Here’s the saint’s calendar for February 5, 2019, and several versions, each focusing on individual saints, all wonderful; for these are the Church Triumphant.
The Catholic Church has many saints and reading about their lives has been a spiritual journey Catholics have been on since the publication of the Golden Legend, http://sourcebooks.web.fordham.edu/basis/goldenlegend/
From Butler’s Calendar of the Saints listing all of the saints of today. https://web.archive.org/web/20060829161013/http://catholic-forum.com/saints/day0205.htm
From Butler’s Lives of the Saints, St. Agatha, Virgin, Martyr, http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/lots/lots047.htm
From Franciscan Media, also St. Agatha, https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-agatha/
From a most lovely site, really a daily devotional site offering much more than just saint of the day, Anastpaul https://anastpaul.wordpress.com/
One of my personal favorites, Tradition in Action, the Martyrs of Japan, https://traditioninaction.org/SOD/j211sd_MartyrsJapan_02_05.html
Here is what the 1962 Roman Missal says about St. Agatha, “Born in Sicily of noble parents, St. Agatha suffered dreadful torture at the hands of her persecutors, but she was healed on the following night by a vision of St. Peter. Other sufferings were inflicted upon her, and from these she died A. D. 254.” (p. 1175) The Daily Missal and Liturgical Manual. (2004). Baronius Press: London. To get this for your library, go to the source: https://www.baroniuspress.com/book.php?wid=56&bid=4#tab=tab-1
Martyrs of the Reform
The eleventh century was one of the most corrupt in the Church’s history, and those working for reform struggled mightily, as this article by Roberto de Mattei explains.
An excerpt.
Also the reform of the Church has its martyrs. Among them are Saints Arialdo (+1066) and Erlembald (+1075), leaders of the “Pataria”, a lay movement in the XI century which aimed at the restoration of morality in the diocese of Milan, one of the most corrupt in Italy.
Simony and Nicolaism were the two plagues afflicting the Church at that time. Simony was the pretense of buying and selling clerical offices; Nicolaism, was the practice of taking wives and mistresses by bishops and priests. However, the most shameful expression of moral dissoluteness was sodomy, which, as St. Peter Damian writes, raged “like a bloodthirsty beast inside the sheepfold of Christ” (Liber Gomorrhianus, tr. it. Fiducia, Roma 2015, p. 41). These vices were so deeply-rooted in northern Italy as to constitute general praxis.
Against the diffusion of this immorality, a reformist movement arose at the initiative of the Deacon Arialdo and the brothers Landulf and Erlembald Cotta. They came from noble families in Lombardy, but because the people followed them they were called by their adversaries “patarini” that is to say “straccioni” (“ragpickers” i.e. “tramps”- the Pataria was the rag-market). The opposition party to this reform was led by the Archbishop of Milan himself, Guido da Velate, who justified the corrupt clergy for political reasons. This resulted in an open clash, narrated by an eyewitness, the Vallombrosian Abbot, Andrea da Strumi, in the Vita Sancti Arialdi (Monumenta Germanica, Hist., Scriptores, XXX, 2, Lipsiae 1935, pp. 1047-1075; tr. it. Arialdo. Passione del santo martire milanese, Jaca Book, Milano 1994).
The movement’s moral leader was Arialdo, who, according to Andrea da Strumi, Christ Himself had chosen, in defensione veritatis. Addressing the Milanese people, Arialdo exhorted them to separate themselves from bad priests and pastors with these words: “Those who wish sincerely to find the truth must boldly refute every form of deception. For this, whereby you can fully delight in the Truth, which is God, I entreat you, in His name, to stay away completely from false priests. Indeed, there cannot be any possibility of agreement or close union between light and darkness, between the faithful and the unbelievers, between Christ and Belial. It is in fact written: “Go out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing” (2 Cor. 6, 17-18).
