BLESSED JOHN NELSON

Bl. John Nelson


Feastday: February 3
Died: 1578


Jesuit martyr of England, a native of Skelton, near York. He was ordained at Douai at the age of forty. Sent to London in 1576, he was arrested in London and martyred at Tyburn by being hanged, drawn, and quartered. John became a Jesuit just before his death
Blessed John Nelson, SJ M

 Born in Skelton near York, England; died at Tyburn, England, in 1578; beatified in 1886. At age 40, John Nelson began his studies for the priesthood at Douai and was ordained in 1575 (or 1576). He was sent to the English mission but was soon arrested in London and sentenced for refusing the Oath of Supremacy. He became a Jesuit shortly before his death by hanging, drawing, and quartering at Tyburn outside London

SAINT LA OF CORNWALL

St. Ia of Cornwall

Ia of Cornwall VM
 (also known as Hia, Hya, Iia, Ives)

Feast day: February 3
Died: 450


She was an Irish martyr. She accompanied Sts. Fingar and Piala and others from Ireland to Cornwall, England. There they suffered martyrdom at Hayle, near Penzance. St. Ives in Cornwall commemorates her. +

 Died 6th century or 450 (sources are evenly split between the two dates); another feast on October 27. According to the late medieval legend, the sister of Saints Ercus (or Euny) and Herygh, Saint Ia, was a holy maiden who came from Ireland to Cornwall--sailing on a leaf that grew to accommodate her--and landed and settled at the mouth of the Hayle River where Saint Ives, formerly called Porth Ia, now stands. She is said to have crossed with Saints Fingar, Phiala, and other missionaries. In Cornwall she erected a cell where she lived the life of prayer and austerities. This version relates that Ia suffered martyrdom in Cornwall at the mouth of the Hayle River. Leland saw her vita at Saint Ives, which depicted her as a noble of Saint Barricus; a church was built at her request by Dinan, a great lord of Cornwall. Breton tradition makes her a convert of Saint Patrick, and says that she went to Armorica with 777 disciples, where she was martyred. She is the eponym of Plouyé, near Carhaix. Do not confuse her with Saint Ives of Saint Ives, Huntingdonshire

SAINT DEODATUS

St. Deodatus
Deodatus of Lagny, OSB

Feast day: February 3
Died: 8th century


A monk of Lagny, in the archdiocese of Paris , France.

SAINTS TIGIDES AND REMEDIUS

Sts. Tigides & Remedius

Feast day: February 3
Died: 6th century


Two bishops who served in succession to each other in the French Alps. The details of their labors are not extant.

SAINT ANATOLIUS

St. Anatolius
Anatolius of Salins
Feast day: February 3

Died: 9th or 11th century.


Scottish bishop and hermit. Anatolius left his see and Scotland to make a pilgrimage to Rome. He became a hermit at Salins, France. Another tradition states that Anatolius was a bishop in Galicia, Spain.
 A Scottish or Irish bishop who went as a pilgrim to Rome and settled as a hermit at Salins in the diocese of Besançon, Burgundy, about 1029. He live the rest of life in a mountain retreat overlooking a favorite stopover of Irish pilgrims near the oratory of Saint Symphorian. At a later date a church was built in his honor at Salins. His biographer said that it would be impossible to enumerate all the miracles he worked in his lifetime

SAINT PHILIP OF VIENNE

St. Philip of Vienne

Feastday: February 3
Died: 578


Bishop of Vienne, France. He served in a turbulent era of political wars and rampant heresies.

 Bishop of Vienne in Gaul from about 560 to about 578

BLESSED ODORIC MATTIUZZI .O.F.M

Blessed Odoric Mattiuzzi, OFM
 (also known as Odericus of Pordenone)
Feast day: February 3
1286 - 1331
Beatified 1775 by Benedict XIV
  Born 1286 Pordenone
Died January 14, 1331  Udine

Franciscan missionary and traveler. Born Odoric Mattiussi at Villanova, near Pordenone, Italy, he entered the Franciscans in 1300 and became a hermit. After several years, he took to preaching in the region of Udine, northern Italy, attracting huge crowds through his eloquence. In 1316 he set out for the Far East, journeying through China and finally reaching the court of the Mongol Great Khan in Peking. From 1322 to 1328 he wandered through
out China and Tibet, finally returning to the West in 1330 where he made a report to the pope at Avignon and dictated an account of his travels. He died before he could find missionaries to return with him to the East. His cult was approved in 1755 owing to the reports of miracles he performed while preaching among the Chinese.

 Born in Villanova near Pordenone, Friuli, Italy, in 1285; died at Udine in 1331; cultus confirmed in 1775. Odoric Mattiuzzi became a Franciscan hermit, who made one of the most remarkable journeys of the middle ages. He became a missionary about 1317 and penetrated into Tibet by travelling through Armenia, Baghdad, Malabar, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia. He was in Beijing for three years and returned home via Lhasa. Some believed he reached Japan. Odoric dictated an account of his adventures but does not recount much of his evangelical activities, though they were considerable. After 16 years in the mission fields, he returned to Europe to report to the pope at Avignon, but died en route

SAINT MARGARET OF ENGLAND

St. Margaret of England


Feastday: February 3
Patron of the dying
Died: 1192


Cistercian nun. She was born in Hungary, to an English mother who was related to St. Thomas of Canterbury, England. She went with her mother on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and lived a life of austerity and penance in Bethlehem. Her mother died there, and Margaret made pilgrimages to Montserrat, in Spain, and to Puy, France. There she entered the Cistercian convent at Suave-Benite. When she died, her tomb became a pilgrimage shrine.



Saint Margaret was possibly born in Hungary to an English mother and is probably related to Saint Thomas of Canterbury. She took her mother on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where they both led an austere life of penance for some years in Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Her mother died there but Margaret continued on to Our Lady of Montserrat in the Spanish Catalonia, before joining the Cistercian nuns at Seauve-Bénite, in the diocese of Puy-en-Velay. She was greatly venerated in that district. Miracles followed her burial at Seauve-Bénite and her shrine became a principle feature of the church. Crowds came there to invoke 'Margaret the Englishwoman.' The local tradition that she was English was accepted by the Maurists and Gallia Christiana, yet an older French manuscript preserved by the Jesuits of Clermont College in Paris relates that she was indeed a Hungarian of noble birth

SAINT HADELIN

St. Hadelin

Hadelin of Dinant, OSB,
 (also known as Adelin of Dinant)

Feast day: February 3
Died: 690


Benedictine abbot, disciple of St. Remaclus. He was born in Gascony, France, and became the founder of Chelles Abbey in liege diocese. Hadelin spent his last years as a hermit on the Meuse River, near Dinart.




 Hadelin, a native of Gascony, followed Saint Remaclus first to Solignac, then to Maestricht  and Stavelot. He became the founder of Celles, in the diocese of Liége, Belgium. Hadelin lived as a hermit near Dinant on the Meuse . In art, Saint Hadelin is portrayed as a Benedictine abbot being visited by King Pepin and his knights. He might also be enthroned before the Abbey of Celles

SAINT LIAFDAG

St. Liafdag


Feast day: February 3
Died: 980


Bishop of Jutland, Denmark, where he was martyred by local pagans.