WOMEN SAINTS AND MARTYRS JULY 18-JULY 24
July 18
St. Edburga of Bicester, 7th century. Nun at Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, the daughter of Penda, the pagan king of Mercia. Her shrine is at Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire, but her relics, originally at Bicester, were taken to Flanders, Belgium.
St. Marina. Martyr of Orense, in Spanish Galicia, Spain. All records of her sufferings are not extant.
St. Gundenis, 203 A.D. Virgin martyr of Carthage. She died in the persecution of Septimius Severnus.
July 19
Sts. Justa and Rufina, Virgins. These martyrs were two Christian women at Seville in Spain who maintained themselves by selling earthenware. Not to concur in idolatrous superstitions, they refused to sell vessels for the use of heathen ceremonies and when the worshipers broke up their stock-in-trade, Justa and Rufina retorted by overthrowing the image of a false goddess. Whereupon the people impeached them for their faith before the governor. The prefect, after they had boldly confessed Christ, commanded them to be stretched on the rack and their sides to be torn with hooks. An idol was placed near the rack with incense, that if they would offer sacrifice they should be released; but their fidelity was not to be shaken. Justa died on the rack; the judge ordered Rufina to be strangled, and their bodies to be burned. They are greatly venerated in Spain, and no doubt their names represent historical martyrs in that place.
St. Macrina the Younger. Macrina the Younger was the granddaughter of Macrina the Elder and sister of St. Basil, St. Gregory of Nyssa, and St. Peter of Sebastea. She was well educated, especially in scripture. She was engaged to be married when she was twelve, but when her fiancé died; she decided to dedicate her life to God. On the death of her father, she and her mother retired to the family estate in Pontus and lived a life of prayer and contemplation in a community they formed there. Macrina became head of the group when her mother died and lived in Pontus until her death.
St. Aurea, 856 A.D. Martyr of Spain. Aurea was born in Cordoba, Spain. She was widowed there and became a Christian. Entering a convent at Cuteclara, she was denounced by her family to the Moorish authorities. Aurea was beheaded.
July 20
St. Wilgefortis. Wilgefortis, also known as Liberata, Kummernis in Germany, in England as Uncumber, and in France as Livrade, among other names, her story is a pious fiction more folktale than religious, according to which she was one of nine daughters of a pagan Portuguese King. When her father wanted her to marry the King of Sicily, despite her vow of virginity, she prayed for help in resisting the marriage, whereupon she grew a beard and mustache and the suit was withdrawn. Her father was so furious he had her crucified. Father Charles Cahier, S.J., wrote, for my part, I am inclined to think that the crown, beard, gown and gown and cross which are regarded as the attributes of this marvelous maiden (in pictorial representations), are only a pious devotion to the famous crucifix of Lucca, somewhat gone astray. This famous crucifix was completely dressed and crowned, as were many others of the same period. In course of time, the long gown caused it to be thought that the figure was that of a woman, who on account of the beard was called Vierge-forte. We may add that the crucifix of Lucca was shod with silver to prevent the wearing away of the wood by the kissing of the feet by pilgrims. This also has been turned to the glorification of St. Wilgefortis. For it is said that a poor minstrel playing an air before the saint's statue was rewarded by her giving him one of her precious shoes.
St. Margaret of Antioch. She was the daughter of a pagan priest at Antioch in Pisidia. Also known as Marina, she was converted to Christianity, whereupon she was driven from home by her father. She became a shepherdess and when she spurned the advances of Olybrius, the prefect, who was infatuated with her beauty, he charged her with being a Christian. He had her tortured and then imprisoned, and while she was in prison she had an encounter with the devil in the form of a dragon. According to the legend, he swallowed her, but the cross she carried in her hand so irritated his throat that he was forced to disgorge her (she is patroness of childbirth). The next day, attempts were made to execute her by fire and then by drowning, but she was miraculously saved and converted thousands of spectators witnessing her ordeal-all of whom were promptly executed. Finally, she was beheaded. That she existed and was martyred are probably true; all else is probably fictitious embroidery and added to her story, which was immensely popular in the Middle Ages, spreading from the East all over Western Europe. She is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, and hers was one of the voices heard by Joan of Arc.
St. Severa, 680 A.D. Virgin and abbess. She was the first abbess of the convent of St. Gemma (Jater Sainte-Severe), at Villeneuve.
St. Etheidwitha. Widowed queen of King Alfred the Great of England. She was an Anglo-Saxon princess, also called Ealsitha. Etheldwitha founded a convent at Winchester in the Benedictine rule and became the abbess there.
