Today, 13 December, is the feast of ...
* Antiochus, martyr (c. 121)
- martyred on island of Solta
* Lucy, virgin and martyr (303)
- refusing marriage to a suitor, she was sentenced to be placed in a
brothel, but the governor's guards were unable to move her there; she
was then ordered to be burned, but the flames had no effect; finally,
her throat was slit
- along the way, her eyes were gauged out, but these were miraculously
restored; often portrayed in art as holding a dish or shell bearing two
eyeballs
* Eustratius, Orestes, and others, martyrs (303)
- Eustratius was an Armenian, burned to death in a furnace; killed with
him in the furnace were his servant Eugenius, two friends (Mardarius and
Auxentius) who had pleaded for his life, and Orestes, a soldier who was
converted by the courage of Eustratius, and roasted to death on a grill
* Abra, confessor (400)
- daughter of well-known bishop and saint, Hilary of Poitiers (but born
before he became bishop)
* Aubert, confessor (c. 668)
- bishop of Cambrai, he is believed to have converted a group of lay
people to the monastic life and to have performed many miracles
* Judoc or Josse (c. 668)
- son of king Juthael of Amorica (Brittany), ordained c. 636 at Ponthieu
and after a pilgrimage to Rome, became a hermit at Runiacum (later named
Saint-Josse)
* Odile, virgin (eighth century)
- born blind, she received sight at age twelve when baptized by St
Erhardt of Regensburg; patron of Alsace and of the blind, her shrine
(near Strasbourg) remains a major pilgrimage centre
The feast day of Odile is timely regarding the recent thread on
canonesses. Odile was the foundress of the convent of Hohenburg. In the
tenth-century vita of Odile her hagiographer gives an account of Odile
speaking to her sisters. She asks them if they should be canonesses or
nuns. Because the Hohenburg is located so high up on a mountain and the
women often seek their water outside of the walls of the convent, she
argues that it would be logistically better to be canonesses since they
could then fetch their water anytime. The implications is that nuns
would be strictly enclosed and not able to get their water when they
needed it; see Jo Ann McNamara, *Sister in Arms* (Cambridge/London:
1996,176-77). The Hohenburg convent was reformed in the twelfth century
by two canonesses Relinde and Herrad. Herrad went on to compose her
encyclopedic masterpiece, the *Hortus deliciarum*. (See Carolyn Muessig,
*Learning and Mentoring in the Twelfth Century: Hildegard of Bingen and
Herrad of Landsberg" in George Ferzoco and Carolyn Muessig, eds,
*Medieval Monastic Education* (London, 2000): 87-104. Yes an unabashed
plug.)
* Elizabeth Rose, virgin (1130)
- died at Villechausson, near Courtenay
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
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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