Saturday Saints- #109

After a short hiatus the series returns. Today’s letter is B. Thus, our saint is Saint Boniface:

Saint Boniface (Latin: Bonifatius) (c. 675? – 5 June 754 AD), born Winfrid, Wynfrith, or Wynfryth in the kingdom of Wessex in Anglo-Saxon England, was a leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of the Frankish Empire during the 8th century. He established the first organized Christianity in many parts of Germania. He is the patron saint of Germania, the first archbishop of Mainz and the “Apostle of the Germans”. He was killed in Frisia in 754, along with 52 others. His remains were returned to Fulda, where they rest in a sarcophagus which became a site of pilgrimage. Facts about Boniface’s life and death as well as his work became widely known, since there is a wealth of material available—a number of vitae, especially the near-contemporary Vita Bonifatii auctore Willibaldi, and legal documents, possibly some sermons, and above all his correspondence.

Norman F. Cantor notes the three roles Boniface played that made him “one of the truly outstanding creators of the first Europe, as the apostle of Germania, the reformer of the Frankish church, and the chief fomentor of the alliance between the papacy and the Carolingian family.” Through his efforts to reorganize and regulate the church of the Franks, he helped shape Western Christianity, and many of the dioceses he proposed remain today. After his martyrdom, he was quickly hailed as a saint in Fulda and other areas in Germania and in England. His cult is still notably strong today. Boniface is celebrated (and criticized) as a missionary; he is regarded as a unifier of Europe, and he is seen (mainly by Catholics) as a Germanic national figure.

Far more can be out about him at his wiki, located here.

Saturday Saints- #108

As I have mentioned before, I can’t keep up the alphabetical listing of Saints. At least, not consistently. For the moment it will continue, but soon I will start a new method. Until then, I give you today’s saint, Saint Abdas of Susa:

Abdas, (also Abda, Abdias, and Audas) was bishop of Susa in Iran (Socrates of Constantinople also calls him “bishop of Persia”). He was born in fourth-century Chaldor to a Zoroastrian mother. The latter educated him in matters of virtue.

After Abdas was educated and reached adulthood, he was ordained a Christian priest, and built up in his hometown a monastery and a school, which he took personal care of and which grew to have around 60 teachers, as some say. Abdas baptized many converts in Chaldor, which caused the magi to arrest him. In his prison, Abdas was subjected to humiliations, hunger and pain, but remained a Christian until his release.

…

Engaged in a dispute with the local magi in AD 420, he was accused of burning down one of their temples, a pyramid of Ahura Mazda. King Yazdegerd ordered the bishop to restore and repair the building at his own expense; upon Abdas’s refusal the King ordered the destruction of the churches. These events soured the relationship between the Christian church and the Persian government, which had previously been good, and caused a wave of persecution against the Christians in Persia. Beyond this, Abdas is supposed to have helped Maruthas in driving out a demon from Yezdegerd’s son. Nothing else certain is known of him. Tradition adds to this that he was one of the first martyred in the persecution (he was clubbed to death), and for this he is considered a saint. His companions in the killings included the priests Hashu and Isaac, the secretary Ephrem, the hypodeacon Papa, the laymen Daduk and Durdan, and Papa, a brother of Abdas himself. His feast day is 5 September or 16 May in the Roman Catholic Church, and March 31 in the Syrian church.

(Source)

 

Saturday Saints- Registry

Today’s post is long overdue. I am going to use it to list all of the saints who I have covered thus far with this series. I intend to add new saints as time goes on, and add links as I get a chance.

