Thoughts

Kunigunde / Cunegund of Luxemburg (d. 1033 or 1039) Daughter of count Siegfried I of Lützelburg (Luxemburg), she was married c1000 to duke Henry III of Bavaria (the future emperor Henry II). In June 1002, six months after the death of his cousin Otto III, Henry had himself crowned king of the Germans at Mainz. A separate coronation of Kunigunde as queen took place in early August in the cathedral of Paderborn. In 1014 Benedict VIII jointly crowned them as emperor and empress. She was active in endowing churches, but her sanctity (along with Henry's) is based on the mistaken premise that because their marriage was childless it was also virginal. Her twelfth-century vita reports that she was once accused of adultery and proved her innocence by walking on red-hot ploughshares. In 1017, the imperial couple used her dowry to found the diocese of Bamberg. After Henry's death in 1024 Kunidgunde exercised a brief regency. In 1025, after the accession of Konrad II, she retired to the monastery of Kaufungen near Kassel and lived there until her death as a simple nun. She was canonized in 1200.

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Peter Geremia (d1452) The Palermo-born Peter belonged to one of the numerous originally knightly families ennobled under Frederick III who formed the core of the Sicilian capital's nobility in the fourteenth century. While studying law at Bologna he is said to have been visited one night by the spirit of a deceased relative, also a lawyer, who lamented that his own worldly success had led to sins that cost him entry into Heaven. Thus prompted, Peter chose a life of religion and in 1424, without informing his father, he entered the Order of Preachers. After a period of training at Fiesole under St. Antoninus of Florence, he was ordained priest and began a brilliant career of preaching and teaching at the papal court and at various places in the north of Italy.

Sent to Sicily as his Order's vicar, Peter led a program of Observant reform and encouraged the founding of schools and hospitals by Dominican houses. In 1444 he was in Catania to reorganize the convent of Santa Maria La Grande when lava flowing from Mt. Etna threatened the city. Carrying St. Agatha's famous funerary veil in the traditional apotropaic procession, Peter assisted her in halting the flow at today's Sant'Agata Li Battiati. On 18 October 1445 he delivered the inaugural address, De laude scientiarum, at the opening of Catania's university, the Siculorum Gymnasium. The island's first university, this had been authorized in 1434 by king Alfonso but only began operation now, on the basis of a papal bull issued in 1444 by Eugenius IV and entrusted to Peter for execution. Peter died in Palermo at his Order's convent of Santa Cita (Zita).

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Winwaloe (Guenole, Gwenno, etc.) (6th cent.) Winwaloe was the son of (saint) Fragan and saint Guen(n), both (insular) Bretons but he was born in Brittany. At the age of fifteen he became a monk and settled in a hermitage on a coastal island; then settled with a group of monks on another island. It was a very exposed location, though, and after sticking it out for three years he and eleven fellow monks founded their own monastery in northern Brittany. He was a disciple of St. Budoc and with his companions founded the monastery of Landevennec near Brest. In 914 Northmen sacked the abbey.

He is shown in art with a goose. This is probably in reference to a rather odd miracle: his sister had an eye plucked out by a goose. Winwaloe ordered the goose to cough up the eye, which it did. Then he replaced it in its socket.

Bonavita (1375) - a blacksmith and Franciscan tertiary, he lived and died in the village of Lugo, fourteen miles west of Ravenna; there, he was noted for his simplicity and his many miracles.

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Senan (6th cent.) Senan was an Irish monk and monastic founder, born in County Clare. His most important foundation was on Scattery Island in the Shannon estuary. Perhaps the best legend about Senan is one that makes him look bad: St. Cannera (a woman) wanted to visit the Scattery community (she'd had a vision that she would be buried on the island), but was forbidden because of her sex. Senan blocked her at the water's edge and told her she was not welcome because she was a woman. They argued, and finally she responded: "God did not become incarnate for men more than for women. He did not suffer for men more than he did for women. Heaven is open to both sexes equally. In fact, Christ did not in the least refuse the companionship of holy women who ministered to him and his disciples." She won - and died as soon as her foot touched the shore. She was, indeed, buried there.

