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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Today (10. July) is the feast day of: 10,000 Martyrs of Mt. Ararat (d. c. 120???) This is apparently a twelfth-century legend, widely popularized in the fifteenth century. It tells of a large chunk of Hadrian's army, converted to Christianity after their leader heard the voice of an angel. The legend shows a lot of frustrated goriness in the style of "The 7 Chinese Brothers" (if anyone remembers that children's story): the evil pagans tried to stone the 10,000, but the stones flew back at them; they tried to burn them, but they wouldn't light, etc., etc. So finally they were thrown off Mt. Ararat. Rufina and Secunda (d. c. 257) According to legend, R and S were sisters, the daughters of a Roman senator. They were engaged to be married, but their fiances apostasized during Valerian's persecution and the women refused to go through with the contract. R and S were then apparently denounced as Christians by their disgruntled would-be husbands, and fled the city. But they were captured, tortured, and then beheaded. Amalburga (d. c. 690) Amalburga was a noblewoman of Brabant. She married a count and had three children. But they decided to part---he to become a monk, she to become a nun at Mauberg (Flanders). Her story gets confused with that of another Amalburga commemorated today (d. 770) a nun of Munsterbilzen (Belgium). Legend says that Amalburga II was extremely beautiful, but refused to marry the young prince Charles (future Charlemagne), for which she was persecuted by King Pepin. Antony of Pechersk (d. 1073) Antony was born at Lubech in the Ukraine. He became a hermit but decided he needed more training so he went to Mt. Athos. Some years later he moved to Russia and built a hermitage at Kiev. A. attracted disciples, and his hermitage grew into the Caves Monastery of Kiev, the first Russian monastery. A. also founded another monastery at Chernigov. Along with Theodosius of Pechersk (also commemorated today; d. 1074) A. is regarded as the father of Russian monasticism. Two modern "saints" The first is a Protestant, the savior of the Reformed Church in the Netherlands---William the Silent of Orange, assassinated on this day in 1584. He came to the leadership of the Dutch rebels/religious reformers after the duke of Alva's draconian suppressive measures killed several other Dutch leaders. William put up an extremely good fight against the troops of Philip II. He seems to have been rather religious ambivalent himself, eventually converting to the Reformed church at a late stage in his career. Engelbert Kolland (blessed) (d. 1860) Engelbert was a Franciscan friar who worked in Palestine among the Arabs and Armenians. His friary was attacked by Druses, and he and seven other Franciscans were killed. EK was beatified in 1926. ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html