St. Melorus was the
son of Melianus, the Duke of Cornouaille, in Brittany, France.
When the boy was seven years old, his uncle Rivoldus, killed Melianus,
so that he could become the Duke. To make matters worse, he cut off one
hand and one foot of his nephew Melorus, and forced him to go to a monastery.
Somebody gave the poor boy, a silver hand and a brass foot. God worked
a miracle, and Melorus could use his silver hand and brass foot, just
like his real hand and foot. These pieces also grew in size as the boy
grew.
The youth advanced
in virtue and holiness and by the time he was fourteen years old, he was
working miracles. Rivoldus then became afraid of his holy nephew and
asked the boy's guardian Cerialtanus, to get rid of his nephew, Melorus.
Cerialtanus then cut off the boy's head. The dead body of Melorus was
the cause of many miracles, and God saw to it that his murderers all died.
Then Melorus was buried with great honour and respect.
St.
Melorus, Pray for Us.
Saint
Placid
Feast
Day – October 5th
St. Placid was born
in Rome, Italy,
in 515. At the age of seven his father took him to the Monastery of Subiaco.
One day, as the boy was getting water from the river, he fell in and was
carried away by the current. St. Benedict, seeing the mishap in a vision,
asked Br. Maurus to go and rescue the boy. When Marus reached the river,
he walked on top of the water, saved the boy, and later, was praised for
his obedience. When Placid was thirteen years old, he went with St. Benedict
to the new Monastery of Monte Casino. There the boy grew in the spiritual
life by his penances, humility, purity and mortification.
At the age of twenty-one,
Placid was chosen to set up a new monastery in Sicily.
He spent four years in building the monastery and in the fifth year, these
monks were attacked by barbarians. The wicked barbarians burned everything
to the ground, and then killed St. Placid and thirty other monks, who
lived at the monastery. They also killed St. Placid's two brothers, Eutychius
and Victorinus, and his sister Flavia, who had come to visit him.
