26 October

. . . .is on the old calendar the feast of St. Evaristus, pope and probably martyr. I once worked with a girl named Eva who was born on this day. In accordance with the Hispanic tradition of her family she was named after the saint of the day and her full name was Evarista. She infinitely preferred Eva and you would have to know her a long time before she admitted to Evarista.

Today is also the feast of a 15th century Colettine Poor Clare with the beautiful name of Blessed Bonne D' Armagnac. She was granddaughter of the constable of Armagnac and sister to Jacques, duke of Nemours. Her birth was attributed to St. Colette who told her parents to bring her up well so she could enter the convent. She vetoed that idea. When her parents finally made a good match for her - the younger brother of Louis XI, no less - she changed her mind and insisted on entering the Poor Clares. (You get the feeling her parents should at least be "venerables".) [Information on Bl. Bonne is from a much longer passage in Engelbert's Lives of the Saints.