The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and
Principal Saints, by Alban Butler

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Title: The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints
       January, February, March

Author: Alban Butler

Release Date: January 26, 2007 [EBook #20450]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIVES OF THE FATHERS ***




Produced by Geoff Horton




{000}
{Transcriber's notes:

1) Page numbers in the main text have been retained in {braces}. Page
breaks within long footnotes are not marked.

2) The original of this work is printed very badly. In most cases, the
original text is obvious and has been restored without any special
notations in the transcription. In those cases where it was not possible
to determine the original text with much certainty (usually numbers and
rare proper nouns which cannot be deduced from context) a pair of braces
{} indicates where the illegible text was. Sometimes the braces contains
text {like this}, indicating a possible but not certain reconstruction.

3) The original had both numbered footnotes, used for references, and
footnotes with symbols, used for extended comments. This transcription
does not preserve that distinction; all the notes have been numbered or
renumbered as needed.

4) In a few cases, footnotes appear on the bottom of the page that do
not appear in the text (presumably because of the poor printing noted
above). In this case, the footnote is marked in the text at a likely
location, and the footnote begins {Footnote not in text} to indicate
that this was done.}

{006}
ARCHBISHOP'S HOUSE,
452 MADISON AVENUE.
Imprimatur
{Michael Augustinus
Archeispo Neo}
June 28th, 1895.

ADVERTISEMENT.

NOTWITHSTANDING that several editions of Butler's Lives of the Saints
have been issued from the American press, and circulated extensively
throughout the United States, yet the publishers of the present one are
led to believe that there are vast numbers of persons still unsupplied,
and desirous of possessing a work so replete with instruction and
edification for Christian families. This edition is reprinted from the
best London edition, without the omission of a single line or citation
from the original. To render the work as complete as possible, we have
added the Lives of St. Alphonsus Liguori, and other Saints canonized
since the death of the venerable author, and not included in any former
edition. This edition also contains the complete notes of the author,
which have been shamefully omitted in an edition published by a
Protestant firm of this city.

The present edition is illustrated with fine steel engravings of many of
the Saints, and when bound will form four very handsome volumes, uniform
with the Life of Christ, and the Life of the Blessed Virgin.

THE PUBLISHER

NEW YORK, _Sept._, 1895.


{007}

PREFACE

"THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS" is republished. This work--this inestimable
work, is at length given to the public. Hitherto the circulation of it
was confined to those who could afford to purchase it in TWELVE volumes,
and at a proportionate price. It is now stereotyped, printed in good
character, on fine paper, and published at a price not only below its
value, but below the hopes of the publisher. It is therefore now, and
for the first time, that "THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS" are, properly
speaking, given to the public.

And what is the nature and character of this work, which is thus placed
within the reach of almost every family in Ireland? We presume to say,
that "The Lives of the Saints" is an historical supplement to the Old
and New Testaments; an illustration of all that God has revealed, and of
all the sanctity which his divine grace has produced among the children
of men. It is a history, not so much of men, as of all ages and nations;
of their manners, customs, laws, usages, and creeds. It is a succinct,
but most accurate and satisfactory account of all that the Church of God
has done or suffered in this world from the creation to almost our own
days: an account not extracted from authentic records only, but one
which exhibits at every page the living examples, the speaking proofs,
of whatever it sets forth or asserts. As drawings taken by an artist,
and afterwards carved on plates of steel or copper, present to us views
of a country, or of the productions of the earth and sea, so "The Lives
of the Saints" exhibit to the reader images the most perfect of whatever
the human race, in times past, has yielded to God in return for his
countless mercies.

But "The Lives of the Saints" are not confined to history, though they
embrace whatever is most valuable in history, whether sacred,
ecclesiastical, or profane. No! This work extends farther; it presents
to the reader a mass of general information, digested and arranged with
an ability and a candor never surpassed. Here, no art, no science, is
left unnoticed. Chronology, criticism, eloquence, painting, sculpture,
architecture--in a word, whatever has occupied or distinguished man in
{008} times of barbarism or of civilization; in peace or in war; in the
countries which surround us, or in those which are far remote; in these
later ages, or in times over which centuries upon centuries have
revolved; all, all of these are treated of, not flippantly nor
ostentatiously, but with a sobriety and solidity peculiar to the writer
of this work.

But there is one quality which may be said to characterize "The Lives of
the Saints." It is this: that here the doctrines of the Catholic Church
are presented to us passing through the ordeal of time unchanged and
unchangeable, while her discipline is seen to vary from age to age; like
as a city fixed and immoveable, but whose walls, ramparts, and outworks,
undergo, from one period to another, the necessary changes, alterations,
or repairs. Here are pointed out the persecutions which the Saints
endured,--persecutions which patience overcame, which the power of God
subdued. Here are traced the causes of dissension in the Church; the
schisms and heresies which arose; the errors which the pride and
passions of bad men gave birth to; the obstinacy of the wicked,--the
seduction of the innocent,--the labors and sufferings of the just; the
conflicts which took place between light and darkness,--between truth
and error; the triumph, at one time of the city of God, at another, the
temporary exaltation of the empire of Satan. In this work, we see the
great and powerful leaders of God's people, the pastors and doctors of
the Church, displaying lights gives them from heaven, and exercising a
courage all-divine; while crowds of the elect are presented to us in
every age retiring from the world, hiding their lives with Christ in
God, and deserving, by their innocence and sanctity, to be received into
heaven until Christ, who was their life, will again appear, when they
also will appear along with him in glory. Here we behold the Apostles,
and their successors in the several ages, calling out to the nations who
sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, "Arise, thou who sleep eat,
and Christ will enlighten thee!"--men of God, and gifted with his power,
who, by preaching peace, enduring wrongs, and pardoning injuries,
subdued the power of tyrants, stopped the mouths of lions, upturned
paganism, demolished idols, planted everywhere the standard of the
cross, and left to us the whole world illuminated by the rays of divine
truth. Here is seen the meek martyr who possessed his soul in
patience,--who, having suffered the two of goods, the loss of kindred,
the lose of fame, bowed down his head beneath the axe, and sealed, by
the plentiful effusion of his blood, the testimony which he bore to
virtue and to truth. Here the youthful virgin, robed in innocence and
sanctity, clothed with the visible protection of God, is seen at one
time to yield up her frame, unfit, as yet, for torments, to the power of
the executioner; while her spirit, ascending {009} like the smoke of
incense, passed from earth to heaven. At another time we behold her
conducted, as it were, into the wilderness by the Spirit; where, having
left the house of her father, the allurements of the world, and the
endearments of life, she dedicates her whole being to the service of
God, and to the contemplation of those invisible goods which he has
reserved for those who love him.

In "The Lives of the Saints" we behold the prince and the peasant, the
warrior and the sage, the rich and the poor, the old and the young, the
peasant and the mechanic, the shepherd and the statesman, the wife and
the widow, the prelate, the priest, and the recluse,--men and women of
every class, and age, and degree, and condition, and country, sanctified
by the grace of God, exhibiting to the faithful reader models for his
imitation, and saying to him, in a voice which he cannot fail to
understand, "Go thou and do likewise."

It is on this account we have ventured to designate "The Lives of the
Saints" an historical supplement to the Old and New Testaments. We think
this work deserves to be so considered, on account of the close
resemblance it bears to the historical portions of holy writ. Let the
divine economy, in this respect, be for a moment the subject of the
reader's consideration.

When God was pleased to instruct men unto righteousness, he did so, as
the whole series of revelation proves, by raising up from among the
fallen children of Adam men and women of superior virtue,--men and women
whose lives, like shining lights, could direct in the ways of peace and
justice the footsteps of those who looked towards them. He did more: he
caused the lives of those his servants whom he sanctified and almost
glorified in this world, to be recorded by their followers; and his own
Spirit did not disdain to inspire the men who executed a work so
salutary to mankind. From Adam to Noe, from Noe to Abraham, from Abraham
to the days of Christ, what period is not marked by the life of some
eminent saint; and what portion of the Old Testament has always been and
still is most interesting to true believers? Is it not that which
instructs us as to the life and manners of those patriarchs, prophets,
and other holy persons of whom we ourselves are, according to the
promise, the seed and the descendants? The innocence of Abel, the cruel
deed of Cain, the piety of Seth, the fidelity and industry of Noe,
furnish to us the finest moral instruction derived from the primeval
times. The life of Abraham is perhaps the most precious record in the
Old Testament! Who even now can read it, and not repose with more
devotion on the providence of God? Who can contrast his life and conduct
with that of all the sages of paganism, and not confess there is a God;
yea! a God who not only upholds this {010} world, and fills every
creature in it with his benediction, but who also conducts by a special
providence all those who put their trust in him,--a God who teaches his
elect, by the unction of his Spirit, truths inaccessible to the wise of
this world; and who makes them, by his grace, to practise a degree of
virtue to which human nature unassisted is totally unable to attain? The
God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, is exceedingly glorified by the
virtues of those great men; and that glory is exalted, and we are led to
adore it, because the lives of those men have been written for our
instruction. Is not Moses the keystone, as it were, of the Jewish
covenant? Are they not his trials, his meekness, his attachment to God
and to God's people, his incessant toils, and patience, and
long-suffering, even more than the miracles wrought by his
interposition, which render the law published by him, and the ministry
established by him, worthy of all acceptation in our eyes? Who can
contemplate the rejection of Saul, and the election of David,--the
wisdom of Solomon in early life, and his utter abandonment in his latter
days,--and not be stricken with a salutary dread of the inscrutable
judgments of a just God? Who can read the life of Judith, and not
wonder?--of Susanna, and not love chastity and confide in God? Who has
read the prophecies of Isaiah, and not believed the gospel which he
foretold? And what example of a suffering Saviour so full, so perfect,
and expressive, as that exhibited in the life of Jeremiah? If thus,
then, from the beginning to the day of Christ, the Spirit of God
instructed mankind in truth and virtue, by writing for their instruction
"the Lives of the Saints," what can better agree with the ways of that
God, than to continue the record--to prolong the narrative? If this mode
of instruction has been adopted by the master, should it not be
continued by the servant?--if employed when the people of God were only
one family, should it not be resorted to when all nations were enrolled
with that people? if this mode of instruction was found useful when the
knowledge of the Lord was confined to one province, should it not be
preserved when that knowledge covered the whole earth even as the waters
cover the sea? And is it not therefore with justice we have said that
"The Lives of the Saints" might not improperly be designated "an
historical supplement to the Old and New Testaments?"

And in good truth, who can peruse the life of Peter, and not be animated
with a more lively faith? Who can read of the conversion of Paul, of his
zeal and labor, and unbounded love,--who can enter with him into the
depths of those mysterious truths which he has revealed, and contemplate
along with him the riches of the glory of the grace of God, and not
esteem this world as dung; or experience some throes of those heavenly
desires, which urged him so pathetically to exclaim, "I {011} wish to be
dissolved, and to be with Christ?" Who can read the life of the
evangelist John, and not feel the impulse of that subdued spirit, of
that meek and humble charity, which so eminently distinguished him as
the "beloved disciple of the Lord?" And if we advance through the
several ages that have elapsed since our Saviour ascended into heaven,
we shall find each and all of them instructing us by examples of the
most heroic virtue. The age of the martyrs ended, only to make room for
that of the doctors and ascetics; so that each succeeding generation of
the children of God presents to us the active and contemplative life
equally fruitful in works of sanctification. An Athanasius, a Jerom, a
Chrysostom, or an Augustin, are scarcely more precious as models in the
house of God, than an Anthony, a Benedict, an Arseneus, or a Paul. Nor
has the Almighty limited his gifts, or confined the mode of instruction
to those primitive times when the blood of the Mediator was as yet warm
upon the earth, and the believers in him filled more abundantly with the
first-fruits of the Spirit. No; he has extended his grace to every age!
Only take up the history of those holy persons, men and women, whose
lives shed a lustre upon the Church within these last few centuries, and
you will acknowledge that the arm of the Lord is not shortened, and, to
use the words of the Psalmist, that "_Sanctity becometh the house of the
Lord unto length of days,_" or to the end of time.

As therefore it hath pleased God to raise up for our help and
edification so many and so perfect models of Christian perfection, and
disposed by his all wise providence that their lives should have been
written for our instruction, we should not be faithful co-operators with
the grace given to us, if we did not use our best efforts to learn and
to imitate what our Father in heaven has designed for our use.

But "The Lives of the Saints" are a history, not so much of men, as of
all ages and nations,--of their manners, customs, laws, usages, and
creeds. And in this licentious age, an age of corrupted literature, when
that worldly wisdom or vain philosophy which God has declared to be
folly, is again revived; in this age, when history has failed to
represent the truth, and is only written for base lucre's sake, or to
serve a sect or party, what can be so desirable to a Christian
community, as to have placed in their hands a sincere and dispassionate
account of the nations which surround us, and of the laws and manners
and usages, whether civil or religious, which have passed, or are
passing into the abyss of time? If the wisdom of God warns us "to train
up youth in the way in which they should walk," and promises that "even
when old they will not depart from it," there is no duty more sacred, or
more imperative or parents and pastors, than to remove from their reach
such {012} books as are irreligious, immoral, or untrue, and to place in
their hands such works only as may serve to train their minds and
affections to the knowledge of truth and to the love of virtue.

History is, of its nature, pleasing and instructive; it leaves after it
the most lasting impressions; and when youth, as at present, is almost
universally taught to read, and works of fiction or lying histories
placed constantly in their way, is it not obvious that every parent and
every pastor should be careful not only to exclude from their flocks and
families such impious productions, but also to provide the youth
committed to their care with works of an opposite description? But we
make bold to say, that in no work now extant can there be found
condensed so vast a quantity of historical information as is contained
in "THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS:" nor is it the store of knowledge here
amassed which renders the work, as a history, of so much value; but it
is the judicious arrangement, the undoubted candor, the dispassionate
judgment of men, manners, and things, which the venerable historian
everywhere displays.

He has been able to trace events to their true causes; to point out the
influence of religion upon human policy, and of that policy on the
Church of God; to exhibit the rise and fall of states and empires,--the
advancement or declension of knowledge,--the state of barbarism or
civilization which prevailed in the several countries of the world,--the
laws, the manners, the institutions, which arose, were changed,
improved, or deteriorated, in the kingdoms and empires which brought
forth the elect of God in every age: but in his narration there is
always found to prevail a spirit, wanted in almost every history written
in our times--a spirit which assigns to the power and providence of God
the first place in the conduct of human events, and which makes manifest
to the unbiased reader the great and fundamental truth of the Christian
Religion, that "all things work together to the good of those who,
according to the purpose or design of God, are called to be Saints."

The great characteristic, however, of this work, and that which,
perhaps, in these times and in this country, constitutes its chief
excellence, is, that it exhibits to the reader the doctrine and
discipline of the Catholic Church,--the former always the same,
"yesterday, to-day, and forever"--the latter receiving impressions from
abroad, and moulding itself to the places, times, and circumstances, in
which the Church herself was placed. In other works may be found
arguments and proofs in support of the dogmas of faith and the doctrines
of the Catholic Church, set forth in due order and becoming force; but
such works are of a controversial nature, and not always suited to the
taste or capacity of every class of readers: not so "The Lives of the
Saints." This work presents to us the religion of Christ as it was first
planted, as it grew {013} up, and flourished, and covered with its shade
all tribes, and tongues, and peoples, and nations. The trunk of this
mighty tree is placed before our eyes, standing in the midst of time,
with ages and empires revolving about it, its roots binding and
embracing the earth, its top touching the heavens, its branches strong
and healthful--bearing foliage and fruits in abundance. But to drop this
allegory. "The Lives of the Saints" demonstrate the doctrines of the
Church, by laying before us the history of the most precious portion of
her children: of her martyrs, her doctors, her bishops; of holy and
devout persons of all ranks and conditions; of what they believed, and
taught, and practised, in each and every age: so that if no Gospel had
been written, or liturgy preserved, or decree recorded, we should find
in "The Lives of the Saints" sufficient proofs of what has always, and
in every place, and by all true believers, been held and practised to
the Church of God.

In this work there is no cavilling about texts, no disputes about
jurisdiction, no sophisms to delude, no imputations to irritate, no
contradictions to confound the reader; but in place of all these there
is found in it a simple detail of the truths professed, and of the
virtues practised by men and women, who were not only the hearers of the
law but the doers thereof. Whosoever seeks for wisdom as men seek for
gold, will find it in the perusal of "The Lives of the Saints:" for here
not theory or speculation, but living examples, make truth manifest, and
exhibit at once and together all the marks of the Church of God in the
life and conduct of her children. These children will all be found to
have denied themselves, to have taken up the cross, to have followed
Christ, and to have convinced the world by their sanctity that they were
the children of God--that they were perfect even as their heavenly
Father was perfect. These children of the Church will be found a
Catholic or universal people, collected from all ages and nations,
offering the same sacrifice, administering or receiving the same
sacraments, and yielding to the same authority a reasonable obedience.
Finally, there will be found included in this great family the Apostles
and their disciples, and the descendants of those disciples,--faithful
men keeping the deposit of the faith, or transmitting it to others
through all the vicissitudes to which this world is a prey, even to that
hour when the dead will arise and come to judgment. Thus it is that "The
Lives of the Saints" put to silence the gainsayers, and convince, not by
argument, but by historical and incontrovertible details of facts and of
the lives of men, that the Church of God is _one_, that she is _holy_,
that she, though universal, is not divided, that she is built upon the
Apostles, as upon an immoveable {014} foundation, Jesus Christ himself
being the chief corner-stone. This work strips schism of her mask, and
stops the mouth of heresy. It points out, with an evidence not to be
impeached, the day of separation,--when schism commenced, and the hour
of revolt and rebellion, when the heretic said, like Lucifer, in the
pride of his heart, "I WILL NOT SERVE." If ever there was a work which
rendered almost visible and tangible to the sight and touch of men that
promise of the Redeemer to his Church, "_And the gates of hell shall not
prevail against her,_" surely this work is "THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS."

Who, therefore, is a Catholic, and would not possess such a treasure?
How great is the benefit derived to the public from the low price and
convenient form in which this work is given to them! If infidelity, and
immorality, and heresy have opened wide their mouths, and are everywhere
devouring their victims, is it not a blessing from God that the children
of the Church should be preserved from them, and fed with the wholesome
food of pious reading? If the spirit of error or of that worldly wisdom
which is folly with God, has filled our shops and streets with
circulating poison in the shape of books, is not the Spirit of truth,
and of Him who has overcome the world, to have also such means of
instruction as may save and strengthen those whom God, by his grace, has
translated into the kingdom of his beloved Son? Accept, therefore gentle
reader, of "The Lives of the Saints;" Which, for their own worth's sake,
and for your good, we have endeavored to recommend. And with it permit
us also to recommend to your pious prayers the spiritual wants of him
who has thus addressed you.

+JAMES DOYLE

{015}

AN ACCOUNT
OF
THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
OF THE
REV. ALBAN BUTLER;
INTERSPERSED WITH
OBSERVATIONS ON SOME SUBJECTS OF SACRED AND PROFANE LITERATURE
MENTIONED IN HIS WRITINGS.
BY CHARLES BUTLER, ESQ.
BARRISTER AT LAW.

Quare quis tandem me reprehendat, si quantum ad caeteris festos dies
ludorum celebrandos, quantum ad alias voluptates, et ad ipsam requiem
animi et corporis conceditur temporis: Quantum alii tempestivis
conviviis, quantum aleae, quantum pilae, tantum mihi egomet ad haec studia
recolenda, sumpsero.

CIC. PRO ARCHIA

1.

THE Reverend Alban Butler was the second son of Simon Butler, Esq., of
Appletree, in the county of Northampton, by Miss Ann Birch, daughter of
Thomas Birch, Esq., of Gorscot, in the county of Stafford. His family,
for amplitude of possessions, and splendor of descent and alliances, had
vied with the noblest and wealthiest of this kingdom, but was reduced to
slender circumstances at the time of his birth. A tradition in his
family mentions, that Mr. Simon Butler (our author's grandfather) was
the person confidently employed by the duke of Devonshire and the earl
of Warrington, in inviting the prince of Orange over to England; that he
professed the protestant religion, and that his great zeal for it was
his motive for embarking so warmly in that measure; but that he never
thought it would be attended with the political consequences which
followed from it; that, when they happened, they preyed greatly on his
mind; that to fly from his remorse, he gave himself up to pleasure: and
that in a few years he dissipated a considerable proportion of the
remaining part of the family estate, and left what he did not sell of it
heavily encumbered.

At a very early age our author was sent to a school in Lancashire, and
there applied himself to his studies with that unremitted application
which, in every part of his life, he gave to literature. Sacred
biography was even then his favorite pursuit. A gentleman, lately
deceased, mentioned to the editor that he remembered him at this school,
and frequently heard him repeat, with a surprising minuteness of fact,
and precision of chronology, to a numerous and wondering audience of
little boys, the history of the chiefs and saints of the Saxon aera of
our history. He then also was distinguished for his piety, and a
punctual discharge of his religious duties. About the age of eight years
he was sent to the English college at Douay. It appears, from the diary
of that college, that Mr. Holman, of Warkworth, (whose memory, for his
extensive charities, is still in benediction in Oxfordshire and
Northamptonshire,) became security for the expenses of his education.
About this time he lost his father and mother. The latter, just before
she died, wrote to him and his two brothers the following beautiful
letter:

"MY DEAR CHILDREN.

"Since it pleases Almighty God to take me out of this world, as no doubt
wisely foreseeing I am no longer a useful parent to you, (for no person
ought to be thought necessary in this world when God thinks proper to
take them out;) so I hope you will offer the loss of me with a
resignation suitable to the religion you are of, and offer {016}
yourselves. He who makes you orphans so young, without a parent to take
care of you, will take you into his protection and fatherly care, if you
do love and serve him who is the author of all goodness. Above all
things, prepare yourselves while you are young to offer patiently what
afflictions he shall think proper to lay upon you, for it is by this he
trieth his best servants. In the first place, give him thanks for your
education in the true faith, (which many thousands want;) and then I beg
of you earnestly to petition his direction what state of life you shall
undertake, whether be for religion, or to get your livings in the world.
No doubt but you may be saved either way, if you do your duty to God,
your neighbor, and yourselves. And I beg of you to make constant
resolutions rather to die a thousand times, if possible, than quit your
faith; and always have in your thoughts what you would think of were you
as nigh death as I now think myself. There is no preparation for a good
death but a good life. Do not omit your prayers, and to make an act of
contrition and examen of conscience every night, and frequent the
blessed sacraments of the church. I am so weak I can say no more to you,
but I pray God bless and direct you, and your friends to take care of
you. Lastly, I beg of you never to forget to pray for your poor father
and mother when they are not capable of helping themselves: so I take
leave of you, hoping to meet you in heaven, to be happy for all
eternity.

"Your affectionate mother,
"ANN BUTLER."

Though our author's memory for the recollection of dates was, in his
very earliest years, remarkable, he found, when he first came to the
college, great difficulty in learning his lessons by heart; so that, to
enable him to repeat them in the school as well as the other boys, he
was obliged to rise long before the college hour. By perseverance,
however, he overcame this disheartening difficulty. Even while he was in
the lowest schools, he was respected for his virtue and learning. One of
his school-fellows writes thus of him: "The year after Mr. Alban
Butler's arrival at Douay, I was placed in the same school, under the
same master, he being in the first class of rudiments, as it is there
called, and I in the lowest. My youth and sickly constitution moved his
innate goodness to pay me every attention in his power; and we soon
contracted an intimacy that gave me every opportunity of observing his
conduct, and of being fully acquainted with his sentiments. No one
student in the college was more humble, more devout, more exact in every
duty, more obedient or mortified. He was never reproved or punished but
once; and then for a fault of which he was not guilty. This undeserved
treatment he received with silence, patience, and humility. In the hours
alloted to play he rejoiced in the meanest employments assigned to him
by his companions, as to fetch their balls, run on their errands, &c.
&c. Though often treated with many indignities by his thoughtless
companions, on purpose to try his patience, he never was observed to
show the lest resentment, but bore all with meekness and patience. By
the frequent practice of these virtues he had attained so perfect
evenness of temper, that his mind seemed never ruffled with the least
emotion of anger. He restricted himself in every thing to the strictest
bounds of necessity. Great part of his monthly allowance of
pocket-money, and frequently of his daily food, went to the poor. So
perfectly had he subjected the flesh to the spirit, that he seemed to
feel no resistance from his senses in the service of God and his
neighbor."

As he advanced in age his learning and virtue became more and more
conspicuous. Monsieur Pellison,[1] in his life of the famous Huet,
bishop of Avranches, observes, that "from his tenderest youth he gave
himself to study; that at his rising, his going to bed, and during his
meal, he was reading, or had others to read to him; that neither the
fire of youth, the interruption of business, the variety of his
employments, the society of his friends, nor the bustle of the world,
could ever moderate his ardor of study." The same may be said of our
author. He generally allowed himself no more than four hours sleep, and
often passed whole nights in study and prayer. All his day was spent in
reading. When he was alone, he read; when he was in company, he read; at
his meals, he read; in his walks, he read; when he was in a carriage, he
read; when he was on horseback, he read; whatever he did, he read. It
was his custom to make abridgments of the principal works he perused,
and to copy large extracts from them; several bulky volumes {017} of
them have fallen into the hands of the editor. Many were surprised to
see the rapidity with which he read, or rather ran through books, and at
the same time acquired a full and accurate knowledge of their contents.

Footnotes:
1.  Histoire de l'Academie, 1 vol. 102.

II

After our author had completed the usual course of study, he was
admitted as alumnus of Douay college, and appointed _professor of
philosophy_. The Newtonian system of philosophy was about that time
gaining ground in the foreign universities. He adopted it, in part, into
the course of philosophy which he dictated to the students. He read and
considered with great attention the metaphysical works of Woolfe and
Leibnitz. He did not admire them, and thought the system of
pre-established harmony laid down in them irreconcilable with the
received belief or opinions of the Roman Catholic church on the soul;
and that much of their language, though susceptible of a fair
interpretation, conveyed improper notions, or, at least, sounded
offensively to Catholic ears. The late Mr. John Dunn, his contemporary
at the college, frequently mentioned to the editor the extreme caution
which our author used in inserting any thing new in his dictates,
particularly on any subject connected with any tenet of religion. After
teaching a course of philosophy, he was appointed _professor of
divinity_. On this part of his life the editor has been favored by a
gentleman deservedly damed for his erudition and piety, the reverend
Robert Bannister, with a long letter, of which the reader is presented
with an extract.

