St. Palatias and Laurentia October 8

 St. Palatias and Laurentia

Feastday: October 8

Death: 302

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Christian martyrs who were put to death during the persecutions launched by Emperor Diocletian. According to tradition, Palatias was a noblewoman who resided in the city of Ancona, Italy. Converted to the faith by her slave, Laurentia, she was arrested with Laurentia and put to death at Fermo, near Ancona.

Bl. Peter of Seville October 8

 Bl. Peter of Seville

Feastday: October 8

Death: unknown

Martyr. Almost nothing is known about this saint beyond his martyrdom on an unknown date. While he figures into a variety of legends, he remains a mystery owing to the unreliability of these stories.

St. Reparata October 8

 St. Reparata

Feastday: October 8

Death: 3rd century

Virgin martyr of Caesarea, in Palestine. Known mainly through unreliable legend, she was supposedly a twenty year old girl in Caesarea who was denounced as a Christian during the persecutions launched by Emperor Trajanus Decius. She was tortured and thrown into a furnace. Miraculously surviving the flames, she still refused to sacrifice to the pagan gods and the Romans beheaded her.

St. Triduana October 8

 St. Triduana

Feastday: October 8

A virgin who, according to tradition, assisted St. Regulus in his mission to Scotland during the fourth century. She is also listed as Trallen and Tredwall. Her shrine at Restalrig was long venerated until its destruction in 1560 during the Scottish Reformation.

Saint Triduana, also known as Trodline, Tredwell, and in Norse as Trøllhaena, was an early Christian woman, associated with various places in Scotland. She lived at an unknown time, probably between the 4th and 8th centuries CE.[1]

According to the 16th-century Aberdeen Breviary, Triduana was born in the Greek city of Colosse, and travelled from Constantinople with Saint Rule, who brought the bones of Saint Andrew to Scotland in the 4th century AD.[2] A pious woman, she settled at Rescobie near Forfar in Angus, but her beauty attracted the attentions of a King of the Picts named Nectan. To stall these unwanted attentions, Triduana tore out her own eyes and gave them to Nechtan. Afterwards, she was associated with curing eye disorders. She spent her later years in Restalrig, Lothian, and healed the blind who came to her. She was buried at Restalrig when she died.[3]

The 17th-century Acta Sanctorum records a story of a blind English woman miraculously cured by Triduana. The saint appears to her in a dream, and instructs her to travel to Restalrig. She does so, and regains her sight at Triduana's tomb. The woman's daughter is later cured of blindness after praying to Triduana.[4]

In the 12th century, the Norse Earl of Orkney Harald Maddadsson punished bishop John of Caithness by having him blinded. According to the 13th-century Orkneyinga Saga, John prayed to "Trøllhaena", and later regained his sight when brought to her "resting place", possibly referring to a local northern shrine rather than Restalrig.[1]

The principal centre of devotion to Triduana was at Restalrig, now part of Edinburgh. The parish church has been rebuilt, but the associated 15th-century St Triduana's Aisle (originally two-storeyed) survives. This partly subterranean structure often flooded in the past, and was at one time assumed to be an unusually large and elaborate holy well (St Triduana's Well). The exterior of the aisle was heavily restored by the architect Thomas Ross in 1907, though its interior (which has a remarkable echo) retains its original rib-vault, and is a refined example of Scottish 15th-century architecture.[5][6] Other dedications to Triduana include chapels at Ballachly (Caithness), Loth (Sutherland), and on Papa Westray in Orkney.[1]

The Sicilian Saint Lucy is also said to have torn out her own eyes to put off an unwelcome suitor.[2]

In Buddhist scripture (Therigatha 14.1)[7] the Buddhist nun Subha also removed her eye in response to admiration from a suitor. In that case, the act served as a lesson in non-attachment to worldly things.