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Eudokia "the Samaritan" (d. 107 (?)) Legend tells that Eudokia was a beautiful whore who lived in what is now Lebanon. She was converted to Christianity (and to a life of chastity), giving all her goods to the poor (which earned her the nickname "the samaritan"). Her former lovers denounced her as a Christian and she was brought before the emperor Aurelian. But she healed Aurelian's son, and converted the emperor to Christianity, so he released her. Then the governor of Heliopolis arrested her - but she worked a miracle in his presence and he released her. The *next* governor of Heliopolis finally beheaded the woman.

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David of St Davids (d. 589/601?) David (Dewi) is the patron saint of Wales. His cult was already established by the eighth century. He was supposed to be the son of the king of south Wales and St. Non. He is presented as a monastic founder, as the preeminent bishop of Wales, and as a saint of a stature at least equal to that of St. Patrick and certainly greater than that of St. Gildas. His abbey at Vallis Rosina (also Mynyw, latinized as Menevia) came to be known as Dewi's House (Tyddewi) and was the nucleus of medieval and modern St Davids (Pembrokeshire), where he was both abbot and bishop to an advanced age. Legend says he was consecrated archbishop of the Cambrian church by the patriarch of Jerusalem while on pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
St. David was purported to have encouraged the natives to wear a leek in their cap when they fought their battle with the pagan Saxon invaders in a field full of leeks, so as to easily distinguish friend from foe. The battle was a victorious one for the Welsh and, according to legend, the leek was thereafter adopted as the national emblem. The afore-mentioned era is documented in the Red Book of Hergest, the largest of the medieval vernacular manuscripts, which contains a copy of most Welsh literature written before1400.
Supposedly Callistus II approved his cult in c1120, making him the only Welsh saint formally canonized. Pope Calixtus II (Pope from 1119 to 24) decreed that one pilgrimage to St David’s was equal to two to Rome. He is represented in art as standing on a mound with a dove on his shoulder, in allusion to a legend that once while preaching a dove descended next to his ear, and the earth beneath his feet rose up to form a hill so that David could be better heard.
In 1275, John de Gamages, an Abbot based 60 miles from here, dreamt about the resting place of St David and following his instructions a body was found in the cathedral grounds. It was placed in a new shrine in 1275. King Edward I was one of the first to visit and make an offering.
“The prosperity of St Davids continued with a steady traffic of visitors until the sixteenth century. The current Dean said: "In 1538, Protestant William Barlow was appointed bishop at St David’s. He wanted to shut down the cathedral and confiscated the reliquaries. As far as we know, they were all destroyed. In the nineteenth Century some bones were found walled up in a recess at the back of the High Altar and they were later believed to be those of St. David. I had these carbon dated and it was revealed they are actually from the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It would appear that no relics have survived."

Baldomerus (d. c. 660) Baldomerus (Galmier, Baudemir, or even Waldimer) was a blacksmith (or locksmith) of Lyons. He was very pious and in the habit of giving everything he had away to the poor. A local abbot offered to take Baldomerus into his monastery of St. Justus; at the monastery, he would tame the wild birds of the air, saying to them 'Take your refreshment and always bless the Lord of Heaven'. He is the patron saint of locksmiths.

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Besas, Eunus (Cronion), and Julian (d. 259) are martyrs of the anti-Christian riots in Alexandria in the year preceding the Decian persecution. According to Eusebius or, more precisely, to an account by Dionysius of Alexandria from which Eusebius quotes, Julian was an old man of Alexandria, crippled so badly with gout that two friends had to carry him to court when he was charged with practicing Christianity. One of the friends (Eunus/Cronion) was condemned along with Julian (the other decided that a pinch of incense never hurt anyone). Eunus and Julian were bound to camels and whipped through the city, after which they were killed by having quicklime poured over them. Besas was a soldier who tried to shield them from the abusive mob, which the mob took so badly that they seized him and killed him on the street by decapitation.

