The Turin Shroud went on show in Turin today in 1978. It was the third time in the 20th century that the public had been allowed to see the it. The new pope, John Paul I, who had only been in office a few days, planned to visit but had to cancel. He had become known as ‘the smiling Pope’, and had been such a hit after the agonised papacy of his predecessor, Paul VI, that the Shroud organisers feared they would not be able to cope with the crowds. Over 3 million pilgrims turned up anyway.
Today in 1317, Hugues Géraud, Bishop of Cahors, was executed in Avignon, France. His original crime was embezzlement, but as the Church’s investigators closed in, he turned his hand to assassination, using arsenic and sorcery to attempt the murder of Pope John XXII. The plot was foiled when creepy wax figurines, intended to put a deadly curse on the Pope, were discovered. Géraud was burned at the stake, but it was not the end of the story, because the paranoia he produced set in motion the Church’s persecution of witchcraft. That winter, the Pope issued a decretal, Super illius specula (‘Upon his watchtower’), which made witchcraft a heresy, and put suspected witches into the ungentle hands of the Inquisition. These dark themes consume the characters in Umberto Eco’s famous novel The Name of the Rose, which is set in the middle of John XXII’s reign.
‘They sacrifice to demons and adore them, they make or cause to be made images, rings, mirrors, phials or some such things in which by the art of magic evil spirits are to be enclosed. From them they seek and receive replies, and ask aid in satisfying their evil desires. For a foul purpose they submit to the foulest slavery. Alas! this deadly malady is increasing more than usual in the world and inflicting greater and greater ravages on the flock of Christ.’ Pope John XXII, Super illius specula, 1326
The early martyr Felix was executed today in the year 303, according to tradition, along with an anonymous onlooker who also happened to mention that he was a Christian. Hence it is the Feast Day of Saints Felix and Adauctus, which literally means: ‘Felix and the other one’.
Paul II became Pope today in 1464, having sworn to obey the conclave’s 18-point plan for papal behaviour, necessitated by his predecessor’s dodgy conduct. As soon as he was appointed, he redefined them as ‘guidelines’ and utterly ignored them.
It is the feast of St Fantinus, a monk and hermit who lived in Calabria, in the toe of Italy, and died around the year 1000. His austerities were famous: he slept on the floor, he went around virtually naked, and lived on roots and raw vegetables. Towards the end of his life, he embarked on a missionary journey to Greece. On the voyage, so the story goes, the water supply ran out, so Fantinus made the sign of the cross over some containers of seawater, which instantly became drinkable.
Image: Simon Jenkins