Above:  Gaul in 714 Common Era

SAINT HUGH OF ROUEN (DIED 730)

Roman Catholic Bishop, Abbot, and Monk

His feast transferred from April 9

St. Hugh of Rouen came from a prominent family.  His father was Duke Drago of Burgundy. His uncle was Charles Martel, Mayor of the Palace.  The Mayor of the Palace, at that point in history, was more powerful than the King of the Franks, a member of the Merovingian Dynasty.  And Martel’s son, Pepin III, served as both Mayor of the Palace and as the first monarch of the Carolingian Dynasty, reigning from 751 to 768.  Pepin’s son was Charlemagne (reigned 768-814).

That was St. Hugh’s family, one which gave him certain opportunities.  Simultaneously he was Abbot of Saint-Wandrielle and Abbot of Jumieges while a lay person.  But he yielded those positions to become a monk at Jumieges in 718.  Four years later, however, he became Archbishop of Rouen.  Retaining that post, he became Abbot of Fontenelle in 723 and Bishop of Paris and Bishop of Bayeux the following year.  St. Hugh used these positions and their financial resources to promote piety and learning.  Then, at the end of his life, St. Hugh retired to Jumieges, where he lived as a monk.

St. Hugh of Rouen had certain opportunities through an accident of birth.  He used them for the benefit of others and the glory of God.  Regardless of the nature of the opportunities which will come our way or which we have at present, may we use them for the common good and the glory of God.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 26, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINTS TIMOTHY, TITUS, AND SILAS, COWORKERS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL

THE FEAST OF SAINT ANGELA MERICI, FOUNDER OF THE COMPANY OF SAINT URSULA

THE FEAST OF CHARLES MATTHIAS, UNITED STATES SENATOR

THE FEAST OF SAINT PAULA, CONFIDANTE OF SAINT JEROME

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O God, by whose grace your servant St. Hugh of Rouen,

kindled with the flame of your love,

became a burning and a shining light in your Church:

Grant that we also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline,

and walk before you as children of light;

through Jesus Christ our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.  Amen.

Acts 2:42-47a

Psalm 133 or 34:1-8 or 119:161-168

2 Corinthians 6:1-10

Matthew 6:24-33

–Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), page 723

Above:  Europe in 526 Common Era

SAINT HERMENEGILD (DIED 585)

Visigothic Prince and Roman Catholic Martyr

The Visigoths created a kingdom which lasted from 415 to 711.  It emerged in the west of the Western Roman Empire and endured until the Muslim conquest.  King Leovigild (reigned 568-586), according to the 1962 Encyclopedia Americana, was

the most important Visigothic ruler in Spain,

a man who

effected peninsular unity.

(Volume 25, pge 360i)  Leovigild was also an Arian.  Indeed, Arianism was the official religion of the Visigothic Kingdom.  Arianism was (and is) also a denial of the divinity of Jesus, and therefore a heresy.

St. Hermenegild, son of King Leovigild, began as an Arian.  The prince married married Indegundis, daughter of Sigebert I, King of Austrasia (reigned 561-575).  Indegundis (died 584) convinced her husband to convert to Roman Catholicism.  This conversion prompted Leovigild to disinherit his son.  The prince, in return, rebelled against his father from 580 to 584, when Leovigild defeated and imprisoned the prince.  The monarch demanded that his son revert to Arianism; the son refused.  So Leovigild ordered his son executed, axed to death.

The rest of the story is that Leovigild’s successor, Recared I (reigned 586-601), St. Hermenegild’s brother, converted to Roman Catholicism.  Daddy lost.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 25, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF THE CONVERSION OF SAINT PAUL THE APOSTLE

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Everliving God,

by your grace and power

your holy martyr St. Hermenegild triumphed over suffering

and was faithful even to death;

strengthen us with your grace

that we may faithfully witness

to Jesus Christ our Saviour.  Amen.

2 Chronicles 24:17-21

Psalm 3 or 116

Hebrews 11:32-40

Matthew 10:16-22

–A New Zealand Prayer Book (1989), pages 680-681

Above:  Roman Greece

SAINT DIONYSIUS OF CORINTH (DIED CIRCA 180)

Roman Catholic Bishop of Corinth

His feast transferred from April 8

We know of St. Dionysius mainly via Eusebius of Caesarea (http://neatnik2009.wordpress.com/2009/12/08/feast-of-st-eusebius-of-caesarea-may-30/), author of the great Ecclesiastical History.  Book 4, Chapter 23 tells us of the saint, Bishop of Corinth circa 170-180.  St. Dionysius wrote many epistles.  One went to his sister, Chrysophora.  Others went to congregations.  Eusebius wrote that the saint argued against the Marcionite heresy, encouraged material and financial aid to the poor, and advocated a strong Christianity neither fixated on unrealistic and burdensome purity codes nor consisting of what Eusebius described as

milky doctrine…under a discipline calculated only for children.

