Daily Martyrology for September 1

The commemoration of the Judges, Joshua and Gideon.

In Switzerland, probably in the fourth century, St. Verena, a martyr.

In Palestine, in 459, St. Simeon Stylites the Elder. He is the earliest and best known of the pillar saints. After some years as a monk in several monasteries and as a hermit, he began living on a pillar nine feet high and six feet in diameter. He spent the rest of his life on such pillars, where he continued the extreme asceticism of his early life. He preached from his pillar twice a day, urging people to act justly and pray.

About 710, near Arles, St. Giles, abbot. He was venerated as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers as a patron of beggars, lepers, the physically handicapped, nursing mothers, shepherds, blacksmiths and horses. One of the legends of his life has it that he protected a deer from hunters, so he is sometimes depicted with a deer.

In Marseilles, France, in 1274, St. Douceline, a Beguine. She was a traveling missionary, an ecstatic, and a counselor to Charles of Anjou.

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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.