St. Maharsapor
Feastday: October 10
Martyr of Persia, with Narses and Sabutake, who suffered under King Varahran V. He was imprisoned for three years. Refusing to deny the faith, Maharsapor was thrown into a deep pit where he died of starvation. He is sometimes listed as Sapor.
Bl. Mary Angela Truszkowska
Feastday: October 10
Death: 1899
Beatified: Pope John Paul II
Blessed Mary Angela, baptized as Sophia Camille, was born in Kalisz, Poland on May 16, 1825. Her parents, Joseph and Josephine Truszkowski, from noble families of the landed gentry, were well educated, devout Catholics and loyal patriots.
Sophia was a highly intelligent, generous, vivacious but frail child. She began her education at home under a private tutor. When the family moved to Warsaw in 1837, Sophia was enrolled in the then prestigious Academy of Madame Guerin.
Because of ill health, Sophia was withdrawn from the Academy and continued her education at home where she availed herself of her father's vast library. She read extensively and, with profound insight, studied the causes and effects of contemporary social problems. Her father, in sharing his experiences as judge in the juvenile courts, broadened her knowledge of the social evils of her day. He helped to shape her sense of justice in an unjust world.
Already from her childhood, Sophia was drawn to prayer and genuine concern for others; but it was in 1848 at the age of 23 that she experienced a great change in her spiritual life which she herself called her "conversion". This was the beginning of a more intensive interior life which manifested itself in a growing devotion to the Holy Eucharist, a greater love of prayer and a more ascetic life. She seriously considered joining the cloistered Visitation Sisters but her confessor advised her not to leave her ailing father. Later, while traveling with him through Germany, Sophia was enlightened by the Lord during her prayer in the cathedral of Cologne that, despite her love of prayer and solitude, she was destined to go among the suffering poor and to serve Christ in them through prayer and sacrifice. She became a member of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. During the day she worked zealously for the cause of the poor and at night she prayed, constantly searching for God's will for herself.
Finally, Sophia discovered her path and forged ahead independently. By this time she had a crystallized vision of her mission. Acknowledging that the evils of her day were due to broken families, a licentious social milieu and a lack of religious and moral training, she undertook the moral and religious education of poor neglected children, gradually extending her spacious heart to the downtrodden, the exploited, the aged and homeless. With her father’s financial help and her cousin Clothilde’s assistance she rented two attic rooms. This center then became the acclaimed "Institute of Sophia Truszkowska" which began to serve as a conscience of its cultural milieu.
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Here, before an icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa, Sophia - now named Angela - together with Clothilde solemnly dedicated themselves on the feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, November 21, 1855, to do the will of her Son, Jesus Christ, in all things. Hereafter, this was recorded as the official founding day of the Congregation of the Sisters of St.Felix of Cantalice. Mother Angela determined that the aim of her Congregation was that "in all and by all, God may be known, loved and glorified".
Mother Angela was not only a deeply spiritual woman but a truly enlightened woman of her day. Her community, unique to the then traditional religious life in Poland, was innovative in pioneering nontraditional leadership roles for women and service-oriented roles to meet the needs of the times. However, she integrated these nontraditional roles with the existing forms of religious life, thereby uniting ministry and contemplation within the framework of her own charism.
Through her life, work and personal holiness, the Foundress marked out the role and destiny of this 19th century innovation in Poland. As one of the first active-contemplative communities, her sisters actualized the Gospel message in generating needed social changes, actively survived political suppression of foreign conquerors, and assumed a vital and lasting role in the mission of the Church.
Mother Angela envisioned service for God’s kingdom on earth as all-embracing. When the Church called, the Felician Sisters responded. The myriad of ministries in which they engaged ranged from social and catechetical centers to converted makeshift hospitals for the wounded guerrilla fighters, including Russian and Polish soldiers - the oppressors with the oppressed - with a charity that made no distinctions.
For three successive terms, Mother Angela was elected as superior general of the Congregation. Her desire to multiply herself a thousand times and travel to all parts of the world, to live God’s love and teach his merciful love to all living souls was realized in God’s own way. At the age of 44, at the peak of human competency, the Foundress moved aside and placed her Congregation in the hands of another. She abandoned herself to God’s will and for 30 long years she lived in complete hiddenness suffering progressive deafness, malignant tumors, and excruciating headaches.