How can it be that He will not concede you the least, that is, pastors to guide you rightly, if you ask Him – He who, when none of you even existed, conceded you the most, that is, His very self for your salvation? Thus, try not to have anything to do with all the heretics and ask God confidently for good and faithful pastors; without doubt you will have them: be sure of this!”(p.69). The Lord – continued Arialdo, said: “If these shall hold their peace, the stones will cry out” (Luke 19,40) and also “Cursed be he that withholdeth his sword from blood”.(Jer. 48, 10). The sword invoked by Arialdo, was first and foremost that of the Word of God; but, when it was required, the reformers did not hesitate in taking up arms to defend themselves against the violent aggressions of their enemies, who were trying to obstruct their preaching.
The Archbishop of Milano, worried about the populist reaction which was expanding, summoned his accusers to exonerate themselves at a synod which took place in the monastery of Fontaneto, in the diocese of Novara. The leaders of the Pataria, Arialdo and Landulf, did not show up and were excommunicated in absentia by the bishop. Arialdo then went to Rome to Pope Stephen IX, to whom he laid out the reasons for resisting the Archbishop of Milan. The Pope, sympathetic to the movement that was arising, sent to Milan, two apostolic visitors, who were leading the reform of the Church at that time: the Archbishop of Lucca, Anselmo da Baggio and the Roman Archdeacon, Hildebrand. Both were destined to become Popes in the succeeding years. In the winter of 1060-61, Anselmo da Baggio was once again the representative of the Pope in Milan, along with the Cardinal Bishop of Ostia, Peter Damian. In both cases, the papal visitors, realizing the scandalous situation in the Diocese of Milan, exhorted the Pataria to persist in the fight, in turn, preaching to the people against the corrupt clergy.
In 1063, when Landulf Cotta died following an attempt on his life, Arialdo invited his brother Erlembald to take over as leader of the movement. Before accepting, Erlembald, wanted to go on pilgrimage to Rome in order to pray at the tomb of St. Peter and seek counsel from Anselmo da Baggio, who had become Pope in 1061 taking the name of Alexander II. Pope Alexander exhorted Erlembald to take on the leadership of the movement, made him Gonfalonier of the Holy Roman Church and entrusted him with the vexillum sancti Petri, which he had previously sent to the Norman, Ruggero, for his victory over the Muslims in Sicily. Erlembald was a knight, of a religious and warrior spirit, of whom Andrea da Strumi writes:”The noble Erlembald, when he appeared before men, was like a general in precious garments, encircled by knights and arms. But hidden, before God, he was clothed in simple wool, like a rough hermit.”
The papal approval gave new vigor to the Pataria struggle. When abbots were chosen in a simoniac manner for the three important monasteries in Milan, St. Celso, St. Vincenzo and St. Ambrose the “patarini” rose up and a new phase of clashes began. Arialdo, the Deacon, was alongside Erlembald even in the “patarino” movement’s military leadership and together, raising the banner of St. Peter, they defeated the Archbishop Guido da Velate.
In the spring of 1066, Erlembald, returned to Milan, carrying two Papal Bulls: the first was Archbishop Guido’s excommunication; the second wherein the Pope exhorted the Milanese clergy to follow the indications from Rome. Guido da Velate convened a great assembly to which thousands of people of opposite factions flocked, including Arialdo and Erlembald. When the Archbishop lashed out against the Pope’s claim to dictate laws in Milan, a part of the crowd assailed Arialdo and Erlembald. Erlembald defended himself by whirling in the air the banner of Holy Church which was always with him. Arialdo was forced to flee, but near Piacenza he was arrested and taken to the castle of Donna Oliva, Guido da Velate’s niece. On June 28th 1066 she had him killed on a small island in Lake Maggiore. Before killing him, his assassins grabbed him by the ears, ordering him to obey the Archbishop of Milan.
Retrieved February 4, 2019 from http://www.robertodemattei.it/en/2019/01/25/martyrs-of-the-reform-of-the-church/