Calendar Saints - The Month of September Quiz

Answer: Saint Fiacre

Saint Fiacre has his name day on September 1st in Ireland, whilst other possible dates are August 1st, August 11th, August 18th or August 30th. As he is of Irish descent, I prefer September 1st as his name day.
Very little is known about St. Fiacre, and many details of his life could be later embellishments instead of objective facts. However, this is the case with many of the Medieval saints, so let's put aside all our critics and read his short biography.
Fiacre was an Irish hermit who fled for France - the reason is not mentioned. There, the Bishop of Brie gave him a tract of land as large as he could plough in one day time. So Fiacre came at sunrise, pulled out his staff and encircled a quite large area. Trees toppled miraculously, and a female witness accused him of witchcraft. But the Bishop interpreted this as one of the first miracles of one who was destined to become a Saint.
Fiacre established a garden of astonishing beauty, and many pilgrims went over there to admire the landscape. Fiacre also cured several ailments of these pilgrims with the medicinal herbs he grew in his garden. All were welcome, except any females - maybe because one woman falsely had accused Fiacre of witchcraft. Saint Fiacre died probably in 670.
In the middle of the seventeenth century, the first company to rent horse-drawn carriages was established in the Rue Saint Martin in Paris, very near to a hotel named "Saint Fiacre". Tourists soon named the carriages after Saint Fiacre, and this inspired the drivers to acclaim Saint Fiacre as their patron saint.
The other options are not real saints, but figments of my imagination.

Answer: Saint Eustace

Saint Eustace was mentioned in the "Golden Legend", a medieval manuscript relating the lives of many early saints. Although this text was highly appreciated during the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church has dismissed many assertions from the "Golden Legend" as being figments or embellishments.
According to the "Golden Legend", Eustace was born under the name Placidus. He was a pagan entering the Roman army. One day he pursued a stag, and was separated from the rest of the hunting party. Then as he prepared to kill the stag, a cross appeared between its antlers and a celestial voice spoke out to Placidus: "Wherefore followest me hither?" (In modern English, it would say "Why did you follow me here?"). Placidus was converted to Christianity and adopted the name Eustace.
Eustace was tempted sometime afterwards: his servants died in some epidemic, his gold and silver were stolen, his wife was taken hostage by a skipper, while a wolf took his youngest son and a lion took his eldest son. But because Eustace kept his faith, he was reunited with his wife and sons some years later.
The Roman Emperor Hadrian later condemned Eustace and his family to death because they refused to make a sacrifice to the Roman deities. According to the "Golden Legend", Eustace, his wife and his two sons were roasted in a bronze bull statue.
The Netherlands governed six islands in the Caribbean region up till 2010. These islands, together known as the Netherlands Antilles, were Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Saba, Sint Maarten and Sint Eustatius - the last one named after Saint Eustace.
Saint Tropez is a luxurious resort on the French Côte d'Azur. Saint Quentin is a small town in the north of France. Saint Helier is one of the parishes on Jersey, one of the islands in the English Channel.

Answer: September 11

Saint Theodora was an Egyptian woman who sinned and repented. She led an ascetic life as a hermit in Southern Egypt. Her gender was only revealed after her death (in 491 AD). Her name day is September 11th.
The US Patriot Day remembers the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001.
September 19th is "International Talk Like A Pirate Day", observed by the Pastafarians.
September 25th is Revolution Day in Mozambique.
September 5th is the birthday of India's second President, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. On this day, India celebrates its teachers.