Despite the fact that she retired into the background, her concern for the sisters remained very much alive. As foundress and mother of the Congregation, she was the inspirator in the writing of the Constitutions, the initiator of new ministries and, above all, mother and guide to her spiritual daughters. She exerted her influence through letters, petitions, and even confrontations to bring to fruition the vision she had for her Congregation of Felician Sisters. She heartily endorsed the plan to send sisters to America and personally blessed the five pioneers as they left in 1874.
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Her submission to God’s will gradually brought her to a complete union with Him in the long mystic experience of her annihilation. Hers was a spirituality of essentials. There were no extraordinary forms of prayer, no visions, ecstasies, or divine revelations. Her lasting legacy of love is the childlike love and imitation of the virtues of Mary, and the Eucharistic spirituality which she bequeathed to her spiritual daughters as a way of life. To this day every provincial house of the Congregation of Sisters of St. Felix of Cantalice has the privilege of public exposition and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament throughout the day.
Mother Mary Angela died on October 10, 1899, at 12:45 a.m. Her face, ravaged by suffering, in death took on an expression of peace and quiet dignity. Victory over death shone in the gentle countenance of her face, and the sisters claimed that she was so beautiful and pleasing to look at that they could scarcely take their eyes off her. By special authorization of the municipality of Cracow, Mother Mary Angela Truszkowska was buried in the chapel adjoining the convent of the Felician Sisters on SmolenskStreet.
For this world today, Blessed Mary Angela Truszkowska remains an example of true femininity, a woman of conviction; a woman who has dared to be prophetic; a religious who has inspired and challenged many to action and contemplation.
Blessed Mary Angela, Foundress
Chapel (1936) of the Felician Sisters in Livonia, Michigan.
The Felician Sisters, officially known as the Congregation of Sisters of St. Felix of Cantalice Third Order Regular of St. Francis of Assisi (CSSF), is a religious institute of pontifical right whose members profess public vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience and follow the evangelical way of life in common. This active-contemplative religious institute was founded in Warsaw, Poland, in 1855, by Sophia Truszkowska, and named for a shrine of St. Felix, a 16th-century Capuchin saint especially devoted to children.
Foundation
When Sophia Camille Truszkowska was twelve years of age, her family moved to Warsaw where her father took up the position of Registrar of Deeds. Initially, she wished to become a Visitation nun, but in 1854 she joined the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and began to work among the poor. With her father’s financial assistance, she rented a flat in order to care for several orphaned girls and aged women. Sophia was joined in her work by her cousin and close friend, Clothilde Ciechanowska. Later that year they became lay members of the Franciscan Third Order. On the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, November 21, 1855, while praying before an icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa, they solemnly dedicated themselves to do the will of Jesus Christ in all things. Hereafter this was recorded as the official founding day of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Felix of Cantalice.[1]
People began calling them "Sisters of St. Felix." in reference to the shrine of St. Felix of Cantalice at a nearby Capuchin church. They were popularly referred to as "Felician Sisters," the name by which the community is still known. In 1857, she and several associates took the Franciscan habit. Sophia took the new name of Mary Angela.[2] In 1869 health problems caused her to withdraw from administration of the Congregation. She spent the next thirty years on assignments in the garden and greenhouse, tending flowers for the chapel and in the liturgical vestment sewing room, embroidering altar cloths and chasubles. She died at the provincial house in Kraków on October 10, 1899.[3] Mother Mary Angela Truszkowska was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1993.
Expansion
The Felician sisters came to the United States in 1874, at the invitation of Rev. Joseph Dabrowski, pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Polonia, Wisconsin. There they taught in the parish school.
In 1947 Felician Sisters of Our Lady of the Angels Province, Enfield, Connecticut, accepted an offer to purchase the Paine Private Hospital located in Bangor, Maine; the name of the facility was changed to St. Joseph Hospital.[4]
Eventually, their work spread to Canada and Haiti.
