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Today, 1 June, is the feast of ... * Pamphilus and companions, martyrs (309) - Was described by Eusebius as 'the most illustrious martyr of his day for philosophical learning and for every virtue'. * Wite, or Candida (?) - All that is known of this saint is the tomb bearing her/his name which is found in the village of Whitchurch Canonicorum in Dorset. * Proculus 'the soldier, and Proculus bishop of Bologna, martyrs (c. 304 & 542) - When the Benedictines at the end of the fourteenth century built a church upon the site of the subterranean chapel of St Sixtus, their Abbot John had the relics of the two saints moved to the new basilica, which received the name of St Proculus, or San Proclo. * Caprasius or Caprais (430) - Spiritual master and guide of Honoratus of Lerins. * Wistan (849) - Grandson of King Wiglaf of Mercia, was assassinated for opposing the marriage between his godfather and his widowed mother on account of their spiritual relationship. Others allege dynastic reasons for his assassination. For centuries after Wistan's murder, on the first day of June on the spot where he was murdered a crop of human hair - just like the one that had been scalped from Wistan's head - grew. It was visible for only an hour and then would disappear. * Simeon of Syracuse, monk (1035) - Went on pilgramages and often lived in solitude. Lived for a time in a monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai. At one point in his life people believed that he was a magician and they would often attack him with stones. However, long before his death he was venerated as a saint and a wonder-worker. * Eneco or Inigo, abbot (1057) - Lived as a hermit in the mountains of Aragon. He was called from his hermitage by King Sancho the Great to reform the abbey of San Juan de Pena. * Theobald of Alba, shoemaker (1150) - Honoured througout Piedmont as the parton of cobblers and porters. He always gave two-thirds of his earnings to the poor. * Giovanni Pelingotto, Franciscan tertiary (1304) - Came from a prosperous merchant family of Urbino. During his life he tended to the sick and to the poor. * Ercolano da Piegaro, Franciscan (1451) - One of the foremost preachers of the fifteenth century. 1 June is also the feast of Justin Martyr in the reckoning of the Eastern Orthodox Church. ***************** 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] %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%