medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (22. May) is the feast day of:
Julia of Corsica (5th cent.) A nice legend tells that Julia was a
Carthaginian noblewoman, sold as a slave by the Vandals. She was
being taken to Gaul, but the ship was wrecked on Corsica. A
non-Christian religious festival was going on at the time, and J.
refused to take part. So they crucified her on the northern tip of
the island. She's the patron saint of Corsica.
Bobo (or perhaps Beuvon sounds better) (d. c. 985) B. was a
Provencal knight very active in fighting Muslim pirates. When he got
too old to fight he became a hermit, dying near Pavia while on one of
his annual pilgrimages to Rome.
Atto of Pistoia (d. 1153) A gentleman of uncertain provenance (from
either Spain or Florence), Atto became a monk at Vallombrosa and in
time abbot-general of the Vallombrosan congregation. He spent the
last years of his life as bishop of Pistoia, working as a
hagiographer in his spare time.
Peter Parenzi (d. 1199) Peter was a Roman, sent as papal governor to
Orvieto in 1199. The Cathars were flourishing at the time, and P
took harsh steps to suppress them. The Cathars responded by seizing
and killing P.
Humilitas (d. 1310) Humilitas was from Faenza. She was married off
at age 15; her husband got religion nine years later when he was very
ill and the two of them decided to give up marriage and take to the
religious life. H. became a hermit near the Vollombrosan monastery
of St. Apollinaris where her husband was a monk. Later she was sent
to found and govern the first two houses of Vallombrosan nuns. Her
cult was confirmed in 1720.
Hemming (blessed) (d. 1366) Hemming was a native of Balinge
(Sweden). He became bishop of Turku in Finland, moving on from there
to the town of Abo.
John of Cetina & Peter de Duenas (blessed, of unconfirmed cult) (d.
1397) John and Peter were Spanish Franciscans who were sent to the
kingdom of Granada to try to evangelize the Muslims---although the
Franciscans should have known better by the late fourteenth century.
Surprise, surprise, J. and P. were quickly arrested and executed.
Rita of Cascia (d. 1457) Rita was married to a rotten husband, but
she got out from under his thumb when he was murdered. Her sons
vowed a vendetta, but Rita prayed that they wouldn't persevere---a
powerful prayer: the boys died before they could do anyone any harm.
R. then became an Augustinian nun at Cascia. She received the
stigmata in a particularly nasty way---after a vision of Christ
crowned with thorns she had a permanent maggoty ulcer on her
forehead. R. was canonized in 1900; she is invoked for desperate or
impossibe problems, which seems appropriate.
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