Religious habit
Most Felician Sisters maintain the religious garb of their Foundress, Blessed Mary Angela Truszkowska, consisting of a brown habit (beige during summer months), scapular, (jacket at specified times), headdress, black veil, collar, Felician wooden crucifix suspended on tape or cord, and simple ring received at final profession. This remains a discipline in the Kraków, Przemyśl and Warsaw provinces in Poland, and a treasured tradition in the former Livonia and Enfield provinces in North America. At the 1994 General Chapter, a proposal passed allowing the sisters to wear an alternate habit consisting of a brown, black, beige or white skirt, blazer, suit or jumper along with a white blouse. Sisters wearing the alternate habit wear the Felician Crucifix along with the ring received at final profession and may wear it with our without a veil.
Ministry
The Felician Sisters have always sought to harmonize a deep spiritual and community life with dedication to diverse acts of mercy. As of 2014, there were 1,800 professed members of the Felician Sisters, with about 700 in the North American Province.[5] They use the abbreviation/post-nominal C.S.S.F. (Congregation of the Sisters of St. Felix).
They remain active in education, operating, among other facilities, the St. Mary Child Care Center in Livonia, Michigan; Immaculate Conception High School, founded in 1915 in Lodi, New Jersey; and Villa Maria College in Buffalo, New York.[6] Built on the site of a former Felician orphanage, Our Lady of Grace Village in Newark, Delaware is a 60-unit affordable housing community.[7] The St. Felix Centre in Toronto, Canada offers Respite services.[8] In Holly, Michigan, they run the Maryville Retreat Center.[9]
St. Patricain
Feastday: October 10
Death: 5th century
Scottish bishop. He endured much hardship at the hands of pagan raiders and was eventually forced to leave his see because of their predations. It is believed he died on the Isle of Man.
St. Paulinus of Capua
Feastday: October 10
Death: 843
Bishop of Capua. Paulinus was from England and, according to tradition, he was on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem when he stopped at Capua, Italy. For whatever reason, the inhabitants of the city compelled him to become their bishop. His term as bishop was deeply troubled by the predations of Saracen raiders, and he died at Sicopolis, the city to which he fled when Capua was overrun by the Saracens.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Capua (Latin: Archidioecesis Capuana) is an archdiocese (originally a suffragan bishopric) of the Roman Catholic Church in Capua, in Campania, Italy, but its archbishop no longer holds metropolitan rank and has no ecclesiastical province.[1][2] Since 1979, it is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Napoli, i.e. no longer has its own ecclesiastical province nor metropolitan status.
History
According to the tradition, Christianity was first preached at Capua by St. Priscus, a disciple of St. Peter. In the martyrology mention is made of many Capuan martyrs, and it is probable that, owing to its position and importance, Capua received the Christian doctrine at a very early period.
The first bishop of whom there is positive record is Proterius (Protus), present at the Roman Council under Pope Melchiades in 313.[3]
Bishop Memorius, who held a council to deal with the Schism of Antioch and the heresy of Bonosus, is often mentioned in the letters of St. Augustine and St. Paulinus, and was the father of the ardent Pelagian Julian of Eclanum.[4]
In 841, during the bishopric of Paulinus, a band of Saracens destroyed Capua, and much of the population emigrated in a new town founded in another location. The episcopal see was moved there; later the old city, growing around the ancient basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, was repopulated and called Santa Maria di Capua (current Santa Maria Capua Vetere). It is part of the current archdiocese of Capua. The first bishop of the diocese of Capua Nova ("New Capua") was Landulf (843–879).[5]
In 968 pope John XIII took refuge in Capua, and in gratitude raised the see to archiepiscopal rank on 14 August 966. First archbishop was John (966–973).