"I was contemporary with Mr. Alban Butler in Douay college eight years;
viz. from October, 1741 to October, 1749. But as I was but a boy the
greater part of that time, I had not any intimacy with him, nor was I
capable of knowing any thing concerning his interior, the manner of his
prayer, or the degrees to which he ascended in it, or any extraordinary
communications or elevations to which the Holy Ghost, the great master
and teacher of contemplation, might raise him. All that I can say is,
that he opened Douay college great door to me and a gentleman whom I
knew not, but who was so good as to bring me from Lisle in his coach, on
Sunday between ten and eleven, the 15th of October, 1741; and the first
sight of him appeared to me then so meek and so amiable, that I thought
I would choose him for my ghostly father; but another, I suppose in
rotation, adopted me. Mr. Alban was my sole master in my first year of
divinity in 1749, and dictated the two treatises _De Decalogo et De
Incarnatione_; he also presided over my defensions upon those two
treatises, and over Mr. James Talbot's (the late bishop of London) upon
universal divinity. As to heroic acts of virtue, which strike with
admiration all that see or hear of them, I cannot recollect more than a
uniform, constant observance of all the duties of a priest, professor,
and confessarius. He was always at morning meditations, seldom omitted
the celebration of the holy sacrifice of the mass, which he said with a
heavenly composure, sweetness, and recollection; studying and teaching
assiduously, dictating with an unwearied patience so equally and
leisurely, that every one could, if he wished to do it, write his
dictates in a clear and legible hand; nor do I remember that he ever
sent a substitute to dictate for him; so exact and punctual he was in
his duty as a professor. I never knew one more ready to go to the
confession-seat, at the first intimation of any, even the least or
youngest boy. He heard his penitents with wonderful meekness; and his
penetration, learning, judgment, and piety, were such as to move them to
place in him a singular confidence. He frequently visited the military
hospital, to instruct, exhort, and hear the confessions of Irish
soldiers. He sometimes assembled a number of them (when they happened to
be quartered in Douay) in the college-church of St. Thomas of
Canterbury, and preached to them. In one of his sermons I remember he
told them, for their example and encouragement, that there are more
soldiers saints than of any other vocation, or state, or condition. As
poor, and often distressed, Irish men and women frequently came to
Douay, he was always ready to relieve them, and administer both corporal
and spiritual succors. It can never be forgotten what attention,
solicitude, and care he had, in the year 1745, of our English soldiers,
wounded and maimed, who were brought prisoners to Douay, and quartered
in the barracks, in great numbers, after the battle of Fontenoy. He
animated both by words and example all the young priests, and all in
holy orders at the college, to visit them, to instruct and instil into
them serious thoughts of saving their souls by embracing the only saving
faith, and by true repentance.{018} He also procured for them temporal
succor and relief so beneficently, that the duke of Cumberland, then
generalissimo of the British and allied armies, being informed of it,
promised him a special protection whensoever he came over into England.
Scarce any thing affords one a better proof of Mr. Alban's eminent
spirit of piety and great understanding, discretion, and light in
spiritual matters, than his familiarity and friendship with M. Jean
Baptiste de Villers, president of the seminary des Eveques in the
university of Douay, who died October the 7th, 1746, the death of a
saint, after having lived the life of one for seventy-eight years. This
M. de Villers was eminent in all supernatural and moral virtues, but he
concealed them under an amiable simplicity, and a plain unaffected
behavior or exterior, unless charity and zeal for the glory of God and
salvation of souls required their open and full exertion; and,
notwithstanding his great learning, (which he had acquired by an
excellent genius and diligent application to sacred studies,) and his
great and solid fund of piety, he was as docile as an infant; so
timorous and diffident of his own judgment, that he would neither do nor
decide any thing without counsel. With this sentiment of diffidence and
humility, he often visited (says M. Leroy, the faithful imitator and
writer of the history of his life) a young professor, a foreigner, (that
is, Alban Butler,) and passed an hour or two in his company in the
afternoon, once every week, and sometimes twice, several years, until
his edifying death. Their conversation together was solely about various
points of morality; about the direction of souls, and the method of
arriving at perfection in every action and intention; how to teach
devout persons a habit of making continual aspirations to God, by acts
of love, oblation, entire sacrifice of their hearts, of humility, &c. M.
de Villers would not suffer more than half a small fagot to be kindled
for him in the severest weather, saying to Mr. Alban, 'the other part
may serve some poor person.' As to wine, or any other liquor, he never
drank any but at meal-time. I remember to have heard an instance of Mr.
Alban's meekness, for I am not a witness of it. When he was presiding
over one of his students in divinity in the public hall of Douay
college, a disputant, who was probably much offended at some proposition
in the thesis, as being opposite to some favorite opinion of his school
or religious family, said to him with intolerable rudeness, _habes mel
in ore, sed fel in corde_: to which he made no reply, nor showed the
least resentment. Mr. Alban Butler was totally averse to the system of
probabilism, and to all assertions that favor laxity in morale. This is
evident from the dictates which he delivered to us, from his treatise
_De Decalogo, de actibus humanis_, in his _Epitome moralis
sacramentorum_, &c. It is still more evident from his _Epitome de sex
prioribus conciliis [oe]cumenicis in calce tractanus de Incarnatione_, that
he had the highest veneration for the holy see, and for him who sits in
the chair of St. Peter; that he constantly held and maintained the
rights and singular prerogatives of St. Peter and his successors, in
calling, presiding over, and confirming general or [oe]cumenical councils;
the pope's superiority over the whole church, and over the whole college
of bishops, and over a general council; the irreformability of his
doctrinal decisions in points of faith and morale; his supreme power to
dispense (when there is cause) in the canons of general councils; in
short, the plenitude of his authority over the whole chorus, without
exception or limitation, _Nihil excipitur ubi distinguitur nihil_."

III.

From the letter of which we have presented the reader with an extract,
it appears what our author's sentiments were on the nature and extent of
the spiritual power of the see of Rome. It has frequently been said that
he was the editor of doctor Hulden's _Analysis Fidei_: had this been the
fact, it would have been a strong proof of an alteration of his
sentiments on those points; but, after particular inquiry, the editor
finds the assertion to be wholly unfounded.

On the celebrated questions, _Of the infallibility of the Pope, and his
right to the deposing power_, our author thus expresses himself in one
of his letters on Mr. Bower's History of the Popes; "Mr. Bower having
been educated in the Catholic schools, could not but know that, though
some private divine think that the pope, by the assistance of some
special providence, cannot err in the decisions of faith solemnly
published by him, with the mature advice of his council, or of the
clergy or divines of his church, yet that this is denied by others; and
that the learned Bossuet, and many others, especially of the school of
Sorbon, have written warmly {019} against that opinion; and that no
Catholic looks upon it as an article or term of communion. It is the
infallibility of the whole church, whether assembled in a general
council, or dispersed over the world, of which they speak in their
controversial disputations. Yet this writer, at every turn, confounds
these two things together only to calumniate and impose on the public.
If he had proved that some popes had erred in faith, he would have no
more defeated the article of supremacy, than he would disinherit a king
by arraigning him of bad policy. The Catholic faith teaches the pope to
be the supreme pastor of the church established by Christ, and that this
church, founded by Christ on a rock, shall never be overcome by hell, or
cease to be his true spouse. For he has promised that his true Spirit
shall direct it in all truth to the end of the world. But Mr. Bower
never found the infallibility of the pope in our creed; and knows very
well that no such article is proposed by the church, or required of any
one. Therefore the whole chain of his boastings which is conducted
through the work falls to the ground.

"What he writes against the deposing power in popes, certainly cannot be
made a reproach against the Catholics of England, France, Spain, &c. It
is a doctrine neither taught nor tolerated in any Catholic kingdom that
I know of, and which many Catholics write as warmly against as Mr. Bower
could wish."

IV.

While our author continued at the college of Douay, his first
publication made its appearance: this was his _Letters on the History of
the Popes, published by Mr. Archibald Bower_. That gentleman had entered
into the society of Jesus, and acquired a reputation for learning and
talents. He came into England, embraced the religion of the established
church, and endeavored to recommend himself to the favor of his new
friends by his History of the Lives of the Popes. He also published an
account of his escape from Italy, and of his motives for quitting it.
The truth of the account became a subject of controversy. It was
disbelieved, not only by Catholics but by Protestants. Dr. Douglas, the
present bishop of Salisbury, wrote an excellent pamphlet to expose its
falsehood and absurdity. It carried great improbability on the face of
it. Mr. Bower was a lively writer, and defended himself with adroitness;
but he was not equal to the composition of the history which he
undertook to write. He was of the numerous list of authors who, when
they sit down to write, have to learn what they shall write, rather than
to write what they have already learned. The errors which our author
exposes in his letters are sometimes the errors of a very young writer.
The letters are written with ease and good-humor; they show various and
extensive learning, a vigorous and candid mind. They met with universal
applause.

V.

In the year 1745, our author accompanied the late earl of Shrewsbury and
the honorable James Talbot and Thomas Talbot on their travels through
France and Italy. He wrote a full, entertaining, and interesting account
of them. As it will be published, the editor makes no extracts from it
in this place. He was always solicitous that the noble personages
committed to his care should see whatever deserved attention, and be
introduced to persons distinguished by their rank, talents, or virtue.
He drew out for them a comparative view of the Greek, Roman, and Gothic
architecture; an account of the different schools of painting; and an
abridgment of the lives, and remarks on the different characters, of the
most eminent painters. These will be found in his travels. He kept them
from all stage entertainments: "The stage entertainments," he says, in
one of his letters, "I can give no account of, as we never would see
any; they being certainly very dangerous, and the school of the passions
and sin, most justly abhorred by the church and the fathers. Among us,
Collier, Law, &c.; among the French, the late prince of Condi, Doctor
Voisin, Nicole, &c., have said enough to satisfy any Christian; though
Tertullian, St. Cyprian, St. Chrysostom, are still more implacable
enemies of the stage. However, we saw the stages for their architecture,
where this was curious." His opinion of the evil tendency of stage
entertainments continued with him through life.

VI.

On his return from his travels _our author was sent on the English
mission._ He {020} had long been engaged in his great work of the _Lives
of the Saints_, and was then bringing it to a conclusion. He naturally,
therefore, wished to be settled in London, for the convenience of its
public libraries, and the opportunities it affords of intercourse with
men of letters. But the vicar-apostolic of the middle district claimed
him as belonging to that district, and appointed him to a mission in
Staffordshire. This was a severe mortification to our author; he
respectfully remonstrated; but the vicar-apostolic was inexorable, and
required his immediate obedience. A gentleman who lived in the same
house with him at the time, has mentioned to the editor, that he was
with him when the summons came; and that on receiving it, he appeared
much hurt, retired for half an hour to his oratory, and soon after set
off for his country mission.

From Staffordshire he removed to Warkworth, the seat of Francis Eyre,
esquire, to whom these sheets are dedicated. He had the highest opinion
of a good missioner, and frequently declared that he knew of no
situation so much to be envied, while the missioner had a love of his
duties, and confined himself to them: none so miserable, when the
missioner had lost the love of them, and was fond of the pleasures of
life. "Such a one," he used to say, "would seldom have the means of
gratifying his taste for pleasure; he would frequently find that, in
company, if he met with outward civility, he was the object of silent
blame; and that if he gave pleasure as a companion, no one would resort
to him as a priest." He had a manuscript written by a Mr. Cox, an
English missioner, who lived in the beginning of the present century, in
which these sentiments were expressed forcibly and with great feeling:
he often mentioned it. But no person was less critical on the conduct of
others, none exacted less from them, than our author. He was always at
the command of a fellow-clergyman, and ready to do him every kind of
good office. To the poor, his door was always open. When he resided in
London, in quality of chaplain to the duke of Norfolk, he was under no
obligation, strictly speaking, of attending to any person except the
duke himself and his family; but he was at the call of every one who
wanted any spiritual or temporal assistance which it was in his power to
afford. The poor, at length, flocked to him in such numbers that, much
in opposition to his wishes, his brother, with whom he then lived, was
obliged to give general orders that none of them should be admitted to
him. He was ever ready to oblige. Moss. Olivet relates of Huet, the
bishop of Avranches, that he was so absorbed in his studies as sometimes
to neglect his pastoral duties; that once a poor peasant waited on him
respecting some matter of importance, and was refused admittance, "his
lordship being at his studies:" upon which the peasant retired,
muttering, with great indignation, "that he hoped they should ever have
another bishop who had not finished his studies before he came among
them;" but our author's "being at his studies," was never a reason with
him for refusing to see any one. It was often unpleasant to observe how
much his good-humor, in this respect, was abused.

VII.

Our author did not remain long in Staffordshire. Edward, duke of
Norfolk, (to whom the present duke is second in succession,) applied to
the late Mr. Challoner for a person to be his chaplain, and to
_superintend the education of Mr. Edward Howard_, his nephew and
presumptive heir. Mr. Challoner fixed upon our author to fill that
situation. His first residence, after he was appointed to it, was at
Norwich in a house generally called the duke's palace. Thither some
large boxes of books belonging to him were directed, but by mistake were
sent to the bishop's palace. The bishop opened them, and finding them
fall of Roman Catholic books, refused to deliver them. It has been
mentioned, that after the battle of Fontenoy, our author was very active
in serving the English prisoners, and that the duke of Cumberland
returned him thanks for his conduct, and made him an offer of his
services, if he should have occasion for them after his return to
England. On this seizure of his books, our author applied to the duke;
his highness immediately wrote to the bishop, and soon after the books
were sent to their owner.

Mr. Edward Howard, by our author's advice, was first sent to the School
of the English clergy, at a small village near Douay, called Esquerchin,
of which the most pious and respectable Mr. Tichborne Blunt was
president. After some years he was sent to complete his education at
Paris; and thither our author accompanied him. Mr. Edward Howard was the
Marcellus of the English Catholics; {021} never did a noble youth raise
greater expectations; but he was suddenly taken ill and died after an
illness of a few days. On that melancholy occasion the family expressed
great pleasure in the recollection of the religious education he had
received from our author.

VIII.

During our author's stay at Paris he finally completed and sent to the
press his great work on the _Lives of the Saints_. We have seen that,
from his tenderest years, he had discovered his turn for sacred
biography. At a very early period of his life he conceived the plan of
his work; and from that time pursued it with undeviating attention. He
qualified himself for an able execution of it, by unremitted application
to every branch of profane or sacred literature connected with it. He
was, a perfect master of the Italian, Spanish, and French languages. The
last he spoke and wrote with fluency and purity. He was also perfect
master of the Latin and Greek languages. At an advanced period of his
life he mentioned to the editor that he could then understand the works
of St. John Chrysostom as easily in the original as in the Latin
interpretation; but that the Greek of Saint Gregory Nazianzen was too
difficult for him. A few years before he died he amused himself with an
inquiry into the true pronunciation of tee Greek language, and in
preparing for the press some sheets of an intended Greek grammar. To
attain that degree of knowledge of the Greek language is given to few:
Menage mentions that he was acquainted with three persons only who could
read a Greek writer without an interpreter. Our author had also some
skill in the oriental languages. In biblical reading, in positive
divinity, in canon law, in the writings of the fathers, in
ecclesiastical antiquities, and in modern controversy, the depth and
extent of his erudition are unquestionable. He was also skilled in
heraldry: every part of ancient and modern geography was familiar to
him. He had advanced tar beyond the common learning of the schools in
the different branches of philosophy; and even in botany and medicine he
was deeply read. In this manner he had qualified himself to execute the
work he undertook.

IX.

The present section is intended to give _An account of some of the
principal works he consulted in the composition of it_. It will contain,
1st, some remarks on the attention of the church, during the early ages
of Christianity, to preserve the memory of the martyrs and saints: 2dly,
some account of the acts of the martyrs; 3dly, some account of the
sacred calendars: 4thly, some account of the Martyrologies: 5thly, some
account of the Menaeon and Menologies of the Greek church; 6thly, some
account of the early Agiographists: 7thly, some account of the
Bollandists: and, 8thly, some account of the process of the
beatification and canonization of saints.

IX. 1. The Roman Catholic church has ever been solicitous _that the
lives and miracles of those who have been eminent for their sanctify
should be recorded for the edification of the faithful_. St. Clement the
Second, successor of St. Peter in the see of Rome, is said to have
divided the fourteen districts of that city among seven notaries,
assigning two districts to each of them, with directions to form a
minute and accurate account of the martyrs who suffered within them.
About one hundred and fifty years from that time, pope Fabian put the
notaries under the care of deacons and subdeacons. The same attention to
the actions and sufferings of the martyrs was shown in the provinces. Of
this, the letter of the church of Smyrna, giving an account of the
martyrdom of St. Polycarp, the letter of the churches of Lyons and
Vienne, giving an account of the martyrs who suffered in those cities;
and the letter of St. Dionysius, the bishop of Alexandra, to Fabius, the
bishop of Antioch, on the martyrs who suffered under the emperor Decius,
are remarkable instances. "Our ancestors," says Pontius, in the
beginning of the acts of St. Cyprian, "held those who suffered
martyrdom, though only catechumens, or of the lowest rank, in such
veneration, as to commit to writing almost every thing that related to
them." Nor was this attention confined to those who obtained the crown
of martyrdom. Care was taken that the lives of all should be written who
were distinguished by their virtues, particularly if they had been
favored with the gift of miracles.

IX. 2. The lives of the martyrs and saints, written in this manner, were
called _their acts_. They were often collected into volumes. One of the
earliest of these {022} collections was made by Eusebius, the father of
church history. Some of the lives he inserted in the body of his great
historical work: he also published a separate collection of them; it was
greatly esteemed, but has not reached our time: many others were
published. These accounts of the virtues and sufferings of the martyrs
were received by the faithful with the highest respect. They considered
them to afford a glorious proof of the truth of the Christian faith, and
of the holiness and sublimity of its doctrines. They felt themselves
stimulated by them to imitate the heroic acts of virtue and constancy
which they placed before their eyes, and to rely on the assistance of
heaven when their own hour of trial should arrive. Thus the vocal blood
of the martyrs was a powerful exhortation, both to induce the infidel to
embrace the faith of Christ, and to incite the faithful to the practice
of its precepts. The church, therefore, always recommended the frequent
reading of the acts of the martyrs, and inserted the mention of them in
her liturgy. This Ruinart proves by many examples: he also shows that
the greatest care was taken to procure the genuine acts of the martyrs;
or, when they could not be had, to procure exact accounts of their
trials and sufferings. By this means the church was in possession of
authentic histories of the persecutions she had suffered, and through
which she had finally triumphed over paganism, and of particular
accounts of the principal sufferers. The greatest part of them was lost
in the general wreck which sacred and profane literature suffered from
the barbarians who overturned the Roman empire. In every age, however,
some were found who carefully preserved whatever they could save of
those sacred treasures. Copies were frequently made of them; and this in
this, as in every other important branch of Christian learning, the
chain of tradition has been left unbroken. Much, however, of these
sacred documents of church history has been irretrievably lost; and,
speaking generally, the remaining part came down to us in an imperfect
state. Hence Vives, at the end of the fifteenth century, exclaimed,
"What a shame it is to the Christian world, that the acts of our martyrs
have not been published with greater truth and accuracy!" The important
task of publishing them in that manner was at length undertaken by Dom
Ruinart, a Maurist monk, in his _Acta primorum martyrum sincera et
selecta_. He executed it in a manner that gained him universal applause.
His prefatory discourse, respecting the number of martyrs, has been
generally admired. An invaluable accession to this branch of sacred
literature was published by Stephen Evodius Assemani, in two volumes
folio, at Rome in 1748. The title of the work expresses its contents:
"_Acta Sanctorum Martyrum orientalium et occidentalium editore Stephano
Evodio Assemano, que textum Chaldaicum recensuit, notis vocalibus
animavit, Latine vertit, et annotationibus illustravit_." It is to be
observed, that the eastern and western martyrs mentioned in this place,
are not the martyrs of the eastern of Greek church, and the martyrs of
the Latin or western church, in which sense the words eastern and
western are generally used by ecclesiastical writers. By the eastern
martyrs, Assemani denotes the martyrs who suffered in the countries
which extend from the eastern bank of the Euphrates, over Mesopotamia
and Chaldea to the Tigris and the parts beyond it; by the western, he
denotes the martyrs who suffered in Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. Stephen
Assemani was the nephew of Joseph Assemani, whose Kalendaria will be
mentioned in another place. Joseph was first praefect of the Vatican
library; Stephen was archbishop of Apamea; both of them were Maronite
monks, and sent into the east by pope Clement XII. to purchase
manuscripts.

IX. 3. It was the pious custom of the early Christians to celebrate
yearly the memory of the martyrs, on the days on which they suffered. On
that day the martyr was considered to be born to a life of glory and
immortality, and, with respect to that second life, it was called the
day of his birth. The different churches, therefore, were careful to
preserve an exact account of the particular days on which the martyrs
obtained the crown of martyrdom. The book which contained this account
was called a _Calendar_. At first the calendar contained the mention of
the martyrs only; but, in the course of time, the confessors, or those
who, without arriving at the glory of martyrdom, had confessed their
faith in Christ by their heroic virtues, were admitted to the same
honor. The calendars were preserved in the churches; a calendar of the
Church of Rome was published by Boucher; another by Leo Alatius; a third
by Joannes Fronto, chancellor of Paris, and canon regular of the church
of St. Genevieve at Paris. A most ancient calendar of the church of
Carthage was published by Mabillon. But under this head no publication
is more respectable than Joseph Assemani's _Kalendaria Ecclesiae universae
notis illustrata._

{023}

IX. 4. The calendars gave rise to the _Martyrologies_; the object of
them was to collect, in one volume, from the calendars of the different
churches, the names of the martyrs and confessors throughout the world,
with a brief mention of the day of their decease, and the place in which
they suffered, or which they had illustrated by their birth, their
residence, their rank, or their virtues. The Roman Martyrology is
mentioned in the following terms by St. Gregory, (Lib. 8. Epist. Indict.
1.) in a letter to Eulogius, the bishop of Alexandria: "We," says his
holiness, "have the names of almost all the martyrs collected into one
volume, and referred to the days on which they suffered; and we
celebrate the solemn sacrifice of the mass daily in their honor. But our
calendar does not contain the particulars of their sufferings; it only
mentions their names, and the place and time of their martyrdom." The
Roman calendar seems to have been adopted generally through the western
church. It certainly was received in England. At the council held at
Shovesham in 747, by Cuthbert, the archbishop of Canterbury, it was
ordered, "That throughout the year, the feasts of the saints should be
celebrated on the days appointed by the Martyrology of the church of
Rome, with the proper psalms." It was once generally believed to have
been composed by St. Jerom; but this opinion is now universally
rejected. It suffered much in the middle ages. Pope Gregory XIII.,
immediately after he had completed the great work of reforming the
calendar, used the most earnest endeavors to procure a correct edition
of the Roman Martyrology. He committed the care of it to some of the
most distinguished writers of his time on ecclesiastical subjects. Among
them, Bellarmin, Baronius, and Gavant deserve particular mention. With
this edition Baronius himself was not satisfied. He published another
edition in 1586: and afterwards, at the instigation of cardinal Sirlet,
published a still more correct edition, with notes, in 1598. He prefixed
to his edition a dissertation, in which he appears to have exhausted the
subject. A further correction of the Roman Martyrology was made by pope
Urban VIII. They were all surpassed by that published by pope Benedict
XIV., at Cologne, in 1751. But the most useful edition is that published
at Paris, in 1661, by father Lubin, an Augustinian friar. It is
accompanied with excellent notes and geographical tables. Politus, an
Italian divine, published, in 1751, the first volume of a new edition of
the Roman Martyrology. It comprises the month of January, but the plan
of annotation is so extended, that it fills five hundred folio pages of
the smallest print; from the time of Drackenborch's edition of Livy, so
prolix a commentary had not been seen. Among other principal
Martyrologies, is that of the _Venerable Bede_. After several faulty
editions of it had appeared, it was correctly published by Henschenius
and Papebroke, and afterwards by Smith, at the end of his edition of
Bede's Ecclesiastical History. Notwithstanding Bede's great and deserved
celebrity, the Martyrology of _Usuard_, a Benedictine monk, was in more
general use; he dedicated it to Charles the Bald, and died about 875. It
was published by Solerius at Antwerp, in 1714, and by Dom Bouillard, in
1718; but the curious still seek for the earlier edition by Molanus, in
1568, as, in the subsequent editions, some parts of it were omitted.
Another Martyrology of renown is that of _Ado_; he was archbishop of
Vienne, in Dauphine, and died in 875. The best edition of it is that by
Roswede, in 1613, published at Rome in 1745.--Such have been the
exertions of the church of Rome, to perpetuate the memory of those who
have illustrated her by their virtues. During the most severe
persecutions, in the general wreck of the arts and sciences, in the
midst of the public and private calamities which attended the
destruction of the Roman empire, the providence of God always raised
some pious and enlightened men, who preserved the deposit of faith, sod
transmitted to future times the memory of whatever had been most
virtuous in former ages or their own.

IX. 5. The Greek church has also shown great attention to preserve the
memory of the holy martyrs and saints. This appears from her Menaeon and
Monologue. The Menaeon is divided into twelve months, and each month is
contained in a volume. All the saints, whose festivals occur in that
month, have their proper day assigned to them in it: the rubric of the
divine office, to be performed on that day, is mentioned; the
particulars of the office follow; an account of the life and actions of
the saint is inserted; and sometimes an engraving of him is added. If it
happen that the saint has not his peculiar office, a prose or hymn in
his praise in generally introduced. The greater solemnities have an
appropriate office. From this the intelligent reader will observe that
the Menaeon of the Greeks is {024} nearly the same as a work would be,
which should unite in itself the Missal and Breviary of the Roman
Catholic church. It was printed in twelve volumes in folio at Venice.
Bollandus mentions that Raderus, a Tyrolese Jesuit, had translated the
whole of the Menaeon, and pronounced it to be free from schism or heresy.

_The Menologium_ answers to the Latin Martyrology. There are several
Menologia, as, at different times, great alterations have been made in
them. But the ground-word of them all is the same, so that they are
neither wholly alike nor wholly different. A translation of a Menologium
into Latin by cardinal Sirlet, was published by Henry Canisius, in the
third volume of his _Lectiones Antiquae_. The Greek original, with a new
version, was published by Annibal Albani, at Urbino, in 1727. From these
works it is most clear that the Greek church invokes the saints, and
implores their intercession with God: "_Haud obscure ostendit_," says
Walchius, "_Graecos eo cultu prosequi homines in sanctorum ordinem
ascriptos, ut ilios incocent_." Bib. Theologica, vol. iii. 668. From the
Menaeon, and the Menologium, Raderus published a collection of pious and
entertaining narratives, under the title of _Viridarum Sanctorum_. It is
to be wished that some gentleman would employ his leisure in a
translation of it. We should then be furnished, from the works of the
Agiographists of the eastern church, with a collection of pious and
instructing narratives, similar to those in the well-known _Histoires
Choisies_. One of the most curious articles inserted in the _Acta
Sanctorum_ of the Bollandists, is the _Muscovite or Russian Calendar_,
with the engravings of the saints. It was first published by father
Possevin. He praises the Russians for the great attention to decency
which they observe in their pictures and engravings of holy subjects. He
mentions that the Russians, who accompanies him in his return to Rome,
observed with surprise in the Italian paintings of saints, a want of the
like attention. Father Papebroke, when he cites this passage, adopts the
remark, and loudly calls on Innocent XII. to attend to the general
decency of all public paintings and statues. _A Greek Calendar of the
Saints_ in hexameter verse accompanies the Russian Calendar, in the
_Acta Sanctorum_; both are illustrated with notes by father Pane broke.

IX. 6. We proceed to the _Lives of the Saints_, written by individuals.
For these our attention must be first directed to the Agiographists of
the Greek church. The eighth century may be considered as the period
when Grecian literature had reached its lowest state of depression; in
the ninth, Bardas Caesar, the brother of the empress Theodora, protected
letters; from that time they were constantly cultivated by the Greeks;
so that Constantinople, utile it was taken by Mahomet, was never without
its historians, poets, or philosophers. Compared with the writings of
the ancients, their compositions seem lifeless and unnatural; we look
among them in vain either for original genius or successful imitation.
Still they are entitled to our gratitude; many of the precious remains
of antiquity have come down to us only in their extracts and
abridgments; and their voluminous compilations have transmitted to us
much useful information which has no other existence. Sacred biography,
in particular, has great obligations to them. The earliest work on that
subject we owe to the care which the emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus
bestowed on the literary education of his son; an example which, at the
distance of about six hundred years, was successfully rivalled by the
elegant edition of the Delphin Classics, published under the aspics of
Lewis XIV. But the Greek emperor had this advantage over the French
monarch, that he himself was the author of some of the works published
for the use of his son. In the first (published by Lerch and Reisch at
Leipsic, in 1751) he described the ceremonial of the Byzantine court;
the second (published by Banduri, in his _Imperium Orientale_) is a
geographical survey of the provinces, or, as he calls them, the
_Themata_ of the empire; the third, which some ascribe to the emperor
Leo, his father, describes the prevailing system of military tactics;
the forth delineates the political relations and intercourse of the
court of Byzantium with the other states. His Geoponics (published by
Nicholas Niclas at Leipsic, in 1731, in two volumes, 8vo.) were written
with a view of instructing his subjects in agriculture. By his
direction, a collection of historical examples of vice and virtue was
compiled in fifty-three books, and _Simeon Metaphrastes_, the great
logothete, or chancellor of the empire, composed his Lives of the
Saints. Several of them were published, with a Latin translation, by the
care of Lipoman, the bishop of Verona. Cardinal Bellarmin accuses
Metaphrastes of giving too much loose to his imagination. "He inserts,"
{025} says the cardinal, "such accounts of conversations of the martyrs
with their persecutors, and such accounts of conversions of bystanders,
as exceed belief. He mentions many and most wonderful miracles on the
destruction of the temples and idols, and on the death of the
persecutors, of which nothing is said by the ancient historians." We
next come to _Jacobus de Voragine_, a Dominican friar and archbishop of
Genoa, in 1292. His _Golden Legend_ was the delight of our ancestors
during the ages which preceded the revival of letters. The library of no
monastery was without it. Like the essays of Montaigne, it was to be
found on the shelf of every private person; and, for a long time after
the invention of printing, no work more often issued from the press.
After enjoying the highest degree of reputation, it lost much of its
celebrity, in consequence of the Lives of Saints published by
_Mombritius_ in two immense volumes, in folio, about the year 1480, from
manuscripts in the library of the church of St. John of Lateran and in
consequence of the Lives of Saints published by _Surius_, a Carthusian
monk. The first edition of Surius's work was published in 1570-75, in
six volumes; the second appeared in 1578, the third and most complete
was published, in twelve volumes, in 1615. That he frequently shows too
much credulity, and betrays a want of taste, must be admitted; but his
works are allowed to breathe a spirit of piety; his candor, and desire
to be accurate, are discernible in every part of his writings; and his
learning, for the age in which he lived, was considerable. In
_Ribadeneira_ the line of ancient Agiographists respectably finishes.