St Tredwell's Chapel, Papa Westray

St Tredwell's Chapel, Papa Westray

St Tredwell's Chapel, Papa Westray is a renowned Orkney pilgrimage-centre, standing on a conical mound on a small peninsula (about 4.5 metres high and 35 metres across at the water level) in St Tredwell's Loch. The remains of the late medieval walls can be seen, built over Iron Age remains, including a tunnel leading to a circular building or broch. The thick walls of the chapel and records of tracery work indicate an important and well-founded establishment.

The chapel was surveyed by Sir H. Dryden in 1870 when its walls, of variable thickness, were still up to 6 feet high and the interior measured 20 ft 3in by 13 ft 10ins. The chapel was cleared of rubble by William Traill around 1880. He found 30 copper coins dating between the reigns of Charles II and George III under the chapel floor, along with a female skeleton.

In The Archaeological Sites and Monuments of Papa Westray and Westray, R.G. Lamb (1983:19) notes:

Immediately outside the W wall Traill broke into a subterranean passage which he followed N then NW for some 10m, passing several sets of door-checks and a side-chamber and entering a 'circular building'. Finds from this structure, including a stone ball, are in NMAS (...); others are in Tankerness House Museum (...). The opening into the passage is now blocked by rubble; it is likely that this was part of a complex of late Iron Age buildings, on the wreckage of which the chapel was built. It is possible that that a broch lies at the core of the mound, on the lower SE slope of which a revetment-wall, 1.9m high and traceable for 11m, may be part of an outer wall or ringwork. A few metres to the N of the chapel are the footings of two small subrectangular buildings of indeterminate date. A cross-slab is said to have been seen some years ago in the deep water besides the islet, but an attempted recovery was unsuccessful.

St Tredwell or Triduana is associated as a 'holy virgin' with St Boniface in a medieval account of the mission from Jarrow to Pictland in 710 invited by King Nechtan. Legend has it that Nechtan fell in love with Triduana and praised her beautiful eyes. She responded by plucking them out and sending them to him skewered on a twig. Miraculous cures are associated with St Tredwell, particularly in those suffering from eye afflictions. Pilgrims travelled to Papay from all of Orkney and the north seeking a cure. Marwick, in a paper written in 1925, cites John Brand in his Brief Description of Orkney (1700) as having much to say of the chapel:

People used to come to it from other isles; before the chapel door was a heap of small stones, "into which the Superstituous People when they come, do cast a small stone or two for their offering, and some will cast in Money"; the loch is "held by the People as Medicinal"; "a Gentleman in the Countrey, who was much distressed with sore Eyes, went to this Loch and Washing there became sound and whole...with both which persons he who was Minister of the place for many years was well acquainted and told us that he saw them both before and after the Cure: The present minister of Westra told me that such as are able to walk use to go so many times about the Loch, as they think will perfect the cure before they make any use of the water, and that without speaking to any... not long since, he went to this Loch and found six so making their circuit..." "As for this Loch's appearing like Blood, before any disaster befal the Royal Family, as some do report, we could find no ground to believe any such thing.

In the 19th century the Minister of Westray, John Armit, noted that:

Such was the veneration entertained by the inhabitants for this ancient saint, that it was with difficulty that the first Presbyterian minister of the parish could restrain them, of a Sunday morning, from paying their devotions at this ruin, previous to their attendance on public worship in the reformed church. Wonders, in the way of cure of bodily disease, are said to have been wrought by this saint, whose fame is now passed away and name almost forgotten.

Dedication to St Triduana

Ss Ninian and Triduana’s Church, Edinburgh is a Roman Catholic church dedicated to St. Triduana.

St. Ywi October 8

 St. Ywi

Feastday: October 8

Death: 690

Ywi (d.c. 690) + Benedictine monk and hermit at Lindisfarne Abbey, England. He was ordained a deacon by St. Cuthbert. When Ywi died as a hermit, his relics were enshrined at Wilton, near Salisbury. Feastday: October 8.

