June 8 -- Feast of Saints Victorinus of Pioraco and Severinus of Septempeda

Nice little town nestled in the mountains

These two brothers, eventually both bishops, share this feast day.  When their folks died, they sold their whole inheritance, donated the proceeds to the poor, and settled into religious lives.  Victorinus moved into a cave on Mount Gualdo to live as a hermit.  One day, a young lady sought shelter with him.  That night, he succumbed to temptation and found himself in need of penance by morning.  He immediately sought his brother for confession and absolution. 

Nice lobster, Pioraco!

I am not sure if Severinus assigned him three years of penance or if he imposed that on himself, but he set about hanging himself from a tree while his hands were crushed between two branches.  If Severinus imposed it, he regretted it soon after, racing down to get his brother down.  Perhaps it is just stubborn modernity on my part, but I am not not as enthusiastic about mortification of the flesh as I am about sincere repentance. 

Victorinus and his brother both became bishops.  They were held in such high regard that they were hailed as saints upon their deaths.   For a long time, Saint Victorinus was on the Pioraco coat of arms, but he was replaced by a rampant lobster in 1878.