RCNS 3744 | CHURCH OF ROCKALL | 9 MARCH 2004

Church of Rockall Publishes New Martyrology

His Holiness Patriarch Septimus IV has today officially approved the
new Martyrology for use in the Church of Rockall. This new and
exhaustive directory of the Church of Rockall's saints has been many
years in preparation, having been begun on the initiative of Patriarch
Malachy VII in 1913. Scholars and theologians from many countries have
laboured on the critical revision of ancient texts, in order to
eliminate legendary and spurious material and reveal the true
characters of the saints, so furnishing suitable role models and
intercessors for modern humanity.

An example follows; others will be posted on RCNS on an occasional
basis as a "Lives of the Saints" series.

Lives of the Saints: Blessed Ermintrude of the Holy Sponge

d.1310 June 17; simple; double of the second class in convents of her
order.

Ermintruda d'Amaretto was born at an early age to a noble family of
Lavazza in Basilicata and showed youthful signs of extraordinary
piety. Even before she was weaned she would refuse the breast on fast
days, and displayed the supernatural charism of detecting heretics by
projectile vomiting. Once during a procession to avert the plague she
climbed out of her perambulator to genuflect to the bishop as he
passed. It was noted by the local populace that the pestilence ceased
from that moment.

At the age of seven she demanded admission to the local convent of
the Poor Clares. Her family, reluctant to grant permission, tried to
interest her in worldly playthings; but the youthful saint paraded her
dolls in an auto da fe and covered her ball gowns with sacred texts
written in mascara. Eventually, when her nurse had been struck dead
after plying Ermintruda with sausages on a Friday, her parents gave
way to her importunities and allowed her to enter the convent.

Although beset by persecutions from her fellow religious, Ermintruda
rapidly advanced in holiness and was often seen in ecstasy, floating
several feet above the floor of her cell. At the age of twelve she was
elected Abbess and at once instituted a reform which became famed for
its severity: the nuns were allowed to sleep only during the
afternoon, lined their habits with thorns, and were forbidden from
entertaining to tea anyone below the rank of Count. Once, to magnify
their austerities, by her prayers Ermintruda changed a trout into a
fillet mignon, in order to forbid her nuns from eating it.

Having been named after the Holy Sponge at her profession, Ermintruda
strove to imitate this instrument of the Passion for the rest of her
life. "My one desire", she once said, "is to soak up all the
bitterness and gall in the world and, squeezed to the lips of Jesus,
to let him suck everything from me. I would not withhold from His dear
lips a single drop!"

She died amid prodigies at the age of 33, a circumstance which led to
her being immediately proclaimed a saint. When her body was opened for
relics it was discovered that by a miracle her brain had been
completely converted into a sponge, which is still preserved in her
convent, incorrupt, to the admiration of visitors.

------------------------------------------

The Rockall Communion News Service is published by the Autocephalous
Church of Rockall.

You can SUBSCRIBE at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RCNS/

Send QUESTIONS or COMMENTS to Canon Leni Riefenstahl (Director of
Photography, Media and PR): church_of_rockall@...