Iwig (alternatively, Iwi, Iwigius, or Ywi of Lindisfarne) was a saint venerated in Wiltshire in the Middle Ages. He was reputedly a Northumbrian monk, said to have died and to have been buried in Brittany.[1] Historian David Dumville called him "the other principal saint of Wilton", in reference to Saint Eadgyth.[2] He was supposedly a follower (alumnus) of Saint Cuthbert.[3]

He is listed in two 11th-century litanies.[1] A narrative of this century claimed that his relics had been brought to Wilton Abbey by Breton monks in the 10th-century, and left for safe-keeping at the altar of Saint Eadgyth.[1] The narrative claims that the relics subsequently became immovable [through the wish of the saint to reside there], though historian John Blair suspected that this story may have been invented to justify Wilton's theft of the relics.[1]

His feast day was celebrated on 8 October.[4] The Priory of Ivychurch in Wiltshire is thought to have been named after him.[3]

St. Artaldus October 7

 St. Artaldus

Feastday: October 7

Birth: 1101

Death: 1206

Artaldus (also called Arthaud) was born in the castle of Sothonod in Savoy. At the age of eighteen, he went to the court of Duke Amadeus III, but a year or two after, he became a Carthusian at Portes. After many years, being a priest and an experienced and holy religious, he was sent by the prior of the Grande Chartreuse to found a charterhouse near his home, in a valley in the Valromey significantly called "the cemetery". Here Artaldus established himself with six of his brethren from Portes. The community was no sooner well settled down, than there buildings were destroyed by fire, and St. Artaldus had to begin all over again. He chose a fresh site on the Arvieres River, and his second foundation was soon built and occupied. But a Carthusian cell could not contain the ever-increasing reputation of Artaldus: like his master St. Bruno, he was consulted by the Pope, and when he was well over eighty, he was called from his monastery to be bishop of Belley, in spite of his vehement and reasonable protest. However, after less than two years of episcopate, his resignation was accepted, and he thankfully returned to Arvieres, where he lived in peace for the rest of his days. During his last years, he was visited by St. Hugh of Lincoln, who had come into France, and who, while he was prior of the charterhouse of Witham, had induced Henry II to become a benefactor of Arvieres. The Magna vita of St. Hugh records a gentle rebuke administered by Hugh when Artaldus asked him for political news in the presence of the community who had turned their backs upon the world to give themselves entirely to God. The cultus of St. Artaldus, called simply Blessed by the Carthusians, was confirmed for the diocese of Belley in 1834. He was 105 years old when he died and his feast day is October 7th.

Artaldus, also known as Arthaud, was a 13th-century Carthusian Bishop of Belley.

Early life

Born in the castle of Sothonod in Savoy, in 1101. Much of his childhood is not known but at the age of eighteen, Artaldus entered the court of Duke Amadeus III, but after a year or so he left to become a priest.

Early religious life

Artaldus entered the Carthusian house of Portes Charterhouse in modern-day Bénonces. There he was ordained a priest. He spent many years serving as a priest before being sent by the prior of the Grande Chartreuse to found a charterhouse near a valley in the Valromey, a place that was known as "the cemetery". Artaldus decided to take with him six fellow priests from the Portes Charterhouse to establish this new community. The community had to move when the newly built charterhouse buildings were ravaged by fire. Artaldus chose a fresh site on the Arvières River, and the Arvières Charterhouse was founded and dedicated to Our Lady, in 1132.

Appointment as Bishop of Belley

In the years spent at Arvière, Artaldus gained considerable fame and a great reputation, like that of St. Bruno, his master. Similar to St. Bruno, Artaldus was called from his monastery, to accept the role of serving as a bishop. This was at the See of Belley. Artaldus, who was over eighty when called to the post, less than two years later he resigned and returned to Arvières.

Later life and death

In his later years Artaldus was visited by Hugh of Lincoln, who had convinced King Henry II of England to become a benefactor of the charterhouse at Arvières. Artaldus who live the remainder of his days at Arvières, living until the age of 105, he died in 1206. His cultus was confirmed in 1834, by Pope Gregory XVI.