While candor and good taste must allow that, even in the Lest of the
compilations we have mentioned, there is a great want of critical
discernment, and that they are wholly deficient in elegance, and the
artificial beauties of composition, justice requires that their defects
should not be exaggerated. Still less should an intention to deceive,
even on the pretence of edification, be imputed to them. Whatever may
have been either the error or the criminality of some of her members,
the church herself, in this, as in every other instance, has always
inculcated the duty of sincerity and truth, and reprobated a deviation
from them, even on the specious pretence of producing good. On this
subject our author thus forcibly expresses himself, in one of his
letters on Mr. Bower's History of the Lives of the Popes: "It is very
unjust to charge the popes or the Catholic church with countenancing
knowingly false legends; seeing all the divines of that communion
unanimously condemn all such forgeries as lies in things of great
moment, and grievous sins; and all the councils, popes, and other
bishops, have always expressed the greatest horror of such villanies;
which no cause or circumstances whatever can authorize, and which, in
all things relating to religion, are always of the most heinous nature.
Hence the authors, when detected, have been always punished with the
utmost severity. Dr. Burnet himself says, that those who feigned a
revelation at Basil, of which he gives a long detail, with false
circumstances, in his letters on his travels, were all burnt at stakes
for it, which we read more exactly related by Surius in his Commentary
on his own times. The truth is, that many false legends of true martyrs
were forged by heretics, as were those of St. George, condemned by pope
Gelasius, as many false gospels were soon after the birth of
Christianity, of which we have the names of near fifty extant. Other
wicked or mistaken persons have sometimes been guilty of a like
imposture. A priest at Ephesus forged acts of St. Paul's voyages, out of
veneration for that apostle, and was deposed for it by St. John the
evangelist, as we learn from Tertullian. To instance examples of this
nature would form a complete history; for the church has always most
severely condemned all manner of forgeries. Sometimes the more virtuous
and remote from fraud a person is, the more unwilling he is to suspect
an imposture in others. Some great and good men have been imposed upon
by lies, and have given credit to false histories, but without being
privy to the forgery; and nothing erroneous, dangerous, or prejudicial
was contained in what they unwarily admitted. However, if credulity in
private histories was too easy in any former age, certainly skepticism
and infidelity are the characters of this in which we live. No
histories, except those of holy scripture, are proposed as parts of
divine revelation or articles of faith; all others rest upon their bare
historical authority. They who do not think this good and sufficient in
any narrations, do well to suggest modestly their reasons; yet may look
upon them at least as parables, and leave others the liberty of judging
for themselves without offence. But Mr. Bower says, p. 177, 'The Roman
Breviary is the most authentic book the {026} church of Rome has, after
the scripture; it would be less dangerous, at least in Italy, to deny
any truth revealed in the scripture, than to question any fable related
in the Breviary.' Catholic divines teach that every tittle in the holy
scriptures is sacred, divinely inspired, and the word of God dictated by
the Holy Ghost. Even the definitions of general councils do not enjoy an
equal privilege; they are indeed the oracles of an unerring guide in the
doctrine of faith; which guide received, together with the scriptures,
the true sense and meaning of the articles of faith contained in them;
and, by the special protection of the Holy Ghost, invariably preserves
the same by tradition from father to son, according to the promises of
Christ. But the church receives no new revelation of faith, and adds
nothing to that which was taught by the apostles: 2dly, Its decisions
are not supernaturally infallible in matters of fact, as scripture
histories are, but only in matters of faith. Nor do Catholics say that
its expressions, even in decisions of faith, are strictly dictated by
the Holy Ghost, or suggested from him, by any immediate revelation or
inspiration; but only that the church is directed by his particular
guidance, according to his divine truths, revealed and delivered to his
church by his apostles. As to the Roman Breviary, the prayers consist,
for the greatest part, of the psalms, and other parts of the holy
scriptures, to which the same respect is due which we pay to the divine
books. The short lessons from the Homilies, or other works of approved
fathers, especially those fathers who are mentioned by Gelasius I. in
his decree, carry with them the authority of their venerable authors. As
it was the custom in the primitive ages to read, in the churches or
assemblies, the acts of the most illustrious martyrs, of which frequent
mention is made in those of St. Polycarp, &c., some short histories of
the martyrs and other saints have been always inserted in the Breviary,
to which only an historical assent is due, whence they have been
sometimes altered and amended. These are chiefly such as are judged
authentic and probable by the cardinals Baronius and Bellarmin, who
revised those lessons, in the last correction under Clement VIII.
Gavant, who was himself one of the revisers of the Breviary, and
secretary to the congregation, writes thus, (in Breviar. sect. 5, c. 12,
n. 15, p. 18:) 'The second lessons from the histories of the saints were
revised by Bellarmin and Baronius, who rejected what could be justly
called in question: in which difficult task they thought it best to
restore the truth of history with the least change possible, and to
retain those things which had a certain degree of probability, and had
the authority of some grave voucher, though the contrary sentiment had
perhaps more patrons.' In computing the years of the popes, the
chronology of Baronius was judged the most exact, and retained.
Historical facts, nowise revealed or contained in scripture, cannot be
made an object of divine faith. If edifying histories are inserted in
the church-office, they stand upon their own credit. Such only ought to
be chosen which are esteemed authentic. This rule has been always
followed when any were compiled. If the compilers are found afterwards
to have been mistaken, it is nowhere forbid to correct them.[1] This has
been often done by the order of several popes."

Footnotes:
1.  Nimia profecto almplicitate peccant qui scandalizantur quoties
    audiunt aliquid ex jam olim creditia et juxta breviarii prescriptum
    hodiedum recitandis, in disputationem adduci.--_Diss. Ballandic{e}._
    vol. 2, p. 140.

IX. 7. Among the _modern collections of the Lives of Saints_, of which
our authors availed himself, in the work we are speaking of, the
histories which different religious have written of their own orders,
hold a distinguished place. But he was indebted to no work so much as
the _Acta sanctorum of the Bollandists_. That noble collection was first
projected by Father Roswede of the society of Jesus. He died before he
had completely digested his plan. Fortunately for the lovers either of
sacred history or sacred literature, it mm taken up by father Bollandus
of the same society, and has been carried down to the eleventh day of
October inclusive. Those who, after Bollandus's decease, succeeded him
in his undertaking, were from him called Bollandists.

As far as the editor has been able to learn, the work was composed by
the following authors, and published in the number of volumes and years
following:

          No. of Vols.    Years of their
Months.   all in folio.   appearance.            Authors.
January     Two,           1643 ........... Bollandus and Henschenius
February    Three,         1658 ........... Bollandus and Henschenius
March       Three,         1668 ........... Henschenius and
                                              Papebrochius
April       Three,         1675 ........... Henschenius and
                                              Papebrochius
May         Seven,         1680-1688....... Henschenius, Papebrochius,
                                              Baertius, and Janningus

{027}

June        Six,           1695--1715...... Henschenius, Papebrochius,
                                              Baertius, Janningus,
                                              and Sollerius
July        Seven,         1719--1731...... Janningus, Sollerius,
                                              Pinius, Cuperius, and
                                              Boschinus.
August      Six,           1733--1743...... Sollerius, Pinius,
                                              Cuperius, Boschius, and
                                              Stiltingus
September   Eight,         1746--1762...... Pinius, Stiltingus,
                                              Limpenus, Veldius,
                                              Suyskenius, Pericrius,
                                              and Cleus.
October     Five           1765--1786...... Stiltingus, Suyskenius,
                                              Perierius, Byeus, Boaeus,
                                              Gnesquierus, Hubenus,
                                              and Fronsonus.

Antwerp was the scene of the labors of the Bollandists. They were
engaged on them, when the enemies of every thing sacred arrived there
under Pichegru. The most eminent of the Bollandists was Father
Papebroke, a rival of the Petaviuses, the Sirmonds, and Mabillons: one
of those men who exalt the character of the society to which they
belong, and the age in which they live. The Spanish Inquisition
condemned some of the volumes in which he was concerned, but afterwards
retracted the censure. Several dissertations, replete with various and
profound erudition, are interspersed in the body of the work; they are
equally distinguished by the learning, and the soundness and sobriety of
criticism which appear in them. It would be an irreparable loss to the
Christian world that the work should not be completed. The principal
dissertations have been printed, in three volumes folio, at Venice, in
1749-59. Those who wish to see an account of the controversy which
produced or was occasioned by the sentence of the Inquisition, may
consult the _Acta Eruditorum_, 1696, p. 132-500.

IX. 8. Another source of information, of which our author availed
himself in the composition of his work, was the _Acts of the
Beatification and Canonization of the Saints_.

The name of _Martyr_ was given by the ancient church to those who had
suffered death for the faith of Christ; the name of _Confessor_ was
applied to those who had made a public profession of their faith before
the persecutors. It was afterwards extended to those who had edified the
church by their heroic virtues. St. Martin of Tours is generally
supposed to have been the first saint to whom the title of confessor was
applied in the last sense.

Originally, every bishop had the privilege of canonizing saints, or
declaring them entitled to the honors which the Catholic church bestows
on her saints. The council of Cologne, cited by Ivo of Chartres, forbids
the faithful to show any public mark of veneration to any modern saint,
without the permission of the diocesan. A capitulary of Charlemagne in
801 is to the same effect.

Pope Alexander III. is supposed to have been the first pope who reserved
the exclusive privilege of canonizing saints to the holy see. It was
recognised by the church of France at a council at Vienne, in which the
bishops, addressing themselves to pope Gregory IX., expressly say, "that
no sanctity, however eminent, authorizes the faithful to honor the
memory of a saint, without the permission of the holy see."

The present mode of proceeding in the canonization of saints,
principally takes its rise from the decree of pope Urban VIII., dated
the 13th of March, 1625. By that he forbade the public veneration of
every new saint, not beatified or baptized; and particularly ordered
that no one, even in private, should paint the image of any person,
whatever might be his reputation for sanctity, with a crown or {}e of
light round his head; or expose his picture in any sacred place, or
publish a history of his life, or a relation of his virtues and
miracles, without the approbation of his diocesan: that if, in a work so
approved of, the person were called saint, or blessed, those words
should only be used to denote the general holiness of his life, but not
to anticipate the general judgment of the church. His holiness adds a
form of protestation to that effect, which he requires the authors to
sign, at the beginning and end of their works. This regulation of pope
Urban is so strictly attended to, that a single proof of the infraction
of it, and even the omission of a definite sentence that there has been
no infraction of it, makes the canonization of the saint impossible, and
invalidates the whole of the proceedings. The only exception is, in
favor of those saints who are proved to have been immemorially venerated
for a hundred years and upwards, before 1634, the year in which pope
Urban's bull was confirmed.

The beatification of a saint is generally considered as a preliminary to
his canonization. It is a kind of provisional permission, authorizing
the faithful to honor {028} the memory of the person beatified; but
qualified as to the place or manner. A decree of pope Alexander VIII. in
1659, prohibits the faithful from carrying those honors farther than the
bull of beatification expressly permits.

The proceedings of beatification or canonization are long, rigorous, and
expensive. 1st, The bishop of the diocese institutes a process, in the
nature of an information, to inquire into the public belief of the
virtues and miracles of the proposed, and to ascertain that the decree
we have mentioned of pope Urban VIII. has been complied with: this
proceeding begins and ends with the bishop, his sentence being
conclusive. 2dly, The acts of this proceeding, with the bishop's
sentence, are sealed up, then taken to the congregation of rites: and
deposited with the notary. 3dly, The solicitors for the congregation
petition for publication of the proceedings. 4thly, This is granted; and
the proceedings, being first legally verified, are opened before the
cardinal-president of the congregation, 5thly, The pope is then
requested to refer the business to a particular cardinal to report upon
it. 6thly, This being granted, the writings of the proposed, if he be
the author of any, are laid before the cardinal-reporter. 7thly, He
appoints a commission to assist him, and, with their assistance, makes
his report. If one formal error against faith, one direct opinion
contrary to morals, be round in them, it puts a total end to the
proceedings, unless the author, in his life, expressly retracted it. "A
general protestation;" says Benedict XIV., "the most sincere submission
of all opinions to the authority of the Catholic church, saves the
author from criminality, but does not prevent the effect of this
rigorous escalation." 8thly, Hitherto the proceedings are not in
strictness before the pope; but, from this sage of the business, the
affair wholly devolves on his holiness. He signs a commission to the
congregation of rites to institute and prosecute the process of
beatification; but, before this commission is granted, ten years must
have expired, from the time when the acts of the diocesan were first
lodged with the congregation of rites. 9thly; The congregation of rites
appoints commissaries, whom the pope delegates, to inform themselves of
the virtues and miracles are the proposed. The commissaries usually are
bishops, and the bishop of the diocese where the proposed is buried is
usually one of them; but laymen are never employed. The proceedings of
the commissaries are secret, and carried on and subscribed with the
strictest order and regularity, and in great form; the last step in
their proceedings is to visit the tomb of the deceased, and to draw out
a verbal process of the state in which his remains are found. The
original of the proceedings is left with the bishops; a legalized copy
is taken of them, and returned by a sworn courier to the congregation of
rites. 10thly, The solicitors for the congregation then pray for what is
called a decree of attribution, or that an inquiry may be made into each
particular virtue and miracle attributed to the proposed: 11thly, Upon
this, they proceed to make the inquiry, beginning with the virtues and
ending with the miracles; but of the former they can take on notice in
this stage of the business, till fifty years from the time of the
proposed's decease: in the case of a martyr, his martyrdom alone, with
proof both of the heroism with which it was suffered, and of its having
been suffered purely and absolutely in the cause of Christ, is supposed
to make an inquiry into his virtues unnecessary. 12thly, The final
determination of the cause is settled in three extraordinary
congregations, called the antepreparatory, the preparatory, and the
general. The virtues to be approved of must be of the most heroic kind:
the number of miracles is, in strictness, limited to two. The pope
collects the vows of the assembly; and two-thirds of it, at least, must
agree in opinion, before they come to a resolution. He then pronounces
what is called a private sentence, before the promoter and the secretary
of the congregation of St. Peter. 13thly, A general congregation is then
held, to determine whether it be advisable to proceed to the
beatification of the proposed. 14thly, Three consistories are afterwards
held. l5thly, The pope then signs the brief of beatification. The
publication of it is performed in the church of the Vatican. The
solicitor for the beatification presents the brief to the
cardinal-prefect; he remits it to the cardinal-archpriest of the church
where the ceremony is held. The cardinal-archpriest reads it aloud; the
Te Deum is sung, a collect in honor of the beatified is read, and mass
is solemnized in his honor. 16thly, When the proceedings for the
beatification are completed, the proceedings for the canonization begin.
But it is necessary that, before any thing be done in them, new miracles
should be wrought. When the solicitor for the canonization is satisfied
that he can prove by judicial evidence the existence of these miracles,
he presents a petition for resuming the {029} cause. 17thly, Three
congregations extraordinary, a general assembly, and three consistories,
are held for the purpose of pronouncing on the new miracles, and
determining whether it be prudent to proceed to canonization. 18thly,
This being determined upon, the pope issues the brief of canonization,
and, soon after, the ceremonial follows. It begins by a solemn
procession: an image of the saint is painted on several banners. When
the procession arrives at the church where the ceremony is performed,
the pope seats himself on his throne, and receives the usual homage of
the court. The solicitor for the cause and the consistorial advocate
place themselves at the feet of his holiness, and request the
canonization; the litanies are sung; the request is made a second time;
the _Veni Creator_ is sung; the request is made a third time; the
secretary announces that it is the will of the pope to proceed
immediately upon the canonization; the solicitor requests that the
letters of canonization may be delivered in due form; his holiness
delivers them, and the first prothonotary calls on all the assembly to
witness the delivery. The _Te Deum_ is sung, and high mass is
solemnized.

The decree of canonization is usually worded in these terms: "To the
glory of the Holy Trinity, for the exaltation of the Catholic faith, and
the increase of the Christian religion: In virtue of the authority of
Jesus Christ, of the holy apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, and our own,
after due deliberation and frequent invocations of the heavenly light,
with consent of our venerable brethren, the cardinals, patriarchs,
archbishops, and bishops, present at Rome, we declare the blessed N. to
be a saint, and we inscribe him as such in the catalogue of the saints.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen."

Such is the outline of the process of canonization. It must be added,
that the strictest evidence is required of every thing offered in proof.
It is laid down as a universal rule, which admits of no exception, that
the same evidence shall be required, through the whole of the process,
as in criminal cases is required to convict an offender of a capital
crime; and that no evidence of any fact shall be received, if a higher
degree of evidence of the same fact can possibly be obtained. Hence, a
copy of no instrument is admitted, if the original be in existence; no
hearsay witness is received, if ocular testimony can be produced. The
rigorous examination of every circumstance offered to be proved has
excited the surprise of intelligent Protestants. Miracles, which to them
seemed proved to the utmost degree of demonstration, have, to their
surprise, been rejected. Whatever there is most awful in religion, most
sacred in an oath, or most tremendous in the censures of the church, is
employed in the process of canonization to elicit truth and detect
falsehood. Every check and countercheck is used, which slowness of
proceeding, or a repetition of it in other stages and under different
forms, can effect. The persons employed in it are the members of the
Roman Catholic church, the most exalted by their rank, and the most
renowned for their virtues and talents. When the proceedings are
concluded, they are printed and exposed to the examination of the whole
world. The sixth volume of the celebrated treatise of Benedict XIV. on
the beatification and canonization of saints, contains the acts of the
saints canonized by himself.

X.

With these helps our author sat down to his work. We may suppose him
addressing to the saints, whose lives he was about to write, a prayer
similar to the beautiful prayer addressed to them by Bollandus at the
end of his general preface, and which may be thus abridged: "Hail, ye
citizens of heaven! courageous warriors! triumphant over the world! from
the blessed scenes of your everlasting glory, look on a low mortal, who
searches everywhere for the memorials of your virtues and triumphs. Show
your favor to him; give him to discover the valuable monuments of former
times; to distinguish the spurious from the legitimate; to digest his
work in proper order and method; to explain and illustrate whatever is
obscure. Take under your protection all who have patronized or assisted
him in his undertakings: obtain for all who read his work, that they
imitate the examples of virtue which it places before their eyes; and
that they experience how sweet, how useful, and how glorious it is to
walk in your steps."

In the preface to the French translation, the work is said to have cost
our author the labor of thirty years. It was his practice, when he began
to write the life of any saint, to read over and digest the whole of his
materials, before he committed any thing to paper. His work evidently
shows, that his mind was full of its subject, {030} and that what he
wrote was the result of much previous information and reflection. On
many occasions he must have written on subjects which were new to him;
but, such is the mutual connection and dependence of every branch of
literature, that a mind stored like his was already in possession of
that kind of knowledge, which would make him apprehend, with great ease,
whatever he had to learn; and would instruct him, though the subject
were new to him, where he might express himself decisively, and where he
should doubt. How extensive and profound his general knowledge was,
appears from this, that a person who happens to have made any subject,
treated of by him, his particular study, will seldom read what our
author has written upon it without finding in it something original, or,
at least, so happily expressed or illustrated as to have the merit of
originality. In some instances, as in his account of the Manichaens, in
the life of St. Augustine, and of the crusades, in the life of St.
Lewis, he shows such extent and minuteness of investigation, as could
only be required from works confined to those subjects. In other
instances, where his materials are scanty, so that he writes chiefly
from his own mind, as in the lives of St. Zita or St. Isidore of
Pelusium, he pours an unpremeditated stream of piety, which nothing but
an intimate acquaintance with the best spiritual writers could produce.

The sameness of a great number of the most edifying actions which our
author had to relate, made it difficult for him to avoid a tiresome
uniformity of narrative: but he has happily surmounted this difficulty.
Another difficulty he met with, was the flat and inanimate style of the
generality of the writers from whom his work was composed. Happy he must
have been, when the authors he had to consult were St. Jerome, Scipio,
Maffei, Bouhours, or Marsollier. But most commonly they were such as
might edify but could not delight. He had then to trust to his own
resources for that style, that arrangement, those reflections, which
were to engage his reader's attention. In this he has certainly
succeeded. Few authors on holy subject have possessed, in a higher
degree, that indescribable charm of style which rivets the reader's
attention to the book, which never places the writer between the book
and the reader, but insensibly leads him to the conclusion, sometimes
delighted, but always attentive and always pleased.

His style is peculiar to himself; it partakes more of the style of the
writers of the last century than of the style of the present age. It
possesses great merit, but sometimes is negligent and loose. Mr. Gibbon
mentioned it to the editor in warm terms of commendation; and was
astonished when he heard how much of our author's life had been spent
abroad. Speaking of our author's Lives of the Saints, (vol. iv. 457,) he
calls it "a work of merit,--the sense and learning belong to the
author--his prejudices are those of his profession." As it is known what
prejudice means in Mr. Gibbon's vocabulary, our author's relatives
accept the character.

Having lived so long in the schools, he must have had a strong
predilection for some of the opinions agitated in them; and frequent
opportunities of expressing it occurred in his work. He seems to have
cautiously avoided them: a single instance, perhaps, is not to be found,
where any thing of the kind is discoverable in any of his writings. He
has carefully brought before the reader every circumstance arising from
his subject, that could be offered in proof or illustration of the
particular tenets of the Roman Catholic church; but he does it without
affectation, and rather leaves the reader to draw his own conclusions,
than suggests them to him. Those expressions which good manners and good
taste reject, are never to be found in his works.

But the chief merit of his works is, that they make virtue and devotion
amiable: he preaches penance, but he shows its rewards; he exhorts to
compunction, but he shows the sweetness of pious sorrow; he enforces
humility, but he shows the blessedness of a humble heart; he recommends
solitude, but he shows that God _is_ where the world is not. No one
reads his work who does not perceive the happiness, even in this world,
of a holy life, or who does not wish to die the death of a saint. Most
readers of it will acknowledge that, sometimes at least, when they have
read it, every worldly emotion has died within them, and they have felt
themselves in a disposition of mind suited to receive the finest
impressions of religion.

At the finishing of his work he gave a very edifying instance of
humility. The manuscript of the first volume having been submitted to
Mr. Challoner, the vicar-apostolic of the London district, he
recommended the omission of all the notes, not {031} excepting that
beautiful note which gave an account of the writings of St. John
Chrysostom. His motive was, that, by being made less bulky, the work
might be made less expensive, and, consequently, more generally useful.
It is easy to suppose what it must have cost our author to consign to
oblivion the fruit of so much labor and so many vigils. He obeyed,
however, and to this circumstance it is owing that, in the first
edition, the notes in question were omitted.

XI.

XI. 1. It has been objected to our author's work on the Lives of the
Saints, _that the system of devotion which is recommended by it, is, at
best, suited to the cloister_. But no work has ever appeared, in which
the difference between the duties of a man of the world and the duties
of a religious is more strongly pointed out. Whenever the author has
occasion to mention any action of any saint, which is extraordinary or
singular in its nature he always observes, that it is of a kind rather
to be admired than imitated.

XI. 2. It has been objected, _that the piety which it inculcates is of
the ascetic kind_, and that the spirit of penance, voluntary
mortification, and contempt of the world, which it breathes everywhere,
is neither required nor recommended by the gospel. But no difference can
be found between the spirit of piety inculcated by our author, and that
inculcated by the most approved authors of the Roman Catholic church.
Less of penance, of voluntary mortification, or of contempt of the
world, is not recommended by Rodriguez, by Thomas of Kempis, by St.
Francis of Sales, by Bourdaloue, or Massillon, than is recommended by
our author. Speaking of those "who confound nature with grace, and who
look on the cross of Jesus Christ as an object foreign to faith and
piety;--It was not thus," says Massillon, in his sermon on the
Incarnation, "it was not thus that the apostles announced the gospel to
our ancestors. _The spirit of the gospel is a holy eagerness of
suffering, an incessant attention to mortify self-love, to do violence
to the will, to restrain the desires, to deprive the senses of useless
gratifications; this is the essence of Christianity, the soul of piety_.
If you have not this spirit, you belong not, says the apostle, to Jesus
Christ; it is of no consequence that you are not of the number of the
impure or sacrilegious of whom the apostle speaks, and who will not be
admitted into the kingdom of Christ. You are equally strangers to him;
your sentiments are not his; you still live according to nature; you
belong not to the grace of our Saviour; you will therefore perish, for
it is on him alone, says the apostle, that the Father has placed our
salvation. A complaint is sometimes made that we render piety disgusting
and impracticable, by prohibiting many pleasures which the world
authorizes. But, my brethren, what is it we tell you? allow yourselves
all the pleasures which Christ would have allowed himself; faith allows
you no other; mix with your piety all the gratifications which Jesus
Christ would have mixed in his; the gospel allows no greater
indulgence--O my God, how the decisions of the world will one day be
strangely reversed! when worldly probity and worldly regularity, which,
by a false appearance of virtue, give a deceitful confidence to so many
souls, will be placed by the side of the crucified Jesus, and will be
judged by that model! To be always renouncing yourselves, rejecting what
pleases, regulating the most innocent wishes of the heart by the
rigorous rules of the spirit of the gospel, is difficult, is a state of
violence. But if the pleasures of the senses leave the soul sorrowful,
empty, and uneasy, the rigors of the cross make her happy. Penance heals
the wounds made by herself; like the mysterious bush in the scripture,
while man sees only its thorns and briers, the glory of the Lord is
within it, and the soul that possesses him possesses all. Sweet tears
of penance! divine secret of grace! O that you were better known to the
sinner!" "The pretended esprits forts," says Bourdaloue, in his sermon
on the scandal of the cross, and the humiliations of Jesus Christ, the
noblest of all his sermons, in the opinion of the cardinal de Maury, "do
not relish the rigorous doctrines announced by the Son of God in his
gospel; self-hatred, self-denial, severity to one's self. But when
Christ established a religion for men, who were to acknowledge
themselves sinners and criminals, ought he, as St. Jerome asks, to have
published other laws? What is so proper for sin as penance? what is more
of the nature of penance, than the sinner's harshness and severity to
himself? Is there any thing in this contrary to reason? They are
astonished at his ranking poverty among the beatitudes; that he held up
the cross as an attraction to his disciples to follow him; that he
declared a love of {032} contempt was preferable to the honors of the
world. In all this I see the depth of his divine counsels." Such is the
language of Bourdaloue and Massillon, preaching before a luxurious
court, to the best-informed and most polished audience in the Christian
world. It is apprehended that no other language is found in our author's
Lives of the Saints.

XI. 3. Some (but their number is small) have imputed to our author _too
much credulity respecting miracles_. A chain of agiographists might be
supposed: on the first link of it we might place Surius, as possessing
the utmost degree of the belief of miracles, consistent with any degree
of judgment; on the last we might place Baillet and Launoy, as
possessing the utmost degree of the belief of miracles, consistent with
any degree of deference to the general opinions of pious Catholics.
Between them we might place in succession, according to their respective
degrees of supposed belief, Ribadeneira, Baronius, the Bollandists,
Tillemont, and Fleury. With which of these writers shall we class our
author? certainly neither with Surius, nor with Baillet or Launoy. The
middle links represent those to whom the most liberal Roman Catholic
will not impute too much credulity, or the most credulous too much
freedom. Perhaps our author should rank with the Bollandists, the first
of this middle class; and generally he who thinks with father Papebroke
on any subject of ecclesiastical literature, may be sure of thinking
right. To those who wholly deny the existence of miracles these sheets
are not addressed; but the Roman Catholic may be asked on what principle
he admits the evidence for the miracles of the three first centuries,
and rejects the evidence for the miracles of the middle age; why he
denies to St. Austin, St. Gregory, the venerable Bede, or St. Bernard,
the confidence he places in St. Justin, St. Irenaeus, or Eusebius.

