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Today, 4 October, is the feast of... Ammon, monk (350): After 18 years of continent marriage, he and his wife separated: he to the desert, she remaining in her house with other religious women, who were visited and directed by Ammon twice a year. Became friend of Antony the Great, who saw in a vision Ammon's soul ascend to Heaven when he died (despite being very far away). Petronius, bishop of Bologna (445): Built monastery dedicated to Stephen the protomartyr, and remodeled the city's churches so that they reproduced (roughly, at least) the holy places of Jerusalem. Francesco d'Assisi (1226): Noted stigmatist. Founder of Order of Friars Minor. According to *Journal of Paleopathology* 3 (1991) 133-135, his blindness was most likely caused by iridocyclitis. Francis requested to be buried in the criminals' cemetery on the Colle d'Inferno, but his body was brought to church of St George in Assisi, where it remained until 1230 when it was secretly removed to the great basilica; there it remained hidden until 1818, after a 52-day search found it deep beneath the high altar of the lower church. The most beloved of medieval saints? **************************** Carolyn Muessig [log in to unmask] %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%