St. Adalgis October 7

 St. Adalgis

Feastday: October 7

Death: 850

Bishop and influential churchman. From 830 to circa 850, Adalgis served the diocese of Novara, Italy. He also served Emperor Lothair I of the Franks.

St. Augustus October 7

 St. Augustus

Feastday: October 7

Death: 6th century

Abbot of Bourges, in France, and a friend of St. Germanus of Paris. Also called Aout, Augustus discovered the remains of St. Ursinus.

St. Canog October 7

 St. Canog

Feastday: October 7

Death: 492

Martyr and eldest son of the local king of Brecknock in Wales. He was slain by barbarians at Merthyr-Cynog. In Brittany, France, he is called St Cenneur. Several churches in Wales honor him.

St. Dubtach October 7

 St. Dubtach

Feastday: October 7

Death: 513

The arch-bishop of Armagh, Ireland, from 497 until his death.

St. Helanus October 7

 St. Helanus

Feastday: October 7

Death: 6th century

Irish hermit who went to France with six brothers and three sisters. They settled in Reims, where Helanus became a priest.

St. Osyth October 7

 St. Osyth

Feastday: October 7

Death: 700

Martyred nun, also called Osith and Sytha. Known mainly through legends, she was supposedly the daughter of a chieftain of the Mercians in England and Wilburga, daughter of the powerful pagan king Penda of Mercia. Raised in a convent, Osyth desired to become a nun but was married against her will to King Sighere of Essex, by whom she had a son. Eventually, she won his permission to enter a convent, and she established a monastery on land at Chich, Essex, donated by Sighere, where she served as an abbess. She was reputedly slain by Danish raiders and is thus depicted in art as carrying her own head. There are historical difficulties associated with her existence, especially as no mention is made of her by Bede in his Ecclesiastical History.

Osgyth (or Osyth; died c. 700 AD) was an English saint. She is primarily commemorated in the village of Saint Osyth, Essex, near Colchester. Alternative spellings of her name include Sythe, Othith and Ositha. Born of a noble family, she founded a priory near Chich which was later named after her.

Life

Born in Quarrendon, Buckinghamshire (at that time part of Mercia), she was the daughter of Frithwald, a sub-king of Mercia in Surrey. Her mother was Wilburga, the daughter of the pagan King Penda of Mercia.[2] Her parents, with St. Erconwald, founded Chertsey Abbey in AD 675.

Raised in the care of her maternal aunts, St Edith of Aylesbury and Edburga of Bicester, her ambition was to become an abbess, but she was too important as a political pawn to be set aside.[3] She was forced by her father into a dynastic marriage with Sighere, King of Essex. While her husband ran off to hunt down a beautiful white stag, Osgyth persuaded two local bishops to accept her vows as a nun. Upon his return some days later, he reluctantly agreed to her decision and granted her some land at Chich near Colchester where she established a convent,[2] and ruled as first abbess. She was beheaded by some raiding pirates, perhaps because she may have resisted being carried off.[2]

Legends

One day, St. Edith sent Osgyth, to deliver a book to St. Modwenna of Northumbria at her nunnery. To get there, reach Osgyth had to cross a stream by a bridge. The stream swollen, the wind high, she fell into the water and drowned. Her absence was not noted for two days. Edith thought she was safe with Modwenna who was not expecting her visit. On the third day, Edith, wondering that her pupil had not returned, went to Modwenna. The abbesses were greatly concerned when they discovered Osgyth was apparently lost. They searched for her and found the child lying near the banks of the stream. The abbesses prayed for her restoration, and commanded her to arise from the water and come to them. This she did.[4] A similar tale is found in Irish hagiography.

