medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (13. August) is the feast day of:
Pontian (d. c. 236) Pontian became bishop of Rome in 230. He was exiled to Sardinia at the beginning of Maximinus' persecution. He put his time there to good use; besides laboring in a mine he met the exiled antipope Hippolytus and reconciled him to the church. He probably died of ill treatment, shortly after he had resigned his office so a new bishop could be elected.
Cassian (?) A sobering story. Cassian was a Christian teacher at Imola near Ravenna. He was arrested in a time of persecution, refused to sacrifice, and was handed over to his own students---who obligingly finished him off, according to one account with their metal styluses.
Radegund (d. 587) Radegund was a Thuringian princess, carried off by Clothar of Neustria when he defeated her uncle in battle. A few years later Clothar married her. She was generous to the poor and put up with Clothar until he murdered her brother. Then she became a nun. In c. 557 she built the double monastery of the Holy Cross at Poitiers.
Maximus the Confessor (d. 662) Maximus was a noble of Constantinople who became a monk and abbot. He was a leader against imperial efforts to impose the doctrine of monothelitism. After thwarting the emperor very thoroughly, M. was charged with conspiracy and exiled to Thrace for six years. Then he was brought back, tortured, and mutilated (tongue and right hand cut off) and sentenced to life imprisonment. M. died four years later.
Wigbert (d. c. 738) Wigbert was an English monk who became a missionary in Germany. Boniface appointed W. abbot of Fritzlar and he later became abbot of Ohrdruf for a time.
Nerses Klaietsi (d. 1173) Nerses was a Cilician, a close relative of the Catholicos (head of the Armenian church). N. favored a union of the Armenian church with Rome, and when he became catholikos himself in 1166 worked toward that goal (which was accomplished in 1198). N. also wrote poetry, prayers, and a history of Armenia.
A modern saint: Jakob Gapp (blessed) (d. 1943) Gapp was an Austrian who joined the Marianist order, which he served as a teacher and school chaplain. He was loudly anti-Nazi, so when German troops came to Austria his superiors sent him to Tyrol. That wasn't safe so he went on to France. Then Spain. There he was tricked and abducted, taken to Germany, and guillotined in 1943. He was beatified in 1996.
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