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Luke of Messina (d. 1149) was a monk at what was at the time the leading Greek-rite house in Roger II's domains, Bartholomew of Simeri's Nea Hodegetria outside of Rossano in Calabria. At some time before Bartolomew's death in 1130 Roger asked him to direct the monastery he had been building since 1122. Bartolomew, who was getting on in years, declined but proposed Luke instead. Roger seems to have accepted, for shortly before 1130 Luke crossed the Strait of Messina with a dozen other monks and the material items (vessels, service books, etc.) required for establishing a functioning monastery. They found no monks to greet them at the still unfinished complex but settled in and began work at what under Luke's direction and Roger's command would, from 1131 on, be the mother house ('mandra') of many Greek monasteries in Sicily and of a number in Calabria as well. There was already a small church here, vowed by Roger I in gratitude for his conquest of Messina and dedicated to the Holy Savior. It became the island's leading exponent of Greek-language religious culture.

Avertanus and Romaeus (1380) The parents of Avertanus, of Limoges, France, were at first averse to their son’s intention of entering religious life, dreading to be separated from him. But he reassured them, “I am not forsaking you…I have you engraved in my heart and soul.” At this, his parents gave their consent, and he humbly kissed their feet. Avertanus entered the Carmelite Order, becoming a lay brother, content with the lowliest tasks. His rich prayer life was marked by frequent ecstasies. In the dead of night he would crawl on his hands and knees to the top of a nearby hill to pray there until dawn. Avertanus obtained permission to make a pilgrimage to Rome with a fellow Carmelite brother, Romaeus. But before reaching Rome, Avertanus contracted the plague, spending his final hours in a hospital near Lucca, Italy. On his deathbed, he prayed, “Come, sweet Jesus, with your infinite mercy; help this soul devoted to you.” In response to his plea, he experienced a luminous vision of Christ and the Blessed Mother, in which Christ said to him, “Come, beloved soul…into the rest of your Savior.” Shortly after Avertanus’ death, Romaeus also died of the plague.

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Constantius of Fabriano (blessed) (d. 1481) Constantius was born in Fabriano (Italy) in 1410. Constantius was a child of precocious piety, his prayers even curing his bedridden sister. He entered the Order of Preachers in Florence at the age of fifteen, where the death of St. Antonius was made known to him the moment it took place. He was a good administrator, though, went on to serve as prior in both Florence and Perugia. He was noted for his penitential life and prophetic visions, as well as for his miracles. When asked why he so seldom laughed, he replied: 'Because I do not know if my actions are pleasing to God'. He was beatified in 1821.

Alexander Akimetes (d. 430) was a Greek army officer who sold his goods and became a monk. He proved to be a zealot, and was imprisoned after he set fire to a pagan temple. When released, he went to the desert, where he converted a band of robbers and assembled them into a monastery. Then Alexander went on and established a monastery on the Euphrates. Still not willing to settle down, though, he then formed a traveling monastery, starting with 150 monks (later 300) that wandered from place to place. He seems to have founded a system of round-the-clock monastic worship, the monks chanting in shifts.

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Romana (early 4th cent.) According to her Vita, she was the Christian-influenced daughter of a Roman city prefect. To avoid marriage and thus preserve her virginity, she secretly left her home and fled with angelic assistance to Mount Soracte. Here she found pope Sylvester hiding in a cave, prostrated herself before him, and sought baptism. Marvelling at her angelic appearance, the refugee pope granted her wish. She then headed off in the direction of Todi but soon settled down in a set of caves where she lived in isolation for several months, subsisting on plant food and on water. The odor of her sanctity in time wafted on to Todi, some of whose Christians came out and formed a little eremitical community around her. Romana died here at the age of sixteen, on a 23d of February in some year during the reign of Constantine. Her parents came out from Rome and buried her on the site, where her cult continued to be maintained.