Those are timeless principles.  People continue to impose unrealistic burdens related to moral perfectionism upon each other.  Anti-semitism, a key element of Marcionism, has not gone away entirely.  And, as much as theological standards have always mattered, grace, a wondrous gift from God, remains critical in Christianity.  Grace is also unfortunately lacking in many professing quarters.  Yet it ought not to become an excuse for watered-down sloganeering, never a valid substitute for sound theology.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 25, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF THE CONVERSION OF SAINT PAUL THE APOSTLE

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Good Shepherd, king of love,

accept our thanks and praise

for all the love and care we have received;

and for your servant, Saint Dionysius of Corinth.

May our care for each other grow constantly

more reverent and more discerning.  Amen.

Ezekiel 34:11-16

Psalm 15 or 99

1 Peter 5:1-4

John 21:15-19

–A New Zealand Prayer Book (1989), pages 681-682

Above:  Vatican Coat of Arms

BLESSED MONTFORD SCOTT AND VENERABLE GEORGE BEASLEY

Roman Catholic Martyrs

Executed on July 2, 1591

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SAINT EDMUND GENNINGS, SAINT POLYDORE PLASDEN, SAINT SWITHUN WELLS, SAINT EUSTACE WHITE, BLESSED JOHN MASON, BLESSED SIDNEY HODGSON, AND BLESSED BRIAN LACEY

Roman Catholic Martyrs

Executed on December 10, 1591

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SAINT HENRY WALPOLE AND BLESSED ALEXANDER RAWLINS

Roman Catholic Martyrs

Executed on April 7, 1595

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Most feasts transferred from October 25

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Sometimes I begin with one name and end up with a bevy.  Such is the case with this post.  These tales are related to each other.  They constitute a tapestry of martyrdom, a fabric which simple religious toleration would have prevented.  May we honor these faithful servants of Christ Jesus who followed him to the bloody end, one which an officially Christian state deemed necessary and proper in the midst of anti-Roman Catholic hysteria combined with national security concerns in the wake of the Spanish Armada incident of 1588.

Blessed Montford Scott studied at Douai, France.  He became a subdeacon in 1575 then returned to England.  Arrested then freed in 1576, he returned to Douai in 1577 after having become a priest at Brussels.  Scott’s stay at Douai was brief, for he returned to England that year.  Arrested in 1584, he spent seven years in prison before a brief stint of freedom in 1591.  Yet authorities reapprehended Scott, who went to his gruesome martyrdom (hanging, drawing, and quartering) on July 2, 1591.

Venerable George Beasley died on the same day as did Scott.  Also on Englishman, Beasley studied at Rheims, becoming a priest in 1587.  He returned to England in 1588.  Authorities captured Beasley in 1590.  Imprisoned, Beasley suffered tortures which left him, in the words of the Catholic Encyclopedia, “reduced to a skeleton.”

Blessed Montford Scott had a cousin, Blessed Brian Lacey, with whom authorities arrested him.  Lacey had aided and abetted Roman Catholic priests in England.  As if the fact that this was a capital crime was not bad enough, Lacey’s brother turned him in.  Lacey died on December 10, 1591.

That was a day of much bloodshed.  St. Edmund Gennings and four others linked with him also died on December 10, 1591.  They were St. Polydore Plasden, a priest; St. Swithun Wells, host of an illegal Mass; and Blessed Sidney Hodgson and Blessed John Mason, who tried to protect Gennings and the others from authorities.  And St. Eustace White, another priest, died on that dark day.

St. Edmund Gennings (1567-1591), born at Lichfield, Staffordshire, England, converted to Roman Catholicism at age sixteen.  He studied at Rheims, becoming a priest in 1590, aged twenty-three years.  Then Gennings returned to England.

November 7, 1591. was a fateful day.  On that day, at the home of St. Swithun Wells (circa 1536-1591), Gennings said his last Mass, one which ended prematurely due to a raid.  Wells was the long-time schoolmaster at Monkton Farleigh, Wiltshire.  He had returned to Roman Catholicism in 1583.  Also present at that Mass was St. Polydore Plasden (1563-1591), a priest since 1586, who had been undercover in England since 1588.  Blessed John Mason and Blessed Sidney Hodgson, members of the congregation, offered physical resistance to the raiding forces.  Law enforcement, then as now, labeled resistance to arrest an offense.

