Today, 21 August, is the feast of ...
Luxorius, Cisellus and Camerinus, martyrs (303): Luxorius was a soldier
who converted to Christianity. During the reign of Diocletian he and two
young boys who had recently been baptised were martyred.
Bonosus and Maximian, martyrs (363): Roman soldiers martyred during the
reign of Julian the Apostate.
Sidonius Apollinaris, bishop of Clermont (479): Gaius Sollius Apollinaris
Sidonius, soldier, poet, statesman, country gentleman, and eventually
bishop, came from one of the noblest families in Gaul.
Humbeline, matron and abbess (1135): The one-time worldly sister of
Bernard of Clairvaux. Once Humbeline visited her brother at Clairvaux.
Arriving stylishly dressed and with a large retinue, she
made her saintly brother angry. He told her that she was showing off and
that she should be more virtuous like their mother, Aleth. A few years
later, Humbeline, with her husband's consent, became a nun and joined the
convent of nuns at Jully near Troyes. Eventually she became abbess of
the convent where she practiced severe physical austerities. When her nuns
urged her to moderate her ascetic practices, she replied: "That is all
very well for you who have been serving God in religion all your lives.
But I have lived so long in the world and of the world that no penance can
be too much for me."
Abraham of Smolensk, abbot (1221): Abraham was accused of heresy and
reading unorthodox books. He was eventually cleared of all charges. (It is
not known what sorts of "unorthodox" books Abraham read.)
Bernard Tolomei, abbot, founder of the Benedictines of Monte Oliveto
(1348): Trained as a lawyer, Bernard underwent a "sudden" conversion in
1312, when instead of giving a lecture on philosophy he gave a sermon on
the contempt of the world; after the sermon he resigned his position and
moved away from his hometown of Siena to the solitude of the woods of
Mont'Amiata. There he was soon joined by Ambrose Piccolomini and Patrick
Patrizi. Their hermit-like existence aroused suspicion and they were
reported to the authorities, which caused them to be summoned before
Pope John XXII at Avignon. They were able to demonstrate their orthodoxy
to the pope's satisfaction; but the pope instructed them to put themselves
under one of the approved religious rules. They adopted the Benedictine
rule to which a number of austerities were added, including a total
abstinence from wine. They founded a hermitage at Chiusuri which was
called Monte Oliveto.
Carolyn Muessig
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