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Polycarp of Smyrna (d. ca. 155 or ca. 166) One of the leading figures of early Christianity, the apostolic father Polycarp was an elder of the church of Smyrna (today's Izmir in Turkey) who became its bishop c96. In that position he actively fought the heresies of Marcion and Valentinus and was very active on issues of Christian practice. He was a disciple of St. John (which one is not clear), a correspondent of St. Ignatius of Antioch, and a teacher of St. Irenaeus of Lyon. According to Jerome, his Epistle to the Philippians was still being read in church services in around the year 400.

Late in life Polycarp visited Rome during the pontificate of St. Anicetus to discuss a uniform date for Easter (the two couldn't agree, but agreed peaceably to differ, a model of fraternal charity that unfortunately later ages failed to follow).

When he was quite old public demand caused soldiers to arrest him; he invited them to dinner. When ordered to curse Christ, he said he'd been a Christian for 86 years without Christ doing him any wrong. He and 12 others were martyred at Smyrna in the town amphitheatre. Sentenced to be burned alive, when the flames left him unscathed he was stabbed to death by sword or spear instead.

Peter Damian (d. 1072) Peter was a native of Ravenna, cared for in his youth by an older brother, Damian, who sponsored his education and whose name Peter took in recognition of this loving service. After studying grammar and rhetoric and teaching for a time, he became a Camaldolese monk at Fonte Avellana in 1035. There he became abbot, founded other monasteries, lived an ascetic life, gave simonists a hard time, and started his extensive career of letters, treatises, and sermons. He worked to suppress local liturgies, organized the Camaldolese order, reacted against secular learning (grammar, by the way, is the work of the devil), advocated a desert spirituality, etc. He was a crusader against homosexuality. In 1057 he was forced to become cardinal bishop of Ostia (his letters begging to be relieved of the office are very sad) and spent the rest of his life as a prominent member of the papal reform movement, despite his periodic attempts to return to the monastery, where he would relax by carving wooden spoons. As a papal advisor he undertook numerous legations in Italy. He died at Faenza while returning to Rome from one such mission to Ravenna. He was declared a doctor of the church in 1828. His feast was celebrated on February 23 (his birthday) until just recently.

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Germanus and Randoaldus (d. ca. 675) Germanus came from a senatorial family of Trier and had been educated by that city's bishop St. Modoardus. One of his brothers became a high official under kings Dagobert I and Sigebert. He joined St. Arnulph of Metz at the latter's monastery on the Horenberg where he became a monk and stayed for a while before passing on to the future Remiremont.

Germanus, who soon brought his younger brother Numerianus to Remiremont, began while there to attract disciples drawn by his lifestyle of fasts, prayer vigils, and hard labor. In time he and his companions passed on to Luxeuil, where abbot St. Waldebert, who had him ordained priest, received them. When Waldebert was asked by a high noble named Gundonius / Gundoin (the first duke of Alsace) to found a monastery on land he would donate in the diocese of Basel, Germanus was chosen to be its first abbot. Randoaldus, who would become their first prior, accompanied him to the site (Grandval).

Things went well at first at Grandval and Germanus was put in charge of two other monasteries as well. But Gundonius’ successor Bonifacius (or Cathicus) began to harass the monks and clearly intended to make their territory his own. In a parley at Jura Germanus reproved him and for his pains was then run through with a lance - Randoaldus was murdered with him, by Cathicus' soldiers. After a few days of searching monks found the bodies of their abbot and their prior and brought that of Germanus back to Grandval, where a healing miracle soon confirmed his sanctity. The disposition of Randoaldus’ remains is not mentioned. In Delémont, the Musée jurassien d'art et d'histoire houses a wooden crozier ornamented in a Merovingian fashion in cloisonné enamel, with filaments of gold and silver, that came from Grandval and that traditionally is known as Germanus' crozier.

