SAINTS FOR JULY 07

SAINTS FOR JULY 07

St. Humphrey Lawrence, 1572-1591 A.D. Martyr of England. Born in Hampshire, he was a convert to Catholicism through the efforts of Jesuit missionaries. Humphrey openly called Queen Elizabeth I a heretic and she had him arrested immediately. He was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Winchester. Pope Pius XI beatified him in 1929.

Bl. Ralph Milner, 1591 A.D. English martyr. He was born at Stocksteads, Hampshire, and was a convert. He was arrested the day he received his first Communion. A husbandman by trade, Ralph was allowed a leave from prison and aided priests and Catholics. He was executed at Winchester on July by being hanged, drawn, and quartered for giving assistance to Blessed Roger Dickenson. He was beatified in 1929.

St. Ercongotha, 660 A.D. Benedictine nun, the daughter of a king of Kent and St. Sexburga. Also called Ercongota, she was a nun in Faremoutiers-en-Brie, France, at least for a short time, and possibly died there at a young age.

St. Maolruain. Abbot founder of Ireland. He opened Tallaght and compiled a mythology of the area.

Sts. Medran and Odran, 6th century. Two brothers who were disciples of St. Kieran of Saghir, in Ireland. One remained with St. Kieran and the other founded Muskerry Abbey.

St. Palladius, 432 A.D. An early Irish missionary, the first bishop of Ireland, and the immediate predecessor to St. Patrick. Perhaps originally of British or Roman descent, Palladius was possibly a deacon in Rome or, more likely, in Auxerre, France. According to the fifth century theologian Prosper of Aquitaine, Palladius convinced Pope Celestine I to send St. Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, to England with the aim of expunging the Pelagian heresy which was then rampant. It seems that Palladius was then consecrated a bishop by the pope who, in about 430, sent Palladius to preach among the Irish. He landed near Wicklow and founded at least three churches in Leinster, but his mission apparently made little impact upon the native population. Palladius departed Ireland and sailed for Scotland, where he preached among the Picts. He died at Fordun, near Aberdeen, a short time after arriving, although there is an unreliable Scottish tradition that he lived among the Picts for more than twenty years.