XII.

Some years after our author had published the Lives of the Saints, he
published the _Life of Mary of the Cross_; a nun in the English convent
of the Poor Clares at Rouen. It is rather a vehicle to convey
instruction on various important duties of a religious life, and on
sublime prayer, than a minute account of the life and actions of the
nun. It was objected to this work, as it had been to the Saints' Lives,
that it inculcated a spirit of mystic prayer, the excesses of which had
been formally condemned, and the propriety of which, even in a very
qualified view of it, was doubtful.

It must be admitted by those who urge this objection, that, both in the
Saints Lives and in the work of which we are speaking, our author uses
very guarded expressions. He always takes care to mention that, in the
practices of devotion, as in every other practice, the common is the
safest road: that many of the greatest saints have, through the whole of
their lives, confined themselves to the usual modes of prayer and
meditation; that the gift of contemplation is given to few; that, like
every other practice of devotion, contemplation has its dangers; and
that, without a perfect spirit of humility, it is much exposed to
illusion; but he delivers, at the same time, an explicit opinion, that
contemplation is a gift of heaven; that the happiness of a soul on whom
God bestows it, is above description; and that every joy which this life
affords is contemptible in comparison of it. This certainly is catholic
doctrine.

It is natural to suppose that, at a time when every art and science was
deluged in a quantity of barbarous words, and metaphysics were carried
into every subject, the doctrine of prayer would often be involved in
similar intricacies and refinements. The fact certainly is, that many
writers of the middle age, on the subject of prayer, introduced into
their writings a wonderful degree of metaphysical subtilty. But, if
their doctrine be divested of those subtilties, and expressed in plain
language, it will be found that nothing in what our author, with other
spiritualists, calls mystical theology, contradicts common sense. With
them he divides the progress of a Christian, in his advances towards
perfection, into three stages, the purgative, the contemplative, and the
unitive. In the first stage he places sinners on their first entrance,
after their conversion into a spiritual life; who bewail their sins, are
careful to avoid relapsing into them, endeavor to destroy their had
habits, to extinguish their passions; who fast, watch, prey, chastise
the flesh, mourn, and are blessed with a contrite and humble heart. In
the second stage he places those who divest themselves of earthly
affections, study to acquire purity of heart, and a constant habit of
virtue, the true light of the soul; who {033} meditate incessantly on
the virtues and doctrines of Christ, and thereby inflame themselves to
the imitation of him. Those he supposes to be arrived at the third stage
whose souls, being thus illuminated, are united to God, and enjoy his
peace which passeth understanding. According to our author, the prayer
of a person who is arrived at the last stage, is very different from
that of a beginner in spiritual life. To present a pious subject to his
mind, to place it in the various points of view in which it should be
considered, to raise the devout sentiments which the consideration of it
should produce, and to form the resolutions which those sentiments
should inspire, must, our author observes, be a work of exertion to a
beginner. But when once he has arrived at that state of perfection as to
have detached himself from those objects which are the usual incitements
to sin, and to which, from the natural propensity of the human heart,
the imaginations of man forcibly lead, and when an ardent love of
virtue, piety, and whatever relates to them, is habitual in her; then,
our author supposes, that what before was exertion becomes the usual
state of the soul; a thousand causes of distraction cease to exist, and
all the powers of the mind and affections of the heart rest with ease
and pleasure on the subject of her meditation; God communicates to her
his perfections; he enlightens her in the mysteries of religion, and
raises in her admirable sentiments of wonder and love. This our author
calls the prayer of contemplation. In process of time, he supposes that
the habit of devotion increases: that the soul acquires a stronger
aversion from every thing that withholds her from God, and a more ardent
desire of being united to him; and that, by continually meditating on
the sublime truths and mysteries of Christianity, she is disengaged from
earthly affections, is always turned to God, and obtains a clearer view
of his perfections, of her obligations to him, and of the motives which
entitle him to her love. Then, according to our author, every thing
which is not God becomes irksome to her, and she is united to him in
every action and every thought. At first, the soul, by our author's
description, calls to her mind the presence of God; afterwards she
habitually recollects it; at length every thing else disappears, and she
lives in him. Even in the first stage, when the sinner first turns from
vice, and determinately engages in the practice of a virtuous life, our
author pronounces that the comforts which she experiences in reflecting
on the happiness of the change, exceed the joys of this world: he
supposes her to say, in the words of Bourdaloue, (_Sur la Choix mutuel
de Dieu et de l'Ame Religieuse_,) "I have chosen God, and God has chosen
me; this reflection is my support and my strength, it will enable me to
surmount every difficulty, to resist every temptation, to rise above
every chagrin and every disgust." From the moment this choice is made,
he supposes, with the same eloquent preacher, in his sermon for the
feast of St. Mary Magdalen, "that the soul, exposed till then to all the
vexations which the love of the world inevitably occasions, begins to
enjoy a sweet tranquillity; conscience begins to experience the interior
joy of pious hope and confidence in the mercies of God, and to feel the
holy unction of grace; in the midst of her penitential austerities she
comforts and strengthens herself by the thought, that she is making some
satisfaction and atonement to God for her sins, that she is purifying
her heart, and disposing it to receive the communications of heaven."
This comfort and sensation of happiness, he observes, must necessarily
increase as the charms of virtue are unveiled to the soul, and she
acquires a continual habit of thinking on God. "Who can express," he
makes the soul exclaim with the same author, "the secret delights which
God bestows on a heart thus purified and prepared? how he enlightens
her! how he inflames her with divine love! with what visitations he
favors her! what holy sentiments and transports he excites in her!" but,
when she lives for God alone, then, in our author's language, God
communicates himself with her, and her happiness, as far as happiness is
attainable in this life, is complete. Here, according to Thomas of
Kempis, (and what Catholic recuses his authority?) begins the
_familiaritas stupenda nimis_. "What is the hundred-fold of reward,"
cries Bourdaloue, (_Sermon sur le Renoncement Religieuse_,) "that thou,
O God, hast promised to the soul which has left every thing for thee? It
is something more than I have said upon it: it is something that I
cannot express; but it is something with which, sinful and weak as I am,
God has more than once favored me."--"Thou promisedst me a
hundred-fold," says St. Bernard: "I feel it; thou hast more than
performed thy promise." _Necessitas good cogit, defendit_. In defence of
our author, this short exposition of his doctrine seemed necessary: and
it may be confidently asked {034} in what it differs from the doctrine
of Rodriguez, of St. Francis de Sales, of Bourdaloue, or of many other
authors, in whom the universal opinion of the Catholic world recognises,
not only true devotion and piety, but extreme good sense and moderation.
Nor should it be forgotten that, if the prelates assembled at Issy, in
1695, declared, (Art. 22,) "that, without any extraordinary degrees of
prayer, a person may become a very great saint," they had previously
declared, (Art. 21,) "that even those which are passive, and approved of
by St. Francis of Sales and other spiritualists, cannot be rejected."
The authors on these subjects, whom our author particularly recommended,
were Balthazar, Alvarez de Paz, and St. Jure. The latter was one of the
Jesuits who came into England during the reign of Charles the First. His
most celebrated work is, a Treatise on the Knowledge and Love of God, in
five volumes,--a noble effusion of the sublimest piety. The only work by
which he is known in this country is, his Life of the Baron de Renty:
our author esteemed it much, but thought it censurable for mentioning,
in terms of commendation, the mode in which the baron, to save his
honor, indirectly put himself in the way of fighting a duel.

Another spiritualist, whom our author greatly admired, was the
celebrated Henry Marie de Boudon. He frequently mentioned, in terms of
the highest admiration, the humility and resignation with which Boudon
bore the calumnies of his prelate and fellow-clergy. He often related
that part of his life, when, being abandoned by the whole world, a poor
convent of religious received him into their house, and he knelt down to
thank God that one human being still existed who was kindly disposed to
him. His writings are numerous: the style of them is not elegant, and
they abound with low expressions; but they contain many passages of
original and sublime eloquence. Our author was also a great admirer of
the works of Father Surin, particularly his _Fondemens de la Vie
Spirituelle_, edited by Father Bignon. In this species of writing, few
works, perhaps, will give the reader so much pleasure as the _Morale de
l'Evangile_, in 4 vols. 8vo., by Father Neuvile, brother to the
celebrated preacher of that name. It is to be hoped that it will be
translated into English.[1] Our author greatly lamented the consequences
of the altercation between Fenelon and Bossuet. He thought the
condemnation which had been passed {035} on it on the abuses of
devotion, had brought devotion itself into discredit, and thrown a
ridicule on the holiness of an interior life. Of Fenelon he always spoke
with the highest respect. One of the editors of the last edition of his
works is now in England: he has declared that it appeared from Fenelon's
papers, that his exertions, to the very last, to ward off the sentence
of the condemnation of his works, were most active. This enhanced the
value of his sacrifice. Our author thought that Valart had abundantly
proved that Thomas of Kempis was not the author of the Imitation of
Christ; but that he had not proved it to be written by Gersen, the abbot
of Vercelli: he also differed from Valart in his opinion of the general
merit of the works of Thomas of Kempis; his treatises _De Tribus
Tabernaculis_ and _De Vera Compunctione_ (the latter particularly) he
thought excellent.[2]

Footnotes:
1.  For this and many other valuable works we naturally look to
    Stonyhurst. If the Musae Exulantes,[The title assumed by them, in the
    preface to the Latin translation of Cato.] in the swamps of Bruges,
    could produce an elegant and nervous translation of Cato, will their
    notes be less strong or less sweet in their native land? May we not
    expect from Stonyhurst other Petaviuses, other Sirmonds, other
    Porees, future Strachans, future Stanleys, future Heskeys, future
    Stricklands. If any of them would favor us with a translation of
    Father Montreuil's _Vie de Jesus Christ_, he would supply the
    English Catholic with the present desideratum of his library, an
    interesting and accurate life of Christ. A literary history of the
    gospels, showing the state of the text, and the grammatical
    peculiarities of their idiom, and containing a short account of the
    early versions, would be an invaluable work. The excellent
    translation by Mr. Combes, the professor of divinity in St. Edmund's
    College, of selected parts of St. Basil and St. John Chrysostom,
    shows his ability to execute such a work, and leads us to hope it
    for him. The mention of these gentlemen naturally makes us reflect
    on the singular kindness shown by this country to the foreign
    exiles. The editor begs leave to copy what has been said by him on
    this subject in a small work entitled _Hors Biblicae_. After
    mentioning some of the most splendid of the biblical exertions of
    the English, the compiler of that work says, "Yet, useful and
    magnificent as these exertions have been, an edition of the New
    Testament has lately appeared in this country, which, in one point
    of view, eclipses them all. It has been our lot to be witnesses of
    the most tremendous revolution that Christian Europe has known: a
    new race of enemies to the Christian religion has arisen, and, from
    Rome to Hungary, has struck at every altar and shaken every throne.
    One of their first enormities was, the murder of a large proportion
    of their clergy, and the banishment of almost the whole of the
    remaining part. Some thousands of those respectable exiles found
    refuge in England. A private subscription of 33,775_l_, 15_s_.
    9-1/2_d_. was immediately made for them. When it was exhausted, a
    second was collected, under the auspices of his majesty, and
    produced 41,304_l_. 12_s_. 6-1/4_d_. Nor is it too much to say, that
    the beneficence of individuals, whose charities on this occasion are
    known to God alone, raised for the sufferers a sum much exceeding
    the amount of the larger of the two subscriptions. When at length
    the wants of the sufferers exceeded the measure of private charity,
    government took them under its protection, and, though engaged to a
    war exceeding all former wars in expense, appropriated, with the
    approbation of the whole kingdom, a monthly allowance of about
    8000_l_. for their support; an instance of splendid munificence and
    systematic liberality, of which the annals of the world do not
    furnish another example. The management of the contributions was
    intrusted to a committee, of whom Mr. Wilmot, then one of the
    members of parliament for the city of Coventry, was president: on
    him the burden of the trust almost wholly fell, and his humanity,
    judgment, and perseverance, in discharge of it, did honor to himself
    and his country.

    "It should be observed, that the contributions we have mentioned are
    exclusive of those which were granted for the relief of the lay
    emigrants.

    "So suddenly had the unhappy sufferers been driven from their
    country, that few of them had brought with them any of those books
    of religion or devotion which their clerical character and habits of
    prayer had made the companions of their past life, and which were to
    become almost the chief comfort of their future years. To relieve
    them from this misfortune, the University of Oxford, at her sole
    expense, printed for them, at the Clarendon Press, two thousand
    copies of the Latin Vulgate of the New Testament, from an edition of
    Barbou, but this number not being deemed sufficient to satisfy the
    demand, two thousand more copies were added, at the expense of the
    marquess of Buckingham. Few will forget the piety, the blameless
    demeanor, the long, patient suffering of these respectable men.
    Thrown on a sudden into a foreign country, differing from theirs in
    religion, language, manners, and habits, the uniform tenor of their
    pious and unoffending lives procured them universal respect and
    good-will. The country that received them has been favored. In the
    midst of the public and private calamity which almost every nation
    has experienced, Providence has crowned her with glory and honor;
    peace has dwelt in her palaces, plenty within her wells; every
    climate has been tributary to her commerce, every sea has been
    witness of her victories."
2.  Our author was a great admirer of the writings of Abraham Woodhead:
    he purchased his manuscripts, and, by his will, bequeathed them to
    the English College at Douay. Mr. Woodhead is one of the writers to
    whom the celebrated _Whole Duty of Man_ has been attributed. On that
    subject the editor is in possession of the following note in our
    author's handwriting: "Mr. Simon Berrington, who died in 1758,
    endeavored to give Mr. Woodhead the honor of being the author of the
    Whole Duty of Man, and other works of the same kind; but there is a
    difference of style between them,--there occurring in the Whole Duty
    of Man, and the other works of that author, scarce any parentheses,
    with which all Mr. Woodhead's works abound. Nevertheless, certain it
    is that Dr. John Pell, dean of Christ Church, (afterwards bishop of
    Oxford,) who published the other works of the author of the Whole
    Duty of Man, namely, the Ladies' Calling, the Art of Contentment,
    the Government of the Tongue, the Lively Oracles given unto us, &c.,
    in folio, at Oxford, in 1675-78, and wrote the preface which he
    prefixed to this edition, and who was the only person then living
    who knew the author of the Whole Duty of Man, gave this book of the
    Whole Duty of Man to his bookbinder, and Hawkins, his bookseller in
    London, with other pieces of Mr. Woodhead's, and ordered Mr.
    Woodhead's name to be added to the title of this, as well as of the
    other works which he gave to be bound. If Mr. Woodhead wrote that
    celebrated work, it was before he travelled abroad, or had any
    thoughts of embracing the Catholic faith." The same anecdote has
    been mentioned to the editor by the late Mr. Challoner.

XIII.

Some time after our author's return to England, from his travels with
Mr. Edward Howard, he was chosen president of the English College at St.
Omer's. That college was originally founded by the English Jesuits. On
the expulsion of the society from France, the English Jesuits shared the
fate of their brethren.

On his being named to the presidency of the English college at St.
Omer's, doubts were suggested to him on the justice or propriety of his
accepting the presidency of a college which, in fact, belonged to
others. He advised with the bishop of Amiens and the bishop of Boulogne
upon this point, and they both agreed in opinion that he might safely
accept it.

He continued president of the college of St. Omer's till his decease. It
was expected by his friends, that his office of president would leave
him much time for his studies; but these expectations wholly failed. He
was immediately appointed vicar-general to the bishops of Arras, St.
Omer's, Ipres, and Boulogne. This involved him in an immensity of
business; and, his reputation continually increasing, he was consulted
from every part of France on affairs of the highest moment. The
consequence was, that, contrary to the wishes and expectations of his
friends, he never was so little master of his time as he was during his
residence at St. Omer's. The editor has been favored with the following
letter, which will show the esteem in which our author was held by those
who, at the time we speak of, lived in habits of intimacy with him.

"You have occasioned me, sir, to experience a heartfelt satisfaction in
allowing me an intercourse with you on the subject of the late Mr.
Butler, your uncle; and to communicate to you the particulars within my
knowledge, concerning the life, the eminent virtues, and uncommon
abilities of that celebrated gentleman. Never was I acquainted with any
of my contemporaries who was at once so learned, so pious, so gentle, so
modest; and, whatever high opinion might be conceived of him from a
perusal of his immortal work on the Lives of the Saints,--that
masterpiece of the most extensive erudition, of the most enlightened
criticism, and of that unction which commands the affections,--such an
opinion is greatly inferior to the admiration which he inspired in those
persons who, like myself, had the happiness to live in intimate
connection with him. The paternal kindness, and, I am bold {036} say it,
the tender friendship with which he honored my youth, have indelibly
engraved on my heart the facts I am about to relate to you with the most
scrupulous exactness. Monsieur de Conzie, now bishop of Arras, having
been raised to the see of St. Omer's in 1766, caused me to be elected a
canon in his cathedral church: he nominated me one of his
vicars-general, and I repaired thither on the 5th of October, 1767.

"That prelate, whose high reputation dispenses with my encomiums,
mentioned your uncle to me on the very day of my arrival. 'I am here
possessed,' said he; 'of a hidden treasure; and that is Mr. Butler, the
president of the English college. I for the first time saw him,' added
he, 'during the ceremony of my installation. He was kneeling on the
pavement in the midst of the crowd; his countenance and deportment had
something heavenly in them: I inquired who he was, and upon his being
named to me, I caused him, though reluctant, to be conducted to one of
the first stalls in the choir. I will entreat him,' said moreover the
prelate, 'to favor you with his friendship: he shall be your counsel;
you cannot have a better.' I made answer, that Monsieur de Beaumont, the
illustrious archbishop of Paris, in whose palace I had enjoyed the
invaluable benefit of passing two years, had often spoken of him to me
in the most honorable terms; that he had commissioned me, at my
departure, to renew to him the assurance of his particular esteem; and
that I would neglect nothing to be thought worthy of his benevolence.

"I was so happy as to succeed in it within a short time. His lordship,
the bishop, condescended to wish the joy of it, and intrusted me with
the design he had formed of honoring the assembly of his vicars-general,
by making him our colleague. I was present when he delivered to him his
credentials; which moment will never forsake my remembrance. I beheld
your dear uncle suddenly casting himself at the prelate's knees, and
beseeching him, with tears in his eyes, not to lay that burden upon him.
_Ah! my lord_, said he to him, _I am unable to fill so important a
place_; nor did he yield but upon an express command: _Since you require
it shall be so_, said he, _I will obey; that is the first of my duties_.
What an abundant source of reflections was this for me, who was then but
twenty-six years of age. It was then especially that I resolved to make
up for my inexperience, by taking him for my guide who had been giving
me that great example of Christian humility.

"The bishop had already showed him his confidence, by placing his own
nephew in the English college, as also that of the bishop of Senlis, his
friend, and the son of one of his countrymen. I had the charge of
visiting them frequently. I used to send for them to dine with me on
every school holiday. If one of them had been guilty of a fault, the
punishment I inflicted was, that he should desire Mr. Butler to keep him
at home. But it almost always proved useless; he would himself bring me
the delinquent, and earnestly solicit his pardon; _Depend upon it_, said
he to me one day, _he will behave better for the future_. I asked him
what proof he had of it. _Sir_, answered he, in the presence of the lad,
_he has told me so_. I could not forbear smiling at such confidence in
the promises of a school-boy of ten years old; but was not long before I
repented. In a private conversation he observed to me, that one of the
most important rules in education is to impress children with a
persuasion that the vices we would keep them from, such as lying and
breaking one's word, are too shocking to be thought possible. A maxim
this worthy of the great Fenelon, his beloved model, and which common
tutors do not so much as surmise.

"Those three youths, our common functions of vicars-general, the
delightful company of your uncle, and the frequent need I had of drawing
from that source of light, carried me almost every day to the English
college. I could delineate to you, sir, his ordinary course of life in
the inward administration of that house; I could tell you of his
assiduousness at all the exercises; of his constant watchfulness; of the
public and private exhortations he made to his pupils, with that
persuasive eloquence we meet with in his writings; of his pious
solicitude for all their wants; and of their tender attachment to him.
His room was continually filled with them. He never put on the harsh end
threatening magisterial look: he was like a fond mother surrounded by
her children; or he was rather, according to the expression, the eagle
not disdaining to teach her young ones to soar, and carrying {037} them
on her expanded wings, to save them from a fatal fall. But I leave to
his worthy co-operators the satisfaction of detailing to you those
particulars, which I only transiently beheld, and which I never saw
without being affected. How many interesting anecdotes will they have to
acquaint you with!

"Every instant that Mr. Butler did not dedicate to the government of his
college he employed in study; and, when obliged to go abroad, he would
read as he walked along the streets. I have met him with a book under
each arm, and a third in his hands, and have been told that, travelling
one day on horseback, he fell a reading, giving the horse his full
liberty. The creature used it to eat a few ears of corn that grew on the
road-side. The owner came in haste, swearing he would be indemnified.
Mr. Butler, who knew nothing of the damage done, no sooner perceived it,
than, blushing, he said to the countryman, with his usual mildness, that
his demand was just; he then draws out a louis d'or, and gives it to the
fellow, who would have been very well satisfied with a few pence, makes
repeated apologies to him, easily obtains forgiveness, and goes on his
way.

"Notwithstanding such constant application, the extensiveness of his
knowledge was next to a prodigy. Whenever I happened to consult him on
any extraordinary question, upon which the authors most familiar to us
were silent, he would take me to the library of the abbey of St. Bertin,
would ask for old writers, whose names I was scarce acquainted with, and
point out to me, even before I had opened them, the section and chapter
in which I should find my difficulty solved.

"Nor would I have you think, sir, that the ecclesiastical sciences were
the only that he had applied to. A couple of anecdotes I am going to
relate, and which I could hardly have believed had I not been witness to
them, will prove to you that every kind of information was reunited in
his intellect, without the smallest confusion.

"Monsieur de Conzie, after his translation from the bishopric of St.
Omer's to that of Arras, invited him to come and see him there. My
brother vicars and myself sought one day for a question which he should
not be able to answer, and thought we had found one. Accordingly, we
asked him what was the name of a pear called, in French, _bon Chretien_,
before the coming of Christ, and Christianity. _There are_, answered he,
_two systems on that point_; and then quotes as two modern naturalists,
sets forth their opinions, and unfolds to us the authorities with which
they backed them. I had the curiosity to ascertain one of those
quotations, and found it accurate to a tittle.

"A few days after, the bishop of Arras, having his drawing-room filled
with company, Mr. President was announced. The bystanders thinking it to
be the first president of the council d'Artois, opened him a gangway to
come at the prelate; they behold a priest enter, whom, by his bashful
and modest looks, they take for some country curate, and, by a
simultaneous motion, they close up the passage which they had made. The
bishop, who had already descried his dear president of the English
college, perceived also the motion and resolved to put the authors of it
to the blush. He observed in one corner of the room a group of military
men; he goes up to them, and, finding they were conversing upon the
question keenly debated at that time, whether in battle the _thin
order_, observed in our days, be preferable to the _deep_ order of the
ancients; he called to Mr. Butler, and asked him what he thought of it.
I then heard that amazing man talk on the art of war with the modest
tone of a school-boy, and the depth of the most consummate military man.
I observed admiration in the countenance of all those officers; and saw
several of them, who, being too far off, stood up upon chairs to hear
and see him. They altogether put to him questions upon questions, and
each of his answers caused fresh applause.

"His lordship left us to go and join another group, consisting of
magistrates, who were discussing a point of common law; and, in like
manner, called upon his oracle, who, by the sagacity of his reflections,
bore away all suffrages, and united their several opinions.

"The prelate, next, taking him by the hand, presented him to the ladies,
seated round the fireplace, and asked him, whether the women in ancient
times wore their head-dresses as high as ours then did. _Fashions_,
answered he, _like the spokes of a wheel turning on its axis, are always
replaced by those very ones which they have set aside_. He then
described to us the dresses, both of the men and women, in the various
ages of our monarchy: _and, to go still further back_, added he, _the
{038} statue of a female Druid has been found, whose head-dress measured
half a yard to height; I have been myself to see it, and have measured
it._

"What astonished me most was, that studies so foreign to the
supernatural objects of piety, shed over his soul neither aridity nor
lukewarmness. He referred all things to God, and his discourse always
concluded by some Christian reflections, which he skilfully drew from
the topic of the conversation. His virtue was neither minute nor
pusillanimous: religion had, in his discourse as well as in his conduct,
that solemn gravity which can alone make it worthy of the Supreme Being.
Ever composed, he feared neither contradictions nor adversities: he
dreaded nothing but praises. He never allowed himself a word that could
injure any one's reputation; his noble generosity was such, that, as
often as I happened to prize in his presence any one of his books, or of
the things belonging to him, I the same day found them in my possession.
In short, I will confess it, to my confusion, that for a long time I
sought to discover a failing in him; and I protest, by all that is most
sacred, that I never knew one in him. These are the facts, sir, you were
desirous of knowing; in the relation of which I have used no
exaggeration, nor have had anything to dissemble. I have often related
these facts to my wondering friends, as a relief to my heart; and
indeed, notwithstanding the distance of time, they recur as fresh to my
remembrance as if just transacted before my eyes.

"I was at a distance from St. Omer's when death robbed me of my
respectable friend. Time has not alleviated the sorrow which the loss of
him fixed deeply in my breast. I have preciously preserved some of his
presents, and carefully concealed them at my leaving France. May I one
day find again those dear pledges of a friendship, the recollection of
which is, in our calamities, the sweetest of my consolations. I have the
honor to be, with the highest regard, sir, your most obedient, &c.

"L'Abbe de la SEPOUZE.

"_At the Hague, December_ 30, 1794."

During our author's stay at St. Omer's, a thesis was printed and
publicly defended, in a neighboring university, which excited his
attention. Mr. Joseph Berington presided at the defensions of it. It
certainly contained many propositions which were offensive to pious
ears; but respectable persons are said to have declared, that it
contained nothing materially contrary to the faith of the Roman Catholic
church; and the editor feels it a duty incumbent on him to add, that one
of the bishops, to whom our author was grand-vicar, mentioned to the
editor, that he thought his vicar had shown too much vivacity on that
occasion.

Footnotes:
1.  Sieni aquila provocans ad volandam pullos suos et super eos
    volians expandit alas suas--_Deuteron_. cap. 22.

XIV.

Both from our author's letters, and from what is recollected of his
conversations, it appears that he often explicitly declared that, if
powerful measures were not adopted to prevent it, a _revolution in
France_ would take place, both in church and state. He thought
irreligion, and a general corruption of manners, gained ground
everywhere. On the decay of piety in France, he once mentioned in
confidence to the editor a circumstance so shocking, that even after
what has publicly happened, the editor does not think himself
justifiable in mentioning it in this place. He seems to have augured
well on the change of ministry which took place on the expulsion of the
Choiseuls. He was particularly acquainted with the cardinal de Bernis,
and the mareschal de Muy. Of the latter he writes thus in one of his
letters. "Mr. de Muy, who has sometimes called upon me, and often writes
to me, as the most affectionate of friends, is unanimously called the
most virtuous and upright nobleman in the kingdom. The late dauphin's
projects in favor of religion he will endeavor to execute. He is
minister of war. The most heroic piety will be promoted by him by every
method: if I gave you an account of his life, you would be charmed by so
bright a virtue."

XV.

