A Penitent Blogger

Mindful of my imperfections, seeking to know Truth more deeply and to live Love more fully.

Quid sum miser tunc dicturus? Quem patronum rogaturus? Cum vix iustus sit securus?
Recordare, Iesu pie, Quod sum causa tuae viae: Ne me perdas illa die...

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

The other guys

Paulinus was born in Bordeaux to a rich and powerful family and had a successful political career, culminating in the governorship of a province in Nola, Italy. He married a woman who shared with him her ideal of living a strictly evangelical life. After the death of his son, they gave away all their property and began to live a monastic life (a hundred years before St. Benedict). At the insistence of the people where he was in Spain, he was ordained a priest. He moved back to Nola, where he now lived the monastic life and set up a hospice for the sick. Again at the request of the people, he was called to a new role and became bishop and served for more than twenty years until his death in 431.

John Fisher was a great academic -- Chancellor of the University of Cambridge -- and pastor -- becoming bishop of Rochester. He was the only bishop to stand against the King's takeover of the English Church, yet never condemning those who acquiesced. He was named a Cardinal and the next month was executed, on the same day as Thomas More: June 22, 1535.