Her later death was accounted a martyrdom by some, but Bede makes no mention of Saint Osgyth. The 13th-century chronicler Matthew Paris repeats some of the legend that had accrued around her name. The site of her martyrdom became transferred to the holy spring at Quarrendon. The holy spring at Quarrendon, mentioned in the time of Osgyth's aunts, now became associated with her legend, in which Osgyth stood up after her execution, picking up her head like Saint Denis in Paris, and other cephalophoric martyrs and walking with it in her hands, to the door of a local convent, before collapsing there. Some modern authors link the legends of cephalophores miraculously walking with their heads in their hands[5] to the Celtic cult of heads.

Gatehouse of the former St Osyth's Priory (later abbey), St Osyth, Essex

Veneration

On the site of a former nunnery at Chich, Richard de Belmeis of London, in the reign of Henry I founded a priory for canons of Saint Augustine, and dedicated it to Saint Osgyth;[3] his remains were buried in the chancel of the church in 1127: he bequeathed the church and tithes to the canons, who elected as their first abbot or prior William de Corbeil, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury (died in 1136).

His benefactions, and charters and privileges granted by Henry II, made the Canons wealthy: at the Dissolution of the monasteries in 1536, its revenues were valued at £758 5s. 8d. yearly. In 1397 the abbot of St Osgyth was granted the right to wear a mitre and give the solemn benediction, and, more singularly, the right to ordain priests, conferred by Pope Boniface IX.[6] The gatehouse (illustrated), the so-called 'Abbot's Tower' and some ranges of buildings remain.

Osgyth's burial site at St. Mary the Virgin, Aylesbury became a site of great, though unauthorized pilgrimage; following a papal decree in 1500, the bones were removed from the church and buried in secret. The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) gives Saint Osgyth no mention. Undeterred, according to the curious 17th-century antiquary John Aubrey (author of the Brief Lives), "in those days, when they went to bed they did rake up the fire, and make a X on the ashes, and pray to God and Saint Sythe (Saint Osgyth) to deliver them from fire, and from water, and from all misadventure." A house in Aylesbury is still called St Osyth's in her honour.

Her feast day is 7 October. She is normally depicted carrying her own head.[citation needed]

St. Palladius October 7

 St. Palladius

October 7

Death: 590

 St. Benedict Home Blessing Door Hanger  BOGO 50% OFF

Bishop of Saintes from 570. His sainthood is questionable.

St. Sergius & Bacehus October 7

 St. Sergius & Bacehus

Feastday: October 7

Patron: of Syria, army, soldiers

Death: 303

This legend has Sergius an officer in the Roman army and Bacchus, an officer under him, and both were friends of Emperor Maximian. When they did not enter a temple of Jupiter with the Emperor, he ordered them to do so. When they further refused his order that they sacrifice to pagan gods, they were humiliated by being led through the streets of Arabissus in women's garb and then sent to Rosafa, Mesopotamia, where they were scourged so terribly that Bacchus died of the scourging; Sergius was then tortured further and beheaded.Their feast day is October 7th.

"Saint Sergius" redirects here. For other uses, see Saint Sergius (disambiguation).

Saints Sergius (or Serge) and Bacchus were fourth-century Roman Christian soldiers revered as martyrs and military saints by the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches. Their feast day is 7 October.

According to their hagiography, Sergius and Bacchus were officers in Galerius' army, and were held high in his favor until they were exposed as secret Christians. They were then severely punished, with Bacchus dying during torture, and Sergius eventually beheaded. However, due to its historical anachronisms, the hagiography is considered ahistorical.

Sergius and Bacchus were very popular throughout Late Antiquity, and churches in their honor were built in several cities, including Constantinople and Rome. The close friendship between the two is strongly emphasized in their hagiographies and traditions, making them one of the most famous examples of paired saints. This closeness led the historian John Boswell to suggest that their relationship was a romantic one; though other historians have widely rejected this theory, it has led to popular veneration of Sergius and Bacchus in the gay Christian community.