July 21
St. Wastrada, 760 A.D. Widow and model Christian matron. The mother of St. Gregory of Utrecht, in her later years she became member of a religious community, although it is uncertain whether she actually became a nun.
St. Julia of Troyes, 272 A.D. Martyr of Troyes, France. Taken captive by the Romans, she was given to Claudius, a soldier. Julia converted him to Christ, and they were beheaded as martyrs.
July 22
St. Mary Magdelene. She is called "the Penitent". St. Mary was given the name 'Magdalen' because, though a Jewish girl, she lived in a Gentile town called Magdale, in northern Galilee, and her culture and manners were those of a Gentile. St. Luke records that she was a notorious sinner, and had seven devils removed from her. She was present at Our Lords' Crucifixion, and with Joanna and Mary, the mother of James and Salome, at Jesus' empty tomb. Fourteen years after Our Lord's death, St. Mary was put in a boat by the Jews without sails or oars - along with Sts. Lazarus and Martha, St. Maximin (who baptized her), St. Sidonius ("the man born blind"), her maid Sera, and the body of St. Anne, the mother of the Blessed Virgin. They were sent drifting out to sea and landed on the shores of Southern France, where St. Mary spent the rest of her life as a contemplative in a cave known as Sainte-Baume. She was given the Holy Eucharist daily by angels as her only food, and died when she was 72. St. Mary was transported miraculously, just before she died, to the chapel of St. Maximin, where she received the last sacraments.
July 23
St. Anne, 918 A.D. Hermitess, also called Susanna. Born in Constantinople in 840 to aristocrats, she fled the city to avoid marriage to Agarenus whose marriage proposal was supported by Emperor Basil the Macedonian. Anne went to Leucadia, Epirus, about 896. She lived as a hermitess there until her death. Anne may be the "Maura" listed in the Roman Martyrology as suffering martyrdom in Constantinople
St. Bridget of Sweden, Patron of Sweden. Bridget was the daughter of the royal Prince of Sweden, named Birger, and of Ingeburdis, a descendent of the Gothic kings. From these pious parents she inherited a great love for the Passion of Our Lord. Her father consecrated all Fridays to special acts of penance, and from her childhood St. Bridget loved to meditate upon the Passion of Christ. In obedience to her father, at the age of fourteen she married Ulfo, Prince of Nericia in Sweden, by whom she had eight children, the last of whom, Catherine, is now honored among the saints. Later, the holy couple bound themselves by a vow of chastity and made a pilgrimage to Compostela in Galicia. On their return to Sweden, Ulfo, with his wife's consent, entered a Cistercian monastery, where he died soon after, in the odor of sanctity. After his death St. Bridget renounced her rank of Princess and changed her habit. In 1344, she built the great monastery of Wastein, which became the motherhouse of a new Order, that of the Brigittines. She next undertook a pilgrimage to Rome and to Palestine. Having satisfied her devotion at the holy places sanctified by the life and Passion of Our Redeemer, she returned to Rome, where she lived a year longer. During this time, she was sorely afflicted by sickness, but endured it with heroic patience and resignation. Her son, Birger, and her daughter, Catherine, were with her in her last moments. Having giving them her final instructions, she received the Last Sacraments and died in 1373.
St. Romlua, 6th century. Virgin who lived with St. Redempta as a hermitess near the church of Mary Major, Rome. Redempta had been trained as a nun by St. Herundo in Palestine. They formed a small community in Rome, and they earned the praise of Pope St. Gregory I the Great. Romula was paralyzed for the last years of her life.
July 24
St. Kinga, 1292 A.D. Princess of Poland and Franciscan tertiary. She was a niece of St. Elizabeth of Hungary and a great niece of St. Redwig. Sometimes called Cunegunde, Zinga, or Kioga, she was married to Prince Boleslaus of Poland. Kinga founded a monastery at Sandez.
St. Lewina, 5th century. Martyred virgin of England, a Briton slain by invading Saxons. In 1058, her relics were translated from Seaford, in Sussex, England, to Berques in Flanders, Belgium.
Bls. Maria Pilar Martinez Garcia and Companions. Carmelite nun, with Maria Angeles Valtierra and Teresa Garcia y Garcia. They were killed in Guadalajara, Spain, by communists in the civil war. Maria Pilar Martinez was an older nun from Tarazona, Zaragoza. They were beatified in 1987 by Pope John Paul II.
Sts. Niceta and Aquilina. In original traditions soldiers, they were named Nicetas and Aquila. According to another source, the apocryphal Acts of St. Christopher, they were two prostitutes who were reformed and brought into the faith.
St. Menefrida, 5th century. Patron saint of Tredresick, in Cornwall, England. She belonged to the family of Brychan of Brecknock.
