medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (13. July) is the feast day of:
Silas (1st cent.) Silas was a companion of Paul. According to tradition
he died in Macedonia, but some Greek churches account him one of the
bishops of Corinth.
Asprenus of Naples (2nd cent.) Legend reports that the pagan Asprenus met
St. Peter when the latter was travelling from Antioch to Rome. He was
miraculously converted and baptized by Peter. On a later visit of Peter to
Naples, he is supposed to have made Asprenus bishop. The whole story seems
to have been a later effort to give the Neopalitan church a foundation
connected to the apostles. Asprenus may indeed have been the first bishop
of the city, but at the end of the second century and/or beginning of the
third.
Eugenius of Cartagena (d. c. 505) Eugenius was bishop of Cartagena
(Spain), consecrated in 481. The see of Cartagena had been vacant for a
quarter century because the city was occuped by the Arian Vandals, who
finally allowed the Catholics a bishop under the condition that he not
interfere with the Arians in any way. Eugenius appears to have been a good
choice for the position, mild, charitable, and not polemical. However,
there was a resurgence of persecution, and Eugenius (along with other
Spanish bishops) was exiled to Tunisia. Eugenius was able to return after
the death of King Huneric, but was soon exiled again to Provence, where he
died.
Mildred (d. c. 700) Mildred was a princess of Mercia. She was educated in
the nunnery of Chelles near Paris (having gone there to avoid an unwanted
suitor). Mildred then returned to England to become a nun at
Minster-in-Thanet, which had been founded by her mother Ermenburga. She
became abbess. Mildred's tomb became a pilgrimage center, and in 1035 her
relics were moved to St. Augustine's, Canterbury.
Henry II (d. 1024) Henry was duke of Bavaria and in 1002 became the last
Ottonian German emperor. It is hard to know when Henry's dealings with the
Church were motivated by piety and when by politics: certainly he had been
educated at Hildesheim and was a very generous patron of his new creation,
the diocese of Bamberg. He also imposed widespread reform on the imperial
monasteries, often to the deep dismay of the monks themselves (who often
seem to have been baffled as to why they needed to be reformed in the first
place). Later legend gave Henry a prime qualification for sainthood: a
chaste marriage (in reality, his marriage to Cunegunde appears to have
simply been childless). He was canonized in 1146.
Dr. Phyllis G. Jestice
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