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Mar. 2nd, 2010 01:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stitchwhichLuke Casalius (Luca Casali; 12th century?) Venerated in Sicily, he was born at Nicosia and educated in early childhood by a prefect of the monastery of St. Philip at Agira who was then staying in a Nicosia suburb. When Luke was ten, the prefect brought him to the monastery, where he became a monk and later was made priest. Having exhibited all sorts of exemplary behavior, he in time was elected prefect but declined, only to relent when his monks got the pope to persuade him to accept. His conduct in office was praiseworthy, though he went blind while administering his charge.
His blindness led to a miracle. He had been visiting his family in Nicosia and on the way back to Agira the monks who were his companions convinced him that a crowd of townspeople was following him in the hope of hearing a sermon. The deceived Luke obligingly preached to a landscape devoid of people (other than the saint and his companions), whereupon the rocks that lay about the place responded with a chorus of 'Amen', thus proving his sanctity to the astonished tricksters. He died at the monastery in Agira and was buried there. His cult seems to have really blossomed in 1575, when he liberated Nicosia from a plague; that town made him its patron and celebrated his feast at public expense. Towards the end of the century, his remains, along with those of Philip of Agira and other saints, were discovered in a hidden resting place in the abbey. With the exception of a relic granted to Nicosia, they remain there today. Since the other saints were early medieval Greeks whose remains had presumably been concealed at the time of the Muslim conquest, it has been thought that Luke too was early medieval. But his Vita suggests rather a time when papal authority had been restored in Sicily and a saint who had been buried at the abbey when it was Benedictine (as it was from the later eleventh century onward).
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Quintus the Thaumaturge / Quintus of Phrgia (d. c283) Born in Phrygia of Christian parents, Quintus migrated to Aeolis and there devoted himself to serving the poor. At (Aeolic) Cyme the Roman governor tried to make him sacrifice to the idols but stopped, either because Quintus through his prayers had cured him of demonic possession or because an earthquake destroyed the temple and its statues. Not long afterward, another magistrate had him arrested and tortured. He too gave up when Quintus was instantly healed of his injuries. Thus enabled to continue his ministry, Quintus died in peace a few years later. Byzantine synaxaries record him today and on 2 July. In the menaea his feast occurs in early May.
His blindness led to a miracle. He had been visiting his family in Nicosia and on the way back to Agira the monks who were his companions convinced him that a crowd of townspeople was following him in the hope of hearing a sermon. The deceived Luke obligingly preached to a landscape devoid of people (other than the saint and his companions), whereupon the rocks that lay about the place responded with a chorus of 'Amen', thus proving his sanctity to the astonished tricksters. He died at the monastery in Agira and was buried there. His cult seems to have really blossomed in 1575, when he liberated Nicosia from a plague; that town made him its patron and celebrated his feast at public expense. Towards the end of the century, his remains, along with those of Philip of Agira and other saints, were discovered in a hidden resting place in the abbey. With the exception of a relic granted to Nicosia, they remain there today. Since the other saints were early medieval Greeks whose remains had presumably been concealed at the time of the Muslim conquest, it has been thought that Luke too was early medieval. But his Vita suggests rather a time when papal authority had been restored in Sicily and a saint who had been buried at the abbey when it was Benedictine (as it was from the later eleventh century onward).
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Quintus the Thaumaturge / Quintus of Phrgia (d. c283) Born in Phrygia of Christian parents, Quintus migrated to Aeolis and there devoted himself to serving the poor. At (Aeolic) Cyme the Roman governor tried to make him sacrifice to the idols but stopped, either because Quintus through his prayers had cured him of demonic possession or because an earthquake destroyed the temple and its statues. Not long afterward, another magistrate had him arrested and tortured. He too gave up when Quintus was instantly healed of his injuries. Thus enabled to continue his ministry, Quintus died in peace a few years later. Byzantine synaxaries record him today and on 2 July. In the menaea his feast occurs in early May.
