Lidwina was born in Holland in 1380, the daughter of a nobleman and a peasant woman. At an early age she’d already decided to join a convent and lead a holy life, which like I keep saying on this blog, wasn’t such a terrible choice when your options are a) spend all day praying or [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Catholicism’
St. Lidwina of Schiedam
Posted in Obscure Saint Blogging, Religion, tagged Catholicism, maidens, martyrs, medieval saints, Roman Catholicism, saints on July 3, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Blessed Columba of Rieti
Posted in Obscure Saint Blogging, Religion, tagged anorexia mirabilis, Catholicism, holy anorexia, maidens, renaissance saints, saints on December 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Technically, Columbia of Rieti is not a saint. Technically she gets the title “Blessed,” which is one rung below sainthood on the Catholic Ladder of Holiness. The process of beatification is simultaneously quite thorough and totally haphazard, as best as I can tell, and anyway her technically non-beatified status doesn’t make her any less interesting. [...]
St. Florian
Posted in Obscure Saint Blogging, tagged antiquity, Catholicism, Diocletian, Roman Empire, saints on September 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
This post is about penance. Well, sort of, though that would imply that this is somehow punishment rather than something awesome. Last week at the local pub quiz, there was FINALLY a question about a saint–who is the patron saint of firefighters and chimney sweeps? Well, dear reader, I had absolutely no idea. Naturally this [...]
St. Dymphna
Posted in Obscure Saint Blogging, Religion, tagged Catholicism, Escaping the Pagans, incest, Irish saints, maidens, martyrs, medieval saints on May 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Dymphna was a young lady in Ireland sometimes during the 7th century CE. Her father was a pagan Irish chieftain Damon, and her mother was his beautiful Christian wife whose name has been lost. When Dymphna was about 14, her mother died. After searching all over Western Europe and not finding a woman as beautiful [...]
St. Aldegundis
Posted in Obscure Saint Blogging, Religion, tagged Belgium, Catholicism, maidens, medieval, nuns, saints, Satan, visionaries on April 25, 2008 | 1 Comment »
St. Aldegundis, also known as Aldegonde, Aldegund, or Adelgondis, was born in Flanders in 639 CE, in the county of Hainaut, which straddled the borders of modern Belgium and France. Her parents, Walbert and Bertilia, and her sister, Waldetrudis, are also all saints. In fact, her nieces and nephews by Waldetrudis: also all saints. They [...]
St. Blaise
Posted in History, Obscure Saint Blogging, Religion, tagged antiquity, bishops, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, matryrs on April 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
This week we’ve got our first Armenian saint, St. Blaise. He’s probably the least obscure saint I’ve covered yet–at least one former Catholic I asked had a vague idea of who he was. Blaise was also hugely popular in the Middle Ages, because he was one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers/ Martyrs, a group of [...]
Review: More sins
Posted in Religion, tagged Catholicism, two stars on March 17, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Because I’m insane, I got really excited when the Vatican announced more new sins. The story lists them as: 1. “Bioethical” violations such as birth control / sanctity of life violations 2. “Morally dubious” experiments such as stem cell research 3. Drug abuse / trafficking 4. Polluting the environment 5. Contributing to widening divide between [...]
