medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (16. March) is the feast day of:
Julian of Antioch (d. c. 302) Julian was a Cilician of senatorial rank.
Legend reports that after his arrest and conviction as a Christian, he was
paraded around Cilicia for an entire year, before being sewn into a sack
with scorpions and snakes and thrown into the sea.
Abraham Kidunaia (6th cent.) Abraham was born to a wealthy family near
Edessa. He agreed to marry to make his parents happy, but at the end of
the wedding feast ran away to be a monk in the desert, walling himself up
in a cell, where he stayed for the next fifty years. Then the bishop of
Edessa asked A. to leave his hermitage and try to convert the people of
nearby Beth-Kiduna. A. went to town, built a church, and then destroyed
every cult statue he could lay hands on. He was driven out, came back and
was stoned, and kept coming back regularly for three years---after which
the people suddenly realized he was a holy man and were all baptized.
Central to his legend is the story that Abraham had a niece, Mary, whom he
raised until she was about 20, when she went off and became a prostitute.
But A. went after her in disguise as one of her customers and brought her
back to a life of penance.
Gregory Makar (d. c. 1000-1010) Gregory was an Armenian. He became a monk
there, at a monastery near Nicropolis. But when he was chosen as bishop,
Gregory, wanting a solitary life, fled all the way to western
Europe---first Italy, then France---and became a recluse at Pithiviers
(dioc. Orleans). He remained there for the last seven years of his life,
attracting crowds with his reputation for spiritual wisdom and miracles.
Heribert of Cologne (d. 1022) Heribert studied at Gorze, then became a
canon of Worms. From 994 on he was imperial chancellor, and was made
archbishop of Cologne in 998. He's a very good example of a German bishop
who could combine spiritual and political office well. He lived a
penitential life as bishop, was a good pastor, and built the monastery of
Deutz. He was regarded as a saint already in his lifetime.
(Interestingly, in the seventeenth century somebody forged a bull of
canonization for Heribert, supposedly issued by Gregory VII.)
John Sordi (blessed) (d. 1183) John was a native of Cremona where he
became a monk and later abbot. He sided with the pope against Frederick
Barbarossa, so Fred exiled J. from his monastery. J. then lived as a
hermit near Mantua until 1174, when he became bishop there. He was
transferred to the see of Vicenza in 1177, where he was soon killed by a
man he rebuked for embezzling episcopal revenues (a case of martyrdom?).
Dr. Phyllis G. Jestice
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