St. Edburga of Bicester, 7th century. Nun at Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, the daughter of Penda, the pagan king of Mercia. Her shrine is at Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire, but her relics, originally at Bicester, were taken to Flanders, Belgium.
St. Marina. Martyr of Orense, in Spanish Galicia, Spain. All records of her sufferings are not extant.
St. Gundenis, 203 A.D. Virgin martyr of Carthage. She died in the persecution of Septimius Severnus.
July 19
Sts. Justa and Rufina, Virgins. These martyrs were two Christian women at Seville in Spain who maintained themselves by selling earthenware. Not to concur in idolatrous superstitions, they refused to sell vessels for the use of heathen ceremonies and when the worshipers broke up their stock-in-trade, Justa and Rufina retorted by overthrowing the image of a false goddess. Whereupon the people impeached them for their faith before the governor. The prefect, after they had boldly confessed Christ, commanded them to be stretched on the rack and their sides to be torn with hooks. An idol was placed near the rack with incense, that if they would offer sacrifice they should be released; but their fidelity was not to be shaken. Justa died on the rack; the judge ordered Rufina to be strangled, and their bodies to be burned. They are greatly venerated in Spain, and no doubt their names represent historical martyrs in that place.
St. Macrina the Younger. Macrina the Younger was the granddaughter of Macrina the Elder and sister of St. Basil, St. Gregory of Nyssa, and St. Peter of Sebastea. She was well educated, especially in scripture. She was engaged to be married when she was twelve, but when her fiancé died; she decided to dedicate her life to God. On the death of her father, she and her mother retired to the family estate in Pontus and lived a life of prayer and contemplation in a community they formed there. Macrina became head of the group when her mother died and lived in Pontus until her death.
St. Aurea, 856 A.D. Martyr of Spain. Aurea was born in Cordoba, Spain. She was widowed there and became a Christian. Entering a convent at Cuteclara, she was denounced by her family to the Moorish authorities. Aurea was beheaded.
July 20
St. Wilgefortis. Wilgefortis, also known as Liberata, Kummernis in Germany, in England as Uncumber, and in France as Livrade, among other names, her story is a pious fiction more folktale than religious, according to which she was one of nine daughters of a pagan Portuguese King. When her father wanted her to marry the King of Sicily, despite her vow of virginity, she prayed for help in resisting the marriage, whereupon she grew a beard and mustache and the suit was withdrawn. Her father was so furious he had her crucified. Father Charles Cahier, S.J., wrote, for my part, I am inclined to think that the crown, beard, gown and gown and cross which are regarded as the attributes of this marvelous maiden (in pictorial representations), are only a pious devotion to the famous crucifix of Lucca, somewhat gone astray. This famous crucifix was completely dressed and crowned, as were many others of the same period. In course of time, the long gown caused it to be thought that the figure was that of a woman, who on account of the beard was called Vierge-forte. We may add that the crucifix of Lucca was shod with silver to prevent the wearing away of the wood by the kissing of the feet by pilgrims. This also has been turned to the glorification of St. Wilgefortis. For it is said that a poor minstrel playing an air before the saint's statue was rewarded by her giving him one of her precious shoes.
St. Margaret of Antioch. She was the daughter of a pagan priest at Antioch in Pisidia. Also known as Marina, she was converted to Christianity, whereupon she was driven from home by her father. She became a shepherdess and when she spurned the advances of Olybrius, the prefect, who was infatuated with her beauty, he charged her with being a Christian. He had her tortured and then imprisoned, and while she was in prison she had an encounter with the devil in the form of a dragon. According to the legend, he swallowed her, but the cross she carried in her hand so irritated his throat that he was forced to disgorge her (she is patroness of childbirth). The next day, attempts were made to execute her by fire and then by drowning, but she was miraculously saved and converted thousands of spectators witnessing her ordeal-all of whom were promptly executed. Finally, she was beheaded. That she existed and was martyred are probably true; all else is probably fictitious embroidery and added to her story, which was immensely popular in the Middle Ages, spreading from the East all over Western Europe. She is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, and hers was one of the voices heard by Joan of Arc.
St. Severa, 680 A.D. Virgin and abbess. She was the first abbess of the convent of St. Gemma (Jater Sainte-Severe), at Villeneuve.
St. Etheidwitha. Widowed queen of King Alfred the Great of England. She was an Anglo-Saxon princess, also called Ealsitha. Etheldwitha founded a convent at Winchester in the Benedictine rule and became the abbess there.
July 21
St. Wastrada, 760 A.D. Widow and model Christian matron. The mother of St. Gregory of Utrecht, in her later years she became member of a religious community, although it is uncertain whether she actually became a nun.
