Information AboutCassian |
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This saint is different from St. John Cassian , the Abbot of St. Victor Abbey in Marseille , who died in 433. Little is known about his life, although the traditional accounts converge on some of the details of his martyrdom. He was a schoolmaster at Imola . Rather than sacrifice to the Roman gods, as so ordered by the current emperor, Julian The Apostate , he was condemned to death and turned over to his own students (some authorities write that this event took place during the reign of Diocletian ). Since they were eager for revenge for the many punishments he had inflicted on them, they bound him to a stake and tortured him to death by stabbing them with their pointed iron styli, the devices then used to mark wooden or wax writing tablets. His traditional date of martyrdom is August 13 , 363 , hence August 13 is his feast day on the Roman calendar. Cassian is the Patron Saint of Mexico City , and of parish clerks. There is at least one reference in modern literature to Cassian. In the novel '' A Confederacy Of Dunces '' by John Kennedy Toole , protagonist Ignatius Reilly informs one of his professors that "St. Cassian of Imola was stabbed to death by his students with their styli." (Grove Press edition, p. 140). EXTERNAL LINKS
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