Alice Wells, the widow of St. Swithun Wells, died in prison in 1602.

St. Eustace White (1559-1591), also executed on December 10, had been born at Louth, Lincolnshire, England.  A convert to Roman Catholicism, he studied for the priesthood. Ordained in 1588, he returned to England that year.  Three years later, authorities arrested and executed him.

St. Edmund Gennings began his English mission with Blessed Alexander Rawlins.  Imprisoned twice in 1585 for his Roman Catholicism, Rawlins studied at Rheims in 1589-1590, becoming a priest in 1590.  His English mission lasted from 1591 to 1595, when authorities arrested him.  Rawlins died on April 7, 1595, with St. Henry Walpole.

St. Henry Walpole (1558-1591), born in Docking, Norfolk, England, studied law.  Witnessing the execution of St. Edmund Campion (http://neatnik2009.wordpress.com/2009/12/17/feast-of-st-edmund-campion-december-1/) in 1581 prompted Walpole to convert to Roman Catholicism and study for the priesthood (in Europe) instead.  He became a   Jesuit in 1584 and a priest four years later.  Walpole went on a mission to Lorraine then to the Netherlands, where he served as a chaplain to Spanish soldiers there.  There, in 1589, Calvinists arrested him and imprisoned him for a year.  Walpole, released in 1590, taught at Seville and Vallodolid (in Spain) then went on a mission to Flanders.  The saint began his English mission in 1593, but authorities arrested him almost immediately.  Walpole spent most of the rest of his life in the Tower of London, suffering tortures.

The blood of the martyrs waters the church.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 25, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF THE CONVERSION OF SAINT PAUL THE APOSTLE

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Almighty and everlasting God,

who kindled the flame of your love in the heart of your holy martyrs

Venerable George Beasley,

Saint Edmund Gennings,

Blessed Sidney Hodgson,

Blessed Brian Lacey,

Blessed John Mason,

Saint Polydore Plasden,

Blessed Alexander Rawlins,

Blessed Montford Scott,

Saint Henry Walpole,

Saint Swithun Wells,

Alice Wells, and

Saint Eustace White:

Grant to us, your humble servants,

a like faith and power of love,

that we who rejoice in their triumph may profit by their example;

through Jesus Christ our Lod,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Jeremiah 15:15-21

Psalm 124 or 31:1-5

1 Peter 4:12-19

Mark 8:34-38

–Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), page 715

Above:  Triumph of Orthodoxy Icon

SAINT GEORGE THE YOUNGER (DIED CIRCA 816)

Greek Orthodox Bishop of Mitylene

His feast transferred from April 7

St. George the Younger was one of several Bishops of Mitylene named George, hence the addition of the appelation “the Younger” to his name.  The use of surnames was a great and useful practice in distinguishing people with the same personal name.  We must, in the absence of surnames, resort to descriptive labels, such as “the Younger,” “the Elder,” and “of __________.”

St. George the Younger, born to a wealthy family on the island of Lesbos, gave away his wealth to the poor and the ill.  He became the Bishop of Mitylene, on Lesbos.  In that capacity he earned a reputation for charitable activities and for holiness of life.  A defender of icons, he earned the ire of the Byzantine Emperor Leo the Armenian (reigned813-820), who exiled him to the Crimea.  There St. George died of natural causes, a martyr of sorts.

A theological disagreement ought not to constitute an offense worthy of suffering and exile.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 25, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF THE CONVERSION OF SAINT PAUL THE APOSTLE

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Jesus our Redeemer,

you gave your life to ransom us;

you have called us to drink your cup

and undergo your baptism.

We thank you for St. George the Younger’s witness;

May we have faith and resolution too.  Amen.

Isaiah 43:1-7

Psalm 3 or 116

1 Peter 4:12-19

Luke 12:2-12

–A New Zealand Prayer Book (1989), pages 680-681

Above:  Flag of Denmark

SAINT WILLIAM OF ESKILSOE (CIRCA 1125-1203)

Roman Catholic Abbot

His feast transferred from April 6

The French-born St. William of Eskilsoe became a canon at St. Genevieve, Paris, in 1148.  Twenty-two years later, in 1170, he received an invitation from Abaslon, Bishop of Roskilde and Archbishop of Lund (in Denmark) to reform monastic life in the Diocese of Roskilde.  St. William accepted the invitation, becoming Abbot of Eskilsoe, and serving in that capacity for over thirty years, ending with his death.  The saint overcame substantial opposition to his reforms.  Then he founded more monasteries.

