Dear fellow List-members
I'm pretty certain I'm not alone in having missed the saints, so I want to
share an inside-track opinion and canvass a couple of ideas. (Don't shoot me
when you see me in the Common Room, George!)
Looking from the outside in, but from relatively close proximity, it's
pretty apparent that George and his colleagues in Modern Languages here at
Leicester have a mountain of work relating principally from student/staff
ratios. It looks like Carolyn, too, is heavily pressed because I happen to
know that at Bristol she's handling her department's Quality Assessment
Audit. Anyone familiar with current UK higher education practice will know
what that implies.
So is it a moment to be gentle with George and Carolyn and ask among
ourselves if there's someone else on the List with time to spare to take
over, if only temporarily? If I hadn't just started teaching two demanding
courses, I would volunteer. Sorry if that sounds lame in the company of
colleagues much harder pressed than I am, but I would want to do justice to
the job, and don't feel in a position to deliver just at the moment.
Which leads to a second thought. Maybe there's something that could be added
to the postings, wonderful though they are as they stand. How about
references to principal bibliography? It wouldn't be possible to do that
with every saint in the first year, but could be built up over time.
In the meantime, George has given me permission to mention to the List that
I have compiled an archive of the saints postings at
http://www.le.ac.uk/elh/grj1/ssaints.html
You can use your browser's 'Edit' and 'Find' buttons to locate date of feast
or name of saint.
Also on the page are links to other on-line saintly inventories, arranged
within frames so that by clicking and dragging the frame borders you can
view two or more descriptions or images on the same screen.
This means the page is cumbersome, so any advice on how it could be made
more 'user-friendly' would be welcomed.
Best wishes to all - and here's hoping a) that someone will volunteer to
help out while George and Carolyn are so busy, and b) that George won't
strangle me for saying so.
Graham
****************************************
Dr Graham Jones
Lecturer in English Topography
University of Leicester
Centre for English Local History
Marc Fitch Historical Institute
5 Salisbury Road
Leicester LE1 7QR
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)116 252 2764
Fax: +44 (0)116 252 5769
e-Mail: [log in to unmask]
Web pages: http://www.le.ac.uk/elh/grj1
-----Original Message-----
From: Ferzoco, G.P. [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 05 February 2001 19:30
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: FEAST 5 February
Dear medieval-religion colleagues,
the saints have had a bit of a holiday recently, but some have made their
way from Blackpool to join us today. The others will be back soon; until
then, enjoy!
George
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Today, 5 February, is the feast of ...
* Agatha, virgin and martyr (date unknown)
- a great Sicilian beauty who refused the advances of a
consul, who retaliated by ordering that her breasts be
removed; after a vision in which St Peter restored her to a
perfect condition, she was then rolled over hot coals
- co-patron of medieval-religion
* Felicia and Pupaquius (date unknown)
- Sardinian martyrs
* Agrippinus of Alexandria, bishop (180)
- ninth bishop of Alexandria; his cult is widespread among
Coptic Christians
* Fausta, Evilasius and Maximus, martyrs (third century?)
- martyred in the Hellespont, their tale was well known
throughout Christendom (Bede narrates their martyrdom); for a
great image of their martyrdom, see ms. Citta' del Vaticano,
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. Gr. 1613, fol. 375
* Isidore of Chios, martyr (c. 251)
- the many different *vitae* and *passiones* of this saint
give witness to the great popularity of his cult throughout
the Mediterranean basin; protector of sailors, as well as an
intrepid soldier-martyr (like St George)
* Domitian (fourth century?)
- according to a legend of the twelfth or thirteenth century,
he was a duke who converted a pagan temple in Millstadt
(Austria) to a Christian church; object of popular regional
cult from the thirteenth to eighteenth centuries
* Theodosius of Rhosos (fourth century)
- after an eremitical youth (during which his hair grew so
long as to be wrapped around his body), he founded a
monastery which was so renowned and respected that even local
brigands asked him to move his community elsewhere, so that
no other bad people could try to pillage the place; he heeded
their advice, and moved his monks to his native city,
Antioch, where he died
* Abraham of Arbela, bishop and martyr (345)
- he succeeded his martyred predecessor John, and was himself
arrested and martyred in the village of Tell-Niaha during the
persecution of Sapor II
* Agricola of Maastricht, bishop (c. 420)
- eleventh bishop of his see, succeeding St Servasius
* Fuscina or Fuscinula (sixth century)
- sister of St Avitus, she lived in the monastery of Sts
Gervase and Protasius near Vienne; there, she was warned in a
vision by Christ the Judge that if she were not careful, she
would be attacked and raped, and thus lose her soul; although
she was attacked, nothing else untoward happened
* Audentia, Fuscina the Elder, Severiana and Aspida (sixth
century)
- like Fuscina the Younger, these were nuns and relatives of
St Avitus (Audentia was his mum)
* Avitus, bishop of Vienne (c. 525)
- succeeded his father to this position; he was famous for
his learning (especially his writing style, as opposed to
his theological acumen) and for his charity (especially to
the poor and to prisoners)
* Echtac, virgin (seventh century?)
