Sometimes celebrations get buried,

so while remembering the worthy St. Thomas Aquinas, don't forget James the Almsgiver.

Born in Lombardy in the 1200's, the young James was made to study law, but upon coming of age he entered the priesthood. He reopened a long-disused hospital, where he tended the sick without charge and also dispensed free legal advice. When he discovered that the former income of the hospital had been wrongly taken by the bishop, he petitioned the bishop for restitution, and was refused. James appealed and won his case in both ecclesiastic and civil court, and the bishop had to repay the hospital the expropriated funds. Being exceedingly wroth, the bishop hired assassins to murder the priest who loved both mercy and justice, this day in 1304.

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