Saints March 22-April 5

Modern sounding 8 and 10 point letters come tidily packaged in venerable saints’ names this week:  Zeno, Octavian, Felix all imminently usable. For an edgy hip choice for your little girl, why not Musa or Agape?  (Three syllable pronunciation on that last one, please).  A lot of other gems here too– take liberties with your child’s name!  As long as it’s spelled correctly, please.  

March 22

Lea- From the Hebrew Leah, which may mean “weary.”  A fourth century widow who traded her wealth for a life of piety and austerity and became the superior of a Roman monastery.  St. Jerome expressed concern in a letter to St. Marcella that she be rightly remembered and praised.

Octavian- Latin, “eighth.”  Fifth century archdeacon from Carthage, executed by Vandals.  

March 23

Felix- Latin, “happy.”  An African saint martyred with twenty companions when persecuted by Vandals. 

March 24

Aldemar- Old High German, “noble” + “famous.”  A favorite of an Italian regional Princess Aloara, St. Benedict was called upon often to help her when he was reassigned to a monastery in Monte Cassino.  The Princess was very angry, and tried to have him killed.  He had to flee to Abruzzi, where he founded several religious institutions. 

March 25

Lucia, Lucy- From the Latin, lux, “light.”  A native of Tuscany, she founded the childrens’ school the Insitute the Maestre Pie, or Filippine, which are widespread in Italy today.  

March 26

Margaret- Originally from the Greek, “pearl.”  Margaret Clitherow was born a Protestant in mid-16th century England.  She married into a Catholic family, and converted.  She became so devout that she harbored fugitive priests in her home.  For this she was imprisoned and in typical Medieval fashion, pressed to death.  

March 27

Augusta- Latin, “great.”  Fifth century noblewoman, the daughter of the Duke of Friuli, Italy.  She insisted on not marrying and remaining a virgin, and it is said that this so angered her father that he killed her himself with bare hands.

Rupert- Germaic, “fame” + “bright.”  Once sitting pretty as the Bishop of Worms, Germany, he took it upon himself to become a missionary.  He and his sister Eerentrudis built a church and abbey in what is now Salzburg, Austria, and is now the Apostle of Bavaria and Austria.

March 28

Conon- Basilian Abbot at a Greek Monastery in Sicily.  

March 29

Berthold- German, “bright” + “ruler.”  He and his brother Aymeric went on the Crusades together.  At Mount Carmel they discovered a group of hermits, and there founded the Carmelite Order.  

March 30

Zosimus- Greek, “viable.”  Seventh century Bishop of Syracuse, known for giving alms to the poor and attention on education. 

March 31

Benjamin- Hebrew, “son of the right hand.”  Persian martyr imprisoned under Abdas.  He was eventually released with the agreement that he wouldn’t continue to preach Christianity.  An agreement he could not comply with, he was apprehended again and tortured with reeds inserted and removed from beneath his fingernails.  

April 1

Hugh- From the Germanic hug, “heart, mind, spirit.”  Benedictine Bishop of Grenoble, he is also the patron of St. Bruno, who founded the Carthusian Order at the Grande Chartreuse.  

Theodora- Greek, “gift of God.”  Administered to her brother St. Hermes while he was in prison.  Not to be confused with the Empress.  

April 2

Musa- A child mystic from Rome, whose visions were recorded by St. Gregory. 

April 3

Agape- Greek, “love.”  She and her Macedonian sisters, Irene and Chionia, were sentenced to death when found to be in possession of scripture– a direct defiance of Emporer Diocletian at the time.  

April 4

Benedict- Latin, “blessed.”  Patron saint of African-Americans, this slave was set free and became a devout hermit and later reknowned convent chef in Italy.

Isidore- Greek, “gift of Isis.”  Also known as Isidro, Bishop of Seville, Spain in the 600s.  He fostered learning and enlightenment in an otherwise dark era.

April 5

Zeno- Greek, possibly related to the Indo-European word for “shine” or “sky”, and related to Zeus.  Third century Bishop of Verona whose story is vague, though is mentioned in the writings of both St. Gregory and St. Ambrose.   Also the name of two prominent Greek philosophers, Zeno of Elea and Zeno of Citium, founder of the Stoic School.  

Francesco del Cossa, Portrait of St. Lucy,, 1470