Strange Saints - Efflam & Honora

St Efflam – Hermit – 6^th Century

Feast Day:  November 5

Son of an Irish chieftain who aspired to be a hermit instead of a prince.

He obeyed his father and married a British princess, (Saint) Honora as a pledge of peace between their tribes.

On their wedding night, Efflam suggested to his bride that they remain perpetual virgins.   She agreed.

Efflam then left that night with some of his companions to Plestin in  the Brittany region of France.

Efflam fasted totally every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Efflam moved into an abandoned hermitage but later learned that the cell belonged to another hermit, (Saint Gestin).

St Gestin was in Rome on a pilgrimage but sent word that Efflam could keep the hermitage, and the two become good friends.

St. Honora – Virgin and Hermitess – 6^th Century

Feast Day: November 6

A deeply pious English princess who was married to (Saint) Efflam, an Irish chieftain’s son.

She readily agreed to his proposal on their wedding night to remain perpetually continent (chaste).

Efflam left that night for France.  She followed him some time later searching for him to join him as a hermit.

Honora built a hermitage of her own at a distance from his.

Thereafter, Honora lived “as an angel” keeping her commitment to chastity and never again looked upon her husband or any man.

She is said to have founded a convent for other maidens who had settled near her to imitate her example.