Daily Martyrology for August 14

In 958, at Einsiedeln, Blessed Eberhard. He resigned his position as provost of Strasbourg cathedral to join his friend Benno, the former bishop of Metz, at his hermitage at Einsiedeln. After Benno’s death, Eberhard became the first abbot of the community, and during a famine used its resources to feed the hungry.

In 1196, in Latvia, St. Meinhard. He was an Augustinian Canon in Segeberg Abbey in Holstein, and then traveled to convert the pagan tribes in what is now Latvia. He made his headquarters at Ikskile near Riga, and was made bishop there.

In 1901, in Tanzania, the Venerable Cassian Spiss, Benedictine monk and martyr. He was professed at St. Ottilien and later made vicar apostolic of Dar es Salaam. He was martyred with four companions while traveling in the bush.

In 1941, at Auschwitz, the martyrdom of St. Maximilian Kolbe. He was born in Russian-controlled Poland and became a Franciscan. He had a very strong devotion to Mary. He suffered from tuberculosis, but found energy to do pastoral work and publish several religious magazines in Poland, Japan and India. When the Nazis conquered Poland he recommended non-violent resistance and extended help to thousands of Polish and Jewish refugees, though he shared the traditional Polish prejudice against Jews. At Auschwitz he voluntarily took the place of a prisoner singled out for death and starvation. After two weeks of starvation, he was killed by lethal injection.

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