February 20th is the feast day of St. Eucherius of Orleans. After reading St. Paul’s epistles, he was drawn to the monastic life. But, his uncle, who was the Bishop of Orleans died and left the position open for him. He reluctantly left his secluded life and became the new bishop, but the mayor of the palace (who was pretty much running things by the sound of it) Charles Martel did not like Eucherius’ ideas and exiled him. He had been confiscating church property to fund his personal war efforts… not very nice. So Eucherius retired to Sint-Truiden (which is what my sketch is of) where he spent the remainder of his life in prayer and meditation.
St. Peter Damian was orphaned at a young age and went to live with an older brother who treated him like a slave in his household. Another brother who was the archpriest in Ravenna took pity on him and sent him away to be educated. He eventually entered the hermitage at Fonte Avellana and practiced some pretty extreme penance. He also did a lot for church reform (a lot of his contemporaries had some serious vices…) I drew him holding Fonte Avellana since that is where the foundation was laid for all of his achievements.