Martyrs Saints Sergius and Bacchus

The saints' story is told in the Greek text known as The Passion of Sergius and Bacchus. The story is ostensibly set during the reign of Roman emperor Galerius (305 to 311), though it contains a number of contradictions and anachronisms that make dating difficult. The work itself may date to the mid-5th century.[2]

According to the text, Sergius and Bacchus were Roman citizens and high-ranking officers of the Roman army, but their covert Christianity was discovered when they attempted to avoid accompanying a Roman official into a pagan temple with the rest of his bodyguard. After they persisted in refusing to sacrifice to Jupiter in Galerius' company, they were publicly humiliated by being chained, dressed in female attire and paraded around town. Galerius then sent them to Barbalissos in Mesopotamia to be tried by Antiochus, the military commander there and an old friend of Sergius. Antiochus could not convince them to give up their faith, however, and Bacchus was beaten to death. The next day Bacchus' spirit appeared to Sergius and encouraged him to remain strong so they could be together forever. Over the next days, Sergius was also brutally tortured and finally executed at Resafa, where his death was marked by miraculous happenings.[2]

Historicity

The Passion, replete with supernatural occurrences and historical anachronisms, has been dismissed as an unreliable historical source. The work has been dated to mid-5th century, and there is no other evidence for the cult of Sergius and Bacchus before about 425, over a century after they are said to have died. As such, there is considerable doubt about their historicity.[2]

There is no firm evidence for Sergius and Bacchus' schola gentilium having been used by Galerius or any other emperor before Constantine I, and given that persecution of Christians had begun in the army considerably before the overall persecutions of the early 4th century, it is very unlikely that even secret Christians could have risen through the ranks of the imperial bodyguard. Finally, there is no evidence to support the existence of monks, such as the ones said in the Passion to have recovered Bacchus' body, living near the Euphrates during the 4th century.[2]

Instead, the Italian scholar Pio Franchi de Cavalieri has argued that The Passion of Sergius and Bacchus was based on an earlier lost passion of Juventinus and Maximinus, two saints martyred under Emperor Julian the Apostate in 363. He noted especially that the punishment of being paraded around in women's clothes reflected the treatment of Christian soldiers by Julian.[3] Historian David Woods further notes that Zosimus' Historia Nova includes a description of Julian punishing cavalry deserters in just such a manner, further strengthening the argument that the author of The Passion of Sergius and Bacchus took material from the stories of martyrs of Julian's time rather than that of Galerius.[2]

Woods argues that the tradition of the saints' martyrdom is a later development that became attached to otherwise obscure relics in the 5th century and that the Passion is a fiction composed after their cult had become popular. He concludes that "the martyrs Sergius and Bacchus did not exist as such".[2] Christopher Walter considers Sergius analogous to Saint George, "whose historicity is accepted, even if nothing genuine about his life is known." He suggests that Woods maybe "almost as inventive as the hagiographers themselves" in proposing lost sources for which there is no evidence. He accepts that at least some of the information in the Passion is accurate.[4]

Popularity and veneration

Basilica of Saint Sergius, Rasafa, Syria

Veneration of the two saints dates to the fifth century. A shrine to Sergius was built in Resafa (renamed Sergiopolis around 425), but there is no certain evidence for his or Bacchus' cult much older than that. Their cult grew rapidly during the early fifth century, in accordance with the growth of the cult of martyrs, especially military martyrs, during the period. The Resafa shrine was constructed of mudbrick, evidently at the behest of bishop Alexander of Hierapolis. The Passion has been dated to the mid-5th century on the grounds that it describes the construction of such a shrine as if it were a relatively recent occurrence. The original shrine was replaced with a sturdier stone structure in 518; this new site was patronized by important political figures including Roman emperor Justinian I, emperor Khosrow II of the Sassanid Empire, and al-Mundhir III ibn al-Harith, ruler of the Ghassanids.[2]