Our author had _projected many works_ besides those which we have
mentioned. Among them his Treatise on the _Moveable Feasts_ may be
reckoned. He very much lamented that he had not time to complete: what
he had prepared of it, he thought too prolix, and, if he had lived to
revise it, he would have made great alterations in it. Some time after
his decease, it was published under the inspection of Mr. Challoner. He
proposed writing the lives of bishop Fisher and sir Thomas {039} More,
and had made great collections, with a view to such a work: some of them
are in the hands of the editor, and are at the command of any person to
whom they can be of use. He had begun a treatise to explain and
establish the truths of _natural and revealed religion_; he was
dissatisfied with what Bergier had published on those subjects. He
composed many _sermons_, and an immense number of _pious discourses_.
From what remained of the three last articles, _the three volumes of his
discourses_, which have appeared since his decease, were collected. The
editor is happy in this opportunity of mentioning his obligations to the
Rev. Mr. Jones, for revising and superintending the publication of them.
They are acknowledged to possess great merit; the morality of them is
entitled to great praise; the discourse on conversation shows a
considerable knowledge of life and manners. Having mentioned his
sermons, it is proper to add, that as a preacher he almost wholly
failed. His sermons were sometimes interesting and pathetic; but they
were always desultory, and almost always immeasurably long. The editor
has lately published his _Short Life of Sir Toby Matthews_.

He was very communicative of his manuscripts, and consequently many of
them were lost; so that, on an attentive examination of them, after his
decease, none but those we have mentioned were thought fit for the
press.

XVI.

The number of _letters_ written by our author exceeds belief; if they
could be collected, they would be found to contain an immense mass of
interesting matter on many important topics of religion and literature.
He corresponded with many persons of distinction, both among the
communicants with the see of Rome, and the separatists from her. Among
the former may be reckoned the learned and elegant Lambertini, who
afterwards, under the name of Benedict XIV., was honored with the papal
crown: among the latter may be reckoned Dr. Louth, the bishop first of
Oxford, afterwards of London, the celebrated translator of Isaiah. In a
Latin note on Michaelis, our author speaks of that prelate as his
intimate acquaintance, "_necessitate conjunctissimus_."

He had the happiness to enjoy the friendship and esteem of many persons
distinguished by rank, talents, or virtue. The holy bishop of Amiens
spoke of him in the highest terms of admiration and regard. In the life
written in French of that excellent prelate, he is mentioned "as the
most learned man in Europe." He is styled by father Brotier, in his
preface to his edition of Tacitus, "sacra eruditione perceleber." The
late Mr. Philips, in the preface to his life of cardinal Pole,
mentioning the edition of his letters by cardinal Quirini, expresses
himself thus: "They were procured for the author by Mr. Alban Butler, to
whom the public is indebted for the most useful and valuable work which
has appeared in the English language on the Lives of the Saints, and
which has been so much esteemed in France, that it is now translating
into the language of a country celebrated for biography, with large
additions by the author. This gentleman's readiness on all occasions to
assist the author in his undertaking, was answerable to his extensive
knowledge and general acquaintance with whatever has any relation to
erudition." Our author was not satisfied with the French translation of
his work: the writers professed to translate it freely; but he thought
that they abused the privilege of free translation, that they
misrepresented his meaning, that their style was affected, and that the
devotional cast which he had labored to give the original, was wholly
lost in their translation. The editor has heard that a translation of it
was begun in the Spanish and Italian languages, but he has seen no such
translation. Dr. Kennicot spoke loudly of our author's readiness and
disinterested zeal to oblige. Even the stern Mr. Hollis mentions him in
his memoirs with some degree of kindness. No person was more warmly
attached to his friends. With his affectionate and generous disposition,
no one was more sensible of unkindness than he was; but none forgave it
more readily. It was his rule to cultivate those who were inimical to
him by every mark of attention and act of kindness; and rather to seek
than avoid an intercourse with them. His incessant attention to his
studies frequently made him absent in society: this sometimes produced
whimsical incidents.

Whatever delight he found in his literary pursuits, he never sacrificed
his religious duties to them, or permitted them to trespass on _his
exercises of devotion_. Huet, whom, from his resemblance to our author
in unremitted application to study, the editor has often had occasion to
mention, laments his own contrary conduct in {040} very feeling terms:
"I was entirely carried," says he, (_De Rebus ad eum Pertinentibus_,
174,) "by the pleasure found in learning: the endless variety which it
affords had taken up my thoughts, and seized all the avenues of my mind,
that I was altogether incapable of any sweet and intimate communication
with God. When I withdrew into religious retirement, in order to
recollect my scattered thoughts, and fix them on heavenly things, I
experienced a dryness and insensibility of soul by which the Holy Spirit
seemed to punish this excessive bent to learning." This misfortune our
author never experienced. A considerable portion of his time was devoted
to prayer. When it was in his power, he said mass every day; when he
travelled, he rose at a very early hour, that he might hear it: he never
neglected the prayer of the _Angelus_, and, when he was not in the
company of strangers, he said it on his knees. He recommended a frequent
approach to the sacrament of the altar: some, under his spiritual
direction, communicated almost every day. The _morale severe_ of the
Jansenists he strongly reprobated in discourse, and no person receded
further from it in practice: but he was an admirer of the style of the
gentlemen of Port Royal, and spoke with praise of their general practice
of avoiding the insertion of the pronoun _I_ in their writings. He
thought the Bible should not be read by very young persons, or by those
who were wholly uninformed: even the translation of the whole divine
office of the church he thought should not be given to the faithful
promiscuously. In the printed correspondence of Fenelon, a long letter
by him on frequent communion, and one on reading the Bible, (they
deserve to be translated and generally read,) express exactly our
author's sentiments on those subjects. All singularity in devotion was
offensive to him. He exhorted every one to a perfect discharge of the
ordinary duties of his situation, to a conformity to the divine will,
both in great and little occasions, to good temper and mildness in his
intercourse with his neighbor, to an habitual recollection of the divine
presence, to a scrupulous attachment to truth, to retirement, to extreme
sobriety. These, he used to say, were the virtues of the primitive
Christians, and among them, he said, we should always look for perfect
models of Christian virtue. Fleury's account of them, in his _Manners of
the Christians_, he thought excellent, and frequently recommended the
perusal of it. He exhorted all to devotion to the Mother of God; many,
under his care, said her office every day. The advantage of mental
prayer he warmly inculcated. In the conduct of souls he was all mildness
and patience: motives of love were oftener in his mouth than motives of
fear: "for to him that loves, nothing," he used to say, with the author
of the Imitation of Christ, "is difficult." He often sacrificed his
studies and private devotions to the wants of his neighbor. When it was
in his power he attended the ceremony of the _salut_ at the parish
church; and on festivals particularly solemnized by any community of the
towns in which he resided, he usually assisted at the divine service in
their churches. He was very abstemious in his diet; and considered
systematic sensuality as the ultimate degradation of human nature. He
never was heard to express so much disgust, as at conversations where,
for a great length of time, the pleasures of the table, or the
comparative excellence of dishes, had been the sole topic of
conversation; yet he was very far from being an enemy to rational mirth,
and he always exerted himself to entertain and promote the pleasures of
his friends. In all his proceedings he was most open and unreserved:
from selfishness none could be more free. Dr. Kennicot often said that,
of the many he had employed in his great biblical undertaking, none had
shown more activity or more disinterestedness than our author. He was
zealous in the cause of religion, but his zeal was without bitterness or
animosity: polemic acrimony was unknown to him. He never forgot that in
every heretic he saw a brother Christian; in every infidel he saw a
brother man. He greatly admired _Drouen de Sacramentis_, and _Boranga's
Theology_. _Tournely_ he preferred much to his antagonist _Billouart_.
He thought _Houbigant_ too bold a critic, and objected some novelties to
the _Hebraizing friars of the Rue St. Honore_. He believed the letters
of Ganganelli, with the exception of two or three at most, to be
spurious. Their spuriousness has been since placed beyond controversy by
the _Diatribe Clementine_, polished in 1777. _Caraccioli_, the editor of
them, in his _Remerciement a l'Auteur de l'Annee Litteraire de la part
de l'Editeur des Lettres du Pape Ganganelli_, acknowledges that he filled
sixty pages at least of them with thoughts and insertions of his own
compositions. In the handwriting of a gentleman, remarkable for his
great accuracy, the editor has before him the following {041} account of
our author's sentiments on usury: "Mr. Alban Butler's opinion of
receiving interest for money, in a letter dated the 20th of June, 1735,
but copied anno 1738.--In England, and in some other countries, the laws
allow of five per cent., and even an action at law for the payment of
it. This is often allowable in a trading country; and, as it is the
common practice in England, I shall not blame any one for taking or even
exacting interest-money; therefore will say nothing against it in
general: but, in my own regard, I am persuaded it is not warrantable in
conscience, but in three cases; viz. either for a gain ceasing, as
merchants lend money which they would otherwise employ in trade, _lucrum
cessans_: or, secondly, some detriment the lender suffers by it, _damnum
emergens_: or, thirdly, some hazard in the principal money, by its being
exposed to some more than ordinary danger in being recovered safely.
Some time afterwards the said Alban Butler was convinced there was no
occasion of scruple in receiving interest for money, so that it was at a
moderate or low rate of interest; and that there was reason to believe
the borrower made full the advantage of the money that he paid for it by
the interest."

Our author's love of learning continued with him to the last. Literary
topics were frequently the subject of his familiar conversation. He was
a great admirer of what is called the simple style of writing; and once
mentioned that, if he could acquire a style by wishing for it, he should
wish for that of Herodotus. He thought the orator appeared too much in
Cicero's philosophical works, except his Offices; that work he
considered to be one of the most perfect models of writing which have
come down to us from antiquity. He professed to discover the man of high
breeding and elegant society in the commentaries of Caesar; and to find
expressions in the writings of Cicero which showed a person accustomed
to address a mob, the _foex Romani populi_. He believed the works of
Plato had been much interpolated; and once mentioned, without blame,
father Hardouin's opinion that they were wholly a fabrication of the
middle age. Of the modern Latin poets, he most admired Wallius, and in
an illness desired his poems to be read to him. He himself sometimes
composed Latin poetry. He preferred the _Paradisus Animae_ to its rival
prayer-book, the _Coeleste Palmetum_. Of the last he spoke with great
contempt. The little rhyming offices, which fill a great part of it, are
not very interesting; but the explanation in it of the psalms in our
Lady's office, of the psalms in the office for the dead, of the gradual
and seven penitential psalms, and of the psalms sung at vespers and
complin, is excellent. A person would deserve well of the English
Catholics who should translate it into English. The Coeleste Palmetum
was the favorite prayer-book of the Low Countries. By Foppen's
_Bibliotheca Belgica_, it appears that the first edition of it was
printed at Cologne, in 1660, and that, during the first eight years
after its publication, more than 14,000 copies of it were sold. Most
readers will be surprised, when they are informed that our author
preferred the sermons of Bossuet to those of Bourdaloue but in this he
has not been absolutely singular; the celebrated cardinal de Maury has
avowed the same opinion; and, what is still more extraordinary, it has
also been avowed by father Neuville. Bossuet's Discourse upon Universal
History may be ranked among the noblest efforts of human genius that
ever issued from the press. In the chronological part of it, the scenes
pass rapidly but distinctly; almost every word is a sentence, and every
sentence presents an idea, or excites a sentiment of the sublimest kind.
The third part of it, containing his reflections on the events which
produced the rise and fall of the ancient empires of the earth, is not
inferior to the celebrated work of Montesquieu on the greatness and fall
of the Roman empire; but, in the second part, the genius of Bossuet
appears in its full strength. He does not lead his reader through a maze
of argumentation; he never appears in a stretch of exertion; but, with a
continued splendor of imagery, magnificence of language, and vehemence
of argument, which nothing can withstand, he announces the sublime
truths of the Christian religion, and the sublime evidence that supports
them, with a grandeur and force that overpower and disarm resistance.
Something of this is to be found in many passages of his sermons; but,
in general, both the language and the arguments of them are forced and
unnatural. His letters to the nuns are very interesting. Let those who
affect to talk slightingly of the devotions of the religious, recollect
that the sublime Bossuet bestowed a considerable portion of his time
upon them. The same pen that wrote the discourse on universal history,
the funeral oration of the prince of Conde, and the History of the
Variations, was at the command of every religious who requested {042}
from Bossuet a letter of advice or consolation. "Was he at Versailles,
was he engaged on any literary work of importance, was he employed on a
pastoral visit of his diocese, still," say the Benedictine editors of
his works, "he always found time to write to his correspondents on
spiritual concerns." In this he had a faithful imitator in our author.
No religious community addressed themselves to him who did not find in
him a zealous director, an affectionate and steady friend. For several
among the religious he had the highest personal esteem. Those who
remember him during his residence at St. Omer's, will recollect his
singular respect for Mrs. More, the superior of the English convent of
Austins at Bruges. He was, in general, an enemy to the private pensions
of nuns; (see Boudon's Letter _Sur le Relachement qui s'est introduit
dans l'Observation du Voeu de Pauvrete_, Lettres de Boudon, vol. 1, p.
500;) but in this, as in every other instance, he wished the reform,
when determined upon, to proceed gently and gradually.

All who leave had an opportunity of observing the English communities
since their arrival in this country, have been edified by their amiable
and heroic virtues. Their resignation to the persecution which they have
so undeservedly suffered, their patience, their cheerfulness, their
regular discharge of their religious observances, and, above all, their
noble confidence in Divine Providence, have gained them the esteem of
all who know them. At a village near London, a small community of
Carmelites lived for several months, almost without the elements of
fire, water, or air. The two first (for water, unfortunately, was there
a vendible commodity) they could little afford to buy; and from the last
(their dress confining them to their shed) they were excluded. In the
midst of this severe distress, which no spectator could behold unmoved,
they were happy. Submission to the will of God, fortitude, and
cheerfulness, never deserted them. A few human tears would fall from
them when they thought of their convent; and with gratitude, the finest
of human feelings, they abounded; in other respects they seemed of
another world. "Whatever," says Dr. Johnson, "withdraws us from the
power of our senses; whatever makes the past, the distant, or the
future, predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of
human beings." It would be difficult to point out persons to whom this
can be better applied than these venerable ladies, whose lives are more
influenced by the past, the distant, or the future, or so little
influenced by the present.

Our author was not so warm on any subject as the calumnies against the
religious of the middle age: he considered the civilization of Europe to
be owing to them. When they were charged with idleness, he used to
remark the immense tracts of land, which, from the rudest state of
nature, they converted to a high state of husbandry in the Hercynian
wood, the forests of Champagne and Burgundy, the morasses of Holland,
and the fens of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire. When ignorance was
imputed to them, he used to ask, what author of antiquity had reached
us, for whose works we were not indebted to the monks. He could less
endure that they should be considered as instruments of absolute power
to enslave the people: when this was intimated, he observed that, during
the period which immediately followed the extinction of the Carlovingian
dynasty, when the feudal law absolutely triumphed over monarchy, the
people were wholly left to themselves, and must have sunk into an
absolute state of barbarism, if it had not been for the religious
establishments. Those, he said, softened the manners of the conquerors,
afforded refuge to the vanquished, preserved an intercourse between
nations: and, when the feudal chiefs rose to the rank of monarchs, stood
as a rampart between them and the people. He thought St. Thomas of
Canterbury a much injured character. He often pointed out that rich
tract of country, which extends from St. Omer's to Liege, as a standing
refutation of those who asserted that convents and monasteries were
inimical to the populousness of a country: he observed, that the whole
income of the smaller houses, and two-thirds of the revenues of the
greater houses, were constantly spent within twenty miles round their
precincts; that their lands were universally let at low rents; that
every abbey had a school for the instruction of its tenants, and that no
human institution was so well calculated to promote the arts of
painting, architecture, and sculpture, works in iron and bronze, and
every other species of workmanship, as abbeys or monasteries, and their
appendages. "Thus," he used to say, "though the country in view was
originally a marsh, and has for more than a century wholly survived its
commerce, it is the most populous country in Europe; and presents on the
face of it as great a display {043} of public and private strength,
wealth, and affluence, as can be found in any other part of the world."
Fortunately for him, he did not live to be witness to the domiciliary
visit which, in our times, it has received from France. What would he
have thought, if any person had told him, that, before the expiration of
the century in which he lived, the French themselves would, in perfect
hatred of Christ, destroy the finest churches of France? At their
profanation of his favorite church of St. Bertin, in the town of St.
Omer's, that is said to have happened which Victor Vitensis relates to
have happened in the persecution of the Vandals, (Hist. Pers. Van. 31:)
"Introeuntes maximo cum furore, corpus Christi et sanguinem pavimento
sparserunt, et illud pollutis pedibus calcaverunt."

XVII.

Our author enjoyed through life a good state of health, but somewhat
impaired it by intense application to study. Some years before his
decease he had a slight stroke of the palsy, which affected his speech.
He died on the 15th of May, 1773, in the sixty-third year of his age. A
decent monument of marble was raised to his memory in the chapel of the
English college at St. Omer's, with the following inscription upon it,
composed by Mr. Bannister:

Hic jacet
R. D. Albanus Butler (Bouteillier) Praenobilis Angius.
Sacerdos et Alumnus Collegii Anglorum Duaci.
Ibidem S. T. Professor, Postmodum Missionarius in Patria.
Praeses II. Collegii Regii Anglorum Audomari.
Vicarius Generalis
Illustrissimorum Philomelien. Deboren. Atrebaten. Audomarea
Ex vetusta Ortus prosapia
In utrisque Angliae et Galliae Regnis
Ampla et Florente.
Suavissimis Moribus,
Summis acceptissimus, Infimis benignus,
Omnium necessitatibus inserviens,
Pro Deo.

Propter Doctrinam et Ingenium, Doctissimis,
Propter Pietatem, Bonis omnibus,
Percharus.

Nobilissimaee Juventutis Institutionem,
Sacrarum Virginum curam,
Reverendissimorum Antistitum negotia,
Suscepit, promovit, expedivit,
Opera, Scriptis, Hortatubus.
Sanctorum rebus gestis a Puentia inhaerens,
Acta omnia pernoscens,
Mentem et Sapientiam alte imbibens.
Multa scripsit de Sanctorum vitis,
Plena Sanctorum Spiritu, librata judicio, polita stylo,
Summae ubertatis et omnigenae eruditiouis.
Apastolicae sedis et omnis officii semper observantissimus.
Pie obiit 15 Mensis Maii 1773.
Natus annis 63.
Sacerdos 39.
Praeses 7
Hoc m[oe]rens posuit Carolus Butler
Monumentum Pietatis sum in Patruum Amantissimum.

{044 blank}
{045}

PREFACE

As in corporal distempers a total loss of appetite, which no medicines
can restore, forebodes certain decay and death; so in the spiritual life
of the soul, a neglect or disrelish of pious reading and instruction is
a most fatal symptom. What hopes can we entertain of a person to whom
the science of virtue and of eternal salvation doth not seem
interesting, or worth his application? "It is impossible," says St.
Chrysostom,[1] "that a man should be saved, who neglects assiduous pious
reading or consideration. Handicraftsmen will rather suffer hunger and
all other hardships than lose the instruments of their trade, knowing
them to be the means of their subsistence." No less criminal and
dangerous is the disposition of those who misspend their precious
moments in reading romances and play-books, which fill the mind with a
worldly spirit, with a love of vanity, pleasure, idleness, and trifling;
which destroy and lay waste all the generous sentiments of virtue in the
heart, and sow there the seeds of every vice, which extend their baneful
roots over the whole soil. Who seeks nourishment from poisons? What food
is to the body, that our thoughts and reflections are to the mind: by
them the affections of the soul are nourished. The chameleon changes its
color as it is affected by sadness, anger, or joy; or by the color upon
which it sits: and we see an insect borrow its lustre and hue from the
plant or leaf upon which it feeds. In like manner, what our meditations
and affections are, such will our souls become, either holy and
spiritual or earthly and carnal. By pious reading the mind is instructed
and enlightened, and the affections of the heart are purified and
inflamed. It is recommended by St. Paul as the summary of spiritual
advice.[2] Devout persons never want a spur to assiduous reading or
meditation. They are insatiable in this exercise, and, according to the
golden motto of Thomas a Kempis, they find their chief delight _in a
closet, with a good book_.[3] Worldly and tepid Christians stand
certainly in the utmost need of this help to virtue. The world is a
whirlpool of business, pleasure, and sin. Its torrent is always beating
upon their hearts, ready to break in and bury them under its flood,
unless frequent pious reading and consideration oppose a strong fence to
its waves. The more deeply a person is immersed in its tumultuous cares,
so much the greater ought to be his solicitude to find leisure to
breathe, after the fatigues and dissipation of business and company; to
plunge his heart, by secret prayer, in the ocean of the divine
immensity, and, by pious reading, to afford his soul some spiritual
refection; as the wearied husbandman, returning from his labor, recruits
his spent vigor and exhausted strength, by allowing his body necessary
refreshment and repose.

The lives of the saints furnish the Christian with a daily spiritual
entertainment, {046} which is not less agreeable than affecting and
instructive. For in sacred biography the advantages of devotion and
piety are joined with the most attractive charms of history. The method
of forming men to virtue by example, is, of all others, the shortest,
the most easy, and the best adapted to all circumstances and
dispositions. Pride recoils at precepts, but example instructs without
usurping the authoritative air of a master; for, by example, a man seems
to advise and teach himself. It does its work unperceived, and therefore
with less opposition from the passions, which take not the alarm. Its
influence is communicated with pleasure. Nor does virtue here appear
barren and dry as in discourses, but animated and living, arrayed with
all her charms, exerting all her powers, and secretly obviating the
pretences, and removing the difficulties which self-love never fails to
raise. In the lives of the saints we see the most perfect maxims of the
gospel reduced to practice, and the most heroic virtue made the object
of our senses, clothed as it were with a body, and exhibited to view in
its most attractive dress. Here, moreover, we are taught the means by
which virtue is obtained, and learn the precipices and snares which we
are to shun, and the blinds and by-ways in which many are bewildered and
misled in its pursuit. The example of the servants of God points out to
us the true path, and leads us as it were by the hand into it, sweetly
inviting and encouraging us to walk cheerfully in the steps of those
that are gone before us.

Neither is it a small advantage that, by reading the history of the
saints, we are introduced into the acquaintance of the greatest
personages who have ever adorned the world, the brightest ornaments of
the church militant, and the shining stars and suns of the triumphant,
our future companions in eternal glory. While we admire the wonders of
grace and mercy, which God hath displayed in their favor, we are
strongly moved to praise his adorable goodness. And, in their
penitential lives and holy maxims, we learn the sublime lessons of
practical virtue, which their assiduous meditation on the divine word,
the most consummate experience in their deserts, watchings, and commerce
with heaven, and the lights of the Holy Ghost, their interior Master,
discovered to them. But it is superfluous to show from reason the
eminent usefulness of the example, and the history of the saints, which
the most sacred authority recommends to us as one of the most powerful
helps to virtue. It is the admonition of St. Paul, that we remember our
holy teachers, and that, having the end of their conversation before our
eyes, we imitate their faith.[4]

For our instruction the Holy Ghost himself inspired the prophets to
record the lives and actions of many illustrious saints in the holy
scriptures. The church could not, in a more solemn manner, recommend to
us to have these great models often before our eyes, than by inserting
in her daily office an abstract of the lives of the martyrs and other
saints; which constant sacred custom is derived from the primitive ages,
in which the histories of the martyrs were publicly read at the divine
office, in the assemblies of the faithful, on their annual festivals.
This is testified of the acts of St. Polycarp in the life of St.
Pionius, and, by St. Austin,[5] of those of SS. Perpetua and Felicitas,
&c. The council of Africa, under Aurelius, archbishop of Carthage, in
397, mentions the acts of the martyrs being allowed to be read in the
church on their anniversary days.[6] St. Caesarius permitted persons that
were sick and weak, to hear the histories of the martyrs sitting, when
they were of an uncommon length; but complained that some who were
healthful unreasonably took the same liberty.[7]

{047}

All great masters of a spiritual life exceedingly extol the advantages
which accrue to souls from the devout reading of the lives of eminent
saints; witness St. Nilus,[8] St. Chrysostom, and others. Many fathers
have employed their pens in transmitting down to posterity the actions
of holy men. And the histories of saints were the frequent entertainment
and delight of all pious persons, who ever found in them a most powerful
means of their encouragement and advancement in virtue, as St.
Bonaventure writes of St. Francis of Assisium. "By the remembrance of
the saints, as by the touch of glowing stones of fire, he was himself
enkindled, and converted into a divine flame." St. Stephen of Grandmont
read their lives every day, and often on his knees. The abbot St.
Junian, St. Antoninus, St. Thomas, and other holy men are recorded to
have read assiduously the lives of the saints, and by their example to
have daily inflamed themselves with fervor in all virtues. St. Boniface
of Mentz sent over to England for books of the lives of saints,[9] and,
by reading the acts of the martyrs, animated himself with the spirit of
martyrdom. This great apostle of Germany, St. Sigiran and others, always
carried with them in their journeys the acts of the martyrs, that they
might read them wherever they travelled. It is related of St. Anastasius
the martyr, that "while he read the conflicts and victories of the
martyrs, he watered the book with his tears, and prayed that he might
suffer the like for Christ. And so much was he delighted with this
exercise that he employed in it all his leisure hours." St. Teresa
declares how much the love of virtue was kindled in her breast by this
reading, even when she was a child. Joseph Scaliger, a rigid Calvinist
critic, writes as follows on the acts of certain primitive martyrs:[10]
"The souls of pious persons are so strongly affected in reading them,
that they always lay down the book with regret. This every one may
experience in himself. I with truth aver, that there is nothing in the
whole history of the church with which I am so much moved: when I read
them I seem no longer to possess myself."

It would be very easy to compile a volume of the remarkable testimonies
of eminent and holy men concerning this most powerful help to virtue,
and to produce many examples of sinners, who have been converted by it
to an heroic practice of piety. St. Austin mentions two courtiers who
were moved on the spot to forsake the world, and became fervent monks,
by accidentally reading the life of St. Antony.[11] St. John Columbin,
from a rich, covetous, and passionate nobleman, was changed into a
saint, by casually reading the life of St. Mary of Egypt.[12] The duke
of Joyeuse, marshal of France, owed his perfect conversion to the
reading of the life of St. Francis Borgia, which his servant had one
evening laid on the table. To these the example of St. Ignatius of
Loyola, and innumerable others might be added. Dr. Palafox, the pious
Binni of Osma, in his preface to the fourth tome of the letters of St.
Teresa, relates, that an eminent Lutheran minister at Bremen, famous for
several works which he had printed against the Catholic church,
purchased the life of St. Teresa, written by herself, with a view of
attempting to confute it; but, by attentively reading it over, was
converted to the Catholic faith, and from that time led a most edifying
life. The examples of Mr. Abraham Woodhead and others were not less
illustrious.

But, to appeal to our own experience--who is not awakened from his
spiritual lethargy, and confounded at his own cowardice, when he
considers the fervor and courage of the saints? All our pretences and
foolish objections are silenced, when we see the most perfect maxims of
the gospel {048} demonstrated to be easy by example. When we read how
many young noblemen and tender virgins have despised the world, and
joyfully embraced the cross and the labors of penance, we feel a glowing
flame kindled in our own breasts, and are encouraged to suffer
afflictions with patience, and cheerfully to undertake suitable
practices of penance. While we see many sanctifying themselves in all
states, and making the very circumstances of their condition, whether on
the throne, in the army, in the state of marriage, or in the deserts,
the means of their virtue and penance, we are persuaded that the
practice of perfection is possible also to us, in every lawful
profession, and that we need only sanctify our employments by a perfect
spirit, and the fervent exercises of religion, to become saints
ourselves, without quitting our state in the world. When we behold
others, framed of the same frail mould with ourselves, many in age or
other circumstances weaker than ourselves, and struggling with greater
difficulties, yet courageously surmounting, and trampling upon all the
obstacles by which the world endeavored to obstruct their virtuous
choice, we are secretly stung within our breasts, feel the reproaches of
our sloth, are roused from our state of insensibility, and are forced to
cry out, "Cannot you do what such and such have done?" But to wind up
this discourse, and draw to a conclusion; whether we consult reason,
authority, or experience, we may boldly affirm that, except the sacred
writings, no book has reclaimed so many sinners, or formed so many holy
men to perfect virtue, as that of _The Lives of Saints_.