- nothing is known of her except that she is listed in the
martyrologies of Tallaght and of Donegal
* Columb (or Colman) and Brandub (seventh century?)
- from Loch Muinremuir, the two were friends (the first a
bishop); mentioned in the martyrologies of Tallaght and of
Donegal, their cult could have been centred on the island of
Woodward
* Ingenuinus or Genuinus (c. 640)
- bishop in the Tyrol
* Calamanda of Calaf, virgin and martyr (eighth century?)
- although nothing is known of her life or death with
certainty, her cult is very popular in the diocese of Vich,
where she is invoked in times of drought
* John (eighth century?)
- venerated at Fragala', near Messina, as a wonderful doctor
* Modestus (eighth century)
- sent by St Virgil of Salzburg to preach in the valleys of
the Alps, he founded the Maria-Saal church, where his remains
are kept in a pre-romanesque tomb
* Bertulf or Bertoul (c. 705?)
- a model steward to a noble couple of Flanders, after his
patrons' death he retired to the monastery of Renty, where
he remained as a monk until he died
* Indractus and Dominica, martyrs (c. 710?)
- murdered as they were returning to Ireland from a
pilgrimage to Rome, the murderers hid the bodies, but they
were revealed by a shaft of light in the middle of the
night; they were eventually entombed at Glastonbury
* Vodalus or Voel of Soissons (c. 720)
- he was given by an angel the power to heal fevers and to
avert fires
* Dubtach Mac Dubhan (ninth century)
- this priest is mentioned in several Irish martyrologies,
but little is known of him (apart from his genealogy)
* Jerome of Nevers (815)
- a rich and popular bishop, he was famous for his charity
and for his ability to interpret dreams (including one that
Charlemagne had)
* Buus (c. 890)
- with Saint Ernulf, he was the first missionary of Iceland
* Polieutos the Younger, patriarch of Constantinople (970)
- known in his day as the 'new St John Chrysostom', he
defended the Church's privileges in the face of hostile
emperors
* Saba the Younger (995)
- born of a noble Byzantine Sicilian family, after some time
living as a monk and hermit he founded many monasteries
throughout southern mainland Italy
* Luke of Demenna or of Armento (995)
- fleeing from invading Saracens, this ascetic monk crossed
over from Sicily to Calabria and Lucania, where he founded
monasteries and hospitals, and worked a heap o' miracles
* Legontian and Domitian, martyrs (c. 1000)
- according to a seventeenth-century *vita*, these two were
brothers and sculptors, who were killed for refusing to make
images of false gods; they lived in present-day Pescara, and
are venerated in nearby Chieti
* Finghin the Virtuous (c. 1005)
- founded several monasteries, protected by Otto III
* Albinus or Albuinus (c. 1015)
- buried with another Tyrolean bishop, St Ingenuinus (see
above)
* Adelaide of Bellich, virgin (1015)
- as abbess of St Mary's in Cologne, she insisted her nuns
be proficient in Latin
* Agatha Hildegarde (1024)
- falsely accused of infidelity, she was thrown out of an
upper window by her husband, but she was unhurt and proceeded
to go to church and pray; the husband, stricken with remorse,
gouged out his own eyes, ordered a chapel to be built in
Mochlingen, and went on a seven-year pilgrimage, dying as he
was returning home
* Adelaide of Mu"nster (c. 1222)
- first abbess of the Cistercian abbey of St-Gilles, Mu"nster
Perhaps the longest feastday list of the year?
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
George Ferzoco
Lecturer and Director of Italian Studies
School of Modern Languages, University of Leicester
University Road, LEICESTER LE1 7RH
UNITED KINGDOM
office telephone ++ 44 (0)116 252 2654
secretaries' tel ++ 44 (0)116 252 2683 / fax ++ 44 (0)116 252 3633
e-mail [log in to unmask]
list owner, medieval-religion:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
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