Monasteries and convents were crucial institutions in Medieval Europe.  They preserved learning, functioned as orphanages, hospitals, and children’s homes, and became nuclei for villages and towns.  The scandalous monastics included those who ate too much, drank to excess, and lived according to insufficient rigor.  Then there were those such as St. William, who understood the importance of monastic discipline.  He was a very important saint.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 25, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF THE CONVERSION OF SAINT PAUL  THE APOSTLE

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O God, by whose grace your servant St. William of Eskilsoe,

kindled with the flame of your love,

became a burning and a shining light in your Church:

Grant that we also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline,

and walk before you as children of light;

through Jesus Christ our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Acts 2:42-47a

Psalm 133 or 34:1-8 or 119:161-168

2 Corinthians 6:1-10

Matthew 6:24-33

–Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), page 723

Above:  Map of Gaul in 628

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SAINT BURGENDOFARA, A.K.A. FARE (DIED 657)

Roman Catholic Abbess

Her feast = April 3

sister of

SAINT BURDENDOFARO, A.K.A. FARO (DIED 675)

Roman Catholic Bishop of Mieux

His feast transferred from October 28

(maybe) brother of

SAINT CHAINALDUS (DIED 633)

Roman Catholic Bishop of Laon

His feast transferred from September 6

(maybe) brother of

SAINT WALDEBERT (DIED CIRCA 668)

Roman Catholic Abbot at Luxeuil

His feast transferred from May 2

helped

SAINT SADALBERGA (DIED 665)

Roman Catholic Abbess

Her feast transferred from September 22

wife of

SAINT BLANDINUS

Roman Catholic Monk

father of

SAINT BALDWIN OF LEON (DIED 680)

Roman Catholic Martyr

His feast transferred from October 16

brother of

SAINT ANSTRUDIS (DIED 668)

Roman Catholic Abbess

His feast transferred from October 17

niece of

SAINT BODO (DIED 670)

Roman Catholic Bishop of Toul

His feast transferred from September 11

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Once again I started with one name–St. Burgendofara, in this case–and ended with a multitude.  Individually some of these stories offer scant information, but collectively they constitute a saga of lived Christian faith.  These nine lives are connected to each other directly or indirectly.

We begin with Count Agneric, a member of the court of King Theodobert/Theudebert II of Austrasia, who reigned from 595 to 612.  He wanted his daughter, St. Burgendofara/Fare (died 657) to wed.  She pursued a different vocation–a religious life–instead.  And the saint even persuaded her father to build Evoriacum Convent–later Faremoutiers Abbey–on family-owned land.  Her brother, St. Burgendofaro/Faro (died 675), founded that abbey.  He, the Count of Guines, Panthieu, and St. Pol, served as Bishop of Meaux from 626 to 672, founded St. Croix Monastery at Meaux.  He also survived his sister, who spent the last thirty-seven years of her her life as Abbess at Evoriacum.

Sts. Burgendofara and Burgendofaro had another sainted sibling, Waldebert/Gaubert/Valbert/Walbert (died circa 668). Also a Count of Guines, Panthieu, and St. Pol, he left military life to become a contemplative.  He lived as a hermit near Luxeuil Abbey until 628, when he succeeded St. Eustace (http://neatnik2009.wordpress.com/2012/01/14/feast-of-sts-syragius-of-autun-anacharius-of-auxerre-valery-of-leucone-and-eustace-of-luxeuit-april-1/) as the abbot there.  For four decades St. Waldebert served in that capacity.  He oversaw the monastery school, at which many future bishops of sees in the Frankish kingdoms received an education.  He also helped St. Sadalberga (died 665) found the Convent of St. John the Baptist at Laon, where she died.

St. Sadalberga was the daughter of Gundoin, Duke of Alsace.  Her first marriage was brief, for her first husband died a few months after the wedding.  Husband number two was St. Blandinus, with whom she had five children, two of whom became saints.  I found little information–not even his feast day and the year of his death.  Sources did tell me, however, that he and St. Sadalberga, at some point, parted so that he could become a hermit and she a nun, each devoting his/her life to God in a monastic context.

We have little information about their children who became saints.  Baldwin (died 680) served as Archdeacon of Leon, in Iberia, until his martyrdom.  And Anstrudis (died 668) succeeded her mother as abbess.

St. Sadalberga had a brother, St. Bodo (circa 625-670).  He served as Bishop of Toul and founded at least three abbeys:  Bonmoutier, Etival, and Othonville.

