Today, November 14, is the feast of:
Antigius/Antège (French) of Langres (?) is a local saint of Brescia whose feast there is recorded from the late eleventh or early twelfth century in that diocese's only completely preserved medieval sacramentary (Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria, ms. 2547). According to a Translation account entered in the later twelfth century in a copy of Brescian origin of the martyrology of St. Ado of Vienne (Città del Vaticano, BAV, Vat. Reg. lat. 540), he was a bishop and confessor who had been buried in the territorium Magnomontense of the city of Langres (often identified as today's Mesmont [Côte-d'Or]) and whose remains were translated by the priest Haymo first to a church of the BVM and St. Martin at a place called Caiacium and not many years later, out of fear of the Northmen, to the abbey of Sts. Faustinus and Jovita in Brescia where Haymo then ruled as abbot for eight years, four months, and twenty-three days.
The source for all this would seem to be the abbey itself, which latter had been founded in the early 840s. The reference to Northmen has led to the view that the translation will have occurred in the later ninth century. Difficulty in finding a place for Antigius among the attested bishops of Langres has led to the supposition that he will have been an itinerant bishop who, happening to die at Langres, was buried there. Given that many saints of whom little or nothing is known were later regarded medievally as bishops, the abbé Roussel's view that Antigius (who had a nineteenth-century cult at Langres) may merely have been Mesmont's priest subsequently venerated there has at least as much to recommend it.
In time Antigius came to be thought of as having been a bishop of Brescia. His chief monument today is surely his early sixteenth-century silvered and gilt copper reliquary bust (c1505-1510) commissioned by Brescia's abbey of Sts. Faustinus and Jovita and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (Inv. no. M.52-1967): http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O120716/reliquary/ and http://tinyurl.com/yfblyxk
For a brief, English-language discussion of this object see the lower portion of the page from the V7A's blog linked to here: http://tinyurl.com/346cc26 . Antigius has yet to grace the pages of the RM.
Veneranda (d. 144) is supposed to have been martyred in Gaul on this day in 144. Nothing more is known of her life.
Serapion of Alexandria (d. 252) was a Christian of Alexandria, killed (along with others) by an anti-Christian mob that is supposed to have tortured him and then thrown him from the roof of his house to his death.
Hypatius/Ipazio/Ippazio of Gangra (d. c325) was bishop of Gangra in Paphlagonia (now the Turkish provincial capital of Çankırı). He attended the Council of Nicaea and gave his vigorous support to the "Jesus = Divine" camp, which of course won. He then returned home, where he was stoned to death by a mob of Novatian heretics. He is also supposed to have rid the emperor Constantius I of a dragon that had taken possession of his treasure. These matters and others are related in his originally sixth- or seventh-century Bios and in his Martyrion, whose reputations for accuracy are not high. The wonder-working remains of Hypatius were venerated in late antiquity at his grave at Gangra in Paphlagonia.
Hypatius is the patron saint of Tiggiano in southern Apulia, where his liturgical feast is celebrated on January 18 and his patronal one is celebrated on the following day. His commemoration under today in the RM is down to Cardinal Baronio, who opted for the date under which Hypatius gets the longest notice in Greek synaxaries. In Italian Hypatius’ name is ordinarily given as Ipazio; at Tiggiano, he's Ippazio.
An Hypatius (probably this one but perhaps Hypatius of Ephesus) as depicted (at left; in the center, St. Blaise/Blasius) in the frescoes (between c1312-1321/1322) in the nave of the monastery church of the Theotokos at Gračanica: http://tinyurl.com/27m3eu6 Detail view (Hypatius): http://tinyurl.com/2djkxl9
Rufus/Ruf (French) of Avignon (d. earlier 4th century?) is a very poorly documented local saint of Avignon. In 917 king Louis the Blind restored to the bishop of Avignon a very old church dedicated to Ruf and situated on a Roman road at a former necropolis on the outskirts of the city. The necropolis has yielded extensive fifth- and sixth-century remains. Assuming Ruf to have been the church's original titular, it is probable that he was a leading figure in the local Christian community at some point in its early years. In 1039 the then-bishop of Avignon gave the church to four of his cathedral canons who founded there a community that spread to other sites and that with papal approval in 1095 became the Canons Regular of St. Ruf, whose mother house was the abbey attached to this church.
Ruf's cult flourished locally as the influence of the canons grew. Already in the eleventh century he appeared in a martyrology of Avignon as a confessor illustrious for many virtues. In the late Middle Ages he figured in the fictitious hagiography of Provence as a son of Simon of Cyrene who traveled from Palestine with the three Marys and who became the evangelist and protobishop of Avignon.
The abbey of Saint-Ruf flourished in the late eleventh and earlier twelfth centuries. Prior to his elevation to the cardinalate in 1146 Nicholas Breakspear, the future Hadrian (or Adrian) IV, was successively prior and abbot general there. In 1158 tensions between the diocese and the canons led the latter to transfer their mother house to what had been a priory at Valence the titular of whose church, formerly St. James, now became Ruf. Downgraded to a priory, the house at Avignon was retained by the canons until 1763, when the abbot general authorized its demolition.
