SAINTS FOR MARCH 20

SAINTS FOR MARCH 20 

St. Photina, Roman Catholic Martyr. Photiona was the Samaritan woman with whom Jesus spoke at the well as was recounted in the Gospel of St. John, chapter four. Deeply moved by the experience, she took to preaching the Gospel, received imprisonment, and was finally martyred at Carthage. Feastday March 20

St. Cuthbert.  Cuthbert was thought by some to be Irish and by others, a Scot. Bede, the noted historian, says he was a Briton. Orphaned when a young child, he was a shepherd for a time, possibly fought against the Mercians, and became a monk at Melrose Abbey. In 661, he accompanied St. Eata to Ripon Abbey, which the abbot of Melrose had built, but returned to Melrose the following year when King Alcfrid turned the abbey over to St. Wilfrid, and then became Prior of Melrose. Cuthbert engaged in missionary work and when St. Colman refused to accept the decision of the Council of Whitby in favor of the Roman liturgical practices and immigrated with most of the monks of Lindisfarn to Ireland, St. Eata was appointed bishop in his place and named Cuthbert Prior of Lindisfarn. He resumed his missionary activities and attracted huge crowds until he received his abbot's permission to live as a hermit, at first on a nearby island and then in 676, at one of the Farnes Islands near Bamborough. Against his will, he was elected bishop of Hexham in 685, arranged with St. Eata to swap Sees, and became bishop of Lindisfarn but without the monastery. He spent the last two years of his life administering his See, caring for the sick of the plague that dessimated his diocese, working numerous miracles of healing and gifted with the ability to prophesy. He died at Lindisfarn. 

St. Herbert, 687. Hermit of England and friend of St. Cuthbert. A priest, Herbert lived as a recluse on an island in Lake Derwentwater, England. His island became St. Herbert’s in his honor. Herbert had asked to die on the same day as St. Cuthbert, a desire that was granted by God.  

St. John, Sergius, & Companions. Roman Catholic Monks who resided in the laura, or an eremetical monastery, of St. Sabas, near Jerusalem. They were martyred by a band of Arabs who devastated the community. One of the wounded monks, named Stephen, composed a poem in honor of the martyred and to commemorate the event. Feastday March 20

ST. JOHN NEPOMUCEN, PRIEST AND MARTYR OF PRAGUE

In his early childhood, John Nepomucene was cured of a disease through the prayers of his good parents. In thanksgiving, they consecrated him to the service of God. After he was ordained, he was sent to a parish in the city of Prague. He became a great preacher, and thousands of those who listened to him changed their way of life. Mar. 20