Daily Martyrology for March 20

On Farne Island in 687, St. Cuthbert, monk and bishop. When he was a young man, he joined the monastery of Melrose, a daughter-house of St. Aidan’s foundation at Lindisfarne. From there he was sent to the new foundation at Ripon. where he was a genial guest master. He then served successively as prior of Melrose and Lindisfarne. There he and abbot Eata introduced the Rule of Benedict. After twelve years he retired as a hermit to Lindisfarne and then Farne. Later he served two years as bishop of Lindisfarne before returning to his solitary life. His remains are buried in the Anglican cathedral of Durham, which for more than four centuries was a Benedictine monastery.

In Braga, in Portugal, in 579, St. Martin, bishop. As a young man he went on a pilgrimage to Palestine and there became a monk. In Galicia, he founded monasteries and worked to convert the pagan Suevi. He wrote theological and spiritual works, including several collections of the Desert Fathers and a collection of canonical decrees.

In 1393, at Prague, the martyrdom of St. John Nepomucene. He was ordained a priest and became vicar general of the archbishop of Prague. He incurred the enmity of King Wencelaus IV because he would not reveal what the queen had told him in confession and because he opposed the king’s effort to confiscate a Benedictine abbey and turn it into a cathedral. Wenceslaus had him tortured, murdered and thrown into the Moldau River. He is patron of Bohemia.

In 1912, In Bilbao, St. María Josefa Sancho de Guerra. She was cured from a childhood paralysis at the shrine of St. Michael at Aralar. She founded the Servants of Jesus of Charity, whose mission is to care for the sick in hospitals and in their homes.

Previous Day   |   Next Day   |   Pick a Day...

Our daily martyrology was written by Fr. Hugh Feiss, OSB. Copyright © 2008 by the Monastery of the Ascension, Jerome, ID 83338.