St. Leopold, November 15

[Kathy Rabenstein]

+ Leopold (the Good) of Austria (RM)
------------------------------------------------
Born at Melk, Austria, 1073; died in Vienna in 1136; canonized 1486.

St. Leopold, the grandson of Emperor Henry III, was educated by Bishop
Alman of Passau and succeeded his father as fourth margrave of
Austria when he was 23. He married Agnes, the daughter of Emperor
Henry IV, by whom he had 18 children. He was a capable and beloved
ruler and a munificent benefactor of the Church.

In 1106 he founded the monasteries of Heiligenkreuz (Holy Cross) in the
Wienerwald (Vienna Woods) (Cistercian); Klosterneuburg (Augustinian)
near Vienna; and Mariazell (Benedictine) in Styria.
His piety and charity earned him the popular appellation of "the Good."
He was notably free from ambition, for in 1125, he refused the imperial
crown when his brother-in-law Henry V died. Leopold died at
Klosterneuburg after reigning as margrave for 40 years. His chronicler
Otto of Freising was one of his 18 children (Attwater, Benedictines,
Delaney).

In art St. Leopold is an armed count with a cross upon his coronet, a
banner with three eagles, and a model of the church of Heiligenkreuz
(Holy Cross) in his hand. In some pictures he is shown (1) hunting with
his courtiers, when he finds his wife's veil near the monastery of
Klosterneuburg; (2) with the Virgin appearing to him while hunting and
the veil nearby; (3) with his countess building Klosterneuburg; (4) before
the Virgin and St. Anne; or (5) with St. Jerome as patron of
Klosterneuburg (Roeder).

Other Saints Honored November 15
=================================
+ = celebrated liturgically

+ Abibus of Edessa M (RM)
------------------------------------------------
Died 322. A deacon of Edessa in Syria, martyred by burning under the
emperor Licinius, and buried with his friends SS Gurias and Samonas
(feast day November 15) (Benedictines).

Arnulfus (Arnulf) of Toul B (AC)
------------------------------------------------
Died 871. Bishop of Toul 847-871. He was a firm and outspoken
opponent of the divorce of King Lothair (Benedictines).

Bl. Caius of Corea (Korea), OP Tert. M (AC)
------------------------------------------------
Died 1624. A former Korean bonze who fled from his country to
Nagasaki, where he harbored Dominican Friars (Benedictines).

Ceronne
-------------------------------------------------
A saintly girl from Beziers, calumniated in Bordeaux and buried in the
Orne (Encyclopedia).

+ Desiderius (Didier) of Cahors, B (AC)
------------------------------------------------
Died c. 655. The successor of his own brother St. Rusticus as bishop of
Cahors from 630 to 655 (Benedictines).

Eugene BM (RM)
------------------------------------------------
Date unknown. A fellow-laborer of St. Dionysius (f.d. October 9),
archbishop of Paris, martyred somewhere near the city. The R.M.
wrongly calls him archbishop of Toledo. His relics were, it is said,
translated to Toledo many centuries afterwards (Benedictines).

Felix of Nola BM (RM)
------------------------------------------------
Died 287. To get really confusing, there are two saints known as Felix
of Nola. Today's saint is said to have been the first bishop of Nola, near
Naples, and to have been put to death for Christ with 30 companions
(Benedictines). The more famous Felix of Nola has his feast day on
January 14.

+ Fintan (Findan) of Rheinau OSB, Hermit ()
------------------------------------------------
Died 879. When a youth he was carried off from Leinster to the Orkneys
as a slave by Norse raiders, but managed to escape to Scotland. He
became a wandering pilgrim on the continent, travelling first to Rome,
then to the Benedictine abbey of Farfa in Sabina. Fintan spent his last 22
years with some hermits at Rheinau, near Schaffhausen on the Rhein,
Switzerland (Attwater, Benedictines).

+ Gurias the Ascetic and Samonas the Faithful MM (RM)
-------------------------------------------------------
Died 305. Martyrs beheaded at Edessa in Syria under Diocletian
(Benedictines, Encyclopedia).

Bl. Hugh Faringdon, John Eynon, and John Rugg OSB MM (AC)
------------------------------------------------------------
Died 1539. Hugh Faringdon (_vere_ Cook) became abbot of Reading in
1520. He was an intimate friend of Henry VIII, but at the dissolution he
refused to surrender his abbey. He was martyred at Reading with two
prebendaries of the abbey (doubtless monks), Fr. John Eynon and John
Rugg.

Blessed John Eynon was the priest in charge of St. Giles in Reading, and
John Rugg was a prebendary of Chichester living at Reading Abbey.
They are generally considered to have been monks of the abbey.
Beatified in 1895 (Benedictines).

Luperius of Verona B (RM)
------------------------------------------------
Died 6th or 8th century. A bishop of Verona of whom nothing further is
known (Benedictines).

Machudd (Machell) of Lianfechell, Abbot (AC)
------------------------------------------------
Died 7th century. Abbot-founder of Llanfechell (Anglesey)
(Benedictines).

+ Malo (Maclovius, Maclou or wrongly Machutus) B (RM)
-----------------------------------------------------------
Died 621. The port of Saint-Malo takes its name from this Malo, who
ministered and made foundations from the islet in the estuary of the
Rance or from the neighboring Aleth (Saint-Servan). He may have been
an emigrant from southwest Wales. He is said to have been driven from
Aleth by his enemies and to have settled at Saintes, dying nearby at
Archingeay (Attwater).

Paduinus (Pavin) of Le Mans OSB, Abbot (AC)
------------------------------------------------
Died c. 703. Monk and prior of St. Vincent's abbey, at Le Mans, and later
first abbot of St. Mary's near the same city (Benedictines).

BB Richard Whiting, Roger James, & John Thorne OSB MM (AC)
-----------------------------------------------------------
Died 1539. Born at Wrington in Somerset, he became a Benedictine monk
at Glastonbury and was sent to Cambridge for his higher education. In
1525 he became abbot of Glastonbury. At the dissolution he refused to
surrender his abbey to the Crown and was condemned to death for
treason.

Blessed Roger James was the youngest monk of the Glastonbury
community at the time of his death. He held the office of sacristan.

Blessed John Thorne was the treasurer of Glastonbury at the time of the
dissolution. The charge against John Thorne was _sacrilege_, the
sacrilege consisting in his having hidden various treasures of the abbey
church to save them from the rapacious hands of King Henry VIII.

They were hanged with the usual brutalities on the summit of Tor Hill
overlooking Glastonbury. They were beatified in 1895 (Benedictines).

Secundus, Fidentian & Varicus MM (RM)
------------------------------------------------
Date unknown. Martyrs of Proconsular Africa of whom nothing else is
known (Benedictines).

Sources:
========

Attwater, D. (1983). The penguin dictionary of saints, NY:
Penguin Books.

Benedictine Monks of St. Augustine Abbey, Ramsgate. (1947). The
book of saints: A dictionary of servants of God canonized
by the Catholic Church extracted from the Roman and other
martyrologies. NY: Macmillan.

Benedictine Monks of St. Augustine Abbey, Ramsgate. (1966). The
book of saints: A dictionary of persons canonized or
beatified by the Catholic Church. NY: Thomas Y. Crowell.

Delaney, J. J. (1983). Pocket dictionary of saints, NY:
Doubleday Image.

Encyclopedia of Catholic saints, November. (1966).
Philadelphia: Chilton Books.

Roeder, H. (1956). Saints and their attributes, Chicago: Henry
Regnery.

-----
Kathy R.
krab...@ana.org