Answer: The sickle stayed suspended in the air during mass

Saint Notburga was born around 1265. She started her career as a kitchen maid to Count Henry of Rattenberg, where she would take the food leftovers and distribute these to the poor. When the Countess reprimanded her, saying the leftovers should go their pigs, Notburga distributed most of her own food to the poor. The Countess fired her because of disobedience, whereupon Notburga went to serve at a farmer's family in a small village in Tyrol (Austria).
Notburga had insisted that her contract with the farmer included free time whenever mass was celebrated, so that she could attend mass. Usually she went to the evening mass on Saturdays. One Saturday during harvest, Notburga and the farmer fell out over this time off to attend mass. Notburga then threw her sickle in the air with the words "Let my sickle decide this argument". And miraculously the sickle remained in the air, so Notburga had the time to attend mass.
This legend does not relate when the sickle finally came down, probably just after Notburga returned from Church.
When Notburga felt (in 1313) that she soon would die, she asked her employer to lay her corpse on a bier drawn by two oxen, and to have her buried where the oxen would halt spontaneously. It happened as Notburga wanted: the oxen halted spontaneously before the chapel of Saint Rupert, where she was buried.
Saint Notburga is the patron saint of domestic servants and of farmers. She usually is depicted with the miraculously suspended sickle.
The alternative options were figments of my too vivid imagination. None of those events could help Notburga to attend mass.

Answer: He was beheaded

During the year 178 AD, a pagan governor named Priscus ruled Gaul under the orders of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Priscus more or less followed his own course, and he thought he had to keep up the veneration of the ancient Roman deities. The Christians refused to make sacrifices to these idols. Priscus was infuriated with this behaviour, and persecuted Christians whenever he could.
By early September 178 Priscus had already sentenced and executed a large number of Christians in Lyon, including Saint Marcellus and Saint Blandina. Saint Valerianus miraculously escaped from prison and went to Tours, some 300 miles (500 km) to the northwest. But Priscus arrived there and had Valerianus arrested. After torturing him for a brief while with hot irons, which didn't seem to harm Valerianus, Priscus had him beheaded.
The gas chamber, lethal injection and electric chair are common methods of execution, but were not yet invented in 178 AD.

Answer: Pope

Saint Cornelius was not a person who made great history. In fact, only a few texts mention his name and deeds. He was a priest who was elected Pope in 251 AD.
The Roman Emperor Decius occasionally persecuted Christians, and had threatened with the death penalty all those who refused to make sacrifices to the ancient Roman deities. Many Christians refusing to do so were put to death, and several Christians clung to their lives by making the demanded sacrifices. The Church proclaimed that the idol worshippers were no longer Christians, but could reintegrate into the Church on some conditions.
Of course only repentant sinners could be readmitted to the Church. But did they need a second baptism? Some priests insisted on a rebaptism, while others (including Cornelius) thought repentance was enough. When Cornelius became Pope, his point of view prevailed throughout the Church.
Meanwhile Emperor Decius fell on the battlefield, and he was succeeded by Trebonianus Gallus. Gallus started a new round of persecutions, and banished Pope Cornelius to the town nowadays known under the name Civitavecchia, a coast town some 50 km north of Rome. Here Cornelius died. It is uncertain whether he was beheaded or just languished because of his banishment.
Cornelius was the first Christian author who mentioned the profession of exorcist. He inserted into Canon law that every bishopric should appoint one exorcist - a rule suppressed in 1972.
In 251 AD there were not yet any abbots. The first who organised monastic life was probably Saint Anthony, around 305 AD, or Saint Pachomius, around 318 AD. But the title abbot was only accepted generally under the Rule of Saint Benedict (about 529).
The Inquisition is an institution to fight against heresies. It was founded somewhere between 1220 and 1240, because at that time many sects diverged from the official Roman Catholic teachings.

Answer: Saint Januarius

In case anyone of you should wonder: all the given options are true saints (according to one of my most reliable sources, that is).
Januarius was Bishop of Benevento, Italy (near Naples) at the beginning of the Fourth Century, while Emperor Diocletian ruled the Roman Empire. Diocletian organised several persecutions of Christians, and in the persecution of 305 AD Januarius was apprehended. At first Januarius and his companions were thrown before wild bears, but the bears didn't touch them. So Januarius was beheaded instead.
An anonymous Christian woman was able to preserve Januarius' blood, which now is a relic in the Naples Cathedral. Normally this blood is a solid substance in a glass container, but three times a year it seems to miraculously liquefy and become effervescent - most notably on September 19th, Januarius' feast day.
Saint Januarius is patron saints of Naples and of blood banks. He can also be acclaimed to avert volcanic eruptions: one day, it is said, his relics were brought to the foot of Mt. Vesuvius, which promptly stopped erupting.
Saint Paschal's name refers to the Latin name for Easter, but he is celebrated February 11th.
Saint Natalia refers to Christmas. But her name day is December 1st.
Saint Wisdom is a very obscure saint, buried in a cemetery on the Appian Way. She is venerated September 30th. One could of course pray for wisdom on any day.

