16 June 2024 (MIA)

Macedonian Orthodox Church Calendar

Priestly-Martyr Lucian

Lucian was a Roman renowned for his noble birth, wealth and learning. For a period of time he was a disciple of the Apostle Peter. Later, Pope Clement sent him, together with Dionysius the Areopagite, to Gaul to preach the Gospel consecrating him bishop beforehand. With great zeal Lucian sowed the teachings of Christ at first in Gaul and, afterward, throughout Belgium. When the evil Emperor Domitian began his persecution of Christians, a cadre of men were sent by him from Rome to Gaul to seek out and to capture the Christian missionaries. They first captured St. Dionysius and, after that, they went in pursuit of Lucian. Finding Lucian in Belgium together with his assistants, the presbyter Maxianus and the deacon Julian, the soldier killed these two in one place and in another place, beheaded Lucian. After Lucian had been beheaded, his lifeless body rose up from the ground, took his head in his hands (similar to St. Dionysius and St. John Vladimir) and then walked to the place where he desired to be buried. There he fell and there he was buried. Later, a church was built over his relics.

Catholic Calendar

St. Lutgardis

Also known as Lutgard; Lutgarde of the Sacred Heart; Lutgarde of Tongres; Lutgarde; Lutgardis of Aywieres; Luthgard. A pretty girl with a fondness for clothes and no apparent religious vocation, Lutgardis was sent to the Black Benedictine convent near Saint Trond at age 12 because her dowry had been lost in a failed business venture, and there was thus little chance for a life as a normal, married lay woman. In her late teens she received a vision of Christ showing her his wounds, and at age 20 she became a Benedictine nun with a true vocation. She had visions of Christ while in prayer, experienced ecstasies, levitated, and dripped blood from forehead and hair when enraptured in the Passion. The repeatedly refused to be chosen abbess of her house. The Benedictine order was not strict enough for Lutgardis, and on the advice of her friend Saint Christina the Astonishing she joined the Cistercians at Aywieres (in modern Belgium) where she lived for her remaining 30 years. Displayed the gifts of healing, prophecy, spiritual wisdom, and was an inspired teacher on the Gospels. Blind for the last eleven years of her life, she treated the affliction as a gift – it reduced the distraction of the outside world. In one of her last visions, Christ told her when she was to die; she spent the time remaining praying for the concession of sinners. She died 16 June 1246 at Aywieres, just as night office began on the Saturday night following Feast of the Holy Trinity.