St. Julia of Troyes, 272 A.D. Martyr of Troyes, France. Taken captive by the Romans, she was given to Claudius, a soldier. Julia converted him to Christ, and they were beheaded as martyrs.
July 22
St. Mary Magdelene. She is called "the Penitent". St. Mary was given the name 'Magdalen' because, though a Jewish girl, she lived in a Gentile town called Magdale, in northern Galilee, and her culture and manners were those of a Gentile. St. Luke records that she was a notorious sinner, and had seven devils removed from her. She was present at Our Lords' Crucifixion, and with Joanna and Mary, the mother of James and Salome, at Jesus' empty tomb. Fourteen years after Our Lord's death, St. Mary was put in a boat by the Jews without sails or oars - along with Sts. Lazarus and Martha, St. Maximin (who baptized her), St. Sidonius ("the man born blind"), her maid Sera, and the body of St. Anne, the mother of the Blessed Virgin. They were sent drifting out to sea and landed on the shores of Southern France, where St. Mary spent the rest of her life as a contemplative in a cave known as Sainte-Baume. She was given the Holy Eucharist daily by angels as her only food, and died when she was 72. St. Mary was transported miraculously, just before she died, to the chapel of St. Maximin, where she received the last sacraments.
July 23
St. Anne, 918 A.D. Hermitess, also called Susanna. Born in Constantinople in 840 to aristocrats, she fled the city to avoid marriage to Agarenus whose marriage proposal was supported by Emperor Basil the Macedonian. Anne went to Leucadia, Epirus, about 896. She lived as a hermitess there until her death. Anne may be the "Maura" listed in the Roman Martyrology as suffering martyrdom in Constantinople
St. Bridget of Sweden, Patron of Sweden. Bridget was the daughter of the royal Prince of Sweden, named Birger, and of Ingeburdis, a descendent of the Gothic kings. From these pious parents she inherited a great love for the Passion of Our Lord. Her father consecrated all Fridays to special acts of penance, and from her childhood St. Bridget loved to meditate upon the Passion of Christ. In obedience to her father, at the age of fourteen she married Ulfo, Prince of Nericia in Sweden, by whom she had eight children, the last of whom, Catherine, is now honored among the saints. Later, the holy couple bound themselves by a vow of chastity and made a pilgrimage to Compostela in Galicia. On their return to Sweden, Ulfo, with his wife's consent, entered a Cistercian monastery, where he died soon after, in the odor of sanctity. After his death St. Bridget renounced her rank of Princess and changed her habit. In 1344, she built the great monastery of Wastein, which became the motherhouse of a new Order, that of the Brigittines. She next undertook a pilgrimage to Rome and to Palestine. Having satisfied her devotion at the holy places sanctified by the life and Passion of Our Redeemer, she returned to Rome, where she lived a year longer. During this time, she was sorely afflicted by sickness, but endured it with heroic patience and resignation. Her son, Birger, and her daughter, Catherine, were with her in her last moments. Having giving them her final instructions, she received the Last Sacraments and died in 1373.
St. Romlua, 6th century. Virgin who lived with St. Redempta as a hermitess near the church of Mary Major, Rome. Redempta had been trained as a nun by St. Herundo in Palestine. They formed a small community in Rome, and they earned the praise of Pope St. Gregory I the Great. Romula was paralyzed for the last years of her life.
July 24
St. Kinga, 1292 A.D. Princess of Poland and Franciscan tertiary. She was a niece of St. Elizabeth of Hungary and a great niece of St. Redwig. Sometimes called Cunegunde, Zinga, or Kioga, she was married to Prince Boleslaus of Poland. Kinga founded a monastery at Sandez.
St. Lewina, 5th century. Martyred virgin of England, a Briton slain by invading Saxons. In 1058, her relics were translated from Seaford, in Sussex, England, to Berques in Flanders, Belgium.
Bls. Maria Pilar Martinez Garcia and Companions. Carmelite nun, with Maria Angeles Valtierra and Teresa Garcia y Garcia. They were killed in Guadalajara, Spain, by communists in the civil war. Maria Pilar Martinez was an older nun from Tarazona, Zaragoza. They were beatified in 1987 by Pope John Paul II.
Sts. Niceta and Aquilina. In original traditions soldiers, they were named Nicetas and Aquila. According to another source, the apocryphal Acts of St. Christopher, they were two prostitutes who were reformed and brought into the faith.
St. Menefrida, 5th century. Patron saint of Tredresick, in Cornwall, England. She belonged to the family of Brychan of Brecknock.
Comments
Post a Comment