On 24 December 1108, Pope Paschal II, who had been staying at Benevento for some months, visited Capua at the request of Abbot Bruno of Montecassino, and dedicated the renovated church of S. Benedict in Capua.[6]
Cathedral and Chapter
In the 13th century, the cathedral had more than fifty-two clerics called canonici. Archbishop Marino Filomarino (1252–1285) reduced the number to forty, ten priests, ten deacons, and twenty subdeacons. They were originally presided over by a dignity called the Archpriest, though the name was later changed to Dean. There was also an Archdeacon.[7] In 1698 there were four dignities (the Dean, the Archdeacon, and two Primicerii)[8]
Councils at Capua
In Lent 1087, an important conference of cardinals and bishops took place at Capua with Cardinal Desiderius, the Abbot of Montecassino. A prominent part in the proceedings was taken by Cincius, the consul of Rome, Jordan Prince of Capua, and Duke Roger of Apulia and Calabria. On 24 May 1086, Desiderius had been the leading candidate in the papal election to succeed Pope Gregory VII, but he steadfastly refused the election. Finally he was prevailed upon to assume the papal mantle, but he had second thoughts and removed himself to Terracina. The conference at Capua put strong pressure on him to reassume the papal throne, and, on 21 March 1087, he relented. Finally he was crowned in Rome on 9 May 1087 as Pope Victor III.[9]
On 7 April 1118, Pope Gelasius II, who had been forced to flee from Rome on 1 March, held a council in Capua; the Emperor Henry V, who had seized Rome, and the antipope Gregory VIII (Martin Burdinus, Bishop of Braga), who crowned him emperor, were excommunicated.[10]
In 1569, Cardinal Niccolò Caetani di Sermoneta (1546–1585) presided over a provincial council in Capua.[11] Archbishop Cesare Costa (1572–1602) held a provincial council on 2 November 1577.[12] On 6–9 April 1603, Archbishop Robert Bellarmine (1602–1605) presided at a provincial council in Capua.[13] The next provincial council took place in 1859, two hundred and fifty-six years after Bellarmine's council.[14]
Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1602–1605) held a diocesan synod in 1603.[15] Cardinal Niccolò Caracciolo (1703–1728) held a diocesan synod in Capua on Pentecost Sunday, 1726.[16]
Loss of metropolitan status
Following the Second Vatican Council, and in accordance with the norms laid out in the Council's decree, Christus Dominus chapter 40,[17] major changes were made in the ecclesiastical administrative structure of southern Italy. Wide consultations had taken place with the bishops and other prelates who would be affected. Action, however, was deferred, first by the death of Pope Paul VI on 6 August 1978, then the death of Pope John Paul I on 28 September 1978, and the election of Pope John Paul II on 16 October 1978. Pope John Paul II issued a decree, "Quamquam Ecclesia," on 30 April 1979, ordering the changes. Three ecclesiastical provinces were abolished entirely: those of Conza, Capua, and Sorrento. A new ecclesiastical province was created, to be called the Regio Campana, whose Metropolitan was the Archbishop of Naples. The dioceses formerly members of the suppressed Province of Capua (Gaeta, Calvi and Chieti, Caserta, and Sessa Arunca) became suffragans of Naples. The archbishop of Capua himself retained the title of Archbishop, but the diocese became a suffragan of Naples.[18]
St. Paulinus of York
Feastday: October 10
Birth: 584
Death: 644
Image of St. Paulinus of York
Missionary and bishop of York. A Roman monk, in 60 ihe was named by Pope St. Gregory I the Great to accompany Sts. Justus and Mellitus on their missionto England to advance the cause of evangelization undertaken by St. Augustine of Canterbury Paulinus labored for some twenty four years in Kent and, in 625, was ordained bishop of Kent. He was also responsible for bringing Christianity to Northumbria, baptizing the pagan king Edwin of Northumbria on Easter 627, and then converting thousands of other Northumbrians. Following the defeat and death of Edwin by pagan Mercians at the Battle of Hatfield in 633, Paulinus was driven from his see, and he returned to Kent with Edwin's widow Ethelburga, her two children, and Edwin's grandson Osfrid. Paulinus then took up the see of Rochester, which he headed until his death.
This article is about the 7th century missionary and saint. For other uses, see Saint Paulinus (disambiguation) and Paulinus (disambiguation).
Paulinus[a] (died 10 October 644) was a Roman missionary and the first Bishop of York.[b] A member of the Gregorian mission sent in 601 by Pope Gregory I to Christianize the Anglo-Saxons from their native Anglo-Saxon paganism, Paulinus arrived in England by 604 with the second missionary group. Little is known of Paulinus's activities in the following two decades.