If we would read to the spiritual profit of our souls, our motive must
be a sincere desire of improving ourselves in divine love, in humility,
meekness, and other virtues. Curiosity or vanity shuts the door of the
heart to the Holy Ghost, and stifles in it all affections of piety. A
short and humble petition of the divine light ought to be our
preparation; for which we may say with the prophet, "Open thou mine
eyes, and I will consider the wonderful things of thy law."[13] We must
make the application of what we read to ourselves, entertain pious
affections, and form particular resolutions for the practice of virtue.
It is the admonition of a great servant of God,[14] "Whatever good
instructions you read, unless you resolve and effectually endeavor to
practise them with your whole heart, you have not read to the benefit of
your soul. For knowledge without works only accuseth and condemneth."
Though we cannot imitate all the actions of the saints, we can learn
from them to practise humility, patience, and other virtues in a manner
suiting our circumstances and state of life; and can pray that we may
receive a share in the benedictions and glory of the saints. As they who
have seen a beautiful flower-garden, gather a nosegay to smell at the
whole day; so ought we, in reading, to cull out some flowers, by
selecting certain pious reflections and sentiments with which we are
most affected; and these we should often renew during the day; lest we
resemble a man who, having looked at him self in the glass, goeth away,
and forgetteth what he had seen of himself.

Footnotes:
1.  St. Chrys. Conc. 3, de Lazaro. t. 1, p. 738, ed. Montfauc.
2.  1 Tim. iv. 13.
3.  In angelo cum libello.
4.  Heb. xii.
5.  St. Aug. Serm. 280, t. 5, p. 1134.
6.  Can. 47, Conc. t. 2, p. 1072.
7.  St. Caesar. Serm. 95, vel apud St. Aug. t. 5, Append. Serm. 300.
8.  St. Nilius, l. 4, ep. 1, Discipulo suo, p. 458. Item, Tr. e
    Monastica Exercitatione, c. 34 et c. 43, p. 40 et Peristeria, sect. 4,
    p. 99.
9.  St. Bonif. ep. 35, Bibl. Patr.
10. Animadv. in Chronic. Eus. ad ann 2187.
11. Conf. l. 8, c. 6.
12. Fleury, l. 97, n. 2, t. 20.
13. Ps. cviii. 18.
14. Lansperg. Enchir. c. 11.

{049}

AN INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE.

THE lives of the principal martyrs, fathers, and other more illustrious
saints, whose memory is revered in the Catholic church, are here
presented to the public. An undertaking of this kind seems not to stand
in need of an apology. For such are the advantages and so great the
charms of history, that, on every subject, and whatever dress it wears,
it always pleases and finds readers. So instructive it is, that it is
styled by Cicero, "The mistress of life,"[1] and is called by others,
"Moral philosophy exemplified in the lives and actions of mankind."[2]
But, of all the parts of history, biography, which describes the lives
of great men, seems both the most entertaining, and the most instructive
and improving. By a judicious choice and detail of their particular
actions, it sets before our eyes a living image of those heroes who have
been the object of the admiration of past ages; it exhibits to us a
portraiture of their interior virtues and spirit, and gives the most
useful and enlarged view of human nature. From the wise maxims,
experience, and even mistakes of great men, we learn the most refined
lessons of prudence, and are furnished with models for our imitation.
Neither is the narration here interrupted, nor the attention of the
reader hurried from one object to another, as frequently happens in
general history. On these and other accounts are the lives of eminent
personages the most agreeable and valuable part of history. But, in the
lives of the saints, other great advantages occur. Here are incidentally
related the triumphs of the church, the trophies of the most exalted
virtue, and the conversion of nations. What are profane histories better
than records of scandals? What are the boasted triumphs of an Alexander
or a Caesar but a series of successful plunders, murders, and other
crimes? It was the remark of the historian Socrates, that if princes
were all lovers of peace and fathers of their people, and if the lives
of men were a uniform and steady practice of piety, civil history would
be almost reduced to empty dates. This reflection extorted from the pen
of a famous wit of our age, in his history of the empire of the West
since Charlemagne, the following confession: "This history is scarcely
any more than a vast scene of weaknesses, faults, crimes, and
misfortunes; among which we find some virtues, and some successful
exploits, as fertile valleys are often seen among chains of rocks and
precipices. This is likewise the case with other histories."[3] But the
lives of the saints are the history of the most exemplary and perfect
virtue and prowess. While therefore all other branches of history employ
daily so many pens, shall this, which above all others deserves our
attention, be alone forgotten? While every other part of the soil is
daily raked up, shall the finest spot be left uncultivated? Our
antiquaries must think themselves obliged by this essay, as the greatest
part of these saints have been the objects of the veneration of the
whole Christian world during several ages. Their names stand recorded in
the titles of our churches, in our towns, estates, writings, and {050}
almost every other monument of our Christian ancestors. If the late
learned bishop Tanner, by his _Notitia Monastica_, deserved the thanks
of all lovers of antiquity, will they not receive favorably the history
of those eminent persons of whom we meet so frequent memorials?

Besides the principal saint for each day, in this collection is added a
short account of some others who were very remarkable in history, or
famous among our ancestors. The English and Scottish churches had, by
the mutual intercourse and neighborhood of the nations, a particular
devotion to several French saints, as appears from all their ancient
breviaries, from a complete English manuscript calendar, written in the
reign of Edward IV., now in my hands, and from the titular saints of
many monasteries and parishes. Our Norman kings and bishops honored
several saints of Aquitain and Normandy by pious foundations which bear
their names among us: and portions of the relics of some French saints,
as of St. Salvius, kept in the cathedral of Canterbury, have rendered
their names illustrious in this kingdom. The mention of such, were it
but for the satisfaction of our antiquaries, &c., will, it is to be
hoped, be pardoned. Though the limits of this work would not allow long
abstracts of these secondary lives, yet some characteristical
circumstances are inserted, that these memoirs might not sink into a
bare _necrology_, or barren list of dates and names. For, unless a
narration be supported with some degree of dignity and spirit, and
diversified by the intermixture of various events, it deserves not the
name of history; no more than a plot of ground can be called a garden,
which is neither variegated with parterres of flowers, nor checkered
with walks and beds of useful herbs or shrubs. To answer the title and
design of this work, a short account is given of those fathers whose
names are famous in the history of the church, and in the schools, but
who have never been honored among the saints. But such fathers or other
eminent persons are spoken of only in notes upon the lives of certain
saints, with which they seem to have some connection. It was the
compiler's intention to insert among the lives of the saints an account
of none to whom public veneration has not been decreed by the authority
of the Holy See, or at least of some particular churches, before this,
on many just accounts, was reserved to the chief pastor of the church.
The compiler declares that the epithets of Saint and Blessed are never
employed in this work, but with entire submission to the decrees of
Urban VIII. on this subject; and that if they are anywhere given to
persons to whom the supreme pastors of the church have never juridically
granted this privilege, no more is meant by them, than such persons are
esteemed holy and venerable for the reputation of their virtue; not that
they are publicly honored among the saints. The same is to be understood
of miracles here related, which have not been judicially examined and
approved, the part of an historian differing entirely from an authentic
decision of the supreme judge.

The actions of several apostles and other illustrious saints were never
committed to writing: and, with regard to some others, the records of
their transactions, by falling a prey to the moths or flames, have
perished in the general wreck: yet their names could not be omitted. If
their history affords little to gratify vain curiosity, at least a heart
which seeks and loves God will find, even in these scanty memoirs, every
thing interesting and entertaining. If the names of some saints have
been transmitted down to us without particular accounts of their
lives,[4] their virtues shine with no {051} less lustre in heaven; and
this very circumstance is pleasing and favorable to humility, which
studies and loves to lie concealed and unknown; and it was pointed out
by the hidden life of Christ. It is also objected, that certain actions
of some saints, which were performed by a special instinct of the Holy
Ghost, are to us rather objects of admiration than imitation; but even
in these we read lessons of perfect virtue, and a reproach of our own
sloth, who dare undertake nothing for God. But some may say, What
edification can persons in the world reap from the lives of apostles,
bishops, or recluses? To this it may be answered, that though the
functions of their state differ from ours, yet patience, humility,
penance, zeal, and charity, which all their actions breathe, are
necessary virtues in all persons. Christian perfection is in its spirit
and essence everywhere the same, how much soever the means or exercises
may vary. Though edification be the primary view in works of this
nature, the other ends of history are not neglected, as it becomes more
entertaining and useful in proportion as it is more clear, complete, and
important. This, it is hoped, will excuse certain short digressions
which are sometimes inserted, and which the laws of correct writing
allow when not too long, frequent, or foreign, when they have a natural
connection with the subject, and when the want of regularity is
compensated by greater perspicuity and utility. This liberty is more
freely taken in parts which would have otherwise seemed barren. Notes
are added, which seemed useful to the bulk of those for whom this work
was designed, or likely to attract the curiosity of some to whom these
lives would otherwise have seemed obscure, or not sufficiently
interesting. This method renders sacred biography a more universal
improvement in useful knowledge, and by enlarging the view, becomes more
satisfactory and engaging.

Certain critics of this age, as they style themselves, are displeased
with all histories of miracles, not considering that these wonders are,
in a particular manner, the works of God, intended to raise our
attention to his holy providence, and to awake our souls to praise his
goodness and power, often also to bear testimony to his truth. Entirely
to omit the mention of them would be an infidelity in history, and would
tend, in some measure, to obstruct the great and holy purposes for which
they were effected. Yet a detail of all miracles, though authentically
attested, is not the design of this work. Wherefore, in such facts, it
seemed often sufficient to refer the reader to the original records. But
miracles may be the subject of a particular disquisition.

A tedious sameness in the narration hath been carefully avoided, and in
relating general virtues, it is hoped that the manner, diction, and
thoughts will be found new. Where memoirs allowed it, such a collection
of remarkable actions and sayings of the saints hath been selected as
seems neither trifling nor redundant; and may serve to express their
character and spirit. In this consists the chief advantage of biography,
as in painting, a portraiture draws its life from the strength of the
features. By thus singular excellency doth Plutarch charm his readers,
cover, or at least compensate for, his neglect of style and method, and
other essential blemishes, and make even the most elegant writers who
have attempted a supplement to his {052} lives,[5] to appear tedious and
dull to one who hath first read his work. What eloquence could furnish
so fine a description, or convey so strong a idea of the pride of
Alexander, as the short answers of that prince to the Cynic philosopher,
or to Darius? or of the modesty of Phocion, as the well-chosen
circumstances of his disinterestedness and private life?[6]

In these lives of the saints pious reflections are sometimes
interspersed, though in general sparingly, not to swell the volume, or
seem to suspect the judgment of the reader, or to forestall the pleasure
of his own reflections. The study and exercise of virtue being the
principal end which every good Christian ought to propose to himself in
all his actions and undertakings, and which religious persons have
particularly in view in reading the lives of saints, in favor of those
who are slow in forming suitable reflections in the reading, a short
instruction, consisting of maxims drawn from the writing or example of
each saint, is subjoined to the principal life for each day, which may
be omitted at discretion. A succinct account of the writings of the
fathers is given in marginal notes, as a key to young theologians in
studying their works: their ascetical lucubrations are principally
pointed out, in which their spirit is often discovered, even to better
advantage than in the best histories which are left us of their actions.

The compiler's first care in this work, hath been a most scrupulous
attachment to truth, the foundation, or rather the soul of all history,
especially of that which tends to the advancement of piety and religion.
The indagation is often a task both nice and laborious. If we weigh the
merit of original authors, some we shall find careless and injudicious,
and many write under the bias of party prejudice, which strangely
perverts the judgment. By this, James Basnage could, in his History of
the Jews, (b. 6,) notoriously mistake and misrepresent, by wholesale,
the clearest authorities, to gratify his prepossession against an
incontestable miracle, as the most learned Mr. Warburton hath
demonstrated in his Julian, (b. 2, ch. 4.) Some write history as they
would a tragedy or a romance; and, seeking at any rate to please the
reader, or display their art, often sacrifice the truth for the sake of
a fine conceit, of a glittering thought, or a point of wit.[7] Another
difficulty is, that ancient writings have sometimes suffered much by the
bold rashness of modern critics, or in the manuscripts, by the slips of
careless copiers.[8] Again, authors who polish the style, or abridge the
histories of others, are seldom to be trusted; and experience will show
us the same of translations. Even Henry Valois, the most learned and
celebrated Greek interpreter, is accused of having sometimes so far
mistaken the sense of Eusebius, as to have given in his translation the
contradictory of the meaning of his author.

A greater mischief than all these have been the forgeries of impostors,
especially heretics. Indeed, if the father of lies, by the like
instruments, {053} found means to counterfeit forty-eight or fifty false
gospels, of which a list is given by Calmet,[9] is it surprising that,
from the same forge, he should have attempted to adulterate the
histories of certain saints? But the vigilance of zealous pastors, and
the repeated canons of the church, show, through every age, how much all
forgeries and imposture were always the object of their abhorrence. Pope
Adrian I., in an epistle to Charlemagne, mentions this constant severe
law of the church, and says, that no acts of martyrs are suffered to be
read which are not supported by good vouchers.[10] The council in
Trullo,[11] and many others down to the present age, have framed canons
for this purpose, as F. Honoratus of St. Mary shows.[12] Pope Gelasius
I., in his famous Roman council in 494, condemns the false acts of St.
George, which the Arians had forged,[13] &c. Tertullian[14] and St.
Jerom[15] inform us, that, in the time of the apostles, a certain priest
of Asia, out of veneration for St. Paul and St. Thecla, forged false
acts of their peregrinations and sufferings; but for this crime he was
deposed from the priesthood by St. John the Evangelist. No good end can,
on any account, excuse the least lie; and to advance that pious frauds,
as some improperly call them, can ever be lawfully used, is no better
than blasphemy. All wilful lying is essentially a sin, as Catholic
divines unanimously teach, with St. Austin, against the
Prisciallianists. It is contrary and most hateful to the God of truth,
and a heinous affront and injury offered to our neighbor: it destroys
the very end and use of speech, and the sacred bond of society, and all
commerce among men; for it would be better to live among dumb persons,
than to converse with liars. To tell any lie whatsoever in the least
point relating to religion, is always to lie in a matter of moment, and
can never be excused from a mortal sin, as Catholic divines teach.[16]
Grotius, the Protestant critic, takes notice that forgeries cannot be
charged upon the popes, who, by the most severe canons, forbid them,
punish the authors if detected, and give all possible encouragement to
judicious critics.[17] This also appears from the works of innumerable
learned men among the Catholics, and from the unwearied labors with
which they have given to the public the most correct editions of the
ancient fathers and historians. Good men may sometimes be too credulous
in things in which there appears no harm. Nay, Gerson observes,[18] that
sometimes the more averse a person is from fraud himself, the more
unwilling he is to suspect imposture in others. But no good man can
countenance and abet a known fraud for any purpose whatever. The
pretence of religion would exceedingly aggravate the crime.

If any particular persons among the monks could be convicted of having
attempted to palm any false writing or lie on the world, the obligations
of their profession would render their crime the more odious and
enormous. But to make this a charge upon that venerable order of men in
any age, is a most unjust and a notorious slander. Melchior Cano, who
complains of interpolations which have crept into some parts of sacred
biography, justifies the monks from the infamous imputation which some,
through ignorance or malice, affect to cast upon them;[19] and Mabillon
has vindicated them more at large.[20] On their diligence and
scrupulosity in general, in correctly copying the manuscripts, see Dom.
Coutant,[21] and the authors of the new {054} French Diplomatique.[22]
In the Penitentia of St. Theodore the Studite, a penance is prescribed
for a monk who had made any mistake in copying a manuscript. In 1196, in
the general chapter of the Cistercians, it was ordered that the church
of Lyons and the monastery of Cluni should be consulted about the true
reading of a passage in a book to be copied. Anciently, books were
chiefly copied and preserved in monasteries, which for several ages were
the depositories of learning. Mr. Gurdon[23] and Bishop Tanner[24] take
notice, that in England the great abbeys were even the repositories of
the laws, edicts of kings, and acts of parliament. The history of Wales
was compiled and kept through every age, by public authority, in the
monastery of Ystratflur for South Wales, where the princes and noblemen
of that country were interred; and in the abbey of Conwey for North
Wales, which was the burying-place of the princes of that part.
Conringius,[25] a German Protestant, writes, "In the sixth, seventh, and
eighth centuries there is scarce to be found, in the whole Western
church, the name of a person who had written a book, but what dwelt, or
at least was educated in a monastery." Before universities were erected,
monasteries, and often the palaces of bishops, were the seminaries of
the clergy, the nurseries for the education of young noblemen, and the
great schools of all the sciences. To the libraries and industry of the
monks we are principally indebted for the works of the ancients which we
possess. Grateful for this benefit, we ought not to condemn them
because, by a fatality incident to human things, some works are come
down to us interpolated or imperfect.[26]

Accidental causes have given frequent occasions to mistakes, which, when
we consider, we cannot be surprised if sometimes good men have been
deceived by false memoirs. As to authors of wilful forgeries, we have no
name harsh enough to express, nor punishment equal to their crime. But
the integrity even of Geoffry of Monmouth is no longer impeached, since
it hath been proved that in his British history he was not the author of
the fables which he published upon the credit of other vouchers.

Nevertheless, upon these, and the like accounts, history calls aloud for
the discernment of criticism. And many learned men, especially of the
monastic order, have, for our assistance, with no less industry than
success, separated in ancient writings the sterling from the
counterfeit, and by collating manuscripts, and by clearing difficult
points, have rendered the path in this kind of literature smooth and
secure. The merit of original authors hath been weighed; we have the
advantage of most correct editions of their works; rash and groundless
alterations of some modern critics, and the blunders of careless copiers
or editors are redressed; interpolations foisted into the original
writings are retrenched; and a mark hath been set on memoirs of inferior
authority. Moreover, the value of ancient manuscripts, being known,
ample repositories of such monuments have been made, curious lists of
which are communicated to the public, that any persons may know and have
recourse to them. It must also be added, that the laborious task of
making the researches necessary for this complicated work, hath been
rendered lighter by the care with which several judicious and learned
men have compiled the lives of many particular saints. Thus have
Mabillon and {055} Bulteau writ the lives of the saints of the order of
St. Benedict; the elegant Touron of that of St. Dominick; Le Nain, of
the Cistercian order; Tillemont, the Maurist Benedictin monks, and Orsi,
these of the principal fathers of the church, &c.[27] The genuine acts
of the primitive martyrs, the most valuable monument of ecclesiastical
history, have been carefully published by Ruinart. Some of them are
presidial acts, _i.e._ extracted from the court registers; others were
written from the relations of eye-witnesses of undoubted veracity. To
this treasure an accession, which the learned Orsi and others doubt not
to call of equal value, hath been lately made by the publication of the
genuine acts of the martyrs of the East, or of Persia, and of the West,
or Palestine, in two volumes, folio, at Rome. Those of the East were
written chiefly by St. Maruthus, a neighboring bishop of Mesopotamia:
the others seem to contain the entire work of Eusebius on the martyrs of
Palestine, which he abridged in the eighth book of his history. Both
parts were found in a Chaldaic manuscript, in a monastery of Upper
Egypt, and purchased by Stephen Evodius Assemani, archbishop of Apamea,
and his uncle Joseph Simonius Assemani, first prefect of the Vatican
library, at the charges of pope Clement XII., who had sent the former
into the East on that errand. The manuscripts are deposited in the
Vatican library. Joseph Assemani is known in the republic of letters by
his invaluable Oriental library, his _Italicae Historiae Scriptores_, his
_Kalendaria Ecclesiae Universae notis Ilustrata_, &c., and Stephen, by his
share in the publication of the works of St. Ephrem, and by the _Acta
Martyrum Orientalium et Occidentalium_. The learned Jesuits at Antwerp,
Bollandus and his continuators, have given us the _Acta Sanctorum_,
enriched with curious remarks and dissertations, in forty-one large
volumes in folio, to the 5th day of September. To mention other
monuments and writers here made use of, would be tedious and
superfluous. The authorities produced throughout the work speak for
themselves: the veracity of writers who cannot pretend to pass for
inspired, ought to be supported by competent vouchers.

The original authors are chiefly our guides. The stream runs clear and
pure from the source, which in a long course often contracts a foreign
mixture; but the lucubrations of many judicious modern critics have cast
a great light upon ancient historians: these, therefore, have been also
consulted and compared, and their labors freely made use of.

Footnotes:
1.  Cicero, l. 2, de Orat. c. 9.
2.  Voss. Ars Hist. cap. 5.
3.  Voltaire's Annals of the Empire of Germany.
4.  Some call in question the existence of certain saints, as SS.
    Bacchus, Quirinus, Mercurius, Nilammon, Hippolytus, &c., because
    these names are of pagan original. But that Christians often
    retained those names is evident, not only from the oldest
    Martyrologies, but from Eusebius, Theodoret, and other ancient
    writers, who often mention Christians named Apollonius and
    Apollinerius, from Apollo &c., and St. Paul speaks of a disciple
    called Hermes, or Mercurius; and had another named Dionysius, or
    Bacchus. Dr. Geddes and others object to the existence of St.
    Almnachius, St. George, St. Wenefred, &c., but we shall find their
    honor supported in this work by irrefregable authorities. Longinus
    not only signifies a spear, but was a Roman name, and that of a
    soldier and martyr, on the 15th of March: whether he be the person
    who opened the side of Christ with a spear or no, is a point of less
    importance. Mr. Addison and Dr. Middleton thought they had hit on a
    great discovery when they transformed Mount Soracte into St.
    Orestes. But that mountain is commonly called, not St. Orestes, but
    San Sylvestro, together with the monastery on its summit. Moreover,
    we find both in the Roman Martyrology and Greek Menaea two saints of
    the name of Orestes recorded, the one on the 9th of November, the
    other on the 19th of December, who both suffered under Dioclesian,
    one in Armenia, the other in Cappadocia. The latter is also named by
    St. Gregory Nazianzen, in his oration on St. Basil. If, by slips of
    copiers, mistakes have happened to some names, of accidental
    circumstances; or if certain private persons should be convicted of
    having been any time deceived in some saint, this would not affect
    the credit of authentic general Martyrologies.
5.  Mrs. Dacier, Mr. Rowe.
6.  This made Theodorus Gaza say, that if learning must suffer a general
    shipwreck, and he had only his choice left him of preserving one
    author, Plutarch should be the man.
7.  With this fault the famous king of Prussia, who is perfectly
    acquainted with the affairs of the North, charged the florid author
    of the history of Charles XII. of Sweden. Nor could this historian,
    as it is said, give any other answer to the complaint of the
    Hamburghers, that he had notoriously slandered them with regard to
    their conduct towards the citizens of Altena, than that his fiction
    was plausible and ingenious, founded in their mutual jealousy,
    according to the maxim of dramatic writers, _Feign with
    probability_. Of this cast, indeed, though we have many modern
    examples, we know, perhaps, none among the authors of antiquity.
8.  Thirty thousand various readings were found by Mr. Mills in the
    Greek New Testament; Dr. Bentley reckoned twenty thousand in
    Terence, and twice as many as there are verses in the poet Manilius.
    Even the most valuable Vatican and Alexandrian manuscripts of the
    Bible abound in faults of the copiers; and editions of works made
    from single manuscripts are always very defective.--witness those of
    Cornelius Nepos, and the Greek Hesychius. Patrick Young, (called in
    Latin, Patricius Junius,) when keeper of the king's library at
    London, scrupled not to erase and alter several words in the most
    valuable Alexandrian Greek manuscript copy of the Bible, as is
    visible to this day. What wonder, then, (how intolerable such
    liberties are,) if the like has been sometimes done by others in
    books of less note, with a presumption like that of Dr. Bentley in
    his amendments of Horace.
9.  Prelim Dissert. on St. Matthew.
10. Sine probabilibus autoribus, Conc. t. 7, 954.
11. Can. 62.
12. Regies de la Critique, t. 2, p. 12, 20, et Diss. 3, p. 134.
13. See Mabillon, Disquis. de Cursu Gallic. Sec.1.
14. Tert. l. de Bapt. c. 17.
15. Catal. Vir Illustr. c. 7.
16. See Nat. Alexander, Collet, Henno, &c., in Decalogum de Mendacio.
17. Grot. l. de Antichr. t. 3, Op. Theolog.
18. Gerson, ep. ad Morel.
19. De Loc. Theol. l. 11, c. 5.
20. Diplomat. l. 3, c. 3.
21. Coutant, Vindic. veter. Cod. Confirm. p. 32, 550, &c.
22. Diplom. t. 4, p. 452, &c.
23. Gurdon, Hist. of Parliament, t. 1.
24. Pref. to Notitia Monastica, in folio.
25. Dissert. 3, de Antiq. Acad.
26. How easy was the mistake of a copyist or bookseller, who ascribed
    the works of some modern Austin to the great doctor of that name? or
    who, finding several sermons of St. Caesarius annexed in the same copy
    to those of St. Austin, imagined them all to belong to one title?
    Several disciples published, under the names of St. Austin, St.
    Gregory, or St. Zeno, sermons or comments which they had heard from
    their mouths: by the same means we have three different editions of
    the confession of St. Ephrem. We have already seen many works
    falsely published under the name of Boerhaave, which never came from
    his pen; as, The Method of Studying Physic, Materia Medica, Praxis
    Medica, and a spurious edition of his Chemistry, which seem all to
    come from the pens of his scholars.
27. Among the compilers of the lives of saints, some wanted the
    discernment of criticism. Simeon Metaphrastes, patrician, first
    secretary and chancellor to the emperors Leo the Wise, and
    Constantine Porphyrogenitus, in 912, (of whose collection one
    hundred and twenty-two lives are still extant,) sometimes altered
    the style of his authors where it appeared flat or barbarous, and
    sometimes inserted later additions and interpolations, often not
    sufficiently warranted, though not by him forged; for Psellus, in
    his panegyric, furnishes us with many proofs of his piety. See Cave,
    (Hist. Liter. t. 2, p. 88,) who, with other judicious critics,
    entertains a much more favorable opinion of Metaphrastes than
    Baillet. See Metaphrastes vindicated by Leo Allatius. (Diatr. de
    Nilis, p. 24.) James de Voragine, of the order of St. Dominick, and
    archbishop of Genoa, author of the _Golden Legend_, in 1290, wrote
    still with less judgment, and, in imitation of Livy, often made the
    martyrs speak his own language. Lippoman, bishop of Verona in 1550,
    and Laurence Surius, a Carthusian monk of Cologne in 1570, sometimes
    wanted the necessary helps for discernment in the choice of
    materials. The same is to be said of Ribadeneira, except in the
    lives of saints who lived near his own time, though a person
    otherwise well qualified for a writer of sacred biography. Several
    who have augmented his works in France, Spain, or Italy, labored
    under the same misfortune and often gathered together whatever the
    drag-net of time had amassed. John Capgrave, an Austin friar, some
    time confessor to the duke of Gloucester, who died at Lynn in
    Norfolk, in 1484, compiled the legend of the saints of England, from
    a more ancient collection, the Sanctilogium of John of Tinmouth, a
    monk of St. Alban's, in 1366, of which a very fair manuscript copy
    was, before the last fire, extant in the Cottonian library. By the
    melting of the glue and warping of the leaves, this book is no
    longer legible unless some such method be used as that which is
    employed in unfolding the parched and mouldering manuscripts found
    in the ruins of Herculaneum.

    On the other hand, some French critics in sacred biography have
    tinctured their works with a false and pernicious leaven, and, under
    the name of criticism, established skepticism.

{056 blank page}
{057}

CONTENTS.

JANUARY.


