medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (20. August) is the feast day of:
Oswin (d. 651) Oswin was the son of King Osric of Deira. When dad
was killed in battle, O was taken to Wessex and raised there. He was
able to claim his thrown in c. 644. He had problems with his
neighbor, King Oswy of Bernicia. When it came to open war, our saint
found himself badly outnumbered so dismissed his troops without
fighting. He was soon hunted down by Oswy's men and killed along
with one of his thegns. O's body was rediscovered in 1065 by a
visionary monk. He is venerated as a martyr.
Philibert (d. 685) The Gascon Philibert was a son of the bishop of
Aire, who had his son educated and then sent him to the Merovingian
court. But Ph became a monk at the age of 20 and founded the
monastery of Jumieges in 654. He ran into trouble when he criticized
the notorious mayor of the palace Ebroin, and was imprisoned and then
expelled from his monastery. So he went and founded another one,
later called Noirmoutier.
Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153) "Mr. Cistercian" (as an undergraduate
prof. of mine described him) was a French noble born at Fontaines in
1090. He entered Citeaux in 1112---along with 31 companions and
relatives. In 1115 he was sent off to found Clairvaux, the third
daughter house of Citeaux. B's enormously influential life is too
convoluted to describe here. Highlights are the astonishing
popularity of the Cistercian order, the preaching of the Second
Crusade, and rather a lot of spiritual writing. B. was canonized in
1174 and declared a doctor of the church in 1830.
Bernard Tolomei (blessed) (d. 1348) The Sienese Giovanni Tolomei
studied law and became a local official. But in 1312 he resigned his
position and became a hermit. GT eventually took the name Bernard
and founded a monastic community for his followers--called Monte
Oliveto. It was the mother house of a Benedictine congregation. The
monks cared for plague victims; the first of them to die of the
disease was B.
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