Memorial of Saints (October 27)

Feasts, Obligatory and Optional Memorials of Saints

• Frumentius, bishop;
• Otteran or Odhran, abbot

St. Frumentius (d. ca. 380 A.D.), his brother Aedesius and their teacher Meropius were able to survive being killed by natives when their ship stopped off at Ethiopia. They were taken to the King and made members of his court. Upon the death of the King, they were given back their freedom and helped the widowed Queen rule the country. They introduced Christianity and brought in traders from the West. When the King's sons came of age, Frumentius and Aedesius resigned their posts and Aedesius went back to Tyre where he was ordained. Frumentius on the other hand went to Alexandria to ask St. Athanasius to send a missionary to the country he had just left. St. Athanasius consecrated Frumentius bishop of the Ethiopians and sent him back. Back in Ethiopia, St. Frumentius made numerous converts including the two sons of the King.

Related blog post

• St. Athanasius of Alexandria, Archbishop who consecrated St. Frumentius, Learn more

30th Sunday of the Year (B)

(Edited) Reflections for 30th Sunday of the Year (B), October 28, 2012
Jeremiah 31:7-9
Psalm 126
Hebrews 5:1-6
Mark 10:46-52

To be posted and published soon.

Memorial of Saints (October 26)

Feasts, Obligatory and Optional Memorials of Saints

• Lucian and Marcian, martyrs;
• Rusticus of Narbonne, bishop;
• Cedd, bishop;
• Eata, bishop;
• Bean, bishop

St. Rusticus of Narbonne (d. ca. 461 A.D.) became a well-known preacher in Rome before he became a monk at Lérins. He was ordained and made bishop of Narbonne in 427 A.D. St. Rusticus wanted to resign because of internal conflicts among the orthodox of his see and the spread of Arianism in the wake of a Gothic siege. However, Pope Leo I dissuaded Rusticus. Rusticus attended the synod at Arles which approved St. Leo's Epistola dogmatica that denounced Nestorianism.

(Nestorianism claimed that there were two distinct persons in Christ - one human, the other divine. The Church, however, held the orthodox claim that Christ was a divine person who assumed a human nature). St. Celestine I held a council in Rome in 430 A.D. to condemn the Nestorian heresy. It was finally achieved in the General Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D. - which formally condemned Nestorianism. Despite being officially condemned by the Catholic Church, Nestorianism persisted in its influence. Learn more.