SAINTS OCTOBER 23

 SAINTS OCTOBER 23

Bl. Thomas Thwing, 1680 A.D. English martyr. Born at Heworth, Yorkshire, England, he studied at Douai, France, where he was ordained in 1665. Returning home, he labored for fifteen years in the Yorkshire area as chaplain for his cousin, Sir Miles Stapeton, and as a school chaplain. Arrested in 1680 for supposed complicity in the Titus Oates Plot with his uncle, Sir Thomas Gascoigne, he was condemned and hanged, drawn, and quartered at York.  

St. Clether, 520 A.D. Welsh saint also called Cleer, Clydog, Scledog, Citanus, or Cleodius. He was a descendant of a local king in Wales. Clether left Wales and went to Cornwall, England. Churches including St. Clear near Liskeard were built in his honor. He is reported to have been martyred. A second Clether is commemorated on November 3.

 

St. Elfleda, 936 A.D. AngloSaxon princess, Benedictine nun at Glastonbury, England. She lived as a recluse and was admired by St. Dunstan.

St. John of Capistrano, Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr. In 1456 at age 70 he led a crusade against the invading Ottoman Empire at the siege of Belgrade with the Hungarian military commander John Hunyadi. St. John, at the age of seventy, was commissioned by Pope Callistus III to preach and lead a crusade against the invading Turks. Marching at the head of seventy thousand Christians, he gained victory in the great battle of Belgrade against the Turks in 1456. Three months later he died at Illok, Hungary. His feast day is October 23. He is the patron of jurists.

St. Paul Tong Buong, Roman Catholic Vietnamese martyr. A native of Vietnam, he served in the bodyguard of the king. A convert, he was Arrested by Vietnamese authorities for being a Christian, he was tortured, humiliated, and beheaded.

ST. SEVERIN BOETHIUS, ROMAN PHILOSOPHER AND MARTYR