After some years spent in Kent, perhaps in 625, Paulinus was consecrated a bishop. He accompanied Æthelburg of Kent, sister of King Eadbald of Kent, on her journey to Northumbria to marry King Edwin of Northumbria, and eventually succeeded in converting Edwin to Christianity. Paulinus also converted many of Edwin's subjects and built some churches. One of the women Paulinus baptised was a future saint, Hilda of Whitby. Following Edwin's death in 633, Paulinus and Æthelburg fled Northumbria, leaving behind a member of Paulinus's clergy, James the Deacon. Paulinus returned to Kent, where he became Bishop of Rochester. He received a pallium from the pope, symbolizing his appointment as Archbishop of York, but too late to be effective. After his death in 644, Paulinus was canonized as a saint and is now venerated in the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Anglican Churches.
Early life
Paulinus was a monk from Rome sent to the Kingdom of Kent by Pope Gregory I in 601, along with Mellitus and others, as part of the second group of missionaries sent to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity. He was probably an Italian by birth.[2] The second group of missionaries arrived in Kent by 604, but little is known of Paulinus's further activities until he went to Northumbria.[2]
Paulinus remained in Kent until 625, when he was consecrated as bishop by Justus, the Archbishop of Canterbury, on 21 July.[3] He then accompanied Æthelburg, the sister of King Eadbald of Kent, to Northumbria where she was to marry King Edwin of Northumbria. A condition of the marriage was that Edwin had promised that he would allow Æthelburg to remain a Christian and worship as she chose. Bede, writing in the early 8th century, reports that Paulinus wished to convert the Northumbrians, as well as provide religious services to the new queen.[2]
There is some difficulty with Bede's chronology on the date of Æthelburh's marriage, as surviving papal letters to Edwin urging him to convert imply that Eadbald only recently had become a Christian, which conflicts with Bede's chronology. The historian D. P. Kirby argues that Paulinus and Æthelburh must therefore have gone to Northumbria earlier than 624, and that Paulinus went north, not as a bishop, but as a priest, returning later to be consecrated.[4] The historian Henry Mayr-Harting agrees with Kirby's reasoning.[5] Another historian, Peter Hunter Blair, argues that Æthelburh and Edwin were married before 625, but that she did not go to Northumbria until 625.[4] If Kirby's arguments are accepted, then the date of Paulinus's consecration needs to be changed by a year, to 21 July 626.[6]
Bede describes Paulinus as "a man tall of stature, a little stooping, with black hair and a thin face, a hooked and thin nose, his aspect both venerable and awe-inspiring".[7]
Bishop of York
Map showing the kingdoms of Dyfed, Powys, and Gwynedd in the west central part of the island of Great Britain. Dumnonia is below those kingdoms. Mercia, Middle Anglia and East Anglia run across the middle of the island from west to east. Below those kingdoms are Wessex, Sussex and Kent, also from west to east. The northern kingdoms are Elmet, Deira, and Bernicia.