1.
THE Circumcision of our Lord.....................  59
St. Fulgentius, Bishop and Confessor.............  63
St. Odilo, or Olon, Sixth Abbot of Cluni.........  69
St. Almachus, or Telemachus, Martyr..............  71
St. Eugendus, Abbot..............................  71
St. Fanchea, or Faine, Virgin, of Ireland........  72
St. Mochua, or Moncain, alias Claunus, Abbot
  in Ireland.....................................  72
St. Mochua, alias Cronan, of Bella, Abbot in
  Ireland........................................  72

2.
St. Macarius, of Alexandria, Anchoret............  73
SS. Martyrs for the Holy Scriptures..............  76
St. Concordius, Martyr...........................  77
St. Adalard, or Alard, Abbot and Confessor.......  77

3.
St. Peter Balsam, Martyr.........................  80
St. Anterus, Pope................................  81
St. Gordius, Martyr..............................  81
St. Genevieve, or Genovefa, Virgin, Patroness of
  Paris..........................................  82

4.
St. Titus, Disciple of St. Paul, Bishop..........  86
St. Gregory, Bishop of Langres...................  88
St. Rigobert, or Robert, Bishop..................  88
St. Rumon, Bishop in England.....................  88

5.
St. Simon Stylites, Confessor....................  89
St. Telesphorus, Pope and Martyr ................  93
St. Syncletica, Virgin ..........................  93

6.
The Epiphany of our Lord.........................  95
St. Melanius, Bishop and Confessor............... 100
St. Nilammon, Hermit............................. 100
St. Peter, Abbot in England...................... 100

7.
St. Lucian, Priest and Martyr.................... 101
St. Cedd, Bishop of London....................... 103
St. Kentigerna, Widow, of Ireland................ 105
St. Aldric, Bishop of Mans, Confessor............ 105
St. Thillo, Recluse.............................. 106
St. Canut........................................ 107

8.
St. Apollinaris, the Apologist, Bishop........... 108
St. Severinus, Abbot, and Apostle of Noricum,
  or Austria .................................... 110
St. Lucian, Apostle of Beauvais, in France,
  Martyr......................................... 112
St. Pega, Virgin, of England..................... 112
St. Vulsin, Bishop in England.................... 112
St. Gudula, Virgin, Patroness of Brussels........ 113
St. Nathalan, Bishop of Aberdeen, Confessor...... 113

9.
St. Peter of Sebaste, Bishop and Confessor....... 114
St. Julian and St. Basilissa, Martyrs............ 114
St. Marciana, Virgin and Martyr.................. 116
St. Brithwald, Archbishop of Canterbury.......... 117
St. Felan, or Foelan, Abbot in Ireland .......... 117
St. Adrian, Abbot at Canterbury.................. 118
St. Vaneng, Confessor............................ 118
St. William, Confessor, Archbishop of Bourges.... 120
St. Agatho, Pope................................. 122
St. Marcian, Priest.............................. 123

11.
St. Theodosius the Cenobiarch, Abbot............. 124
St. Hyginus, Pope and Martyr..................... 127
St. Egwin, Bishop in England, Confessor.......... 128
St. Salvius, or Sauve, Bishop of Amiens.......... 128

12.
St. Arcadius, Martyr............................. 129
St. Benedict Bishop, Abbot....................... 131
St. Tygrius and St. Eutropius, Martyrs........... 133
St. Aelred, Abbot in England..................... 133

13.
St. Veronica, Virgin, of Milan................... 135
St. Kentigern, Bishop of Glasco, Confessor....... 137
The Octave of the Epiphany....................... 139

14.
St. Hilary, Bishop............................... 140
St. Felix, Priest and Confessor.................. 147
St. Isaias, St. Sabbas, &c. Martyrs of Sinai..... 149
St. Barbasceminus, &c. Martyrs .................. 150

15.
St. Paul, the First Hermit....................... 151
St. Maurus, Abbot................................ 154
St. Main, Abbot, Native of England............... 155
St. John Calybite, Recluse....................... 155
St. Isidore of Alexandria, Priest and Hospitaller 156
St. Isidore of Scete, Priest and Hermit.......... 157
St. Bonitus, Bishop of Auvergne, Confessor....... 157
St. Ita, or Mida, Virgin of Ireland, Abbess...... 158

16.
St. Marcellus, Pope and Martyr................... 158
St. Macarius the Elder, of Egypt................. 159
St. Honoratus, Archbishop of Arles, Abbot........ 162
St. Fursey, Abbot In Ireland..................... 163
SS. Five Friars, Minors, Martyrs................. 164
St. Henry, Hermit................................ 164

17.
St. Antony, Abbot, Patriarch of Monks............ 165
SS. Speusippus, Eleusippus, and Meleusippus,
  Martyrs........................................ 172

{058}

St. Sulpicius the Pious, Archbishop of Bourges... 173
St. Sulpicius de Debonnaire, Archbishop
  of Bourges..................................... 173
St. Milgithe, Virgin, of England................. 174
St. Nennius, or Nennidhius, Abbot In Ireland..... 174

18.
St. Peter's Chair at Rome........................ 175
St. Paul and Thirty-six Companions in Egypt,
  Martyrs........................................ 176
St. Prisca, Virgin and Martyr.................... 176
St. Deicolus, Abbot, Native of Ireland .......... 177
St. Ulfrid, or Wolfred, Bishop and Martyr........ 177

19.
St. Maris, St. Martha, St. Audifax, and St
  Abachum, Martyrs............................... 178
St. Canutus, King of Denmark, Martyr............. 179
St. Henry, Archbishop of Upsal, Martyr........... 180
St. Wulstan, Bishop of Worcester, Confessor...... 181
St. Blaithmaic, Native of Ireland, Abbot of Hij in
  Scotland....................................... 182
St. Lomer, or Laudomarus, Abbot.................. 182

20.
St. Fabian, Pope and Martyr...................... 183
St. Sebastian, Martyr............................ 183
St. Euthymius, Abbot............................. 185
St. Fechin, Abbot in Ireland..................... 187

21.
St. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr..................... 188
St. Fructuosus, Bishop of Tarragon, and his
  Companions, Martyrs............................ 190
St. Vimin, or Vivian, Bishop and Confessor, in
  Scotland....................................... 192
St. Publius, Bishop and Martyr................... 192
St. Epiphanius, Bishop of Pavia.................. 192

22.
St. Vincent, Martyr.............................. 193
St. Anastasius, Martyr........................... 196

23.
St. Raymund of Pennafort, Confessor.............. 200
St. John the Almoner, Confessor, Patriarch of
  Alexandria..................................... 203
St. Emerentia, Virgin and Martyr................. 206
St. Clement of Ancyra, Bishop and Martyr......... 207
St. Agathangelus, Martyr......................... 207
St. Ildelfonsus, Archbishop...................... 207
St. Eusebius, Abbot.............................. 208

24.
St. Timothy, Bishop and Martyr................... 208
St. Babylas, Bishop of Antioch, Martyr .......... 211
St. Suranus, Abbot in Umbria..................... 213
St. Macedonius, Anchoret In Syria................ 213
On the life and Writings of Theodoret, Bishop of
  Cyrus.......................................... 213

25.
The Conversion of St. Paul....................... 216
St. Juventius and St. Maximinus, Martyrs......... 219
On the Life and Writings of Julian the Apostate.. 219
St. Projectus, Bishop of Clermont, Martyr........ 220
St. Poppo, Abbot of Stavello..................... 221
St. Apollo, Abbot in Thebais..................... 222
St. Publius, Abbot near Zeugma, upon the
  Euphrates...................................... 222

26.
St. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, Martyr........... 223
St. Paula, Widow................................. 229
St. Conon, Bishop of the Isle of Man............. 232

27.
St. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of
 Constantinople.................................. 233
On the Writings of that Father................... 252
St. Julian, First Bishop of Mans, Confessor...... 275
St. Marius, Abbot................................ 275

28.
Commemoration of St. Agnes....................... 276
St. Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria............... 276
On the Writings of that Father................... 279
St. Thyrsus, St. Leucius, and St. Callinicus,
  Martyrs........................................ 283
St. John of Reomay, Abbot........................ 283
B. Margaret, Princess of Hungary, Virgin......... 284
St. Paulinus, Patriarch of Aquileia, Confessor... 284
B. Charlemagne, Emperor.......................... 287
St. Glastian, Bishop and Confessor in Scotland... 289

29.

St. Francis of Sales, Bishop and Confessor....... 289
St. Sulpicius Severus............................ 303
On the Writings of that Saint.................... 305
St. Gildas the Wise, or Badonicus, Abbot,
   Native of England ............................ 306
St. Gildas the Albanian, or the Scot, Confessor.. 310

30.
St. Bathildes, Queen of France................... 310
St. Martina, Virgin and Martyr................... 312
St. Aldegondes, Virgin and Abbess................ 313
St. Barsimaeus, Bishop and Martyr................. 313

31.
St. Peter Nolasco, Confessor..................... 314
St. Serapion, Martyr in England.................. 317
St. Cyrus and St. John, Martyrs.................. 317
St. Marcella, Widow.............................. 318
St. Maidoc, or Maodhog, Bishop of Ferns in
  Ireland........................................ 318


{059}

JANUARY I.

THE CIRCUMCISION OF OUR LORD[1]

CIRCUMCISION was a sacrament of the Old Law, and the first legal
observance required by Almighty God of that people, which he had chosen
preferably to all the nations of the earth to be the depositary of his
revealed truths.--These were the descendants of Abraham, whom he had
enjoined it, under the strictest penalties,[2] several hundred years
before the giving of the law to Moses on Mount Sinai; and this on two
several accounts: First, as a distinguishing mark between them and the
rest of mankind. Secondly, as a seal to a covenant between God and that
patriarch: whereby it was stipulated on God's part to bless Abraham and
his posterity; while on their part it implied a holy engagement to be
his people, by a strict conformity to his laws. It was, therefore, a
sacrament of initiation in the service of God, and a promise and
engagement to believe and act as he had revealed and directed.
Circumcision is also looked upon by St. Austin, and by several eminent
modern divines,[3] to have been the expedient, in the male posterity of
Abraham, for removing the guilt of original sin, which in those who did
not belong to the covenant of Abraham, nor fall under this law was
remitted by other means, probably by some external act of faith.

This law of circumcision continued in force till the death of Christ:
hence our Saviour being born under the law, it _became him_, who came to
teach mankind obedience to the laws of God; to _fulfil all justice_, and
to submit to it. Therefore, he was _made under the law_, that is, was
circumcised, that he might redeem them that were under the law, by
freeing them from the servitude of it; and that those, who were in the
condition of servants before, might be set at liberty, and _receive the
adoption of sons_ in baptism; which by Christ's institution, succeeded
to circumcision. On the {060} day he was circumcised he received the
name of JESUS, the same which had been appointed him by the angel before
he was conceived.[4] The reason of his being called JESUS is mentioned
in the gospel:[5] _For he shall save his people from their sins_. This
he effected by the greatest sufferings and humiliations; _having humbled
himself_, as St. Paul says,[6] not only unto death, but even _to the
death of the cross; for which cause God hath exalted him, and hath given
him a name which is above all names; that at the name of JESUS every
knee should bow_: agreeably to what Christ says of himself,[7] _All
power is given unto me in heaven and in earth_.[8]

Christ being not only innocent, but incapable of sin, could stand in no
need of circumcision, as an expedient then in use for the remission of
sin. He was pleased, however, to subject himself to this humbling and
painful rite of the Mosaic dispensation for several reasons: as, First,
to put an end in an honorable manner to a divine, but temporary,
institution, by taking it upon his own person. Secondly, to prove the
reality of his human body; which, however evident from this and so many
other actions and sufferings of his life, was denied by several ancient
heretics. Thirdly, to prove himself not only the son of man, but of that
man in particular of whose seed the Messiah was promised to come: thus
precluding any future objection that might be raised by the Jews against
his divine mission in quality of Messiah, under the pretence of his
being an alien; and hereby qualifying himself for free conversation with
them for their own spiritual advantage: setting us all a pattern of
undergoing voluntarily several hardships and restraints, which, though
not necessary on our own account, may be of great use to promote the
good of others. Christ not being like other Jewish children, who could
not know or fear the pain of circumcision, when they were going to
suffer the operation, was perfectly sensible of it beforehand, and with
calmness and intrepidity offered himself willingly to suffer the knife,
and shed the first-fruits of his sacred blood in this painful manner.
Under the smart this divine infant shed tears, but not as other
children; for by them, with the most tender love and compassion, he
bewailed chiefly our spiritual miseries, and at the same time presented
with joy his blood as the price of our redemption to his Father.
Fourthly, by thus humbling himself under this painful operation, he
would give us an early pledge and earnest of his love for us, of his
compassion for our miseries, and of his utter detestation of sin. The
charity and zeal which glowed in his divine breast, impatient, as it
were, of delay, delighted themselves in these first-fruits of
humiliation and suffering for our sakes, till they could fully satiate
their thirst by that superabundance of both, in his passion and death.
With infinite zeal for his Father's honor, and charity for us sinners,
with invincible patience, and the most profound humility, he now offered
himself most cheerfully to his Father to undergo whatever he was pleased
to enjoin him. Fifthly, he teaches us by the example of voluntary
obedience to a law that could not oblige him, to submit with great
punctuality and exactness to laws of divine appointment; and how very
far we ought to be from sheltering our {061} disobedience under lame
excuses and frivolous pretexts. Sixthly, by this ceremony, he humbled
himself to satisfy for our pride, and to teach us the sincere spirit of
humility. What greater humiliation can be imagined than for Him who is
the eternal Son of God, in all things equal to his Father, to conceal
these glorious titles under the appearance of a sinner? What a subject
of confusion to us, who, being abominable criminals, are ashamed to pass
for what we are, and desire to appear and be esteemed what we are not!
Shall we not learn from this example of Christ to love humiliations,
especially as we cannot but acknowledge that we deserve every reproach
and all manner of contempt from all creatures? Seventhly, by beginning
the great work of our salvation in the manner he was one day to finish
it; suffering in his own person the punishment of sin, to deliver us
from both sin and its punishment, he confounds the impenitence of
sinners who will suffer nothing for their own sins; and inculcates the
necessity of a spiritual circumcision, whereof the external was but the
type and figure, as the apostle puts us in mind.[9]

It is manifest, beyond all contradiction, from several texts of the Old
Testament,[10] that men under that dispensation ought not to have rested
in the external act alone, but should have aspired from the letter to
the spirit, from the carnal to a spiritual circumcision. These texts, at
the same time that they set forth its necessity, describe it as
consisting in a readiness and willing disposition to conform to the will
of God, and submit to it when known, in every particular. They in
consequence require a retrenchment of all inordinate and superfluous
desires of the soul, the keeping a strict guard and government over
ourselves, a total abstinence from criminal, and a prudent reserve even
in the lawful gratifications of sense and appetite. If such instances of
spiritual circumcision were required of those under the Old Law, to
qualify them for acceptance with God, can any thing less than the same
entitle us Christians to the claim of spiritual kindred with faithful
Abraham, and to share of that redemption which Christ began this day to
purchase for us at the expense of his blood? We must cut off whatever
inordinate or superfluous desires of riches, honors, or pleasures reign
in our hearts, and renounce whatever holds us wedded to our senses or
the world. Though this sacrifice required the last drop of our blood, we
ought cheerfully to make it. The example of Christ powerfully excites us
not to spare ourselves. A thousand irregular affections reign in our
souls, and self-love is master there. This enemy is only to be expelled
by compunction, watchfulness over ourselves, perfect obedience, humble
submission to correction, voluntary self-denials, and patience under
crosses. To these endeavors we must join earnest prayer for the
necessary grace to discover, and courageously crucify whatever opposes
the reign of the pure love of God in our affections. If we are conscious
to ourselves of having taken a contrary course, and are of the unhappy
number of the _uncircumcised to heart_; what more proper time to set
about a thorough reformation, by cutting off whatever is inconsistent
with or prejudicial to the true Christian spirit, than this very day,
the first of the new year? that so it may be a _new_ year to us in the
most Christian and beneficial sense of the word.[11]

{062}

Wherefore, after having consecrated its first-fruits to God, by the most
sincere and fervent homage of praise and adoration; after having paid
him the just tribute of thanksgiving for all his benefits, and in
particular for the mercy by which he vouchsafes us still time to appease
his anger, and serve him; it becomes us to allot some part of this day
to tears of compunction for our past offences, and to the diving into
the source of our spiritual sloth and other irregularities, with a view
to the amendment of our lives, and the preventing of relapses: not
contenting ourselves with general purposes, which cost self-love so
little, the insufficiency of which our own experience has convinced us
of; we must lay the axe to the root, and seriously resolve to decline,
to the best of our power, the particular occasions which have betrayed
us into sin, and embrace the most effectual means of reformation of life
and improvement in virtue. Every year ought to find us more fervent in
charity; every day ought our soul to augment in strength, and be decked
with new flowers of virtue and good works. If the plant ceases to grow,
or the fruit to ripen, they decay of course, and are in danger of
perishing. By a rule far more sacred, the soul, which makes not a daily
progress in virtue loses ground: a dreadful symptom in the spiritual
life.

The more intense ought our fervor to be, as we draw the nearer to the
end of our course: _So much the more_, says the apostle, _as you
perceive the day to approach_,[12] the day of _retribution_ to each
according to his works, which will be that of our death, which may be
much nearer than we are willing to imagine. Perhaps we may not live to
the end of this very year: it will be the case of thousands, who at this
time are as regardless of it as we can be. What security can we have
against a surprise, the consequences whereof are infinite and
irretrievable, except that of a sincere and speedy conversion, of being
upon our guard against temptations, of dedicating effectually this
ensuing year and the remainder of our short lives to God, our last end
and only good, and frequently imploring his grace and mercy. It is our
blessed Saviour's advice and injunction: _Watch ye therefore; praying at
all times {063} ... that you may be accounted worthy ... to stand before
the Son of man_.[13]

The Christian's devotion on this day ought to consist, first, in the
solemn consecration of the first-fruits of the year to God; and
secondly, in honoring the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God,
particularly his birth and circumcision. The church invites us on this
day to unite our homage with the seraphic ardors and transports of
devotion with which the glorious Mother of God assisted at these
wonderful mysteries which we commemorate, but in which she acted herself
so great a part. With what sentiments did Mary bear in her womb, bring
forth, and serve her adorable son, who was also her God? with what love
and awe did she fix her eyes upon him particularly at his circumcision,
who can express in what manner she was affected when she saw him
subjected to this painful and humbling ceremony? Filled with
astonishment, and teeming affections of love and gratitude, by profound
adorations and praise she endeavored to make him all the amends in her
power, and the best return and acknowledgment she was able. In amorous
complaints that he would begin, in the excess of his love, to suffer for
us in so tender an age, and to give this earnest of our redemption, she
might say to him: _Truly than art to me a spouse of blood._[14] With the
early sacrifice Christ here made of himself to his Father, she joined
her own offering her divine son, and with and through him herself, to be
an eternal victim to his honor and love, with the most ardent desire to
suffer all things, even to blood, for the accomplishment of his will.
Under her mediation we ought to make him the tender of our homages, and
with and through this holy Redeemer, consecrate ourselves to God without
reserve.

Footnotes:
1.  In the ancient sacramentary of the Roman church, published by
    cardinal Thomasius, (the finishing of which some ascribe to Pope
    Gelasius I., others more probably to Leo I., though the ground was
    doubtless the work of their predecessors,) this festival is called
    the Octave of our Lord's Nativity. The same title is given to it in
    the Latin calendar (or rather collection of the gospels read at Mass
    throughout the year) written above 900 years ago, presented to the
    public by F. John Fronteau, regular canon of saint Genevieve's at
    Paris, and by Leo Allatius. The inference which Baillet draws from
    thence that the mystery of our Lord's circumcision was not then
    commemorated in the office of this day, is a notorious mistake. For
    Thomassin takes notice from Ivo of Chartres, that the word Octave
    here implies the circumcision of our Lord, which was performed on
    the eighth day after his birth; and in the above mentioned
    Sacramentary express mention is made of the circumcision in the
    Secret of the Mass. In F. Froubeau's calendar the gospel read on
    this day is the history of the circumcision given, by St. Luke. An
    old Vatican MS. copy of St. Gregory's Sacramentary and that of
    Usuard's Martyrology kept at St. Germain des-Pres, express both the
    titles of the Octave day and of the circumcision.

    Durandus in the 13th century, (Ration. offic. l. 6, c. 15,) John
    Beleth, a theologian of Paris, (c. 71,) and several missals of the
    middle ages prescribe two masses to be said on this day, one on the
    circumcision, the other on the B. Virgin Mary. Micrologus (c. 39)
    assigns this reason, that as the B. Virgin, who had so great a share
    in the birth of Christ, could not be mentioned in that solemn
    office, therefore a commemoration of her is deferred to the Octave
    day. The second Mass is now abolished: but in a great part of the
    office a regard is had to the B. Virgin. In F. Fronteau's Roman
    calendar, after the title of the Octave is added, _Natale S. Mariae_
    for which Dom Martenne would have us read _S. Martinae_; but without
    grounds. For, as Pope Benedict XIV. observes, (Comment. de Festis
    Domini, c. 1,) the original unquestionably means a festival of the
    B. Virgin Mary. The word _Natale_, which was used originally for the
    birth-day of the emperors, was afterwards taken for any annual
    feast.
2.  Gen. xvii.
3.  Grounding their opinion on Gen. xvii. 14, &c.
4.  Luke i. 31.
5.  Matt. i. 21.
6.  Phil. ii. 8, 9, 10.
7.  Matt. xxviii. 18.
8.  The Jews generally named their children on the day of their
    circumcision, but this was not of precept. There are several
    instances of children named on the day of their birth, (Gen. xxx.)
    which could not be that of their circumcision by an express law
    requiring the interval of eight days from their birth; the child
    being presumed too weak and delicate to undergo the operation
    sooner, without danger of its life. It seems to have been the
    practice among the Jews for children to be circumcised at home; nor
    was a priest the necessary or ordinary minister, but the father,
    mother, or any other person could perform the ceremony, as we see in
    the time of Abraham, (Gen. xvii.; Acts vii.) and of the Maccabees,
    (1 Mac. 1.) St. Epiphanius, (Haer. 20.) Whence F. Avala, in his
    curious work entitled _Pietor Christianus_, printed at Madrid in
    1730, shows that it is a vulgar error of painters who represent
    Christ circumcised by a priest in the temple. The instrument was
    sometimes a sharp stone, (Exod. iv. Jos. v.,) but doubtless most
    frequently of iron or steel.
9.  Rom. ii. 29.
10. Deut. x. 16; xxx. 6; Jer. iv. 4.
11. The pagan Romans celebrated the _Saturnalia_, or feast of Saturn,
    from the 17th of December during seven days: at which time slaves
    dined with their masters, and were allowed an entire liberty of
    speech, in the superstitious remembrance of the golden age of the
    world, in which no distinction of ranks was yet known among men.
    (Macrob {}, 10. Horat. &c.) The calends also of January were
    solemnized with licentious shows in honor of Janus and the goddess
    Strenia: and it is from those infamous diversions that among
    Christians, are derived the profane riots of new year's day,
    twelfthtide, and shrovetide, by which many pervert these times into
    days of sin and intemperance. Several councils severely condemn
    these abuses; and the better to prevent them, some churches formerly
    kept the 1st of January a fast-day, as it is mentioned by St.
    Isidore of Seville (lib. 2 offic c. 40) Alcuin (lib. de div offic)
    &c. Dom Martenne observes, (lib. de antiquis ritibus in celebr. div.
    offic. c. 13,) that on this account the second council of Tours in
    567 ordered that on the calends of the circumcision the litany be
    sung, and high mass begun only at the eighth hour, that is, two in
    the afternoon, that it might be finished by three, the hour at which
    it was allowed to eat on the fasts of the stations. We have among
    the works of the fathers many severe invectives against the
    superstitions and excesses of this time. See St. Austin, (serm. 198,
    in hunc diem,) St. Peter Chrysologus, (serm. in calendas,) St.
    Maximus of Turin, (Hom. 5, apud Mabill. in Musaeo Italico,) Faustinus
    the Bishop, (apud Bolland. hac die. p. 3,) &c. The French name
    Etrennes is pagan, from _strenae_, or new-year gifts, in honor of the
    goddess Strenia. The same in Poitou and Perche, anciently the
    country of the Druids, is derived from their rites. For the
    Poitevins for Etrennes use the word Auguislanneuf, and the
    Percherons, Equilans, from the ancient cry of the Druids, _Au guy
    l'an neuf_, i.e. _Ad Viscum, annul novus_, or to the mistletoe the
    new-year, when on new-year's day the Pagans went into the forests to
    seek the mistletoe on the oaks. See Chatelain, notes on the Martyr.
    Jan. 1, p. 7.

    The ancients began the year, some from the autumnal, others from the
    vernal equinox. The primitive patriarchs from that of autumn, that
    is, from the month called by the Hebrews Tisri, which coincides with
    part of our September and October. Hence it seems probable, that the
    world was created about that season; the earth, as appears from Gen.
    iii. 2, being then covered with trees, plants, fruits, seeds, and
    all other things in the state of their natural maturity and
    perfection. The Jews retained this commencement of the year, as a
    date for contracts and other civil purposes; as also for their
    sabbatical year and jubilee. But God commanded them to begin their
    ecclesiastical year, or that by which their religious festivals were
    regulated, from the spring equinox, or the Hebrew month Nisan, the
    same with part of our March and April, Exod. xii. 2. Christian
    nations commenced the year, some from the 25th of March, the feast
    of the Annunciation, and bordering upon the spring equinox; others
    from Christmas; others from its octave day, the first of January, in
    which our ancestors have often varied their practice. Europe is now
    agreed in fixing the first of January for this epoch.

    The Julian year, so called from Julius Caesar, from whom the Roman
    calendar received its last reformation, consisted of 365 days and 6
    hours, which exceed the true solar year by 11 minutes, for
    astronomers compute the yearly revolution of the sun not to exceed
    365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 37 seconds, according to Cassini,
    but according to Keil 57 seconds, or almost 49 minutes. This error,
    becoming daily more sensible, would have occasioned the autumnal
    equinox to have at length fallen on the day reckoned the solstice,
    and in process of time, on that held for the vernal equinox. The
    Golden number, or Grecian cycle of the lunar years, was likewise
    defective. The remedy both which, pope Gregory XIII., in 1585,
    established the new style. Scaliger, Tachet, and Cassini have
    demonstrated that cycles might be chosen still more exact by some
    few seconds: however, this adopted by pope Gregory, besides being
    the easiest in the execution, admits of no material error, or
    sensible inconveniency. This correction of the style was received by
    act of Parliament, in Great Britain, in 1752; for the promoting of
    which, great praise is due to the two illustrious ornaments of the
    republic of letters, the earls of Chesterfield and Macclesfield.
12. Heb. x. 25.
13. Luke xxi. 36.
14. Exod. v. 25.

THE LIFE OF S. FULGENTIUS, B.C.

Extracted from his works, and from his life, accurately written by a
disciple of great abilities, the companion of his exile: and dedicated
to Felician, his successor in the see of Ruspa. The author declares
himself a monk: consequently was not the deacon Ferrandus, as some
critics imagine.

A.D. 533.

FABIUS CLAUDIUS GORDIANUS FULGENTIUS was the descendant of a noble
senatorian family of Carthage: but much decayed in its splendor by the
invasion of the Vandals. His father Claudius, being unjustly deprived of
his house in Carthage, which was made over to the Arian priests, settled
at an estate belonging to him at Telepte, the capital city of the
province of Byzacena. Our saint was born in 468, about thirty years
after the Barbarians had dismembered Africa from the Roman empire. He
was educated in sentiments of piety with his younger brother, under the
care of his mother Mariana, who was left a young widow. Being, by her
particular direction, taught the Greek very young, he spoke it with as
proper and exact an accent as if it had been his native language. He
also applied himself to Latin, and all the useful parts of human
literature, under masters distinguished for consummate abilities: yet he
knew how to mingle business with study; for he took upon himself the
regulation of the family concerns, in order to ease his mother of the
burden. His prudent circumspection in all the affairs he transacted, his
virtuous conduct, his mild carriage to all, and more especially his
deference for his mother, without whose express orders or approbation he
never did any thing, caused him to be beloved and admired wherever his
name was known. He was chosen procurator, that is, lieutenant-governor,
and general receiver of the taxes of Byzacena. But it was not long
before {064} he grew disgusted with the world; and being justly alarmed
at its dangers he armed himself against them by pious reading, assiduous
prayer, and rigorous fasting. His visits to monasteries were frequent;
and happening among other books of spiritual entertainment, to read a
sermon of St. Austin on the thirty-sixth psalm, in which that father
treats of the world and the short duration of human life, he felt within
him strong desires of embracing the monastic state.

