The Shepherd, October 2004
THE COMING MONTH
OCTOBER is one of the most beautiful months in the year, a quiet time and one graced with all the beauties of Autumn, and so it is also in the Church Calendar. There are no Great Feasts or special fasts, but the month is graced with the celebration of some of the most beloved Saints, beginning with the festival of the Protection of the Mother of God on the very first day.
Among the saints in October, we have:-
Venerable Andronicus and his wife Athanasia (9th / 22nd): Saint Andronicus was a citizen of Antioch, and a goldsmith by profession. He lived during the fourth century. He and his wife lived devoutly, and they kept a rule whereby they divided their income into three portions. One third they gave to the poor, and one to the churches and monasteries, leaving only a third for their own use. They were granted two children, and, having a sufficient family, thereafter resolved to live together as brother and sister. However, through the providence of God, both their children died on the same day, and they grieved inconsolably. The holy Martyr Julian appeared to them to take away their grief. He assured them that their children were in the Kingdom and Heaven, and that it was better for them there than to struggle on earth. Andronicus and Athanasia then resolved to take up the monastic life, and gave all their possessions to the poor. Then setting off together, as is proper in such cases, they went into Egypt, where Andronicus placed himself under obedience to the Elder Daniel at Scetis, and Athanasia joined a women’s community at Tabennisi. They ended their days in virtue. First Athanasia died, and then after a short period of only eight days, manifesting the love that they had for each other, Andronicus joined her.
Saint Lull, Archbishop of Mainz (16th /29th) was a native of England, probably from Wessex. He took up the monastic life at Malmesbury, but in 725, as a young man probably not yet twenty, he went to Germany to assist the mission of Saint Boniface there. Ten years later he was ordained priest and assisted St Boniface in every way. In 751 on St Boniface’s behalf he went to Rome to petition the Pope for certain privileges for the monastery of Fulda, which the saint had founded. As the end of his life approached, St Boniface took the unusual, but - in the missionary circumstances in which they were working - probably necessary, step of asking the Pope if he might nominate his successor. Such permission was not forthcoming, although the King Pepin assented to the idea, and in 754 St Boniface resigned his archiepiscopal see to St Lull, and set out to Frisia on more missionary endeavours, during which he was slain as a martyr. St Lull received the precious relics of his Elder at Fulda. St Lull’s episcopate was later disturbed by a dispute between himself and the abbot of Fulda, and for a period he deposed the latter, but at the insistence of the monks he was subsequently reinstated. St Lull governed the archiepiscopal see of Mainz for thirty-four years, before resigning to live in quiet and prepare for his end. He retired to the monastery of Hersfeld, where he died on 1st November, A.D. 786. 
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