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Mar. 27th, 2010 12:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stitchwhichJohn of Egypt (d. 394) John was from Lycopolis in Lower Egypt. When he was 25 he became a hermit. He became a model of obedience, tested by his mentor with such tasks as watering a dry stick every day for a year, and when he was 40 had himself walled up into a small cell, from the window of which he taught on Saturdays and Sundays. He attracted huge crowds, not only for his wisdom but also for his reported miracles and prophecies and won the nickname "prophet of the Thebaid" and Jerome and Augustine both venerated and consulted him. He was also credited with the ability to read minds. He spent forty years in his cell, which was discovered in 1925.
According to the sources (principally, Palladius' Lausiac History and the Historia Monachorum in Aegypto), John's importance was more than merely local, and his reputation as a prophet rested on his predictions concerning the military victories and death of the emperor Theodosius I. It is possible, indeed, that he was actually consulted by Theodosius (via an imperial embassy) about the outcome of the rebellions of Maximus (d. 388) and Eugenius (d. 394).
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Matthew of Beauvais (end of 11th cent.) Having been made prisoner by the Saracens, he was offered his life if he would renounce the cross of Christ. He asked to be allowed to delay his reply till the following Friday. On that day he was again urged to adopt their religion. He replied, "I asked you to grant me this delay, not because I had any doubt as to what my decision would be, but that I might have the honour and felicity of shedding my blood on the same day as my Saviour Jesus Christ bled for me. Come then, strike me! I give my life to Him who laid down His for mankind." So saying he knelt and stretched forth his neck for the blow, and with one stroke was decapitated.
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Augusta (5th cent.) Legend says that Augusta was a daughter of a German duke of Friuli (Italy) named Matrucus; he wasn't a Christian and one day he was told that she was in the church praying - he rushed in upon her, dragged her forth, and locked her up in a chamber of the castle. In ungovernable fury he afterwards beat out her teeth, and executed her with his sword by cutting off her head. Augusta's cult at Serravalle near Treviso is ancient. Her cult is attested since 1234 at Serravalle, one of the municipalities in the Trevisan Alps On this day in 1450 her relics were discovered during the rebuilding of Serravalle's little church dedicated to her.
Our sole detailed source for Augusta's life and passion is her early modern Acta penned by Minuccio Minucci (1551-1604), a native of Serravalle who became secretary to Clement VIII and finally archbishop of Zadar.
According to the sources (principally, Palladius' Lausiac History and the Historia Monachorum in Aegypto), John's importance was more than merely local, and his reputation as a prophet rested on his predictions concerning the military victories and death of the emperor Theodosius I. It is possible, indeed, that he was actually consulted by Theodosius (via an imperial embassy) about the outcome of the rebellions of Maximus (d. 388) and Eugenius (d. 394).
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Matthew of Beauvais (end of 11th cent.) Having been made prisoner by the Saracens, he was offered his life if he would renounce the cross of Christ. He asked to be allowed to delay his reply till the following Friday. On that day he was again urged to adopt their religion. He replied, "I asked you to grant me this delay, not because I had any doubt as to what my decision would be, but that I might have the honour and felicity of shedding my blood on the same day as my Saviour Jesus Christ bled for me. Come then, strike me! I give my life to Him who laid down His for mankind." So saying he knelt and stretched forth his neck for the blow, and with one stroke was decapitated.
---***---
Augusta (5th cent.) Legend says that Augusta was a daughter of a German duke of Friuli (Italy) named Matrucus; he wasn't a Christian and one day he was told that she was in the church praying - he rushed in upon her, dragged her forth, and locked her up in a chamber of the castle. In ungovernable fury he afterwards beat out her teeth, and executed her with his sword by cutting off her head. Augusta's cult at Serravalle near Treviso is ancient. Her cult is attested since 1234 at Serravalle, one of the municipalities in the Trevisan Alps On this day in 1450 her relics were discovered during the rebuilding of Serravalle's little church dedicated to her.
Our sole detailed source for Augusta's life and passion is her early modern Acta penned by Minuccio Minucci (1551-1604), a native of Serravalle who became secretary to Clement VIII and finally archbishop of Zadar.
