Today, 7 March, is the feast of ...
*Paul the Simple (339): At the age of sixty, after discovering that his
wife was unfaithful, he sought solace in the desert as a disciple of St
Antony. Had the power to read minds.
*Drausius, or Drausin, Bishop of Soissons (674): It was believed that
those who spent a night in intercession at the tomb of Drausius would
become invulnerable against all hostile machinations. In 1166, John of
Salisbury reported that Robert de Montfort spent the night at the shrine
in prayer before his encounter with Henry, Earl of Essex.
*Esterwine, abbot (686): Esterwine was abbot of Wearmouth. The abbey was
founded by his kinsman Benedict Biscop.
*Ardo (843): Ardo is remembered chiefly through the life he wrote of his
superior, Benedict of Aniane whom Ardo called 'the reviver of monastic
discipline, the second father of monasticism in the West'.
*Theophylact, bishop of Nicomedia (845): When Leo V revived Iconoclasm,
Theophylact prophesied the following: 'I know you are scornful of the
patience and long-suffering of God. But like a hurricane, calamity and a
terrible death will overtake you, and there shall be none to deliver you.'
Leo was infuriated and had Theophylact imprisoned in a fortress in Caria,
where he died thirty years later. As for the words of his prophecy, they
were fulfilled to the letter. In his chapel on Christmas day 820, Leo was
attacked by conspirators and killed before assistance could arrive.
* Thomas Aquinas, doctor (1274)- Last year George Ferzoco wrote: Having
died on this day, the feast was celebrated on this day until very
recently; does anyone know when the feast was changed, and why?
John Wickstrom wrote:
George, the second Vatican Council (may God forgive it) changed a
number of feasts for what seem to be a variety of reasons. A number were
shifted to get them out of Lent, which was seen to be compromised in its
penitential character by the celebration of major feasts. Some of these
were moved to medieval "translatio" days: Benedict is a case in point,
from 21 March to 11 July. TA may have fallen victim to the same
housecleaning, that always seemed to prefer theological purity over
tradition, no matter how venerable...but I digress.
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Carolyn Muessig
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