Today, 30 May, is the feast of ... 

* Eleutherius, pope (c. 189) - supposedly corresponded with a 'British'
king, Lucius, which led to the first preaching of Christianity in
Britain 

* Felix I, pope (274) - true date of his death was 30 December (iii
kal.jan.), but a misreading of 'jun.' for 'jan.' led to its being
assigned to 30 May 

* Isaac of Constantinople, abbot (c. 410) - a hermit, he visited
Constantinople to warn the emperor that a disaster would befall him
unless he restored to Catholics the churches he had given to the Arians;
after imprisonment -- during which the emperor was slain at the battle
of Adrianople -- he founded a monastery 

* Exsuperantius, bishop of Ravenna (418) - was able to convince the
invading army of Stilicho not to loot the cathedral 

* Madelgisilus or Mauguille (c. 655) - spent many years as a hermit in
the company of a friend named Vulgan 

* Walstan (1016) - born and lived near Norwich as a servant; took vow of
chastity, but never became a religious 

Two years ago, Graham Jones added this important bit of information
concerning Walstan:

May I add (since my friend Miriam has just published on Walstan): 

One of England's more obscure and exotic saints. Tradition made him a
king's son who renounced his right to succession and became a farm
labourer. Like St Sitha in Devon, Walstan is supposed to have been
murdered with a scythe, the implement with which he is shown in
Norfolk wall- and screen-paintings. His mother, Blida, was also culted
in Norfolk. 

Miriam's article is in the journal of the Suffolk Institute of
Archaeology and History, XXXVIII (Part 3), 1995, pp. 245-254: Miriam
Gill, _The saint with a scythe: a previously unidentified wall painting
in the church of St Andrew, Cavenham_. Essentially a Norfolk saint,
Walstan is very occasionally found culted and/or depicted in Suffolk and
Essex. 

(Thanks Graham! Bibliographical information concerning the saints is
most appreciated!)

Not only that, but Graham went on to provide the following clarification
and details...

Had I read Miriam's article properly before 'rushing into print', I
would not have committed the howler of attributing Walstan's death to
assassination. I now know better. The saint may be shown carrying a
scythe, but both the legends explain his death, foretold by an angel, as
from 'natural causes'. Walstan was a patron of mowers and
scythe-followers who gathered at Bawburgh on his feast day. He is also
occasionally shown with the two young unbroken cattle which transported
his body from Taverham, where he laboured, to Bawburgh where he was
buried. Miraculous springs appeared in the course of this journey. Thus
a late fifteenth century account formerly displayed above his tomb, and
a Latin version found in the NLA, supported by John Bale's account of
the cult, c. 1560. Given the late medieval dates and character of these
accounts, and the rarity of the natural death topos in the lives of AS
local saints, I am tempted to speculate that the scythe might
conceivably be a survival from an earlier story. (This is a bit of
kite-flying, I should add, for which Miriam is in no way to blame! -
Though I am indebted to her for pointing the similarity of the
fifteenth-century version of W's legend to that of St Theobald, patron
saint at Great Hautbois, a village just the other side  of Norwich? St T
appears to have been an historical figure of the eleventh 
century (W, NB, is given a suspiciously precise death date in that 
century), who like W renounces aristocratic life for that of a country
labourer - and dies a professed monk, not a martyr. Like W, too, his
mother plays a part in his story. I could go on... as you may be
fearing.

Sufficient to say that my faux-pas (grovel, grovel) provides an
opportunity to focus on the multi-layering evident in many of the lives
summarised in our List's daily roll-call.

* Ferdinand III of Castile (1252) - after driving Moors from Seville, he
turned the great mosque into a church; he also founded the University of
Salamanca

James Brundage has written to correct this entry:

I have to disagree on the foundation of Salamanca. A university was
functioning there long before Ferdinand III's time, pretty certainly by
1218 or 1219, according to Beltran de Heredia. Ferdinand III was
certainly important in the university's history, gave it a royal
charter, and thus might better be called a re-founder of Salamanca U.
JAB 

(Thanks James! All corrections are always most welcomed!)

Jim Bugslag also added:
He was also St Louis's cousin, his mother being Berenguela of Leon, 
sister of Blanche of Castile. This may, in fact, have influenced his 
canonization, since, although he died before Louis, he was only 
canonized in 1671.

* Andrew, bishop of Pistoia (1401) - a Dominican, he resigned his
bishopric and retired to his old convent 

* Joan of Arc, virgin (1431) - hard to believe that so much happened in
her life before her execution at age 19 

* James Bertoni (1483) - soon after James's death, in recognition of his
sanctity, his father was declared a burgher of Faenza and was granted
exemption from all taxes; not bad! 

* William Scott and Richard Newport, martyrs (1612) - martyred as
traitors at Tyburn 

***************
Dr Carolyn Muessig
Department of Theology and Religious Studies
University of Bristol
Bristol BS8 1TB
UK
phone: +44(0)117-928-8168
fax: +44(0)117-929-7850
e-mail: [log in to unmask]



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