St. Basil
Feastday: March 6
335
Bishop of Bologna, Italy, ordained by Pope St. Sylvester in 315. Basil served his diocese until his death.
St. Colette
Feastday: March 6
Colette was the daughter of a carpenter named DeBoilet at Corby Abbey in Picardy, France. She was born on January 13, christened Nicolette, and called Colette. Orphaned at seventeen, she distributed her inheritance to the poor. She became a Franciscan tertiary, and lived at Corby as a solitary. She soon became well known for her holiness and spiritual wisdom, but left her cell in 1406 in response to a dream directing her to reform the Poor Clares. She received the Poor Clares habit from Peter de Luna, whom the French recognized as Pope under the name of Benedict XIII, with orders to reform the Order and appointing her Superior of all convents she reformed. Despite great opposition, she persisted in her efforts. She founded seventeen convents with the reformed rule and reformed several older convents. She was reknowned for her sanctity, ecstacies, and visions of the Passion, and prophesied her own death in her convent at Ghent, Belgium. A branch of the Poor Clares is still known as the Collettines. She was canonized in 1807. Her feast day is March 6th.
St. Fridolin
Feastday: March 6
540
Benedictine abbot, an Irishman venerated as “the Apostle of the Upper Rhine.” He traveled to France and settled in Poitiers, rebuilding the monastery of St. Hilary which had been destroyed by Vandals. He then became a hermit on the Rhine. There he built the abbey of Sackingen. Fridolin was called “the Wanderer’ because of his many evangelizing trips in the region.
St. Baldred
Feastday: March 6
8th century
Bishop of Scotland, successor of St. Kentigern in Glasgow. He retired from his see to become a hermit on the Firth of Forth.
St. Balther
Feastday: March 6
756
Irish Benedictine hermit of Lindisfarne, also called Baldred. Balther went to Tynningham on the Scottish border to live in retirement, settling at Bass Rock in Northumbria. He lived a life of great asceticism and died at Aldaam. His remains were enshrined with the relics of St. Bilfrid at Durham, England.
St. Bilfrid
Feastday: March 6
8th century
Benedictine hermit, the silversmith who bound the Lindisfarne Gospels. He was a hermit in Lindisfarne, Ireland, off the coast of Northumbria, in northern England, where he aided Bishop Eaddfrid in preparing the binding of that masterpiece. He used gold, silver, and gems to bind the famous copy of the Gospels of St. Cuthbert. His relics were enshrined in Durham, England, in the eleventh century.
St. Cadroe
Feastday: March 6
976
A Scottish prince and Benedictine abbot. He studied in Arrnagh, Ireland, and went to England where tradition states he saved London from a fire. In Fleury, France, Cadroe became a Benedictine. Soon after, he became the abbot of Waul sort Monastery on the Meuse River in Belgium. He then went to Metz, Prance, to become abbot of St. Clement's monastery.
St. Evagrius
Feastday: March 6
380
Bishop of Constantinople. He was chosen for that office but after a few months was banished by Emperor Valens, an Arian. Because of his defense of orthodoxy, Evagrius remained in exile until his death.
St. Kyneburga, Kyneswide, & Tibba
Feastday: March 6
680
Abbesses whose relics are in St. Peterborough Abbey in England. Kyneburga and Kyneswide were daughters of King Penda of Mercia . The former founded an abbey at Castor, Northamptonshire. She was joined there by Kyneswide. Tibba was probably a relative who entered the same convent.
St. Marcian
Feastday: March 6
Bishop of Tortona, Italy, and a dis¬ciple of St. Barnabas. He was reportedly martyred af¬ter serving for forty-five years.
St. Ollegarius
Feastday: March 6
1060-1137
Also known as Olaguerand and Olegari, Augustinian and bishop. A native of Barcelona, Spain, he was the son of Visigoth parents. After entering the Augustinian canons, he became prior at St. Aidan’s monastery and was ordained. In 1115, he was appointed bishop of Barcelona, but it took a papal bull to compel him to accept the office. The following year, he was transferred to Tarragona and elevated to the rank of archbishop. Ollegarius attended the first General Council of the Lateran in 1123, and Pope Callistus II made him a papal legate with the mission of preaching a crusade against the Moors of Spain. As archbishop, Ollegarius rebuilt most of Tarragona, which had been long neglected after its sack and occupation by the Moors, and promoted the work of the Knights Templar in the region.