Answer: True

Saint Fausta (aged 13) and Saint Evilasius (aged 80) are the aforesaid martyr and executioner. In the Roman Catholic Church they are celebrated on September 20th, but the Eastern Orthodox Church venerates them on February 6th.
Fausta was born in 298 and lived in Cyzicus, near the Black Sea. In 311 she was arrested for her Christian belief. At first she was confined to a wooden trunk, and some soldiers tried to saw through the trunk. Their attempts to saw through the trunk, as well as to burn it, miraculously failed. Then Fausta was fed to the vultures, but they wouldn't harm her. Meanwhile the pagan judge Evilasius converted to Christianity, impressed with the faith and patience with which Fausta endured the torture. Then governor Maximus came to convict both. Maximus fetched some carpenters and ordered them to hammer nails in Fausta's head and body, but again she came out unscathed. Finally Fausta and Evilasius were put in a cauldron with boiling oil, which killed them both.
But the story doesn't quite end here: Maximus, the executioner's executioner, was also touched by Fausta's and Evilasius' bravery, and converted to Christianity too - whereupon Maximus was killed in the same cauldron with boiling oil.

Answer: Wounds in a form described in the Passion of Christ

Stigmata are wounds placed as if the person who has them has endured the same torture as Christ in His last hours. Without any visible cause, these saints receive on their hands (or wrists) and feet wounds resembling nail holes, in their side a deep wound as if they were pierced by a lance, on their forehead wounds as if from a crown of thorns, or on their back wounds as if from flagellation. Sometimes these wounds are visible for only a few hours, but in other cases these wounds remain there for many years.
Padre Pio was born in 1887 as Francesco Forgione in the small Italian community Pietralcina in Campania. He entered the order of the Capuchins at the age of 16 and was ordained a priest in 1910. In 1918, he received the stigmata when kneeling in front of a large crucifix. Padre Pio then announced these stigmata would only disappear at the moment of his death. In 1968 indeed the stigmata disappeared leaving not a single trace, whereupon Pio died of natural causes.
Other notable saints presenting the stigmata are Saint Francis of Assisi; Saint Rita of Cascia; and Saint Catherine of Siena.
The other options I gave are markings that don't appear by some miracle.

Answer: Archangel

According to Roman Catholic tradition, there are seven Archangels, among whom Michael, Gabriel and Raphael stand out as those whose existence is never doubted upon. The other four Archangels (Uriel, Phanuel, Zarachiel and Simiel) were introduced by Pope Gregory the Great, but repudiated by Pope Zachary.
I'll mention here that the term Archangel exists in Judaism, all main branches of Christianity, Islam and in Zorastrianism, but the number of Archangels and their names vary accordingly. For example, the Eastern Orthodox Church states there are thousands of Archangels and names eight of them. But the Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses only recognise one Archangel.
Saint Michael is mentioned as the Archangel who commands the Lord's Legions in fighting against the Antichrist. He has a large number of patronages, among them grocers and paratroopers.
Saint Gabriel is known as the messenger who announced to the Virgin Mary that she was expecting a child. He is also mentioned as the messenger announcing to Zacharias the birth of John the Baptist. His patronages include the postal workers (quite obviously) and diplomats.
Saint Raphael appears in the Book of Tobias (a book included in the Catholic and Orthodox biblical canons, but considered apocryphal in Lutheran tradition). He heals a blind boy and is therefore patron saint of all those involved in medicine: nurses, doctors, pharmacists, and so on.