Today, 5 May, is the feast of ...
* Hilary, bishop of Arles (449) - So great were his anxiety to ransom
captives that he sold almost all of his liturgical items to obtain
money, contenting himself with a chalice and paten of glass.
* Mauruntius, abbot (701) - Abbot of the abbey of Breuil located in the
diocese of Therouanne.
* Avertinus, Gilbertine canon (c. 1180) - Allegedly accompanied Thomas
Becket to the Synod of Tours (1163). After the martyrdom of Becket, he
settled in Touraine where he dedicated himself to the service of the
poor and strangers. He was invoked against dizziness and headaches.
* Angelo, martyr (1220) - Last year Richard Copsey provided us with this
insightful information:
Saint Angelo of Sicily is a Carmelite saint who achieved great
popularity in Sicily and throughout the Carmelite Order during the
Middle Ages. His fame rested largely on a legendary life written by a
certain "Enoc, Carmelite patriarch of Jerusalem" supposedly in the early
1300's. Fr. Ludovico Saggi, a one-time member of the Carmelite Institute
here in Rome, exposed this work by Enoc as a forgery some years ago,
attributing it to an unknown Sicilian author writing in the first half
of the 15th c. and commented that it "... is not worthy of any trust, in
spite of certain elements which are confirmed from other sources."
The basic details for which there is independent evidence would
seem to be that Angelo was one of the first Carmelites to come to Sicily
from Mount Carmel c.1235, and was killed in Licata by an "impious
infidel" so meriting the title of martyr.
One episode from the legendary account is that Angelo is supposed
to have visited Rome where he met St. Francis and St. Dominic in the
Lateran Basilica. St. Francis prophesied that Angelo would be martyred
and, in return, Angelo predicted that Francis would receive the
stigmata. This meeting has been well represented in Carmelite
iconography. The essential reference work on all this is L. Saggi, "S.
Angelo di Sicilia; studio sulla vita, devozione, folklore" Rome: 1962.
(After which it was rumoured that Fr. Saggi never dared go back to
Sicily!)
John Bale records a poem which he saw in front of the statue of St.
Albert in the Carmelite house in London (c1525) which may be translated
as:
I am holy Albert, second to none in piety
To me came virtue early in life
To me come all who are sick, feeble or in pain,
Whatever the fault, of body or of soul
Hence my repute and great honour for the Creator
And through me, the greatest love in the world.
Thanks Richard!!
* Jutta, widow (1260) - She once said that three things could bring one
very near to God - painful illness, exile from home in a remote corner
of a foreign land, and poverty voluntarily assumed for God's sake.
*****************
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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