Today, April 9, is the feast of:
Prochorus (1st century) was one of the first seven deacons, mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, with S. Stephen and S. Philip, and also with Nicolas (who is said to have originated the heresy of the Nicolaitans, condemned by S. John). S. Prochorus became bishop of Nicomedia, and died a martyr at Antioch.
Mary Cleophas (1st century) This Mary was the mother of James the Younger and Joseph. She was present at the crucifixion and was one of the women at the Tomb. Legend tells that she went to Spain and died at Ciudad Rodrigo. Mary of Cleophas' body was believed to repose at Saintes-Maries near the mouth of the Rhone.
Demetrius of Sirmium (?) is a martyr recorded for this date in the later fourth-century Syriac Martyrology. We know nothing about him. Delehaye and others have supposed that his cult, through a translation of relics, underlies that of the medievally significant, much discussed, and at least largely legendary megalomartyr Demetrius of Thessaloniki (October 26 in many churches).
Roman Captives (d. 362) When the Persians took the city of Bethzarba on the Tigris, Sozomen reports that they captured 9000 Christians and took them off to Persia. Bishop Heliodorus died on the road, consecrating a new bishop to care to the community before he did so. When they reached their destination, 300 were chosen and given the choice of converting to Zoroastrianism or dying. Twenty-five apostatized and were richly rewarded; the rest were massacred.
Eupsychius of Caesarea (d362) was a newlywed of Caesarea (Cappadocia), who led a group of Christians to destroy the temple of Fortuna. Julian the Apostate did not approve and had him and his accomplices put to death.
Acacius/Achatius of Amida (d. after 421, probably after 422) After the death in 421 of the Persian king Yazdegerd (Isdigerdes) I, who had been fairly tolerant of Christians in his realm, his successor Bahram (Vararanes) V began both a persecution of Christians and an attack on territories of the Roman Empire. The Romans put a stop to the attacks by scoring a succession of military victories, obtaining in the process numerous Persian soldiers as captives. According to Socrates, there were some 7000 of these prisoners and they were facing starvation when Acacius, the bishop of Amida in Roman Mesopotamia (today's Diyarbakır in southeastern Turkey), took pity on them. He sold off his church's gold and silver vessels and with the proceeds ransomed the captives, supported them for a while, and then sent them back to Persia provisioned for their journey.
By the time of the captives' return the Hundred Years' Peace (422) between the Romans and the Persians had been agreed upon and perhaps already signed. Socrates further asserts that Bahram was so amazed by Acacius's actions, characterized as Roman benevolence, that he asked to have Acacius come to him that they might meet, a wish that was soon granted by emperor Theodosius II. Syrian sources add that it was Acacius who arranged the peace between Theodosius and Bahram and that through his mediation the Great King released from prison the patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East (patriarch of Babylon), St. Dadisho I.
Waldetrude/Waudru/Waltraud (d. later 7th century) The highly born Waldetrude was the daughter of SS Walbert & Bertilia, a sister of St. Aldegonde, and the wife of St. Vincent Madelgar, by whom she had four children, who also became saints after they died. When the children were grown and had joined convents or monasteries, she convinced her husband that they should both retire from the world. Her way of doing this was to found on a hill called Castrilocus (or Castri locus; 'Place of the Fort or Enclosed Village') a community of nuns of which she was abbess. Though this community, which had been dedicated to St. Peter, did not survive the depredations of the Northmen, it was quickly replaced on the site by a female Benedictine community converted in the twelfth century into a house of canonesses (regular at first; secular from the thirteenth century onward).
Her cult is attested liturgically since the ninth century, also the date of her original Vita. She is said to have been canonized in 1039. Her remains underwent a solemn recognition and elevation in 1250. Though the site of her foundation was still called Castrilocus in the twelfth century, it and the town that grew up around it came to be called Mons. It's now the chief town of Hainaut in Belgium. At Mons, Waldetrude is celebrated especially on the Feast of the Holy Trinity, when she is paraded about the city in her modern châsse. The relics inside have been examined relatively recently and have been announced as being those of a woman who might well have lived in the seventh century.
