Today, 22 May, is the feast of ...
* Castus and Aemilius, martyrs (250)
- according to Butler, Augustine preached a sermon on their feast,
and said that 'they fell like St Peter, through presuming too much on
their own strength'; to me, this sounds like a condemnation rather than
praise
* Quiteria, virgin and martyr (fifth century?)
- invoked against the bite of mad dogs; depicted with a dog on a
leash
* Romanus (c. 550)
- as an old monk, helped initiate the young Benedict to the
solitary life
* Julia, martyr (sixth century?)
- supposedly martyred in Corsica by Saracen pirates, but a legend
says she was a slave of a pagan merchant who visited the governor of
Corsica; this governor tried to get her to convert from Christianity, and
crucified her when she refused
* Aigulf or Ayoul, bishop of Bourges (836)
- became bishop after having lived as a hermit; when he felt his
death approaching, he returned to his old hermitage, where he died
* Umilta da Faenza, widow (1310)
- a preaching nun; dictated treatises in Latin, a language she
never studied
* Rita of Cascia, widow (1457)
- her body has remained incorrupt; when I was a child, my mother
used to receive magazines from the site of her shrine, and they'd have
photographs of Rita's corpse, which at once horrified and fascinated me
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
George Ferzoco
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