Dyfrig/Dubricius/Dubric (d. c550) was one of the earliest and most important saints of South Wales, but little is known of him with any certainty. He founded a number of monasteries and churches; his earliest foundation was at Archenfield, Hereford. In the seventh-century vita of Samson Dyfrig is called a bishop, and some mss. also have Dyfrig ordain Samson. Later tradition makes Dyfrig a disciple of Germanus of Auxerre - and Geoffrey of Monmouth says it was Dyfrig who crowned Arthur king of Britain and was the first bishop of Llandaff and Caerleon. Another tradition says that David resigned the metropolitan see of Wales in his favor, then later in life he resigned his office and lived as a hermit on the island of Bardsey.
Sidonius/Saens (d. 689) was an Irishman. He became a monk at Jumieges near Rouen in the mid-seventh century. Sidonius was later abbot of several other monasteries, of which the last was a monastery near Rouen that was renamed "St-Saens" after him soon after his death.
Alberic of Utrecht (d. 784) was a nephew of Gregory of Utrecht, and succeeded him as bishop in 775. Alberic was a successful missionary and a friend of Alcuin.
Giovanni Orsini/Ivan Ursini/John of Trogir (d. 1111?) According to the his early thirteenth-century Vita, Giovanni, a member of the prominent Roman family of the Orsini, was born at Rome in 1032. Sent to Dalmatia to help consolidate the work of a papal legation under Alexander II, in 1064 he was consecrated bishop of Trogir (in Italian, Traù) in today's Croatia. In addition to leading a life of exemplary holiness, he guided his church through a period of liturgical and administrative reform and his city through a period of political peril. He is credited with arranging Trogir's peaceful capitulation to king Coloman of Hungary in 1105, that was followed by a charter of liberties for which the people of his city remained very grateful.
Lifetime miracles were followed by numerous post-mortem ones and in 1162 (traditionally, 1171) there was a formal invention of his remains, followed by the first of his two translations within Trogir's cathedral of Sv. Lovre (St. Lawrence). A canonization process began in 1192. The earliest version of Giovanni's Office at Trogir dates from the twelfth or thirteenth century. In 1438 a papal indulgence was granted in connection with the observance of his dies natalis, November 14. Although he continues to be called 'Blessed' in recent scholarship, both his entry in the Bibliotheca Sanctorum (vol. 6; 1965) and his listing for today in the latest version of the RM (2001) style him 'Saint'. Giovanni is also Trogir's civic patron. Here he is in a fifteenth-century statue atop the seventeenth-century North Town Gate: http://stutzfamily.com/TravPix/Croatia/springbreak06/trogirstatue.jpg
John of Tufara/ Giovanni da Tufara (Blessed) (d. 1170) was born at Tufara in Molise. He is said to have studied at Paris and then to have spent at least fifty years of monastic and eremitical life (mostly the latter) before founding in the 1150s the Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria di Gualdo Mazzoca in northeastern Campania, where his memory was preserved and his feast day was observed on this date (his dies natalis). Whereas several thirteenth-century attempts to have John canonized were unsuccessful, his cult survives at Foiano, at Tufara, and at San Bartolomeo in Galdo.
Here is a view of the house at Tufara where John was born, converted into an oratory: http://www.giubileo.molise.it/itinerari/santi/04-beato-03.htm
Laurence O'Toole/Lorcan O Tuathail (d. 1180) is one of the five formally canonized Irish saints. He was born in Co. Kildare, a son of the chieftain of the Murrays who became a monk at Glendalough. In 1153, at the age of 25, he became abbot of Glendalough, and continued to live a simple monastic life after his consecration as archbishop of Dublin in 1162. After the Norman conquest of Leinster Laurence worked closely with the English leaders, accepting the papal grant of Ireland to the invaders and attempting a peaceful settlement between the two peoples. He had a reputation among non-Irish (including Gerald of Wales) for being very zealous for his people. He was almost murdered by a madman at Canterbury cathedral, just a few year's after martyrdom of Thomas Becket. Laurence was a frequent mediator between Irish princes and Henry II of England. He attended the 3rd Lateran Council in 1179 and came home as papal legate, in which position he continued the imposition of reform that had been going on for over two generations by that time, including introducing canons regular, and getting deeply involved in Iro-English politics after the Norman-English invaded. Laurence was, however, considered too partial to Irish interests, and earned the displeasure of King Henry II for his work as papal legate in 1179-80. Laurence appealed to the pope for help, but on his way back from Rome died on this day in Eu, Normandy. By 1191 both that house and the church in Ireland were seeking his canonization. His miracles were collected, petitions for his canonization were laid before a succession of popes, and his cause was successful in 1225 under Honorius III. Shortly after Laurence's canonization the first of his several Vitae was composed (all seemingly written at Eu). His late 12th-century tomb survives in the crypt of the church in Eu, now dedicated to Notre-Dame and St Laurence.
