SAINTS NOVEMBER 20

 

SAINTS NOVEMBER 20

St. Edmund the Martyr, 869 A.D. Martyred king of the East Angles. He was elected king in 855 at the age of fourteen and began ruling Suffolk, England, the following year. In 869 or 870, the Danes invaded Edmund’s realm, and he was captured at Hone, in Suffolk. After extreme torture, Edmund was beheaded and died calling upon Jesus. His shrine brought about the town of Bury St. Edmund's. He is depicted as crowned and robed as a monarch, holding a scepter, orb, arrows, or a quiver. 

St. Francis Xavier Can, Roman Catholic and Vietnamese Martyr.  A native, born in Sou-Ming, he worked as a catechist with the priests of the Foreign Missions of Paris. Arrested and refusing to deny the faith, Francis Xavier was strangled in prison. Nov 20

St. Maxentia of Beauvais. Irish or Scottish virgin and martyr. She fled to France to escape marriage to a pagan chieftain and lived as a hermitess on the banks of the Qise River near Senlis. The chieftain she had spurned hunted her down and beheaded her at Pont-Sainte-Maxence when she refused to return with him to Ireland.

 

St. Eval, 6th century. Bishop of Cornwall, England, also called Uval or Urfol. A village in that county bears his name.  

St. Edmund Rich, 1242 A.D. Archbishop of Canterbury England, who baffled for discipline and justice, also called Edmund of Abingdon. Born in Abingdon, on November 30, 1180. he studied at Oxford, England, and in Paris, France. He taught art and mathematics at Oxford and was ordained. lie spent eight years teaching theology and became Canon and treasurer of Salisbury Cathedral. An eloquent speaker, Edmund preached a crusade for Pope Gregory IX and was named archbishop of Canterbury. He became an advisor to King Henry Ill and presided in 1237 at Henry’s ratification of the Great Charter. When Cardinal Olt became a papal legate with the patronage of King Henry, Edmund protested. A long-lasting feud between Edmund, the king, and his legate led him to resigning his see in 1240. He went to Pontigny, France, where he became a Cistercian. He died at Soissons, on November 16. Edmund was canonized in 1246 or 1247. A hall in Oxford bears his name.

St. Autbodus, 690 A.D.  Irish missionary and hermit. Autbodus preached in Hainault, Belgium, and Artois and Picardy, France. He retired to a hermitage near Laon where he died. 

Bl. Josaphata Michaelina Hordashevska, Roman Catholic Ukrainian Nun. First member of the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate, She died of bone cancer

St Gelasius I became Pope in 496, and during his four-year reign fought against paganism and heresy, writing treatises against Manicheanism, Monophysitism, and Pelagianism, among others. Some of his principles in ecclesiastical matters were taken up by the Second Vatican Council.  Nov 20

St. Felix of Valois,  Hermit and co-founder of the Trinitarians with St. John of Matha. He lived as a recluse at Cerfroid, France, and in 1198 received approval from the Holy See for the Order of the Most Holy Trinity to ransoms captives from the Moors. Felix founded St. Mathburn Convent in Paris while in his seventies. He died in Cerfroid on November 4.Feastday: Nov. 20