Here's a few stories:

Conrad of Piacenza (d. 1351) When the young nobleman Conrad was out hunting one day, he had a fire lit to help drive the game. The blaze got out of control and destroyed several villages. He didn't admit his fault until a poor man was sentenced to death for the arson, whereupon Conrad confessed and used most of his wealth (and his wife's dowry) to pay reparations. The two then devoted themselves to religious life, she as a Poor Clare and he as a hermit. From that time he led a life of extraordinary piety, and soon his fame began to bring him visits from his former fellow-citizens. In spite of all attempts to hide himself, the fame of his sanctity spread far and wide, and when a famine occurred numerous people sought his help. Through his prayers relief came at once to the stricken inhabitants, and from that time his cell was besieged by sufferers of all kinds. So he escaped to Sicily, where he lived as a hermit for the remaining 30 years of his life - still pestered by people wanting his prayers and especially his miraculous cures. There were many miracles at his tomb, and his cult was approved by Paul III. He was particularly invoked for 'ruptures' on account of the large number of people who owed their quick recoveries from hernias to his intercession.

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Odran the Martyr (d. c. 452) Legend tells that the Irish Odran became Patrick's chariot-driver, and was killed in an ambush meant for Pat (after he had anticipated the danger and gallantly changed places with his passenger). He was the only Irishman remembered as a martyr in early Ireland.

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Quodvultdeus of Carthage (d. c450) was a disciple of St. Augustine who at some point in the 430s became bishop of Carthage. When, after the Vandal seizure of that city in 439, he had declined to renounce Catholicism, he and many of his clergy were ejected and sent abroad in what Victor of Vita says were unseaworthy vessels. Arriving safely at Naples, Quodvultdeus settled in as an exile in Campania, writing sermons and other works and warning all of the barbarian peril. If he is the author, as people now tend think, of the Liber promissionum et praedictorum Dei, he was living in Naples during the papacy of Leo I (440-51). His date of death and place of burial are unknown.

I just like his name. :)

Or, "How I spend my evenings reading"

February 15 -
* Berach (6th cent.) Berach was a disciple of St. Kevin. He became abbot of Cill Beraigh (Kilberry). There are some interesting legends connected to him, as when he made a willow tree bear apples, which then cured a sick child.

* Severus of Interocrium (or of Antrodoco; 4th or 5th century). According to Gregory the Great, Severus was a parish priest in the Abruzzi who was pruning his vines when a dying sinner's messengers arrived and asked him to hasten to confess the man before he died. Preferring instead to finish the job at hand (which was near completion), Severus sent the messengers on ahead, saying that he would follow shortly. He did, but when he caught up with the messengers they informed him that the man was now already dead. The anguished saint rushed to the man's bedside, sobbing and blaming himself for allowing him to die unconfessed. Whereupon the man returned to life and informed Severus that he had been on his way to Hell when the Lord ordered his return because Severus was crying. Severus then helped him make his confession and perform penance for seven days, after which the man then died in peace. Gregory's story of Severus is recast in the legend of Severus of Orvieto but it is not clear whether Severus himself was venerated as a saint in the Middle Ages.

February 17
* Andrea d'Anagni/Andrew Conti of Anagni (1302)- related to popes Alexander IV (nephew) and Boniface VIII, he left his noble lifestyle behind and became a Franciscan lay brother and after that a hermit in the Apennines, refusing to be made a cardinal. He was so troubled by demons that his is invoked against them. One day, when he was ill and unable to take his ordinary food, a friend brought him some roasted birds. The saint, touched with pity at the sight of the innocent creatures, would not eat, but, making the sign of the cross over them, commanded them to resume their feathers and fly away. He was instantly obeyed, and the little birds, restored to life, took flight with chirps of joy.'