A reliquary said to contain Laurence's heart is displayed in Dublin's Trinity Cathedral (a.k.a. Christ Church): http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/134841/
Siard/Siardus (d. 1230) We know about the Frisian Siard chiefly from his thirteenth-century Vita and Miracula. Sent as a young boy to study at the then-recently founded Premonstratensian abbey of Mariengaard in Friesland, he entered religion there while its founder, St. Frederick of Mariengaarden, was yet abbot. After an interval of three other abbots Siard in turn succeeded to the abbacy. He lived unostentatiously, practiced self-mortification, and shared both the labor and the living conditions of his fellow canons. Externally, he gained a reputation as a friend of the poor. Numerous healing miracles are ascribed to him, including the curing of an old friend's blindness.
During the Reformation his relics were moved about for their safekeeping. In 1617 some of them were brought to Tongerlo abbey in today's municipality of Westerlo in the Belgian province of Antwerp. They are still there, in a new reliquary made for them in 1619. Here's a view: http://tinyurl.com/yc7bo7e . Other of Siard's relics are in the abbey of Leffe in the Belgian province of Namur.
Serapion of Algiers (blessed) (d. 1240) is a martyr of the Mercedarian Order. He may have been an Englishman, born in 1179 in London. After service in the army of Alfonso IX of Leon, Serapion joined the new order and set about redeeming Christian slaves in northern Africa. In 1240 he went to Algeria and spent time as a hostage to guarantee the ransom of some slaves. He decided his time would be best spent preaching against Islam and succeeded in converting several Muslims to Christianity. The Algerian authorities were so angry that they had him crucified and his body then cut into pieces. His cult was formally approved in 1728.
Alexander Nevsky (d. 1263) A saint of the Russian Orthodox Church. Alexander was prince of Novgorod 1236-51. In that position he secured his northwestern border with victories over the Swedes and the Teutonic Knights. As the Mongols moved into Russia he didn't resist them but instead paid tribute. The Mongol ruler made him prince of Kiev and Vladimir as reward for his loyal service. Alexander did a very good job using the threat of Mongol force to consolidate his own power; in the process, he protected Christianity and encouraged its spread among the Mongols.
Gregory Palamas/Gregory of Sinai (d. 1359). The theologian Gregory (his surname Palamas is an oxytone) came from a wealthy family in Constantinople and was educated with the imperial service in mind. But in 1316, when he was about the age of twenty or twenty-one, he withdrew instead to Mt. Athos. After stays at Vatopaidi and the Great Lavra he joined the skete of Glossia where he taught the hesychastic practice of a life of mental prayer as espoused by such desert fathers as Evagrius of Pontus and Macarius the Great. In 1326 Gregory moved to Thessaloniki and was ordained priest there.
Ten years later, after he had lived in a series of small hermitages, Gregory entered into correspondence with the more philosophically oriented Barlaam of Calabria over aspects of Athonite theology to which Barlaam objected. In a series of writings that were endorsed by local councils at Constantinople in 1341, 1347, and 1351 he formulated hesychast theology in a systematic way. Still, during the civil war of 1341-1347 he was imprisoned by the patriarch because of political differences. A change in patriarchs in 1347 led both to Gregory's release and to his appointment to the metropolitan see of Thessaloniki, where however local opposition prevented him from even entering the city. It was only some three years before his death that Gregory was able to take up his see.
Gregory was glorified in 1368 by patriarch Philotheos I, whose oration written for that occasion serves as Gregory's biography (BHG 718). He has yet to grace the pages of the RM.
Gregory (detail of a full-length portrait) as depicted in the frescoes (1545-1546) by Theofanis Strelitzas-Bathas (a.k.a. Theophanes the Cretan) in the katholikon of the Stavronikita monastery on Mt. Athos: http://www.vodka.gr/eikones/14_nov_gregory_palamas.jpg
The composition as a whole (Gregory at left; at right, St. Gregory of Nazianzus): http://tinyurl.com/28c7xgo
Gregory's relics in the St. Gregory Palamas cathedral in Thessaloniki: http://www.rel.gr/photo/displayimage.php?album=9&pos=0
Nikolaus Tavelic/Nicholas Tavelik and companions (d. 1391) Nicholas was born in Sibenik (Dalmatia). He became a Franciscan and worked for a decade against the Patarine "heretics" as a missionary in the region of Bosnia. In 1383 he went to Jerusalem, where he joined with three other Franciscan missionaries. The Muslim authorities weren't much inclined to persecute them, but they made themselves so obnoxious (among other things, calling Muhammad "a libertine, a murderer, a glutton, a despoiler who put man's end in eating, whoring, and wearing expensive clothes") that the qadi obligingly had them flogged to near death; finally they were hacked to pieces by an irate mob and their body bits burned on a bonfire. Their cult was confirmed in 1889 and they were canonized in 1970.
Giovanni Licci/Lucio (blessed) (d. 1511) was born in Sicily in c1422, and became a Dominican in Palermo. He founded the monastery of Caccabi in 1491 and served as its first prior. He also became Dominican provincial general of Sicily, and won a reputation as a great preacher. He died at the age of 111.
Happy reading,
Terri Morgan
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“The nice thing about studying history is that you can always find people who are a lot weirder than you are.” – Delia Sherman