Dear All,

Thanks to Bill East for taking the feasts over during my absence. I was
supposed to resume on 27 July but forgot! So here is a fast blast of
feasts:

Today, 27 July, is the feast of ... 

* Pantaleon or Panteleimon, martyr (c. 305?) - the Romans tried killing 
him by burning, liquid lead, drowning, wild beasts, the wheel and the 
sword, before finally succeeding by the old standby, beheading; and 
after the decapitation, milk flowed from his veins instead of blood 

* Seven Sleepers of Ephesus (?) - entombed alive by Decius, they were 
presumed dead until they were discovered over 200 years later 

* Aurelius, Natalia and companions, martyrs (c. 852) - killed by Muslims 
of Cordova 

* Berthold of Garsten, abbot (1142) - Ottokar, Margrave of Styria, 
placed him at head of Steyer-Garsten c. 1111; noted for his hearing of 
confessions 

* Theobald of Marly, abbot (1247) - after serving in the court of king 
Philip Augustus II, he left to join the Cistercians of Vaux-de-Cernay in 
1220; much venerated by king St Louis 

* Lucy of Amelia, virgin (1350) - sister of John of Rieti; joined order 
of Hermits of St Augustine, and became prioress of convent of Amelia 

**********************
Today, 28 July, is the feast of ... 

* Nazarius and Celsus, martyrs (date unknown) - earliest Milanese 
martyrs; translation of relics by Ambrose was accompanied by many 
wonders 

* Victor I, pope and martyr (c. 199) - an African, he is said by Jerome 
to have been the first in Rome to celebrate liturgy in Latin 

* Innocent I, pope (417) - quotable quote: 'in all matters of faith, 
bishops throughout the world should refer to St Peter' 

* Samson, bishop of Dol (c. 565) - born in Wales, known throughout 
Britanny for his miracles and missionary journeys (particularly in 
Cornwall, Scilly Islands and Channel Islands) 

* Botvid (1100) - Swedish layman, murdered by a Finnish slave he was 
about to set free 

A few years ago Jonas Carlquist Dep. of scandinavian languages Stockholm 
University informed us about the following edition of Botvid's vita: 

The story about Botvid is edited in Scriptores rerum Suecicarum medii 
aevi II:1, from page 377 (the edition is taken from the 14/15th century 
manuscript Codex Laurentii Odonis - a fragment of the same vita is also 
found in a manuscript from c. 1250). If I remember correctly the slave, 
liberated by Botvid, who kills Botvid is of Slavonic birth. Botvid was 
killed on an island called outside Tystberga, Sweden, after a roving 
expedition at sea. 

* Antonio della Chiesa (1459) - preached an exemplum, stating that a 
certain usurer, at his death, lost not only his soul but also his body, 
which had been carried off by a troop of diabolic horsemen, so that his 
relatives had had to bury an empty coffin 

************************* 
Today, 29 July, is the feast of ... 

* Martha, virgin (first century) - according to Provencal legend, she 
accompanied Mary Magdalen to the south of France, and evangelized 
Tarascon, where her relics were invented in 1187 

* Simplicius, Faustinus and Beatrice, martyrs (304?) - a newborn baby 
accused the murderer of Beatrice of the crime, and three hours later he 
died a horrible death (and all who were present decided to convert to 
Christianity) 

* Felix 'II' (365) - since 1947, the *Annuario Pontificio*, in its list 
of popes, has noted 'Felix II as an antipope 

* Lupus or Loup, bishop of Troyes (478) - accompanied Germain d'Auxerre 
into Britain to combat the Pelagians; taken hostage by Attila 

* Olaf of Norway, martyr (1030) - spring that gushed from his grave 
cured people miraculously; the site is known as the Feginsbrekka, or 
'hill of joy' 

* Urban II, pope (1099) 

After a bit of prompting from George Ferzoco, Michael Hynes told us what 
he thinks of the cult of Urban: 

Ok, I'll just say one or two things about Urban II. He is indeed the 
infamous pope of the 1st Crusade (called for at the Council of Clermont 
in 1095). He was born of an aristocratic French family, was prior of 
Cluny (1067-70) under Abbot Hugh, archbp of Reims, and finally pope 
(1088-99). His was one of the most sucessful pontificates. He was 
sucessful in besting Henry IV and the anti-pope, Clement III; he was a 
great legislative and conciliar pope; he (mostly) suceeded in 
consolidating the reform. Politically adroit, Urban tackled the thorny 
problem of what to do about scismatic (N.B. that contoumacious scism 
was regarded as a heresy) ordinations and (because of the scism) 
multiple claimants to the same office with pragmatism and diplomacy. 
His politically adroitness (like the Am. pres. Bill Clinton), however, 
often left his actual positions open to misunderstanding. He has, for 
example, been viewed as a moderate on issues of investiture and 
clerical hommage. I am arguing in my diss. that this was merely a 
tactic--Urban was as opposed to these practices as G VII. Urban also 
completed the reformation of the south-western French church that had 
been initiated by G VII at the Council of Poitiers (1078). It was no 
accident that he chose Clermont in Eastern Aquitaine as the opening 
site for a series of French councils which basically took the papacy on 
a tour of Aquitaine and culminated with the Council of 
Poitiers (under Urban's sucessor) in 1100. From the pt. of view of 
French social history (I include this out of personal interest and for 
Richard), Urban suceeded in taming the peace and truce of God (prob. 
repressed in this region by G VII), and (this is especially for you 
Richard Landes) he took action against the cult of Saint Martial. As 
far as my evaluation of Urban goes, he was a corpus mixtum. But I think 
that given a choice between an inflexable purist like G VII and a wiley 
pragmatist like Urban, I'd choose the latter. For his legislative 
achievements alone, I suppose he earned his sainthood. 

* Guillaume Pinchon, bishop of Saint-Brieuc (1234) - canonized in 1247; 
at translation of his relics the following year, his body was found to 
be incorrupt 
**********************
Today, 30 July, is the feast of ... 

* Abdon and Sennen, martyrs (303?) - Persians, brought to Rome, where 
they spat upon the images of the gods 

* Julitta, widow and martyr (c. 303) - native of Caesarea, commemorated 
in a sermon by Basil the Great 

* Mannes (c. 1230) - brother of st Dominic; in 1234, supposedly urged 
the people of Calaruega to build a chapel in honour of his recently 
canonized brother 

* Archangelo of Calatafimi (1460) - Sicilian hermit, who following a 
decree by pope Martin V joined the Franciscans 

* John Soreth (1471) - Carmelite, Parisian doctor, prior general of the 
order; responsible for several communities of beguines joining the order 
in the Low Countries 

* Simon of Lipnicza (1482) - as a young graduate, he was convinced he 
should join the Franciscans by John of Capistrano 

* Peter of Mogliano (1490) - his hagiographer was a woman, Baptista 
Varani, daughter of Duke of Camerino 


***********************
Today, 31 July, is the feast of ... 

* Neot (ninth century) - a monk of Glastonbury who became a hermit in 
Cornwall, his advice was greatly valued by King Alfred - in fact, it is 
in the *Chronicle of the Sanctuary of St Neot* that one finds the story 
of Alfred and the burnt cakes (famous throughout England: the story, 
not the cakes) 

* Helen of Skovde, widow (c. 1160) - Swedish noble, murdered upon her 
return from a pilgrimage to Rome 

* Giovanni Colombini (1367) - one of the early 'Gesuati' 
*****************************

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]



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