medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (8. November) is the feast day of:
The Four Crowned Martyrs (d. 306?) This feast was removed from the
universal calendar in 1969. There is a great deal of confusion about
their legend, but current scholarship suggests that this was a group
of Pannonian stonemasons, martyred in their homeland. Their relics
were later translated to Rome, which led to endless confusion and for
a long time not one but two groups of "4 crowned martyrs," one from
each region.
Cybi (6th cent.) Cybi was founder and first abbot of Holyhead in
Anglesey. Legend tells that he was born in Cornwall, went on a
pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and became a disciple of St. Hilary of
Poitiers (which is unfortunately chronologically impossible). Less
spectacularly, he seems to have abandoned Cornwall for Wales, where
he used the monastery he founded as a base for missionary work.
Deusdedit (d. 618) Deusdedit (or Adeodatus) was a Roman, the son of
a deacon. He became a priest and, forty years later, was elected
pope by the anti-monastic faction. His pontificate lasted 3 years,
during which he had to deal with the consequences of epidemics and
civil unrest. D. cared for the poor. He has a modest place in the
history of the papacy as the first pontiff known to have used lead
seals (bullae) on his documents.
Willehad (d. 789) Willehad was an Englishman, one of the many who
infested the Continent as missionaries in the eighth century. Like
most of these figures, he was a Northumbrian who went to Frisia in c.
766. He moved on with Charlemagne's encouragement to Saxony. At
first he won lots of converts, but was almost caught in Widukind's
rebellion of 782. He eventually made it back to Saxony and founded a
number of churches, establishing himself as first bishop of Bremen.
Godfrey of Amiens (d. 1115) Godfrey was a monk, a child oblate at
Mont-St-Quentin. He eventually became abbot of Nogent (our best
source for him is Guibert of Nogent's autobiography) and in 1104
bishop of Amiens.
John Duns Scotus (blessed) (d. 1308) Or, more properly, John from
the village of Duns (near Berwick) of Scotland. John became a
Franciscan at a young age and studied in Paris. He was soon off
lecturing at both Oxford and Cambridge. He got into trouble at Paris
by publicly lecturing on the controversial (at the time) doctrine of
the Immaculate Conception. J's superiors sent him off to Cologne for
his own safety, where he died at the age of 43. He was formally
approved as "blessed" by John Paul II in 1993. One of the great
theologian-philosophers of the later Middle Ages.
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