SAINTS AND MARTYRS for September 29

SAINTS AND MARTYRS for September 29 

St. Theodota, Roman Catholic Martyr and penitent, she was converted and refused to obey the decree of the local prefect for all citizens of Philipopolis, Thrace (modern southeast Balkans), to participate in the festival of Apollo. Hundreds of Christians followed her lead, and she was arrested and put to torture, she was finally stoned to death. Feastday Sept 29

St. Rhipsime, Roman Catholic Virgin martyr who was put to death with a group of fellow virgins in Armenia. Brought before King Tiridates. Rhipsime refused the royal favors and was put to death by being roasted alive. Gaiana and all of the other maidens except one, called Christiana, were massacred by Armenian soldiers. Christiana later became a missionary in Georgia. Feastday Sept 29

Bl. Miguel de Aozaraza Roman Catholic Dominican priest. and a Martyr of Japan. Feastday Sept 29

B. NICOLA OF FORCA PALENA, JEROLAMIN

Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, archangels

Bl. Richard Rolle de Hampole, 1349 A.D. English mystic and hermit. Born at Thornton, Yorkshire, England, circa 1300, he was educated at Oxford and in Paris from 1320-1326, before entering into the life of a hermit on the estate of a friend, John Dalton of Pickering in 1326. After several years of intense contemplation, he took to wandering across England, finally settling down at Hampole where he assisted the spiritual development of the nuns in a nearby Cistercian community. He died there on September 29. Richard was very well known and his writings widely read during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. He was one of the first religious writers to use the vernacular. A cult developed to promote his cause after miracles were reported at his tomb, although the cause was never officially pursued. His works include letters, scriptural commentaries, and treatises on spiritual perfection. Perhaps his best known writing was De Incendio Amoris. He also wrote a poem, Pricke of Conscience.