In Egypt, in 346, St. Pachomius. The son of comparatively wealthy parents, he learned to read and write Coptic in his youth. He was conscripted into the army and, impressed by the kindness of Christians, became a Christian when his military service was over. He became a disciple of the hermit Palamon. Moving to Tabbennesi, where disciples gathered around him, he organized a community of monasteries.
About the ninth century, St. Rupert of Bingen, the patron saint of St. Hildegard’s monastery there. According to the account of St. Hildegard, Rupert and his mother Bertha lived as hermits at Bingen for a few years before he died at the age of 20.
In 1130, in Spain, St. Isidore the Farmer, who was canonized in 1622 at the same ceremony with Saints Ignatius Loyola, Francis Xavier, Teresa of Avila and Philip Neri. He was a humble peasant who married a peasant girl, Maria de la Cabeza, who is also venerated as a saint. He is patron of Madrid and of the United States National Catholic Rural Life Conference. In art he is shown with a plow.
Our daily martyrology was written by Fr. Hugh Feiss, OSB. Copyright © 2008 by the Monastery of the Ascension, Jerome, ID 83338.
