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> Today, 8 June, is the feast of ...
> 
> * Maximin d'Aix (first century?)
> 	- one of Jesus's seventy-two disciples, he left Palestine after
> the Ascension with Mary Magdalen, Martha, Lazarus, Mary Cleophas, Mary
> Salome and others in order to evangelize Provence; the head of Mary
> Magdalen is still supposed to be in the church dedicated to Maximin
... although the church of Ste Madeleine in Vezelay, France, owed its 
fame to its claim (from the 11th century on) that it held the relics 
of Mary Magdalen - a claim discredited already in the Middle Ages.

> * William, archbishop of York (1154)
> 	- scenes from his life are in the stained glass windows of York
> 	- canonized in 1227 by pope Honorius III
One cannot help but feel that William owed his elevation to sainthood 
less to his own life and character than to need of York Minster to 
have its own local saint buried on the spot.  After all, York was 
rather unlucky in having various sainted (arch)bischops such as Chad, 
Bosa, John of Beverley and Wilfrid all buried elsewhere, thus missing 
out on a profitable pilgrimage trade.  Or am I being cynical?

Sophie Oosterwijk
Dept of the History of Art
University of Leicester


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