ARATOR of VERDUN, the fourth Bishop of Verdun (north-eastern France). St. Arator reposed circa 460. There is no further information on this saint extant.

AUGUSTINE, SANCTIAN and BEATA of SENS, three Christians from Spain who had fled to Gaul to escape persecution, but were martyred near Sens, in Burgundy (east-central France), circa 273.

BEGA (BEGH, BEE), (Seventh Century), traditionally thought to have been a native of Ireland, St. Bega is believed to have received monastic tonsure from St. Áedán of Lindisfarne (31st August). She left Ireland and went to England, initially founding a monastery at what is now known as St. Bee’s Head in Cumberland. St. Bega is credited with the founding of several other monasteries as well. There are several saints of her era with quite similar Lives, and the information on St. Bega dates from the mid-thirteenth century. Contemporary scholarship considers her a composite saint; however, it is possible she is the same saint as the virgin Hieu (2nd September) mentioned by St. Bede the Venerable (25th May). Church of England priest, hagiographer, and all round scholar Sabine Baring Baring-Gould (†1924) enumerates three distinct St. Bees; this one, the second a nun in Yorkshire, and the third the Abbess of Kilbees.

CAGNOALD (CHAINOALDUS, CHAGNOALD, CAGNOU) of LAON, a brother of SS. Faro of Meaux (28th October), a Bishop of Meaux; and Burgundofara (3rd April) foundress of the Abbey of Our Lady of Faremoutiers (abbaye Notre-Dame de Faremoutiers), in Faremoutiers (north-central France). St. Cagnoald received monastic tonsure at the Abbey of SS. Peter and Paul of Luxeuil (abbaye Saint-Pierre et Saint-Paul de Luxeuil) in Burgundy (east-central France), where he was a disciple of St. Columbanus of Bobbio (23rd November). St. Cagnoald accompanied St. Columbanus to Bobbio in Emilia-Romagna (northern Italy), where he helped found what was later called the Abbey of St. Columbanus (Abbazia di San Colombano). St. Cagnoald later served as the sixth Bishop of Laon, and reposed circa 635.

DONATIAN, PRAESIDIUS, MANSUETUS, GERMANUS, FUSCULUS, and LAETUS, Martyrs of Africa, (Fifth Century), some of the more prominent amongst the orthodox Christians in Africa who were driven into exile by the Arian Huneric, King of the Vandals (r. 477–484), in that an account of their martyrdom is given by Victor of Vita in his history of that persecution, Historia persecutionis Africanæ provinciæ. It is said that they numbered in all nearly five thousand in a single year. Laetus, a most zealous Prelate, was, however, burned at the stake; whilst the others, some priests, some laymen, were scourged and banished.

ELEUTHERIUS the ABBOT, Abbot of St. Mark's near Spoleto in Umbria (central Italy). St. Eleutherius was known as a wonderworker, which Pope St. Gregory the Dialogist (3rd September) personally experienced and wrote of. Towards the end his life St. Eleutherius resigned his Abbotship and took up residence at St. Gregory’s monastery of St. Andrew the First-Called in Rome where he reposed circa 590, soon after his relics were translated to Spoleto.

FAUSTUS of SYRACUSE, an Abbot of the Abbey of St. Lucy (abbazia di Santa Lucia) in Syracuse, Sicily, where amongst his disciples was St. Zosimus of Syracuse (30th March), a future Bishop of Syracuse. St. Faustus reposed circa 607.

FELIX and AUGEBERT of CHAMPAGNE, (Seventh Century), two British prisoners of war who were sold as slaves in Gaul. They were ransomed by Pope St. Gregory the Dialogist (3rd September), who had them placed in a monastery for training to missionise their homeland. During their time in the monastery St. Felix was ordained to the priesthood, and St. Augebert to the deaconate; unfortunately, before they were able to return to Britain, both were martyred by pagans near present-day Chaumont in north-eastern France.

MACCALLIN (MACALLAN, MACCULIN DUS) of LUSK, St. Maccallin served as Bishop of Lusk, Co. Fingal, Ireland in the late fifth century. Oral tradition states he may have either lived in, or been buried in, a cave and that the name “Lusk” derives from an old Irish word Lusca meaning ‘cave’ or ‘underground chamber’. St. Maccallin apparently spent some time in Scotland where he is venerated as well. Nothing more is known of his life.

MAGNUS (MAGNOALDUS, MAGINOLD, MANG) of FÜSSEN, the only information on St. Magnus’ life is based upon the obviously anachronistic eleventh century Vita S. Magni, hence, in reality there is no reliable information on his life extant. According to tradition St. Magnus was an Irishman who probably accompanied SS. Columbanus of Bobbio (23rd November), and Gall (16th October), as far as Bavaria (southern Germany). There St. Magnus evangelized the eastern part of the Allgäu, Bavaria (earning him the title Apostle of the Algäu), and founded a monastery in Füssen which was later called St. Mang's Abbey (Kloster Sankt Mang Füssen). The year of his repose has variously been given as 655, 666, and even possibly 750.

