Leap year Saints
The 2004 Roman Martyrology lists four saints for today, who are thus only commemorated once every four years (although for other years there is an option to celebrate them on 28 February):
- Pope St Hilary/Hilarus (reigned 461-68), successor to St Leo the Great, who continued the fight against Arianism, made important decisions about the Church in Spain and Gaul, and added three chapels to the baptistery at the Lateran. He is buried at S Lorenzo fuori le Mura (not too far from Blessed Pius IX).
- St Oswald (d.992), Benedictine of Fleury and Archbishop of York, who is said to have died while washing the feet of the poor (his daily Lenten practice).
- Blessed Antonia of Florence (d.1472), a mother and widow who became a Poor Clare at Aquila, Italy. She was a disciple of St John Capistran.
- St Augustine Chapdelaine (1814-54), priest of the Society of the Foreign Missions, Paris, martyred in Guangxi, China.
Let's especially pray to them on their feast.
Labels: Saints
posted by Fr Nicholas at 9:45 am
7 Comments:
Thank you so much for your comment on the Church of St. Edmund in Rome - Mackinlay was evidently wrong, then! I didn't have time to research properly before I went. I first came across the church in a reference in Nathaniel Johnson's 'Assurance of Abby-Lands' of 1687. I should be very keen just to see the site, owing to my obsession with all things Edmund-related. Have you been there?
I do indeed aim to be at the CRS Conference.
I'm glad you posted about these four! It's not true that they're only commemorated every four years, though. If you look on the previous page of the Martyrology, you'll see Hilary, Oswald, Antonia and Augustus Chapdelaine listed as nn. 4-7 for February 28, with the instructions "Anno bissextili praetermittantur," i.e. "Let these be omitted during a leap year."
Aha - I didn't turn over the page!
I suppose this was one of those changes that helped simplify things for us moderns.
Saint John Cassian is on the Greek Calendar for today...
From the GOA website:
"This Saint was born about the year 350, and was, according to some, from Rome, according to others, from Dacia Pontica (Dobrogea in present-day Romania). He was a learned man who had first served in the military. Later, he forsook this life and became a monk in Bethlehem with his friend and fellow-ascetic, Germanus of Dacia Pontica, whose memory is also celebrated today. Hearing the fame of the great Fathers of Scete, they went to Egypt about the year 390; their meetings with the famous monks of Scete are recorded in Saint John's Conferences. In the year 403 they went to Constantinople, where Cassian was ordained deacon by Saint John Chrysostom; after the exile of Saint Chrysostom, Saints Cassian and Germanus went to Rome with letters to Pope Innocent I in defence of the exiled Archbishop of Constantinople. There Saint Cassian was ordained priest, after which he went to Marseilles, where he established the famous monastery of Saint Victor. He reposed in peace about the year 433."
His commemoration, however, is now transferred to the 28th otherwise.
So can we say that these four share the extremely rare privilege of being saints with movable feasts? The only other sanctoral celebration that changes dates with any regularity is that of the Holy Family. (It's true that impeded solemnities get transferred to the next available day, but that's a rare occurrence for any given solemnity.)
Thanks for the post Fr..
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