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Today, 6 April, is the feast of ... * 120 martyrs in Persia (345) - Among the martyrs were nine consecrated virgins and the rest were priests, deacons or monks. A wealthy and devout woman named Yazdandocta found means to bury the bodies of the martyrs in place where they would be safe from profanation. * Marcellinus, martyr (413) - Several of Augustine of Hippo's books, including City of God, are dedicated to his friend Marcellinus. * Celestine I, pope (432) - second-greatest pope with this name; see 19 May for the greatest! :-) Celestine I encouraged St Germanus of Auxerre to make vigorous opposition to the spread of Pelagianism. Celestine wrote a treatise dealing with the Pelagian and Semi-Pelagian heresy. * Eutychius, patriarch of Constantinople (582) - Towards the end of his days, Eutychius was engaged in controversy with the future Pope Gregory the Great During Eutychius's patriarchy Gregory was the representative for the Holy See at Constantinople. * Prudentius, bishop of Troyes (861) - Summoned by Hincmar of Reims to consider the case of the monk Gottschalk who had been condemned for teaching that Christ had died only for the elect, while the greater part of humanity had been irredeemably doomed by God from all eternity to sin and Hell. Gottschalk had been tortured and imprisoned - Prudentius thought the punishment excessive. * Notker Balbulus (912) - In the days when Grimoald was abbot of Saint-Gall, the parents of Notker placed their young son in its school. The boy was delicate, with an impediment in his speech from which he derived his nickname of Balbulus, and he seems to have been already what the monk Ekkehard described him to have been in later life: "weakly in body but not in mind, stammering of tongue but not of intellect, pressing forward boldly in things divine - a vessel filled with the Holy Ghost without equal in his time." * William of Eskill, abbot (1203) - Great reputation for canonical discipline and holiness. * Catherine of Pallanza, virgin (1478) - Practiced the eremitcal life in the mountain district of Varese. Flourished as a hermitess for fifteen years until a community of women grew up around her and adopted the Augustinian Rule. * * * * * * * * * Dr Carolyn Muessig Department of Theology and Religious Studies University of Bristol Bristol BS8 1TB UK phone: +44(0)117-928-8168 fax: +44(0)117-929-7850 e-mail: [log in to unmask] %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%