Then there was St. Chainaldus (died 633).  He was brother of either St. Burdendoraro or St. Sadalberga.  He could not, however, have been the brother of both, despite what some sources claim.  St. Chainaldus, a nobleman, became a monk at Meaux under the direction St. Columban (http://neatnik2009.wordpress.com/2011/10/29/feast-of-st-columban-november-23/).  He even followed St. Columban into exile at Bobbio, in Italy.  Later St. Chainaldus became Bishop of Laon, in Francia.

Most of us will, after we die, become (in this realm) as if we had not existed.  Memories of us will fade into oblivion.  If, after a few generations, even sketchy memories of us survive, we will constitute exceptions to the rule.  The nine saints I commemorate in this post were certainly exceptions to the rule.  They pursued holiness as best they knew–and we know their names and a little information about each.  They honored God in their days; may we do the same in ours.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 25, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF THE CONVERSION OF SAINT PAUL THE APOSTLE

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Almighty God,

by your grace

you surround us with so great a cloud of witnesses;

may we, encouraged by the example of your servants

Saint Burgendofara/Fare,

Saint Burgendofaro/Faro,

Saint Chainaldus,

Saint Waldebert,

Saint Sadalberga,

Saint Blandinus,

Saint Baldwin of Leon,

Saint Anstrudis, and

Saint Bodo,

persevere and run the race you have set before us,

until at last, through your mercy,

we with them attain your eternal joy;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 2:1-11

Psalm 34 or 119:1-8

Philippians 4:4-9

Luke 6:17-23

–A New Zealand Prayer Book (1989), pages 686-687

Above:  Flag of England

SAINT JOHN PAYNE, A.K.A. JOHN PAINE (1532-1582)

Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr

His feast = April 2

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SAINT CUTHBERT MAYNE (1544-1577)

Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr

His feast transferred from November 25

Religious toleration, I am convinced, is a great civic virtue.  Unfortunately, throughout much of history, it has been a rare one.  And its scarcity has made martyrs.  Today I write about two of them.

St. John Payne/Paine was born at Petersborough, England, in 1532.  Sources indicate that he might have converted to Roman Catholicism.  He was, past a certain point in his life, anyway, a Roman Catholic.  Payne studied for the priesthood at Douai, France, in 1574-1576, becoming a priest and beginning his English mission in 1576.  For a year the saint worked successfully as an undercover priest in England.  One of his notable accomplishments was reconverting George Godsalf, a former Roman Catholic deacon, back to Catholicism.  Godsalf then studied for the priesthood at Douai, became a priest in 1577, and rejoined Payne, being arrested with him in 1581.

These priests found shelter with Lady Anne Petre, an elderly (born 1509) widow and a devout Catholic.  Her late husband had been a high-ranking aide to Tudor monarchs.  Furthermore, her father had been Lord Mayor of London.  She took a great risk aiding these priests, who were technically traitors, according to the law.  Payne went to his gruesome death on April2, 1582.  Lady Anne died later that month, perhaps of the shock of what had happened to Payne.  And Godsalf remained in prison until 1585, when authorities banished him.  He died in Paris in 1592.

St. John Payne began his English mission with St. Cuthbert Mayne.  Born at Youlston, Devonshire, England, in 1544, Mayne’s uncle, an Anglican priest, raised him.  Then he met St. Edmund Campion (http://neatnik2009.wordpress.com/2009/12/17/feast-of-st-edmund-campion-december-1/), who influenced him to convert to Roman Catholicism.  Mayne began his studies at Douai in 1573, became a Catholic priest in 1575, and began his English mission the next year.  He found shelter with Francis Tregian the Elder (1548-1608), who took a great risk.  Payne was officially Tregian’s estate steward, but worked undercover as a priest.  Authorities arrested Mayne and Tregian in 1577.  Declared a traitor, Mayne met his gruesome demise on November 25, 1577, becoming the first Englishman trained for the Catholic priesthood to die as a martyr after the final break with Rome.  Tregian spent twenty-eight years in prison until King James I pardoned him.  Then the protector moved to Madrid, where King Philip III of Spain granted him a pension.  Tregian died at the Jesuit hospice in Lisbon in 1608.

Although Payne and Mayne would have argued with me in a counterfactual reality where we would have been contemporaries, I honor them.  What they did, they did for Jesus.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 24, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF THE ORDINATION OF FLORENCE LI-TIM-OI, ANGLICAN PRIEST

THE FEAST OF SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF GENEVA

THE FEAST OF THURGOOD MARSHALL, ATTORNEY AND JURIST

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM BARCLAY, SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIAN THEOLOGIAN

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Almighty God,

you gave your servants

Saints John Payne and Cuthbert Mayne

courage to confess Jesus Christ

and to die for this faith;

may we always be ready

to give a reason for the hope that is in us

and to suffer gladly for Christ’s sake.  Amen.

Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9

Revelation 12:10-12

John 15:18-21

–A New Zealand Prayer Book (1989), pages 680-681

Above:  Western Europe in 395 Common Era

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SAINT SIDONIUS APOLLINARIS (CICA 430-CIRCA 489)

Roman Catholic Bishop of Auvergne

His feast transferred from August 21

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SAINT EUCHERIUS OF LYON (CIRCA 380-CIRCA 449)

Roman Catholic Archbishop of Lyon

His feast transferred from November 16

Great-grandfather of 

SAINT VIVENTIOLUS OF LYON (460-524)

Roman Catholic Archbishop of Lyon

His feast transferred from July 12

Brother of

SAINT RUSTICUS OF LYON (CIRCA 455-501)

Roman Catholic Archbishop of Lyon

His feast transferred from Lyon

Father of

SAINT SARCEDOS OF LYON (487-551)

Roman Catholic Archbishop of Lyon

His feast transferred from September 12

Son of

SAINT AURELIANUS OF ARLES (523-551)

Roman Catholic Archbishop of Arles

His feast transferred from June 16

Cousin of

SAINT NICETIUS OF LYON (513-573)

Roman Catholic Archbishop of Lyon

His feast transferred from April 2

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Sometimes writing hagiographies is a straight-forward matter.  Facts are well-documented, the contexts are clear, and no (if any) rabbit trails branch off from one person’s life.  Then we have circumstances such as the one which led to this post.  I found a name, St. Nicetius of Lyon, in a book of saints.  My subsequent research led me to seven other saints, information about six of whom I consider trustworthy.  The story of one life has become an intergenerational saga, which I have spent hours untangling.  I will try to tell the tale well; follow it with me.

Our saga begins in the twilight of the Western Roman Empire and continues until 573, when the Merovingian kings governed Gaul, which they called Francia.  The collapse of the old order and the use of the new one can be disorientating.  That, however, was the context for our characters.  Shall we start.

We begin in Gaul, in the late 330s.  One Apollinaris (I) served as Prefect of Gaul at that time.  His son, Apollinaris (II), filled the same office prior to 409.  Decimus Rusticus succeeded his friend as Prefect, serving from 409/410 to 413.  Unfortunately for Decimus Rusticus, known to be a good man and a faithful Christian, he died at the hands of forces sent by the Western Roman Emperor Honorius (reigned 384-423).  Then Apollinaris (III), son of Apollinaris (II), served as Prefect from 423 to 428.

The son of Apollinaris (III) was St. Sidonius Apollinaris (circa 430-circa 489).  Born at Lugdunum (now Lyon), in Gaul (now France), St. Sidonius served as Prefect of Gaul during the reign of Emperor Valentinian III (in office 425-455). The saint married Paplianilla, daughter of the future Emperor Avitus (reigned 455-456), who was of Gallic origin.  The couple had at least three children, including a son named Apollinaris (IV).  The reign of Avitus was a difficult one; a military revolt ended it.  The former Emperor, trying to flee to Gaul, got only as far as the city of Placentia, where the imperial authorities permitted him to become bishop there in October 456.  Yet, upon learning that the Senate wanted him dead, Avitus fled toward Gaul via the Alps.  He died of either plague or murder.

The political situation had changed for St. Sidonius Apollinaris.  Being the son-in-law of a recently deposed and perhaps murdered emperor did not bode well for the future.  Majorian (reigned 457-461), successor of Avitus and an active participant in the coup, captured Lyon, where the saint lived.  The new emperor looked favorably upon the saint’s vast knowledge, however, and treated him respectfully.  The saint, promoted to the position of count, spoke highly of Majorian.  The saint’s star continued to rise under Emperor Anthemius (reigned 467-472), who made him a Senator.  Then, in 472, the saint assumed his final post, Bishop of Auvergne, now Clermont.

The Western Roman Empire ceased to exist in 476.  This was a formality, for the empire had long existed on paper than on the ground.  Difficult times called for strong leadership, and the Church was the one unifying structure in Western Europe for centuries.  There the saint made his final contribution.  Of him St. Gregory of Tours (http://neatnik2009.wordpress.com/2011/11/27/feast-of-sts-gregory-of-langres-terticus-of-langres-gallus-of-clermont-gregory-of-tours-avitus-i-of-clermont-magnericus-and-gaugericus-january-4/) wrote highly.  St. Gregory was impressed with the intelligence, oratory, and memory of St. Sidonius Apollinaris, who could speak at length and intelligently without preparation.  And, St. Gregory wrote, St. Sidonius could (and did) celebrate the Mass from memory.