A

Aidan of Lindisfarne

Saint Alypius the Stylite

Athanasius of Alexandria

Acacius of Amida

Abdus of Susa

B

Saint Basil the Great

Bede

Benedict of Nursia

Birinus

Boniface

C

Columba

Cuthbert

Catherine of Alexandria

Cyril of Alexandria

Chad of Mercia

D

David of Menevia

Dorotheus of Gaza

Declán of Ardmore

Dymphna

Dunstan

E

Euphrosyne

Eulogius

Eligius

Pope Eugene I

F

Frithuswith

Francis of Assisi

Flavian

Pope Felix III

G

George

Genevieve

Gregory the First

Gregory of Nazianzus

H

Helena

Pope Hormisdas

Hubertus

Pope Hilarius

I

Ignatius of Antioch

Isaac of Nineveh

Ite of Killeedy

Isidore of Seville

J

Joseph of Arimathea

John of Damascus

John Climacus

Juliana of Nicomedia

Joan of Arc

K

Katharine Drexel

Kevin of Glendough

Kassia

Kinga

L

Lucia of Syracuse

Leodegar of Poitiers

Luke the Evangelist

Livinius of Ghent

M

Methodius

Maximus the Confessor

Pope Martin the First

Maximus of Turin

Moninne of Killeavy

N

Nikephoros I

Nothhelm of Canterbury

Pope Nicholas I

Nilus the Younger

O

Oswald of Northumbria

Odo of Cluny

Opportuna of Montreuil

Olga of Kiev

P

Patrick

Polycarp

Philip of Agira

Pope Pius I

Q

Quintian of Rodez

Quinidius

Quadratus of Athens

Quodvultdeus

R

Rose Venerini

Remigius

Rabanus Maurus

Romuald

S

Stephen

Sabbas the Sanctified

Scholastica

Simeon Stylites

Saint Stephen I of Hungary

T

Theodore the Studite

Teresa of Avila

Thomas More

Tarasios

U

Ulrich of Augsburg

Ubald of Gubbio

Ursicinus

Ursula Ledóchowska

V

Pope Vitalian

Vladimir Sviatoslavich

Vergilius of Salzburg

Venatius Fortunatus

W

Wolfgang of Regensburg

Wilfrid

Willibrord

Werburg

X

Xenia of Saint Petersburg

Xenia the Righteous of Rome

Xenophone of Robeika

Xystus I

Y

Yrieix

Yared

Yaropolk

Yakym Senkivskyi

Z

Pope Zachary

Zeno

Zosimas of Palestine

Zita

 

[This post will be updated as new saints are given posts.]

 

 

Saturday Saints- #107

Once again we find ourselves at the end of the alphabet with the letter Z. As is common in this section of the alphabet, not many saints begin their names with this letter. Today’s saint is Saint Zita:

Saint Zita (c. 1212 – 27 April 1272; also known as Sitha or Citha) is an Italian saint, the patron saint of maids and domestic servants. She is often appealed to in order to help find lost keys.

…

Saint Zita was born in Tuscany in the village of Monsagrati, not far from Lucca where, at the age of 12, she became a servant in the Fatinelli household. For a long time, she was unjustly despised, overburdened, reviled, and often beaten by her employers and fellow servants for her hard work and obvious goodness. The incessant ill-usage, however, was powerless to deprive her of her inward peace, her love of those who wronged her, and her respect for her employers. By this meek and humble self-restraint, Zita at last succeeded in overcoming the malice of her fellow-servants and her employers, so much so that she was placed in charge of all the affairs of the house. Her faith had enabled her to persevere against their abuse, and her constant piety gradually moved the family to a religious awakening.

More can be found out about this saint at her wiki, located here.

Saturday Saints- #106

Why are we here? For today’s saint post that begins with Y, of course. Not easy, as there aren’t terribly many. So for today’s post I will do something slightly different- I will feature someone who is not a Saint. At least, not yet. However, he is on the path towards canonization:

Blessed Yakym Senkivskyi (Ukrainian: Яким Сеньківський; 2 May 1896 – 29 June 1941) was a Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest and martyr.

Senkivskyi was born in the village of Hayi Velykyi in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria (present-day Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine). He studied theology in Lviv, and was ordained a priest on 4 December 1921. He received a doctorate in theology from Innsbruck. In 1923 he went to Krekhiv and became a novice in the Order of Saint Basil the Great. After he professed his first vows, he was transferred to the village of Krasnopushcha, and later to the village of Lavriv. From 1931 to 1938 he held different positions in the Monastery of Saint Onufrius in Lviv.

In 1939, he was appointed abbot of the monastery in Drohobych. On June 26, 1941, he was arrested by the Soviet NKVD, and on June 29, he was boiled in a cauldron in the Drohobych prison.

He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on June 27, 2001.

(Source)

Saturday Saints- #105

Today is a tough day. The letter is “X”, and frankly a lot of parents don’t like to name their children with names that begin with x. I can’t imagine why… Anyways, today’s post features a saint whose name was originally spelled with an x, before later being changed, Saint Xystus I:

Pope Sixtus I (42 – 125) was the Bishop of Rome from c. 115 to his death c. 124. He succeeded Pope Alexander I and was in turn succeeded by Pope Telesphorus. In the oldest documents, Xystus (from the Greek word for “polished”) is the spelling used for the first three popes of that name. Pope Sixtus I is also the sixth Pope after Peter, leading to questions whether the name “Sixtus” (meaning “sixth”) might be fictitious.

More can be learned about him at his wiki, located here.

Saturday Saints- #104

It is finally the letter W’s turn for another saint. Today’s saint is Saint Werburg:

Werburh or Wærburh (also known as Werburgh and Werburga) (d. 3 February 699 at Trentham) was an Anglo-Saxon princess who became an English saint and the patron saint of Chester. Her feast day is 3 February.