Traditionally, the feast day of Sergius and Bacchus has been celebrated on 7 October in the West.[5][6] In the Tridentine Calendar they shared the day with Pope Mark and the martyred pair Marcellus and Apuleius. In 1716, this day became the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, and the commemoration of Sergius, Bacchus and the other saints was moved to 8 October. They were restored to 7 October in 1969.[7]

Little Hagia Sophia (Church of the Saints Sergius and Bacchus), Istanbul, Turkey

In the Byzantine Empire, they were venerated as protectors of the army. A large monastery church, the Little Hagia Sophia, was dedicated to them in Constantinople by Justinian I, probably in 527. According to legend, during the reign of Justin I, his nephew Justinian had been accused of plotting against the throne and was sentenced to death, which was reversed after Saints Sergius and Bacchus appeared before Justin and vouched for Justinian’s innocence. He was freed and restored to his title of Caesar, and in gratitude vowed that he would dedicate a church to the saints once he became emperor. The construction of this Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, between 527 and 536 AD (only a short time before the erection of the Hagia Sophia between 532 and 537), was one of the first acts of the reign of Justinian I.[8]

Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, Rome, Italy

Sergius was a very popular saint in Syria and Christian Arabia. The city of Resafa, which became a bishop's see, took the name Sergiopolis and preserved his relics in a fortified basilica. Resafa was improved by Emperor Justinian and became one of the greatest pilgrimage centers in the East. Many other churches were built dedicated in the name of Sergius, sometimes with Bacchus. A church dedicated to Santi Sergio e Bacco was built in Rome in the 9th century. Christian art represents the two saints as soldiers in military garb with branches of palm in their hands. Their feast is observed on 7 October, and a Mass is assigned to them in the "Sacramentarium" of Pope Gelasius. The nomads of the desert looked upon Sergius as their special patron saint.

In the Armenian Church traditions Sergius, or Sarkis, was venerated as a Christian general in the Roman army. He was martyred with his son, Martyros, for witnessing to their faith in Christ. The feast is preceded by three-day fasting.

Robert Lentz's 1994 icon of Saints Sergius and Bacchus

The close friendship between the two is strongly emphasized in their hagiographies and traditions, making them one of the most famous examples of paired saints; scholar John Boswell considers them to be the most influential set of such an archetype, more so than even Saints Peter and Paul.[9][10] In his Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe, Boswell further argues that Sergius and Bacchus's relationship can be understood as having a romantic dimension, noting that the oldest text of their martyrology describes them as erastai, which can be translated as "lovers".[11] He suggested that the two were even united in a rite known as adelphopoiesis or "brother-making", which he argued was a type of early Christian same-sex union or blessing, reinforcing his view of tolerant early Christian attitudes toward homosexuality.[11] Boswell's methodology and conclusions have been disputed by many historians.[2][12][13][14][15][16][17]

Regardless, in the wake of Boswell's work, Sergius and Bacchus have become popularly venerated in the gay Christian community.[18][19] A 1994 icon of Sergius and Bacchus by the gay Franciscan iconographer Robert Lentz, first displayed at Chicago's Gay Pride Parade, has become a popular gay symbol.[20]

Saint Bridget of SwedenPatron Saint of Sweden. October 7

Saint Bridget of Sweden

Patron Saint of Sweden

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Saint Bridget of Sweden’s Story

 

St. Bridget was born of the Swedish royal family, in 1304. In obedience to her father, she was married to Prince Ulpho of Sweden, and became the mother of eight children, one of whom, Catherine, is honored as a Saint. After some years she and her husband separated by mutual consent. He entered the Cistercian Order, and Bridget founded the Order of St. Saviour, in the Abbey of Wastein, in Sweden. In 1344 she became a widow, and thenceforth received a series of the most sublime revelations, all of which she scrupulously submitted to the judgment of her confessor. By the command of Our Lord, Bridget went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and amidst the very scenes of the Passion was further instructed in the sacred mysteries. She died in 1373.

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