Today, 7 July, is the feast of ...
* Pantaenus (c. 200) - once a Stoic philosopher, he became head of the
Alexandria catechetical school; Eusebius says he had been a missionary to
India, where he met Christians who had been converted thanks to the
apostle Bartholomew; nicknamed 'the Sicilian bee'
* Palladius, bishop (432) - persuaded St Germain d'Auxerre to preach in
Britain against Pelagianism; was himself eventually sent by Pope Celestine
I
* Felix, bishop of Nantes (582) - this is actually the feast of the
translation of his relics; he died on 6 January
* Ethelburga, Ercongota and Sethrida, virgins (c. 664 and 660) -
Ethelburga and Sethrida, half-sisters, were abbesses of abbey of
Faremoutier, in the forest of Brie; niece Ercongota was
divinely forewarned of her death by a vision of angels
* Hedda, bishop of Winchester (705) - at his tomb, people would come to
his tomb with dirt, mix it with water, and sprinkle the mixture on sick
men and animals
* Cyril and Methodius (869 and 884) - brothers, natives of Thessalonika,
venerated as apostles of the southern Slavs and fathers of Slavonic
literary culture
* Benedict XI, pope (1304) - when his mother came to visit him at the
papal court, he refused to welcome her until she changed out of her fancy
clothes purchased for the occasion, into her everyday attire
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Here's a brief abstract from discussion raised by last year's post:
A very brief pontificate--11 months, as I recall--sandwiched between those
of Boniface VIII and Clement V, and so often forgotten. A Dominican pope,
Benedict XI's very attractive tomb is at San Domenico in the lovely
Umbrian hill-top town of Perugia. Perugia was the home of his pontificate.
There are legends (in the ordinary, not the technical sense) surrounding his
death--e.g. poisoned eels from Lake Trasimeno?
Is there a modern biography of him?
Gary Dickson
University of Edinburgh
***
I have seen nothing new on Benedict since his register was published in
1905. He enters briefly into discussions of papal privileges granted to
the friars; see my article "Clericis laicos and the Canonists" in the
Brian Tierney festschrift.
tom izbicki
***
On Benedict XI, there is quite a detailed entry in the Dizionario
biografici degli italiani vol.8 (published 1966)
on the tomb, there are magnificent illustrations and some comments in
Julian Gardner's The Tomb and the Tiara. Curial Tomb Sculpture in Rome and
Avignon in the Later Middle Ages (Oxford, 1992)
Tony Antonovics, University of Bristol
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Carolyn Muessig
Department of Theology and Religious Studies
University of Bristol
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