A snippet from her wiki:

She was born at Stone (now in Staffordshire), and was the daughter of King Wulfhere of Mercia (himself the Christian son of the pagan King Penda of Mercia) and his wife St Ermenilda, herself daughter of the King of Kent. She obtained her father’s consent to enter the Abbey of Ely, which had been founded by her great aunt Etheldreda (or Audrey), the first Abbess of Ely and former queen of Northumbria, whose fame was widespread. Werburgh was trained at home by St. Chad (afterwards Bishop of Lichfield), and by her mother; and in the cloister by her aunt and grandmother. Werburgh was a nun for most of her life. During some of her life she was resident in Weedon Bec, Northamptonshire.

More can be found here.

 

Saturday Saints- #102

The letter U is featured in today’s post. Not the most common, but not unheard of, either. This gives us today’s saint, Saint Ursula Ledóchowska:

Ursula Maria Ledóchowska, USAHJ (17 April 1865 – 29 May 1939) was a Polish Catholic Religious Sister, who founded the Congregation of the Ursulines of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus. She was a member of the prominent Ledóchowski family. She has been declared a saint by the Catholic Church.

A few snippets:

• Her family came from Aristocratic origins.
• She was the 5th of 10 children.
• She traveled throughout Europe as part of her religious duties, eventually settling and dying in Rome.

More can be found out about her at her wiki, located here.

Saturday Saints- #101

Our saint for today is one with some measure of controversy around him, St. Tarasios of Constantinople:

Saint Tarasios (or Saint Tarasius) (Greek: Άγιος Ταράσιος) (c. 730 – 25 February 806) was Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 25 December 784 until his death on 25 February 806.

A few key facts about him:

• He played an important role in fighting against iconoclasm. During the Second Nicean Council he served as acting chairman.
• He was a layman before he became Patriarch.
• Church unity was important to him, and he insisted on overtures of unity before accepting his post.
• He was greatly deferential to the Byzantine Monarchy. This lead him to condoning Emperor Constantine VI’s divorce and “remarriage,” at least for a short time.

More can be found out about him at his wiki, located here.

Saturday Saints- #100

Today marks the 100th post in this series. It has been roughly two years since I started, and I have enjoyed it thus far. Unfortunately, certain letters are less well represented than others in the names of Saints. This means that I won’t be able to continue this series as I have been. Once I finish with the alphabet in this iteration, I will change how I run this series. I haven’t decided yet what method to follow, but when I do I will mention it in one of these posts.

The letter for today is “S”, and this gives us Saint Stephen I of Hungary:

Stephen I, also known as King Saint Stephen (Hungarian: Szent István király; Latin: Sanctus Stephanus; Slovak: Štefan I. or Štefan Veľký; c. 975 – 15 August 1038 AD), was the last Grand Prince of the Hungarians between 997 and 1000 or 1001, and the first King of Hungary from 1000 or 1001 until his death in 1038. The year of his birth is uncertain, but many details of his life suggest that he was born in or after 975 in Esztergom. At his birth, he was given the pagan name Vajk. The date of his baptism is unknown. He was the only son of Grand Prince Géza and his wife, Sarolt, who was descended from the prominent family of the gyulas. Although both of his parents were baptized, Stephen was the first member of his family to become a devout Christian. He married Gisela of Bavaria, a scion of the imperial Ottonian dynasty.

After succeeding his father in 997, Stephen had to fight for the throne against his relative, Koppány, who was supported by large numbers of pagan warriors. He defeated Koppány mainly with the assistance of foreign knights, including Vecelin, Hont and Pázmány, but also with help from native lords. He was crowned on 25 December 1000 or 1 January 1001 with a crown sent by Pope Sylvester II. In a series of wars against semi-independent tribes and chieftains—including the Black Hungarians and his uncle, Gyula the Younger—he unified the Carpathian Basin. He protected the independence of his kingdom by forcing the invading troops of Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor, to withdraw from Hungary in 1030.

Stephen established at least one archbishopric, six bishoprics and three Benedictine monasteries; thus the Church in Hungary developed independently of the archbishops of the Holy Roman Empire. He encouraged the spread of Christianity with severe punishments for ignoring Christian customs. His system of local administration was based on counties organized around fortresses and administered by royal officials. Hungary, which enjoyed a lasting period of peace during his reign, became a preferred route for pilgrims and merchants traveling between Western Europe and the Holy Land or Constantinople.

He survived all of his children. He died on 15 August 1038 and was buried in his new basilica, built in Székesfehérvár and dedicated to the Holy Virgin. His death caused civil wars which lasted for decades. He was canonized, together with his son, Emeric, and Bishop Gerard of Csanád, in 1083. Stephen is a popular saint in Hungary and the neighboring territories. In Hungary, his feast day (celebrated on 20 August) is also a public holiday commemorating the foundation of the state.

Much, much more can be learned about this saint at his wiki, found here.