/24s3y6p and http://www.romanes.com/Issoire/
The abbey at Issoire claimed to have retained Austremonius's head. Here's the abbey's thirteenth-century châsse de Saint Austremoine: http://tinyurl.com/2azxa7m
Benignus/Bénigne (French) of Dijon (c270?) is the protomartyr of Dijon. We first hear of him from the sixth century in a story by St. Gregory of Tours that narrates how Gregory's grandfather, St. Gregory of Langres, a) at first suppressed Benignus' popular cult at Dijon because local veneration of him in an ornate, pagan sarcophagus smacked too much of idolatry and led Gregory to believe that the cult was pagan but b), prompted by a divine revelation (a dream), reversed himself, authorized the cult, restored Benignus' crypt, and erected a martyrial basilica above it. Already in the fifth century his grave attracted many pilgrims, and the monastery of St-Benigne in Dijon grew up on the spot. Benignus' legendary, originally sixth-century Passio in several versions makes him a disciple of St. Polycarp of Smyrna sent to Gaul as an evangelist and arrested, tortured, and finally killed at today's Épagny (Côte-d'Or) under emperor Aurelian (who ruled over a century after Polycarp's death). His feast on this day is recorded in the (ps)HM. Benignus' sarcophagus in the crypt of Dijon cathedral: http://tinyurl.com/ybktje6
Caesarius and Julian (date unknown, c300?) were an African deacon and a priest who appear in the earliest martyrologies. They were martyred in Terracina (Italy). Their rather curious legend tells that in Terracina it was the custom that periodically a young man voluntarily jumped off a cliff into the sea as a sacrifice to Apollo. He was pampered and clothed brilliantly beforehand, rather like an Aztec sacrifice. Caesarius is supposed to have publicly denounced the practice as abominable superstition. The priest of Apollo had him and his priest Julian arrested. The prefect had both sewn into a sack and thrown into the sea. Caesarius’ cult spread at an early age. His relics can be found in Rome and also in St. George's Church, Cologne. His dies natalis is given as November 1 by the (ps-)HM, which also records him on April 21. Julian shows up for the first time in the legendary acta of Caesarius and Julianus and is of dubious authenticity. Also highly dubious is Caesarius' appearance (as Caesareus) in the acta of Nereus and Achilleus, where he is said to have buried at Terracina the martyred virgins Eufrosina and Theodora (themselves similarly dubious).
The chief document in Caesarius' aforementioned legendary acta, his Passio prima is followed in many witnesses by accounts by his post-mortem healing of Galla, the much-beloved daughter of emperor Valentinian and his wife, the empress Eudoxia (so this would be Valentinian III), and of his and Julian's translation from Terracina to Rome by pope Damasus I, where their relics were housed in a chapel dedicated to them in the "Urbis palatium" at the behest of Galla's parents, the Augusti. From at least the late sixth century onward there appears to have been such a chapel in the Lateran palace; from the eighth century to the twelfth a small Greek monastery in the remains of the imperial palace on the Palatine seems to have charge of a chapel there to Caesarius (perhaps moved thither from the Lateran by John VII, whose father had been curator of the imperial palaces in the city and who himself moved the papal residence to the Palatine). Eugenius III is said to have been elected at this "monasterium S. Caesarii" in 1145. From about the middle of the twelfth century onward its church was known as S. Cesario in (or "de") Palatio. Neither the monastery nor the church appears to have survived the Middle Ages. The present S. Caesareo in Palatio, also known as S. Cesareo de Appia, on the via de Porta San Sebastiano is a later replacement (1603; a rebuilt ruined church that perhaps had also been dedicated to Ceasarius).
Among the medieval churches dedicated to him, pride of place goes to Terracina's cathedral, consecrated in 1074 and the site of Urban II's election in 1088. Like the cathedrals of Syracuse and of Pozzuoli, this was built around the remains of an ancient Roman temple; the steps leading up to it are from the latter. The church of Santa Maria Maggiore at Vasto in Abruzzo has what are said to be his relics. Although Caesarius appears without accompaniment in numerous church dedications and calendar entries (including that in the Marble Calendar of Naples), Julian gets added billing in Ado, Usuard, and - until its latest revision (2001) - the RM.