Map of some of the English kingdoms circa 600 AD
Bede relates that Paulinus told Edwin that the birth of his and Æthelburg's daughter at Easter 626 was because of Paulinus's prayers. The birth coincided with a foiled assassination attempt on the king by a group of West Saxons from Wessex. Edwin promised to convert to Christianity and allow his new daughter Eanflæd to be baptised if he won a victory over Wessex. He did not fulfill his promise immediately after his subsequent military success against the West Saxons however, only converting after Paulinus had revealed the details of a dream the king had before he took the throne, during his exile at the court of King Rædwald of East Anglia. In this dream, according to Bede, a stranger told Edwin that power would be his in the future when someone laid a hand on his head. As Paulinus was revealing the dream to Edwin, he laid his hand on the king's head, which was the proof Edwin needed. A late seventh-century hagiography of Pope Gregory I claims that Paulinus was the stranger in the vision;[2] if true, it might suggest that Paulinus spent some time at Rædwald's court,[8] although Bede does not mention any such visit.[2]
It is unlikely that it was supernatural affairs and Paulinus's persuasion alone that caused Edwin to convert. The Northumbrian nobles seem to have been willing and the king also received letters from Pope Boniface V urging his conversion.[2] Eventually convinced, Edwin and many of his followers were baptised at York in 627.[9] One story relates that during a stay with Edwin and Æthelburg at their palace in Yeavering, Paulinus spent 36 days baptising new converts.[9] Paulinus also was an active missionary in Lindsey,[10] and his missionary activities help show the limits of Edwin's royal authority.[11]
Pope Gregory's plan had been that York would be England's second metropolitan see, so Paulinus established his church there.[9] Although built of stone, no trace of it has been found.[2] Paulinus also built a number of churches on royal estates.[12] His church in Lincoln has been identified with the earliest building phase of the church of St Paul in the Bail.[2]
Among those consecrated by Paulinus were Hilda, later the founding abbess of Whitby Abbey,[13] and Hilda's successor, Eanflæd, Edwin's daughter.[14] As the only Roman bishop in England, Paulinus also consecrated another Gregorian missionary, Honorius, as Archbishop of Canterbury after Justus' death, some time between 628 and 631.[2]
Bishop of Rochester
Edwin was defeated by an alliance of Gwynedd Welsh and Mercian Angles, being killed at the Battle of Hatfield Chase, on a date traditionally given as 12 October 633.[2] One problem with the dating of the battle is that Pope Honorius I wrote in June 634 to Paulinus and Archbishop Honorius saying that he was sending a pallium, the symbol of an archbishop's authority, to each of them.[15] The pope's letter shows no hint that news of Edwin's death had reached Rome, almost nine months after the supposed date of the battle. The historian D. P. Kirby argues that this lack of awareness makes it more likely that the battle occurred in 634.[15]
Edwin's defeat and death caused his kingdom to fragment into at least two parts.[2] It also led to a sharp decline in Christianity in Northumbria[16] when Edwin's immediate successors reverted to paganism.[2] Widowed queen Æthelburg fled to her brother Eadbald's Kent kingdom. Paulinus went with her, along with Edwin and Æthelburg's son, daughter, and grandson. The two boys went to the continent for safety, to the court of King Dagobert I. Æthelburg, Eanflæd, and Paulinus remained in Kent, where Paulinus was offered the see, or bishopric, of Rochester, which he held until his death. Because the pallium did not reach Paulinus until after he had left York, it was of no use to him.[2] Paulinus's deputy, James the Deacon, remained in the north and struggled to rebuild the Roman mission,[16]
Death and veneration
Paulinus died on 10 October 644 at Rochester,[17][c] where he was buried in the sacristy of the church.[18] His successor at Rochester was Ithamar, the first Englishman consecrated to a Gregorian missionary see.[19] After Paulinus's death, Paulinus was revered as a saint, with a feast day on 10 October. When a new church was constructed at Rochester in the 1080s his relics, or remains, were translated (ritually moved) to a new shrine.[2] There also were shrines to Paulinus at Canterbury, and at least five churches were dedicated to him.[20] Although Rochester held some of Paulinus's relics, the promotion of his cult there appears to have occurred after the Norman Conquest.[21] He is considered a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, and the Orthodox Church.[22][23]
Paulinus's missionary efforts are difficult to evaluate. Bede implies that the mission in Northumbria was successful, but there is little supporting evidence, and it is more likely that Paulinus's missionary efforts there were relatively ineffectual. Although Osric, one of Edwin's successors, was converted to Christianity by Paulinus, he returned to paganism after Edwin's death. Hilda, however, remained a Christian, and eventually went on to become abbess of the influential Whitby Abbey.[2] Northumbria's conversion to Christianity was mainly achieved by Irish missionaries brought into the region by Edwin's eventual successor, Oswald.[24]
St. Pinytus
Feastday: October 10
Death: 180
Bishop of Crete. A Greek by birth, he was mentioned by Eusebius of Caesarea, who considered him one of the foremost ecclesiastical writers of his time.
Saint Pinytus (Greek: Άγιος Πινυτός) who was a Greek by birth, was Bishop of Cnossus in Crete[4] in the late 2nd century.