St. Sidonius Apollinaris had a classmate and good friend, Aquilianus (circa 430-circa 470), a Gallic nobleman.  Aquillianus was the paternal grandson of Decimus Rusticus.  And Aquilianus served as Vicarius, or deputy, under the Prefect of Gaul, St. Sidonius.  Aquilianus was also the great-grandson of St. Eucherius of Lyon.

St. Eucherius of Lyon (circa 380-circa 449), husband of Gallia, mourned his wife after she died in 390.  He and his two sons, Salonius (later Bishop of Geneva) and Veranius, retreated to monastic life at Lerins.  There they lived austerely and devoted themselves to learning.  St. Eucherius even consulted St. John Cassian (http://neatnik2009.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/feast-of-st-john-cassian-february-29/) regarding holiness and austerity of living.  The reputation of St. Eucherius spread, causing him to become Archbishop of Lyons in 434.  Veranius, one of his sons, succeeded him in the post.

Above:  Gaul in 481

Aquilianus (circa 430-circa 470), great-grandson of St. Eucherius, had at least two sons.  One was St. Viventiolus (460-524), who had become Archbishop of Lyon by 514.  The other son was St. Rusticus (circa 455-501), who preceded his brother as Archbishop of Lyon, serving from 494 to 501.  St. Rusticus was son-in-law of Ruricus I (circa 440-circa 510), Bishop of Limoges from circa 485 to 510.  A son, Leontius, succeeded St. Rusticus as Archbishop of Lyon.  And a grandson of St. Rusticus, Gondulf of Provence, served as Bishop of Metz, starting in 591.

St. Rusticus, sources tell me, succeeded St. Lupicinus of Lyon, who presided over that see from 491 to 494.  I can find little reliable information about this saint, a contemporary of a second St. Lupicinus.  Information about them seems to have become confused.  So I move along.

Above:  Gaul in 511

St. Rusticus had a son, St. Sarcedos (487-551).  The son, also an Archbishop of Lyon, served from 544 to 551.  St. Sarcedos presided over the Fifth Council of Orleans (549).  Some notable acts of that Council included the following:

1. Censuring all who tried to take back into servitude those whom the church had emancipated;
2. Placing lepers under the protection of bishops; and
3. Threatening with excommunication anyone who embezzled royally-donated funds intended for a hospital at Lyon.

The royal donor of those funds was Childebert I (reigned 511-558), the Merovingian King of Paris, whom St. Sarcedos advised.  St. Sarcedos was also the father of St. Aurelianus (523-551), Archbishop of Arles from 546 to 551.

Succeeding St. Sarcedos as Archbishop of Lyon was his nephew, St. Nicetius (513-573).  The saint, ordained priest by Agricola, Bishop of Charlons-sur-Mame, revived chanting in the churches of his see.

Details of the lives of many pre-Congregation Roman Catholic saints are sketchy, for a host of sources are lost to us.  What survives mostly are reputations for holiness and a few facts and stories.  If memory of any of us survives, may they be positive and holy ones.  May succeeding generations look back upon us and say that we kept the faith and passed it down through the family tree.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 15, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY, YEAR B

THE FEAST OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., NATIONAL BAPTIST PASTOR

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Good and gracious God,

the light of the faithful and shepherd of souls,

you set your servants

Saint Sidonius Apollinaris,

Saint Eucherius of Lyon,

Saint Viventiolus of Lyon,

Saint Rusticus of Lyon

Saint Sarcedos of Lyon,

Saint Aurelianus of Lyon, and

Saint Nicetius of Lyon

to be bishops in your Church

to feed your sheep with your word

and to guide them by their example;

give us grace to keep the faith they taught

and to follow in their footsteps.  Amen.

Jeremiah 1:4-10

Psalm 15 or 99

Acts 20:28-35

Matthew 24:42-47

–A New Zealand Prayer Book (1989), pages 681-682

Above:  Gaul in 587

SAINT SYRAGIUS OF AUTUN (DIED CIRCA 600)

Roman Catholic Bishop

His feast transferred from August 27

ordained

SAINT ANACHARIUS (A.K.A. AUNARIUS) OF AUXERRE (DIED CIRCA 603)

Roman Catholic Bishop

His feast transferred from September 25

received

SAINT VALERY (A.K.A. WALERICUS) OF LEUCONE (DIED CIRCA 622)

Roman Catholic Abbot

Alternative feast day = December 12

sent on a mission by

SAINT EUSTACE OF LEXEUIT (CIRCA 560-CIRCA 629)

Roman Catholic Abbot

His feast transferred from March 29

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Holiness can be contagious; pass it on!  These saints did.