Hugh of Rouen (d730) was born in c680 in Burgundy. He became a monk at a young age. From 722 on Hugh was simultaneously archbishop of Rouen, bishop of Paris, and abbot of Fontenelle and Jumieges. Shortly before his death he abdicated all his offices and lived as a simple monk at Jumieges.
Hedda of Peterborough and companions (d. 870) these were the abbot and 84 monks of Peterborough in England, killed in a Viking raid.
Casilda (11th century?) A rather legendary saint, Casilda was the daughter of an emir of Toledo, brought up as a Muslim but kind to Christian prisoners. She fell ill and was cured at a shrine of St. Vincent. She became a Christian and settled down as a recluse near the miraculous spring near Burgos that had cured her, where she is supposed to have lived to the age of 100. Her cult was popular.
Gaucher of Aureil (in Latin, Gaucherius) (d1140) According to his late twelfth-century Vita, Gaucher was born at a place identifiable with today's Juziers, not far from Meulan. When he was still in the womb his mother experienced dream visions presaging his saintliness. He enjoyed a liberal education, had an excellent memory, worked hard at his studies, and avoided the preoccupations of the world. One of his teachers, a canon of Limoges, urged him to take up an eremitical existence in his well-wooded diocese. In about 1080, when he was about eighteen years of age, Gaucher, taking one companion, did exactly that.
In time he attracted other companions and in 1093 he sought and received permission from chapter of Limoges (on whose property he had been residing) to convert his following into a community of Augustinian Canons. They were given an abandoned Benedictine monastery at today's Aureil, with Gaucher becoming the canons' first prior and with the stipulation that this priory (Saint-Jean-d'Aureil) would be available to cathedral canons as a place of spiritual and ascetic retreat. He quickly established a house for canonesses at today's Bost-les-Mongeas in the immediate vicinity. The later twelfth-century Vitae of St. Stephen of Muret present that contemporary hermit and monastic founder in the same diocese as an associate of Gaucher's who left because he was unwilling to accept the presence of religious women.
Gaucher's reputation for sanctity grew and miracles were attributed to him. According to his Vita (written by one of the canons of his priory), he died at the age of eighty (returning from a trip to Limoges, he fell asleep while mounted, slipped off the animal, and struck his head on a rock). The year of his death comes from a set of mnemonic verses in medieval Latin preserved by the Jesuit college that took over the priory in the early modern period. From a statement by a later seventeenth-century canon of Limoges, said to have been based on material in the diocesan archives no longer on hand in the early 1960s, it appears that G. was canonized in 1194 by the then bishop of Limoges acting with the permission of Celestine III.
Thomas of Tolentino (d 1321) Thomas was a Franciscan, imprisoned for some time because he favored the Spirituals. When he was released in 1289, he set out to spread Christianity to the world. He and four brethren evangelized in Armenia, then he moved on to Persia. Before long, the pope appointed him archbishop and papal legate for the East, complete with seven Franciscan suffragan bishops. It's not clear what he did between 1308 and 1320; he may have been in India and/or China. In 1320, though, he was shipwrecked in Muslim northern India, and rather rashly attacked Islam and Muhammad. He and his three companions were tortured and beheaded. His head was taken back to Tolentino.
James of Padua and companions (blessed) (d. 1322) are a group of four Franciscan missionaries, killed in India while en route to evangelize in China. Their cult was confirmed in 1894.
Antonio Maldonado (d. 1545) was a native of Salamanca and the son of noble and wealthy parents; primogeniture of considerable revenue, for which cause he was betrothed to the daughter of a vassal lord. On the day of his engagement’s celebrations, he entered a tournament, richly adorned and gallantly dressed. That night he could find no rest, in consideration of the impermanence of the world’s glory; and so, in the morning, with gallant resolution, he fled to the Convent of Our Father San Francisco, where he took on the habit; scorning the century’s engagements in favour of those of Religion; and favouring poor, coarse sackcloth over rich, fine silk. He died in Mexico, on April 9th, 1545.
Happy reading,
Terri Morgan
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The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows. ~Sydney J. Harris