Brief Lives (I)

Dathus

(Italy, 2nd century)

He became bishop of Ravenna after a dove miraculously appeared above him, but it is doubtful that he existed.

Genesius of Arles

(France, d. 303 or 308)

A decapitated martyr, his body was buried in France but his head was transported “in the hands of angels” to Spain, where he is invoked as a protection against dandruff.

Zoilus

(Spain, d. 304)

A young man martyred in Córdoba, he was vengeful after death: On his feast-day, an oblivious woman who was spinning found her right hand paralyzed, and a skeptical blacksmith mutilated himself with his glowing tongs; at the monastery named for him, animals that nibbled the monks’ crops dropped dead.

Pelagia of Antioch

(Syria, d. c. 311)

She was a licentious dancing girl who converted, moved to Jerusalem, lived as a hermit on the Mount of Olives, and was known as the “beardless monk,” whose sex was not discovered until her death.

Or she was a fifteen-year-old disciple of St. Lucian, who threw herself off the roof of her house to avoid imprisonment and rape when soldiers were sent to arrest her; St. John Chrysostom celebrated the “divine inspiration” of her courage, but St. Augustine said that suicide was not permitted, even under such circumstances.

Martin of Tours

(France, d. 397)

As bishop, he ordered the sacred groves to be chopped down, for “there is nothing religious in a tree trunk.”

Syncletica of Alexandria

(Egypt, 4th century)

She cut off her hair and went to live in an unused tomb until she died at eighty-four, though it is said she suffered from spiritual desolation.

Paul the Simple

(Egypt, 4th century)

At sixty, he discovered his wife in bed with a neighbor, and left his farm to become a desert hermit; his nickname came from his childlike demeanor.

Onuphrius

(Egypt, 4th or 5th centuries)

He lived seventy years in the desert, dressed only in his long hair and beard, fed perhaps by angels.

Proterius

(Egypt, d. 457)

In the schism between the Coptic Orthodox and Greek Orthodox churches, he replaced Dioscorus as Patriarch of Alexandria, was lynched by an angry mob on Good Friday, his body dismembered and burnt, and was replaced by Timothy the Cat.

Brigid of Kildare

(Ireland, d. 523)

She used to hang her cloak on a ray of sun.

Sigismund of Burgundy

(France, d. 524)

A king, he murdered his own son but repented.

Ailbe of Emly

(Ireland, d. 528)

He could turn a cloud into a hundred horses.

Severus of Androcca

(Italy, d. c. 530)

Arriving too late to administer the Last Rites, he brought the man back to life again, so he could then die properly.

Vedast

(France, d. c. 540)

He resurrected a goose.

Teilo

(Wales, d. 560)

He was admired as the founder of churches and monasteries in Penally, Llandaff, and Llandeilo; at his death, all three places claimed him; they decided to ask Jesus which should house his remains, and the next day three identical corpses appeared, so that each could have one.

David

(Wales, c. 500– c. 589)

He had the gift of tongues, and when he went on a pilgrimage from Wales to Jerusalem he did not need an interpreter along the way.

Tigris

(France, 6th century)

From her pilgrimage to the Holy Land, she brought back the finger of John the Baptist.