St. Syragius of Autun (died circa 600), Bishop of Autun from circa 561 until his death in 600, traveled with Guntram, the Merovingian King of Burgundy from 561 to 592, to Nanterre, site of the baptism (in 591) of Guntram’s nephew, Clotaire/Lothair II, King of Neustria starting in 584 and of all Franks from 613 to 629.  The saint also provided shelter to St. Augustine of Canterbury and his traveling companions, en route to a papal mission to evangelize England.  And St. Syragius ordained St. Anacharius to the priesthood.

Guntram, by the way, is a saint in the Roman Catholic Church; his feast day is March 28.  I do not feel qualified to write about him yet, for I need to read more deeply in Merovingian history first.  I can repeat facts, but I  need more background to make sense of them.  I do know the following, however:  Merovingian Francia was an unstable place most of the time, as there was seldom one king.  A monarch divided the realm among his sons upon his death, and much civil strife resulted.  Of the four sons of Clotaire I (died 561), Guntram seems to have been the best egg.  More about Guntram: http://neatnik2009.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/feast-of-sts-agrippinus-of-autun-droctoveus-of-autun-and-germanus-of-paris-march-10/ and  http://neatnik2009.wordpress.com/2011/12/08/feast-of-st-praetextatus-february-22/.

St. Valery (or Walericus) (died circa 622), born at Auvergne, grew up a peasant and a shepherd.  Tending sheep gave him much time to pray,  but he preferred the religious life.  So he became a Benedictine monk.  The austerity at Autumo Monastery proved insufficient for his tastes, so the saint transferred to St. Germanus Abbey, near Auxerre, where St. Anacharius received him.

Of St. Anacharius I wish I could know more.  Some sources say that he became Bishop of Auxerre in 561; others have him born in 573.  And he died in 603 or 604, depending on the source one consults.  He does seem to have been of noble birth and to have grown up in the court of King Guntram.  The bishop is noted for insisting on certain liturgical prayers and litanies at certain times.  As a ritualist, I like that fact.

Later St. Valery transferred to the monastery at Luxeuil, where St. Columban (http://neatnik2009.wordpress.com/2011/10/29/feast-of-st-columban-november-23/) was abbot.  There is a stereotype, not without historical basis, of fat and drunk monks during the Middle Ages.  St. Valery was not one of those. And his austerity seems to have increased with time.  King Theodoric II of Burgundy (reigned 595-613) plus Austrasia (612-613) banished St. Columban in 610, for the abbot’s denunciation of royal vices made a powerful enemy.

The new abbot at Luxeuil was St. Eustace (circa 560-circa 629), as of 611.  (St. Valery was in charge temporarily during the interregnum at the abbey.)  St. Eustace sent St. Valery and another monk, Waldolanus, to evangelize in Neustria.  There, in 611, Clotaire/Lothair II gave them land at Leucone.  There they founded a monastery, of which St. Valery became the first abbot.  He, by words and deeds, make many converts.

And what of Clotaire/Lothair II?  The 1968 Encyclopedia Britannica, citing a chronicle, describes him as being

well-informed, devout, upright, and a benefactor of the church, but immoderately fond of hunting and unduly susceptible to feminine wiles.  (Volume 5, page 941)

But at least he gave land on which St. Valery built a monastery.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 14, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINTS MACRINA THE ELDER, BASIL THE ELDER, EMILIA, NAUCRATIUS, AND PETER OF SEBASTE, FAITHFUL CHRISTIANS OVER THREE GENERATIONS

THE FEAST OF CIVIL RIGHTS MARTYRS AND ACTIVISTS

THE FEAST OF RICARDO MONTALBAN, ACTOR

THE FEAST OF SAINT SAVA, FOUNDER OF THE SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH

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Almighty God,

you have built up your Church

through the love and devotion of your saints;

we give you thanks for your servants

Saint Syragius of Autun,

Saint Anacharius of Auxerre,

Saint Valery of Leucone, and

Saint Eustace of Luxeuit,

whom we commemorate today.

Inspire us to follow their examples

that like them we may in our day rejoice

in the vision of your glory;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Proverbs 8:1-11

Psalm 34 or 119:1-8

2 Corinthians 4:11-18

Matthew 19:16-21

–A New Zealand Prayer Book (1989), pages 686-687