John and James (d. c344) were Persian martyrs, killed in the reign of Shapur II. John appears to have been a bishop.
Mary, virgin and martyr (fourth century?) was a Christian slave. She served a Roman patrician, and when she disobeyed her mistress by fasting, she was whipped and given to a soldier for further abuse. She suffered horrible tortures before being allowed to escape by a him; although she later died a natural death, the Roman Martyrology deems her a martyr due to the sufferings she withstood during her life.
Maturinus/Mathurin (fourth century?) was noted for his preaching in the Gatinais and his success as an exorcist. He died in Rome and was translated to Sens.
All Saints. This feast, once commemorating "the martyrs of the whole world", is recorded from Syriac- and Greek-speaking churches earlier than it is from Latin-speaking ones: traditional markers are a reference by St. Ephraem the Syrian to such a feast and a sermon for this feast by, or at least once ascribed to, St. John Chrysostom, delivered on the first Sunday after Pentecost, still the feast's usual day in Eastern-rite churches. Several Greek-language homilies for All Saints survive from the fourth and fifth centuries. An early Latin-language testimony to this commemoration is St. Bede the Venerable's Sermo 18, an English-language translation of which is here: http://tinyurl.com/yaotnqj . By the eighth century there are clear indications of this celebration commemorating all saints; for example, c775 Cathwulf asked Charlemagne to institute a feast, with a fasting vigil preceding, 'in honour of the Trinity, the Unity, the angels and all the saints’.
At Rome the feast takes its origin from the establishment by Gregory III (731-741) of a chapel dedicated to Mary Ever Virgin and Mother of God and all the saints (including the particular classes of apostles, martyrs, and confessors); as Usuard notes in his elogium for today's feast, this had a predecessor in an annual feast at Rome on May 13 originating in pope St. Boniface IV's consecration on that day in 609 of Rome's church of Mary the Mother of God and all the martyrs, now Santa Maria ad Martyres, once The Pantheon in Rome. The first clear reference to an All Saints' Day on November 1 comes from England, where the feast was introduced in the early eighth century. Pope Gregory IV in the 837 moved it to November 1 and extended it to the church as a whole. Farmer includes the interesting note that 1255 medieval English churches were dedicated to all saints, a number second only to dedications to the Virgin Mary.
Cadfan (5th century) Cadfan was a Breton who migrated to Wales. Once there, he gathered many disciples and founded the church of Towyn (Gwynedd) and the monastery of Bardsey Island (Ynys Enlli), said to be an abbey of '20,000 monks'. In a medieval poem he is called a patron of warriors; in a chapel near Quimper he is dressed as a soldier, with a sword.
Marcellus of Paris (d. c410) The subject of a vita by Venantius Fortunatus, Marcellus was a Parisian who took to prayer and theological studies. He became archdeacon and succeeded Prudentius as bishop of Paris. Venantius tells lots of great miracle stories, including Marcellus overcoming a dragon and defending his city against German attacks. He had a reputation for holiness and miracle-working. Marcellus was buried in a catacomb on the left bank of the Seine, the site of the suburb of Saint-Marceau these days.
