Today, 23 November, is the feast of ...
* Clement I, pope and martyr (c. 99)
- third successor of Peter, yet a contemporary of his;
famous for a letter (found in some early biblical
manuscripts) he wrote to the Christians of Corinth
* Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium (c. 400)
- gave up a promising career as a lawyer to become a
hermit, but was soon elected to be bishop; often assisted
St Basil the Great, and well known to Sts Gregory of
Nazianzen and Jerome; known for his theological works
defending the divinity of the Holy Spirit
* Gregory, bishop (c. 603)
- a Sicilian, he went on pilgrimage to Palestine, where he
lived as a monk; after ordination, went to Constantinople
and Rome, where he was made bishop of Girgenti (Agrigento);
there, he made enemies, who reportedly placed a woman of
ill repute in his chambers, where she was duly
'discovered'; however, Gregory was cleared of all charges
by the pope
* Columban, abbot of Luxeuil and Bobbio (615)
- considered the greatest of the Irish missionary monks to
the continent; he became a monk in order to escape the
attentions of women; founded his first monastery in the
Vosges, c. 590, then another nearby at Luxeuil; he was
later ordered deported to Ireland, but circumstances
prevented this, and he ended up going to the Alps, then
Milan, where the Lombard king gave him a ruined chuch and
some land at Bobbio, between Genova and Piacenza
* Trudo or Trond (c. 690)
- preached and founded a monastery and a nunnery in his
native Brabant
* * * * * * * *
George Ferzoco
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