Blessed John Duns Scotus
S. Ioannes Duns Scotus
1108 Pastors Memorial / [SBOFM]: Feast
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Born in Scotland at the end of 1265 and received as a young man into the Order of Friars Minor, he was ordained a priest on 17th March 1291. After graduating at the University of Paris, he taught in the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford and of Cologne. As a faithful son of Saint Francis of Assisi, he pursued the study of Divine Revelation with the most acute insight and published many works of philosophy and theology. He proved himself a fervent herald of the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word, an untiring promoter of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary and a defender of the supreme authority of the Roman Pontiff. He was exiled from Paris on 23rd June 1303 because of his refusal to sign his name to the libellous attack made by Philip IV the Fair, King of France, on Pope Boniface VIII. Having dedicated all his energies to his teaching office in Cologne, he died there suddenly and prematurely on 8th November 1308. Already, during his lifetime the outstanding Christian virtues of this great Master of Theology had gained for him a high reputation for holiness, and within a short time after his death he was venerated in a public cult, not only in the Seraphic Order to which he belonged, but also at Cologne where he is buried and at Nola in Italy. This cult was confirmed by Pope John Paul II on 6th July 1991.