Vigor (d. c537?) is a fairly legendary early bishop of Bayeux whose feast today is recorded by Usuard in the later ninth century. Vigor was a native of Artois, educated at Arras by St. Vedast, who became a priest, worked as a missionary, and became bishop of Bayeux in 513. Very popular in medieval Normandy, he has a series of legendary Vitae of which the oldest was written at the then recently founded abbey of Cerisy in the period 1030-1045. Apart from documenting many of the abbey's possessions through the device of making Victor a well-traveled pilgrim, this has him rid the future site of the abbey of a huge, diabolical serpent and combat idolatry in Bayeux itself once he has become bishop there, being reputed to have destroyed a stone cult statue there and building a church on the site. Victor is also the legendary founder of the monastery of Saint-Vigor-le-Grand (Calvados) and the subject of a later eleventh-century report of a translation of his relics from Bayeux to Saint-Riquier in around 987. A limited cult took hold in England after the Norman Conquest; he is the patron saint of Stratton-on-the-Fosse, near Bath (the site of Downside Abbey)
Sidonius of Mainz (d. c568) was bishop of Mainz in the mid-sixth century. He was noted for the care of souls, rebuilt destroyed churches, and constructed waterworks to protect Mainz from floods.
Licinius/Lezin of Angers (d. c616 or before 610) like so many Frankish courtiers in that world-weary age, Licinius dropped everything and became a monk near Angers. He became bishop of the city in 586. He tried to resign, but was such a popular leader that the people wouldn't let him.
Floribert of Ghent (d. c660) was a follower of St. Amandus, appointed by him to lead new monasteries in Ghent.
Audomarus/ Audomar/ Omer (French & English) (d. c670?). We know about Adomar chiefly from his early ninth-century Vita (BHL 763). This makes him a native of an Aurea Vallis said to be near Constantia (some have thought Konstanz, but Coutances seems a better bet) who became a monk of Luxeuil under its abbot St. Eustasius (r. c612-629), who in the reign of king Dagobert (Dagobert I, r. in Austrasia 623-634) after consecration by St. Acharius of Noyon served, not without miracles and with his seat at Thérouanne, as a missionary bishop and de facto evangelist in what is now the Pas-de-Calais.
Aided by three monks who had come from his native region, Sts. Mummolinus, Ebertramnus, and Bertinus, Adomar also oversaw the foundation in his diocese of a monastic community on an estate called Sithiu (the abbey, dedicated to St. Peter, was later called Saint-Bertin; its town, Saint-Omer, is named for Adomar). Late in life Adomar lost his eyesight but carried on as before. He was buried with great honor in the monastery church at Sithiu where Bertinus was abbot. Post-mortem miracles confirmed his sanctity. Thus far Adomar's Vita, which appears to have been written for the abbey of Saint-Bertin.
A French-language page on Adomar with views of illuminations in an eleventh-century copy of Adomar's Vita (Saint-Omer, Bibliothèque de l'agglomération de Saint-Omer, ms. 698): http://saintomer.pagesperso-orange.fr/personnages/omer.htm Larger views of some of these and other depictions of Adomar are here: http://tinyurl.com/25xyfd9
Adomar as depicted in an earlier twelfth-century Vitae sanctorum (Dijon, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 642, fol. 65v): http://tinyurl.com/2fhc4bg
Adomar as depicted in a later twelfth-century sacramentary for the Use of Saint-Bertin (Bourges, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 37, fol. 68r): http://tinyurl.com/2ep6fc3
Adomar as depicted in an early fifteenth-century breviary for the Use of Paris (Châteauroux, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 2, fol. 335v): http://tinyurl.com/22l8qrn
Salaun (Salomon) (d. 1358) was a poor man of Lesneven (Brittany). He won fame as a "fool for Christ's sake" whose contemplative prayer reached a very high level. His shrine at Le Folgoet still attracts pilgrims.
Conradin of Brescia (blessed) (d. 1429) was from Bornato near Brescia. He joined the Order of Preachers in 1413 and in time became prior at Bologna. He was imprisoned twice by the Guelphs for supporting the pope.
Nonius (blessed) (d. 1431) Nun' Alvares de Pereira was born near Lisbon. He trained for a military career, married, and became constable of Portugal. He led the Portuguese army to a major victory against the Castilians. And then in 1422 Nonius became a Carmelite lay brother at the friary he founded in Lisbon. His cult was approved in 1918.
Happy reading,
Terri Morgan
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“The nice thing about studying history is that you can always find people who are a lot weirder than you are.” – Delia Sherman