PETRONIUS of VERONA, a Bishop of Verona (northern Italy), who reposed circa 450. No further information about St. Petronius is extant.

EUSTOCHIUS of TOURS, succeeding St. Brice of Tours (13th November) in 444 as Bishop of Tours St. Eustochius served the See of Tours for seventeen years. He is listed as an attendee at the Council of Angers held in 453. St. Eustochius reposed in 461, St. Gregory of Tours (17th November) called him "a prelate of resplendent holiness".

Icon of St. Januarius (Gennaro) of Naples

FELIX of NOCERA and CONSTANTIA of NOCERA, Martyrs of Rome, according to tradition SS. Felix and Constantia were martyred in Nocera, a town between Naples and Salerno (southern Italy), during the reign of the Emperor Nero (r. 54–68). No further information of their life or martyrdom is extant.

GOERIC (ABBO, GOERICUS, GURY) of METZ, the successor of St. Arnulf of Metz (18th July) as Bishop of Metz (north-eastern France). As bishop he transferred the relics of St. Arnulf to the Church of the Apostles in Metz, commenced construction of the Church of Great St. Peter, and founded a monastery at Epinal (north-eastern France). St. Goeric was also a personal friend of Dagobert I, King of Neustria and Burgundy (France) (r. 629–639). St. Goeric reposed in 647.

JANUARIUS (GENNARO) of NAPLES, Hieromartyr Januarius the first Bishop of Benevento in Campania (southern Italy), along with SS. Festus, his deacon; Desiderius, a reader; Sosius, deacon of the Church of Misenum; Proculus, deacon of Puzzuoli; and two others were beheaded circa 305 at Pozzuoli, near Naples (southern Italy) during the Diocletianic Persecution (303–313). His relics were enshrined in Naples of which he became the patron saint. The annual liquefaction of St. Januarius’ blood, a well-known miracle, is credited with the conversion of countless sinners.

POMPOSA of CÓRDOBA, a nun near Córdoba (southern Spain) who in 853 was beheaded by the Moors for refusing to renounce Christianity.

SEQUANUS (SEINE, SIGO), a native of Mesmont, in Burgundy (east-central France), St. Sequanus received monastic tonsure at the Abbey of Saint-Jean de Réome (abbaye de Saint-Jean de Réome) in the present-day village of Moutiers-Saint-Jean, near Dijon in eastern France. In 534 he founded a monastery in the heart of the Cestres forest, near the River Seine, where the present-day town of Saint-Seine-l'Abbaye in Burgundy (east-central France) is located. St. Sequanus reposed circa 580, and was buried at his abbey.

Icon of St. Theodore of Canterbury

THEODORE of CANTERBURY, one of the greatest figures in English history and one of England’s great saints, St. Theodore was a Greek from the Holy Apostle Paul’s (29th June) hometown of Tarsus who lived in a Greek monastery in Rome. A highly-educated monk, he rapidly advanced through the clerical ranks culminating in his enthronement as the eighth Archbishop of Canterbury in 668 at the age of sixty-five.

Initially Pope St. Vitalian (27th January) had offered the See of Canterbury to the future St. Adrian of Canterbury (9th January), who declined and recommended St. Theodore. While the Pope concurred, he feared St. Theodore’s orthodoxy had been compromised by his Greek traditions and so sent him to England in the company of SS. Adrian and Benedict Biscop (12th January).

Upon his arrival in England, St. Theodore embarked upon a visitation of the whole of England. He established a school at Canterbury where Greek was taught, commenced reforming the government of the English church, and filling vacant Sees. This was followed by the Synod of Hertford, which St. Theodore called in 672 or 673; the first Synod at which representatives of the entire English church were present. At Hertford, ten canons were promulgated concerning itinerant monks, the authority of bishops, the regular convening of subsequent synods, marriage, divorce, and prohibitions of consanguinity, and settling finally the adoption of the Roman practice for the calculation of the date of Easter. This was followed in 679 by the Synod of Hatfield at which a declaration of orthodoxy was drawn up and forwarded to Rome at the request of Pope Agatho (r. 678–681), and the heresy of Monothelitism was condemned. Through all of these acts, St. Theodore not only unified the English church, but also definitively established the metro-political authority of the See of Canterbury. He is therefore often called the ‘second founder of Canterbury’.

St. Theodore’s writings, some of which have only recently been definitely ascribed to him, comprise the Iudicia, which preserves his opinions on matters of ecclesiastical discipline and penance, the Laterculus Malalianus, a brief treatise which is partly chronological and partly exegetical, a Latin translation of the Greek Passio S. Anastasii, as well as a corpus of Biblical commentaries. There is also a ‘Penitential’ attributed to him. St. Theodore reposed in 690.