(A.D. 1153.)
[Venerated in the diocese of Troyes in France. Canonized in 1203.]
Belina was a little peasantess of Landreville, in the diocese of
Troyes, the daughter of pious parents, who were the serfs of John,
Lord of Pradines and of D'Arcy, in the popular legend called John
Paterne. She was engaged to a young man in her village of the same
humble rank; and her parents asked the Lord of Pradines' permission to
allow the marriage to take place, for no serf could marry without the
consent of his or her lord. The nobleman made some demur, and declared
he chose the beautiful little maiden to be his mistress. She
indignantly rejected his sinful proposals, and one day as he surprised
her when she was keeping her sheep in a little glen, she defended
herself against his violence with such vehemence that he lost all
control over himself, and drawing his sword struck at her, and the
blade falling on her slender neck, dealt her her death-wound. The
peasants, enraged at this act of barbarity, rose in a body and burnt
the castle, and would have killed the Lord of Pradines, had he not
escaped in disguise. Shortly after, pope Anastasius IV. excommunicated
him for the crime, and laid the lordship of Landreville under an
interdict for a brief space, till the king confiscated the territory,
and the parliament of France condemned John de Pradines to perpetual
exile.
Most of the relics of the saintly virgin were dispersed and lost at
the Revolution, but some particles of bone remain in a bust at
Landreville. The day on which she was killed was September 8th, but
her festival is observed with great solemnity at Landreville, on
Feb. 19th.
[56] Col. iv. 10; 2 Tim. iv. 11.
[57] Butler gives an account of his early life, and his ministry at
Moncona, but nothing of all this is found in the two ancient lives. It
is taken from a life by Ovid, a monk of Monte Vergine, quoted by
Vincent Chiarlanti, but this seems to be no authority.
February 20.
SS. TYRANNIO, _B. M._, AND COMPANIONS, _MM. at Tyre_, A.D. 304
_and_ 310.
S. PAULA, THE BEARDED, _V. at Avila, in Spain_.
SS. SADOTH, _B. M._, AND CXXVIII. COMPANIONS, _MM. in Persia_,
A.D. 345.
SS. EUCHER AND FALCO, _HB. at Mæstrecht, circ._ A.D. 500.
S. OLCAN, _B. in Ireland, circ._ A.D. 500.
S. ELEUTHERIUS, _B. of Tournai_, A.D. 531.
S. MILDRED, _V., Abs. in Thanet, circ._ A.D. 700.
S. EUCHER, _B. of Orleans_, A.D. 743.
S. LEO, THE WONDERWORKER, _B. of Catanea, circ._ A.D. 780.
S. WULFRIC, _P. H. at Haselborough, in Wiltshire_, A.D. 1154.