Not much is known about his life but it is known that Pinytus was looked up to by St. Eusebius of Caesarea, who said that he was one of the foremost ecclesiastical writers of his time.[5] Pinytus was in constant contact with Dionysius of Corinth and it seemed the two had disagreements. Dionysius, it appears, wrote to the Pinytus asking him not to impose too strict a yoke of chastity upon his brethren. But Pinytus was unmoved by this counsel and replied that Dionysius might impart stronger doctrine and feed his congregation with a more perfect epistle inasmuch as Christians could not always subsist on milk or tarry in childhood.[6] It may be that Pinytus was influenced by Montanistic views; however, Eusebius vouches for his orthodoxy and his care for the welfare of those placed under him.
St. Tanca
Feastday: October 10
Death: 637
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
Virgin and martyr. Born in Troyes, France, she was murdered while defending her virginity and was subsequently venerated as a martyr.
St. Victor and Companions
Feastday: October 10
Death: 286
A group of rnartyrs, numbering about three hundred and connected with the traditional account of the Theban Legion
St. Cassius
Feastday: October 10
Death: 303
Martyr with Florentius and companions at Bonn, Germany. The martyrs were victims of the persecution of co-Emperor Maximian
St. Aldericus
Feastday: October 10
Death: 841
Archbishop and scholar, born in the region of Gatinais, France. Aldericus became a Benedictine monk at Ferrieres, France, and then a priest in Sens. There he served as chancellor of the diocese, succeeding the archbishop in 828. Aldericus was a known ecclesiastical scholar and a promoter of such studies.
Sts. Denis, Rusticus, and Eleutherius
Feastday: October 9
Patron: of France; Paris; against frenzy, strife, headaches, hydrophobia, possessed people, rabies
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The first mention we have of these three martyrs who died around 258 A.D. comes in the sixth century in the writings of Saint Gregory of Tours.
Denis (or Dionysius as he is also called) is the most famous of the three. Born and raised in Italy, he was sent as a missionary to Gaul (now France) circa 250 A.D. by Pope St. Clement along with five other bishops.
Denis made his base of missionary activity an island in the Seine near the city of Lutetia Parisorium -- what would become Paris. For this reason he is know as the first bishop of Paris and the Apostle of France. There he was captured by the Parisians along with Rusticus and Eleutherius. Later writers have referred to these as Denis' priest and deacon, or his deacon and subdeacon, but we have no further information on them.
After a long imprisonment and several aborted executions, the three martyrs were beheaded with a sword and their bodies were thrown into the river. Denis' body was retrieved from the Seine by his converts and buried. The chapel that was built over his tomb grew into the abbey of Saint-Denis.
In the ninth century, Denis' story and identity became fused and confused with Dionysius the Areopagite and Pseudo-Dionysius, but later scholarship has re-established his identity as a separate saint.
Denis is pictured as he was martyred -- headless (with a vine growing over the neck) and carrying his own mitred head.
Recognized since the time of St. Gregory as a special saint of Paris, Denis is the patron saint of France.
St. Alfanus
Feastday: October 9
Death: 1085
Benedictine archbishop. He was a monk at Monte Cassino until appointed the archbishop of Salerno, Italy. Alfanus assisted Pope St. Gregory VII on his deathbed.
Saint Alfanus I or Alfano I (died 1085) was the Archbishop of Salerno from 1058 to his death. He was famed as a translator, writer, theologian, and medical doctor in the eleventh century. He was a physician before he became archbishop, one of the earliest great doctors of the Schola Medica Salernitana.
As a translator, Alfanus was well-versed in both Latin and Arabic and he translated many manuscripts from the latter into the former. His interest in medicine and the translation of Arabic treatises on the subject led him to invite Constantine the African from Carthage (in what is now Tunisia) to Salerno to assist him. Constantine brought with him a library of Arabic medical texts which he commenced to translate into Latin.
In 1076, Robert Guiscard laid the foundations for the new Salerno Cathedral. In Alfanus' later days as archbishop, he sheltered the exiled reformer, Pope Gregory VII, who died in Salerno.