Huneric, the Arian king, had driven most of the orthodox bishops from
their sees. One of these, named Faustus, had erected a monastery in
Byzacena. It was to him that the young nobleman addressed himself for
admittance; but Faustus immediately objecting the tenderness of his
constitution, discouraged his desires with words of some harshness;
"Go," said he, "and first learn to live in the world abstracted from its
pleasures. Who can well suppose, that you on a sudden, relinquishing a
life of softness and ease, can take up with our coarse diet and clothing
and can inure yourself to our watchings and fastings?" The saint, with
downcast eyes, modestly replied: "He, who hath inspired me with the will
to serve him, can also furnish me with courage and strength." This
humble, yet resolute answer, induced Faustus to admit him on trial. The
saint was then in the twenty-second year of his age. The news of so
unthought of an event both surprised and edified the whole country; many
even imitated the example of the governor. But Mariana his mother, in
transports of grief, ran to the monastery, crying out at the gates:
"Faustus! restore to me my son; to the people, their governor: the
church always protects widows; why then rob you me, a desolate widow, of
my son?" She persisted several days in the same tears and cries. Nothing
that Faustus could urge was sufficient to calm her, or prevail with her
to depart without her son. This was certainly as great a trial of
Fulgentius's resolution as it could well be put to; but the love of God,
having the ascendant in his breast, gave him a complete victory over all
the suggestions of nature: Faustus approved his vocation, and
accordingly recommended him to the brethren. The saint having now
obtained all he wished for in this world, made over his estate to his
mother, to be discretionally disposed of by her in favor of his brother,
as soon as he should be arrived at a proper age. He totally abstained
from oil and every thing savory; from wine also, drinking only water.
His mortifications brought on him a dangerous illness; yet after
recovery he abated nothing in them. The persecution breaking out anew,
Faustus was obliged to withdraw; and our saint, with his consent,
repaired to a neighboring monastery, of which Felix, the abbot, would
fain resign to him the government. Fulgentius was much startled at the
proposal, but at length was prevailed upon to consent that they should
jointly execute the functions. It was admirable to observe with what
harmony these two holy abbots for six years governed the house. No
contradiction ever took place between them; each always contended to
comply with the will of his colleague. Felix undertook the management of
the temporal concerns; Fulgentius's province was to preach and instruct.

In the year 499, the country being ravaged by an irruption of the
Numidians, the two abbots were necessitated to fly to Sicca Veneria, a
city of the proconsular province of Africa. Here it was, that an Arian
priest ordered them to be apprehended and scourged on account of their
preaching the consubstantiality of the Son of God. Felix, seeing the
executioners seize first on Fulgentius, cried out: "Spare that poor
brother of mine, whose delicate complexion cannot bear torments; let
them rather be my portion who am strong of body." They accordingly, at
the instigation of this wicked priest, fell on Felix first, and the old
man endured their stripes {065} with the greatest alacrity. When it was
Fulgentius's turn to experience the same rigorous treatment, he bore the
lashes with great patience; but feeling the pain excessive, that he
might gain a little respite and recruit his spirits, he requested his
judge to give ear to something he had to impart to him. The executioners
thereupon being commanded to desist, he began to entertain him with an
account of his travels. This savage monster expected nothing more than
some overtures to be proposed to him of an intention to yield; but
finding himself disappointed, in the utmost rage, ordered his torments
to be redoubled. At length having glutted his barbarity, the confessors
were dismissed, their clothes rent, their bodies inhumanly torn, and
their beards and hair plucked off. The very Arians were ashamed of such
cruelty, and their bishop offered to punish the priest, if Fulgentius
would but undertake his prosecution. His answer was, that a Christian is
never allowed to seek revenge; and for their parts it was incumbent on
them not to lose the advantage of patience, and the blessings accruing
from the forgiving of injuries. The two abbots, to avoid an additional
effort of the fury of these heretics, travelled to Ididi, on the
confines of Mauritania. Here Fulgentius went aboard a ship for
Alexandria, being desirous, for the sake of greater perfection, to visit
the deserts of Egypt, renowned for the sanctity of the solitaries who
dwelt there. But the vessel touching at Sicily, St. Eulalius, abbot at
Syracuse, diverted him from his intended voyage, on assuring him, that
"a perfidious dissension had severed this country from the communion of
Peter,"[1] meaning that Egypt was full of heretics, with whom those that
dwelt there were obliged either to join in communion, or be deprived of
the sacraments. The liberality and hospitality of Fulgentius to the
poor, out of the small pittance he received for his particular
subsistence, made Eulalius condemn himself of remissness in those
virtues, and for the future imitate so laudable an example.

Our saint having laid aside the thoughts of pursuing his voyage to
Alexandria, embarked for Rome, to offer up his prayers at the tombs of
the apostles. One day passing through a square called Palma Aurea, he
saw Theodoric, the king of Italy, seated on an exalted throne, adorned
with pompous state, surrounded by the senate, and his court, with all
the grandeur of the city displayed in the greatest magnificence: "Ah!"
said Fulgentius, "how beautiful must the heavenly Jerusalem be, if
earthly Rome be so glorious! What honor, glory, and joy will God bestow
on the saints in heaven, since here in this perishable life he clothes
with such splendor the lovers and admirers of vanity!" This happened
towards the latter part of the year 500, when that king made his first
entry into Rome. Fulgentius returned home in a short time after, and was
received with incredible joy. He built a spacious monastery in Byzacena,
but retired to a cell himself, which was situate on the sea-shore. Here
his time was employed in writing, reading, prayer, mortification, and
the manual labor of making mats and umbrellas of palm-tree leaves.
Faustus, who was his bishop, obliged him to resume the government of his
monastery; and many places at the same time sought him for their bishop.
King Thrasimund having prohibited by edict the ordination of orthodox
bishops, several sees by this means had been long vacant and destitute
of pastors. The orthodox prelates resolved to remedy this inconveniency,
as they effectually did; but the king receiving intelligence of the
matter, caused Victor, the primate of Carthage, to be apprehended. All
this time our saint lay concealed, though sought after eagerly by many
citizens for their bishop. Thinking the danger over, he appeared again:
but Ruspa, now a little town called {066} Alfaques, in the district of
Tunis, still remained without a pastor; and by the consent of the
primate, while detained in the custody of the king's messengers,
Fulgentius was forcibly taken out of his cell, and consecrated bishop in
508.

His new dignity made no alteration in his manners. He never wore the
_orarium_, a kind of stole then used by bishops, nor other clothes than
his usual coarse garb, which was the same in winter and summer. He went
sometimes barefoot: he never undressed to take rest, and always rose to
prayer before the midnight office. His diet chiefly consisted of pulse
and herbs, with which he contented himself, without consulting the
palate's gratification by borrowed tastes: but in more advanced years,
finding his sight impaired by such a regimen, he admitted the use of a
little oil. It was only in very considerable bodily indispositions, that
he suffered a drop or two of wine to be mingled with the water which he
drank; and he never could be prevailed upon in any seeming necessity to
use the least quantity of flesh-meat, from the time of his monastic
profession till his death. His modesty, meekness, and humility, gained
him the affection of all, even of the ambitious deacon Felix, who had
opposed his election, and whom the saint received and treated with the
most cordial charity. His great love for a recluse life induced him to
build a monastery near his own house at Ruspa, which he designed to put
under the direction of his ancient friend Felix; but before the building
could be completed, or he acquit himself to his wish of his episcopal
duties, orders were issued from King Thrasimund, for his banishment to
Sardinia, with others to the number of sixty orthodox bishops.
Fulgentius, though the youngest of this venerable body, who were
transported from Carthage to Sardinia, was notwithstanding their sole
oracle in all doubts, and their tongue and pen upon all occasions; and
not only of them, but even of the whole church of Africa. What spread a
brighter lustre on these amiable qualities, were the humility and
modesty with which he always declared his sentiments: he never preferred
his counsel to that of another, his opinion he never intruded. Pope
Symmachus, out of his pastoral care and charity, sent every year
provisions in money and clothes to these champions of Christ.[2] A
letter of this pope to them is still extant,[3] in which he encourages
and comforts them; and it was at the same time that he sent them certain
relics of SS. Nazarius and Romanus, "that the example and
_patronage_,"[4] as he expresses it, "of those generous soldiers of
Christ, might animate the confessors to fight valiantly the battles of
the Lord." Saint Fulgentius, with some companions, converted his house
at Cagliari into a monastery; which immediately became the comfort of
all in affliction, the refuge of the poor, and the oracle to which the
whole country resorted for deciding their controversies without appeal.
In this retirement the saint composed many learned treatises for
confirming and instructing the faithful in Africa. King Thrasimund,
hearing that he was their principal support, and their invincible
advocate, was desirous of seeing him; and having accordingly sent for
him, appointed him lodgings in Carthage. The king then drew up a set of
objections, to which he required his immediate answer: the saint without
hesitation complied with, and discharged the injunction; and this is
supposed to be his book, entitled, An Answer to Ten Objections. The king
equally admired his humility and learning, and the orthodox triumphed
exceedingly in the advantage their cause gained by this piece. To
prevent a second time the same effect, the king, when he sent him new
objections, ordered them to be only read to him. Fulgentius refused to
give an answer in writing, unless he was allowed {067} to take a copy of
them. He addressed, however, to the king an ample and modest confutation
of Arianism, which we have under the title of his Three Books to King
Thrasimund. The prince was pleased with the work, and granted him
permission to reside at Carthage; till upon repeated complaints from the
Arian bishops of the success of his preaching, which threatened they
said, a total extinction of their sect in Carthage, he was sent back to
Sardinia in 520. Being ready to go aboard the ship, he said to a
catholic, whom he saw weeping: "Grieve not, Juliatus!" for that was his
name, "I shall shortly return, and we shall see the true faith of Christ
flourish again in this kingdom, with full liberty to profess it; but
divulge not this secret to any." The event confirmed the truth of the
prediction. His humility concealed the multiplicity of miracles which he
wrought, and he was wont to say: "A person may be endowed with the gift
of miracles, and yet may lose his soul: miracles ensure not salvation;
they may indeed procure esteem and applause; but what will it avail a
man to be esteemed on earth, and afterwards be delivered up to hell
torments?" If the sick, for whom he prayed, recovered, to avoid being
puffed up with vain-glory, he ascribed it wholly to the divine mercy.
Being returned to Cagliari, he erected a new monastery near that city,
and was exceedingly careful to supply his monks with all necessaries,
especially in sickness; but would not suffer them to ask for any thing,
alleging, "That we ought to receive all things as from the hand of God,
with resignation and gratitude." Thus he was sensible how conducive the
unreserved denial of the will is for perfecting ourselves in the paths
of virtue.

King Thrasimund died in 523, having nominated Hilderic his successor.
Knowing him inclined to favor the orthodox, he exacted from him an oath,
that he would never restore their profession. To evade this, Hilderic,
before the death of his predecessor, signed an order for the liberty of
the orthodox churches, but never had the courage to declare himself of
the same belief; his lenity having quite degenerated into softness and
indolence. However, the professors of the true faith called home their
pastors. The ship which brought them back, was received at Carthage with
the greatest demonstrations of joy: the shore echoed far and near with
repeated acclamations, more particularly when Fulgentius appeared on the
upper deck of the vessel. The confessors went straight to the church of
St. Agileus, to return thanks to God, and were accompanied by thousands;
but on their way, being surprised with a sudden storm, the people, to
show their singular regard for Fulgentius, made a kind of umbrella over
his head with their cloaks to defend him from the inclemency of the
storm. The saint hastened to his own church, and immediately set about
the reformation of the abuses that had crept in during the persecution,
which had now continued seventy years; but this reformation was carried
on with a sweetness that won, sooner or later, the hearts of the most
vicious. In a council held at Junque, in 524, a certain bishop, named
Quodvultdeus, disputed the precedency with our saint, who made no reply,
though he would not oppose the council, which ordered him to take the
first place. The other resented this as an injury offered to the dignity
of his see; and St. Fulgentius, in another council soon after, publicly
requested that Quodvultdeus might be allowed the precedency. His talents
for preaching were singular; and Boniface, the archbishop of Carthage,
never heard him without watering, all the time, the ground with his
tears, thanking God for having given so great a pastor to his church.[5]

{068}

About a year before his death, he secretly retired from all business
into a monastery on the little island, of rock, called Circinia, in
order to prepare {069} himself for his passage to eternity, which he did
with extraordinary fervor. The necessities and importunities of his
flock recalled him to Ruspa a little before his exit. He bore the
violent pains of his last illness for seventy days with admirable
patience, having this prayer almost always in his mouth:[6] "Lord, grant
me patience now, and hereafter mercy and pardon." The physicians advised
him the use of baths; to whom he answered "Can baths make a mortal man
escape death, when his life is arrived at its final period?" He would
abate nothing of his usual austerities without an absolute necessity. In
his agony, calling for his clergy and monks, who were all in tears, he
begged pardon if he had ever offended any one of them; he comforted
them, gave them some short, moving instructions, and calmly breathed
forth his pious soul in the year 533, and of his age the 65th, on the
1st of January, on which day his name occurs in many calendars soon
after his death, and in the Roman; but in some few on the 16th of
May,--perhaps the day on which his relics were translated to Bourges, in
France, about the year 714, where they still remain deposited.[7] His
disciple relates, that Pontian, a neighboring bishop, was assured in a
vision of his glorious immortality. The veneration for his virtues was
such, that he was interred within the church, contrary to the law and
custom of that age, as is remarked by the author of his life. St.
Fulgentius proposed to himself St. Austin for a model; and, as a true
disciple, imitated him in his conduct, faithfully expounding his
doctrine, and imbibing his spirit.

Footnotes:
1.  A comumnione Petri perfida dissentio separavit. Vit S. Fulg. c. 12.
2.  Anastas. in Symmacho. Bar. ad ann. 504. Fleury, Liv. 31.
3.  Inter opera Ennodii. t. 4. Conc. Labb. col. 1300.
4.  Patrocinia.
5.  S. Fulgentius, in his first letter, to a gentleman whose wife in a
    violent sickness had made a vow of continency, proves that a vow of
    chastity ought not to be made by a person engaged in a married
    state, without the free consent of the husband. In his second, to
    Galla, a most virtuous Roman lady, he comforts her upon the death of
    her husband, who, he says, was only gone a little before her to
    glory; and he sets before her the divine mercy, which by this means
    calls her to a more heroic practice of all virtues in the state of
    widowhood,--especially continence, plainness in dress, furniture,
    and diet, profuse alms-deeds, and holy prayer, the exercise whereof
    ought to be her most assiduous employment. Herein he warns her that
    vanity and pride are our most dangerous enemies, against which we
    must diligently watch and arm ourselves. In his third letter,
    addressed to the holy lady Proba, sister to Galla, consecrated to
    God by a vow of virginity, he shows the excellency of that virtue,
    and recommends, at length, temperance, penance, and perfect
    humility, as its essential attendants, without which it cannot
    render a soul the spouse of Christ, who chose her poor, and bestowed
    on her all she had. In his fourth letter, to the same lady, he again
    puts her in mind of the extreme danger of pride and vain-glory, and
    lays down excellent precepts concerning the necessity of assiduous
    prayer and compunction; in which spirit we are bound to weep
    continually before God, imploring his mercy and succor under the
    weight of our miseries, and to pay him the constant tribute of
    praise and thanksgiving for all his benefits and gratuitous favors.
    His letter to the abbot Eugypius, is a commendation of fraternal
    charity, a principal fruit of which is, to pray for one another. In
    the sixth letter, he congratulates with Theodorus, a senator, upon
    his conversion from the world, promising himself that such an
    example would have great influence over many: for "those who are
    raised above others by their rank in the world, either draw many
    with themselves into eternal damnation, or are to many an occasion
    of salvation." The saint strenuously exhorts him to the study of the
    most profound humility, which is the only greatness of a Christian,
    and is always attended with its sister virtue, meekness. The seventh
    letter of this father is addressed to the illustrious and venerable
    lady Venantia, and contains a strong exhortation to the spirit and
    practice of penance, with advice against despair. The sermons and
    homilies of S. Fulgentius are usually short: we have near one
    hundred extant which bear his name, but some of these belong to S.
    Austin. The danger and evil of presumption and pride, are points
    which he takes every occasion to inculcate: he teaches that it is
    impossible to know God, and his benefits and goodness, unless we
    have a true knowledge of ourselves, and our own frailty and
    miseries. (Hom. 14, p. 123. Bibl. Patr. Lugdun. T. 9, part 1.) In
    his sermons and letters, he frequently enforces the obligation of
    alms-deeds. His other works are chiefly polemical, against the
    Arians, Pelagians, and Nestorians. In his books against the Sermon
    of Fastidiosus, (an Arian priest,) to Felix the Notary; On the
    Orthodox Faith, to Donatus, against Fabian; Three Books to King
    Thrasimund; Ten Answers to Ten Objections of the Arians, &c., he
    explains the trinity of persons in one divine nature, solidly
    answers the objections of the Arians, and frequently shows that
    prayers which are addressed to the Father, or to the Son, or to the
    Holy Ghost, are addressed to the whole Blessed Trinity. (Lib. 9,
    contra Fabium, p. 620, &c.) Showing that the Father, Son, and Holy
    Ghost are equally to be adored, he distinguishes the worship of
    _Latria_, or adoration, which is due to God alone, and that of
    _Dulia_, which is given to creatures. (Ib. lib. 4, p. 592.) Pinta,
    an Arian bishop, having published a treatise against our saint's
    books to King Thrasimund, St. Fulgentius answered him by a work
    which is lost. For that which we have among his writings, is the
    performance of some other Catholic controvertist of the same age, as
    the learned agree. This author's style falls short of St.
    Fulgentius's: he quotes the Scripture according to the Old Italic
    Version; our saint always makes use of the Vulgate. He understood
    not the Greek tongue, in which St. Fulgentius was well skilled. And
    the author of our saint's life mentions, that in his book against
    Pinta he referred to his books to King Thrasimund, which is not
    found in this work.

    One of the most famous among the writings of St. Fulgentius, is that
    entitled, On the Two-fold Predestination, to Monimus, in answer to
    certain difficulties proposed to him by a friend of that name. In
    the first book he shows, that though God foresees sin, he
    predestinates no one to evil, but only to good, or to grace and
    glory. In the second book he proves, that the sacrifice of Christ's
    body and blood is offered not to the Father alone, as the Arians
    pretended, but to the whole Blessed Trinity. In this and the third
    book he answers certain other difficulties. In his two books, On the
    Remission of Sins, to Euthymius, he proves that sins can never be
    forgiven without sincere repentance, or out of the pale of the true
    church. When Peter, a deacon, and three other deputies from the
    Scythian monks in the East, arrived at Rome, to be informed of the
    sentiments of the western churches concerning the late errors
    advanced in the East, against the mystery of the Incarnation, and in
    the West, by the Semipelagians against the necessity of divine
    grace, they consulted the sixty African bishops who were at that
    time in banishment, in Sardinia. St. Fulgentius was pitched upon to
    send an answer in the name of this venerable company of Confessors.
    This produced his book, On the Incarnation and Grace, in the first
    part of which he confutes the Nestorians and Eutychians, and in the
    second the Semipelagians. His three books, On the Truth of
    Predestination and Grace, addressed to John the Archimandrite, and
    Venerius, deacon of Constantinople, are another fruit of the leisure
    which his exile gave him. In the first part he shows, that grace is
    the pure effect of the divine goodness and mercy; in the second,
    that it destroys not free-will; and in the third, that the Divine
    election both to grace and glory is purely gratuitous. In another
    treatise or letter, to the same John and Venerius, who had consulted
    the Confessors in Sardinia about the doctrine of Faustus of Riez, he
    confutes Semipelagianism. In the treatise, On the Incarnation, to
    Scarilas, he explains that mystery, showing that the Son became
    man,--not the Father, or the Holy Ghost; and that in God the trinity
    destroys not the unity of the nature. Ferrand, the learned deacon of
    Carthage, consulted St. Fulgentius about the baptism of a certain
    Ethiopian, who had desired that sacrament, but was speechless and
    senseless when it was administered to him. Our saint, in a short
    treatise on this subject, demonstrates this baptism to have been
    both necessary and valid. By another treatise, addressed to this
    Ferrand, he answers five questions proposed by him, concerning the
    Trinity and Incarnation. Count Reginus consulted him, whether the
    body of Christ was corruptible, and begged certain rules for leading
    a Christian life in a military state. St. Fulgentius answered the
    first point, proving that Christ's mortal body was liable to hunger,
    thirst, pain, and corruption. The second part of moral instructions,
    which he lived not to finish, was added by Ferrand the deacon. St.
    Fulgentius's book, On Faith, to Peter, is concise and most useful.
    It was drawn up after the year 523, about the time of his return
    from Sardinia. One Peter, designing to go to Jerusalem, requested
    the saint to give him in writing a compendious rule of faith, by
    studying which he might be put upon his guard against the heresies
    of that age. St. Fulgentius executed this in forty articles, some
    copies and forty-one. In these he explains, under anathemas, the
    chief mysteries of our faith: especially the Trinity. Incarnation,
    sacrifice of the altar, (cap. 19. p. 475,) absolute necessity of the
    true faith, and of living in the true church, to steadfastness, in
    which he strongly and pathetically exhorts all Christians in the
    close of the work, (c. 44, 45.) For if we owe fidelity to our
    temporal prince, much more to Christ who redeemed our souls, and
    whose anger we are bound to fear above all things, nay, as the only
    evil truly to be dreaded. The writings of this father discover a
    deep penetration and clear conception, with an admirable perspicuity
    in the diction; but seeming apprehensive of not having sufficiently
    inculcated his matter, he is diffusive, end runs into repetitions.
    His reasoning is just and close, corroborated by Scripture and
    tradition. The accurate F. Sirmond published part of his writings,
    but the most complete edition of them was given at Paris, in 4vo.,
    1584.
6.  Domine, da mihi modo patientiam, et postea indulgentiam.
7.  See Gall. Christ. Nov. T. l, p. 121. and Baillet, p. 16. The written
    relation of this translation is a production of the tenth century,
    and deserves no regard; but the constant tradition of the church and
    country proves the translation to have been made (See Hist. Liter.
    de la France, T. 6, p. 265.) The hutch in which these relics are
    venerated at Bourget, is called S. Fulgentius's. The saint's head is
    in the church of the archbishop's seminary, which was anciently an
    abbey, and named Monte-maven.

ST. ODILO, OR OLON, SIXTH ABBOT OF CLUNI

HIS family was that of the lords of Mercteur, one of the most
illustrious of Auvergne. Divine grace inclined him from his infancy to
devote himself to God with his whole heart. He was very young when he
received the monastic habit at Cluni, from the hands of S. Mayeul, by
whose appointment he was made his coadjutor in 991, though only
twenty-nine years of age, and from the death of S. Mayeul in 994, our
saint was charged with the entire government of that great abbey. He
labored to subdue his carnal appetites by rigorous fasting, wearing
hair-cloth next his skin, and studded iron chains. Notwithstanding
those austerities practised on himself, his carriage to others was
most mild and humane. It was usual with him to say, that of two
extremes, he chose rather to offend by tenderness, than a too rigid
severity. In a great famine in 1006, his liberality to the poor was by
many censured as profuse; for he melted down the sacred vessels and
ornaments, and sold the gold crown S. Henry made a present of to that
abbey, to relieve their necessities. He accompanied that prince in his
journey to Rome when he was crowned emperor, in 1014. This was his
second journey thither; he made a third in 1017, and a fourth in
1022. Out of devotion to S. Bennet he paid a visit to Mount Cassino,
where he begged leave, with the greatest earnestness, to kiss the feet
of all the monks, which was granted him with great difficulty. Besides
the journeys which the reformation he established in many monasteries
obliged him to undertake, he made one to Orbe, to wait on the empress
Alice. That pious princess burst into tears upon seeing him, and
taking hold of his habit, kissed it, and applied it to her eyes, and
declared to him she should die in a {070} very short time. This was in
999, and she died on the 16th of December the same year. Massacres and
plunders were so common in that age, by the right which every petty
lord pretended of revenging his own injuries and quarrels by private
wars, that the treaty called the truce of God was set on foot. By
this, among other articles, it was agreed, that churches should be
sanctuaries to all sorts of persons, except those that violated this
truce; and that from Wednesday till Monday morning no one should offer
violence to any one, not even by way of satisfaction for any injustice
he had received. This truce met with the greatest difficulties among
the Neustrians, but was at length received and observed in most
provinces of France, through the exhortations and endeavors of
St. Odilo, and B. Richard, abbot of St. Vanne's, who were charged with
this commission.[1] Prince Casimir, son of Miceslaw, king of Poland,
retired to Cluni, where he professed the monastic state, and was
ordained deacon. He was afterwards, by a solemn deputation of the
nobility, called to the crown. St. Odilo referred the matter to pope
Benedict IX., with whose dispensation Casimir mounted the throne in
1041, married, had several children, and reigned till his death in
1058.[2]

St. Odilo being moved by several visions, instituted the annual
commemoration of all the faithful departed, to be observed by the
members of his community with alms, prayers, and sacrifices, for the
relief of the suffering souls in purgatory; and this charitable devotion
he often much recommended. He was very devout to the Blessed Virgin; and
above all sacred mysteries, that of the divine Incarnation employed his
particular attention. As the monks were singing that verse in the
church, "thou being to take upon thee to deliver man, didst not abhor
the womb of a virgin;" melting away with the tenderest emotions of love,
he fell to the ground; the ecstatic agitations of his body bearing
evidence to that heavenly fire which glowed in his soul. Most of his
sermons and little poems extant, treat of the mysteries of our
redemption, or of the Blessed Virgin.[3] He excelled in an eminent
spirit of compunction, and contemplation. While he was at prayer,
trickling tears often watered his cheeks. Neither importunities nor
compulsion could prevail upon him to submit to his being elected
archbishop of Lyons in 1031. Having patiently suffered during five years
the most painful diseases, he died of the cholic, at Souvigny, a priory
in Bourbonnois, while employed in the visitation of his monasteries,
January 1, 1049, being then eighty-seven years old, and having been
fifty-six years abbot. He would be carried to the church, to assist at
the divine office, even in his agony; and having received the viaticum
and extreme-unction the day before, he expired on sackcloth strewed with
ashes on the ground. See his life, by his disciple Lotsald, as also, by
St. Peter Damian, who wrote it soon after the saint's death, at the
request of St. Hugh of Cluni, his successor, in Bollandus, and
Bibliotheca Cluniacensis by Dom Marrier, and in Andrew Duchesne, fol.
Paris, 1614. See likewise certain epistles of St. Odilo, ib., and
fourteen Sermons on the festivals of our Lord, the B. Virgin, &c., in
Bibl. Patr. Lugdun. an. 1677, T. 17, p. 653.

Footnotes:
1.  Glaber, monk of Cluni, in his history which he dedicated to St.
    Odilo, l. 4, c. 5, l. 5, c. 1.
2.  Mab. Annal. l. 57, n. 45. Solignac, Hist. de Pologne, t. 1.
3.  Ceillier demonstrates, (T. 20, p. 258,) against Basnage, (observ. in
    vit. Adelaid. T. 3, le t. Canis, p. 71,) that the life of St. Alice
    the empress is the work of St. Odilo, no less than the life of St.
    Mayeul. We have four letters, some poems, and several sermons of
    this saint in the library of Cluni, (p. 370,) and in that of the
    Fathers, (T. 17, p. 653.) Two other sermons hear his name in
    Martenn{} (Anned. T. 5.)

{071}

ST. ALMACHUS, OR TELEMACHUS, M.

WAS a holy solitary of the East, but being excited by the ardors of a
pious zeal in his desert, and pierced with grief that the impious
diversion of gladiators should cause the damnation of so many unhappy
souls, and involve whole cities and provinces in sin; he travelled to
Rome, resolved, as far as in him lay, to put a stop to this crying evil.
While the gladiators were massacring each other in the amphitheatre, he
ran in among them; but as a recompense for his kind remonstrance, and
entreating them to desist, he was beaten down to the ground, and torn in
pieces, on the 1st of January, 404. His zeal had its desired success;
for the effusion of his blood effected what till that time many emperors
had found impracticable. Constantine, Constantius, Julian, and
Theodosius the elder, had, to no purpose, published several edicts
against those impious scenes of blood. But Honorius took occasion from
the martyrdom of this saint, to enforce their entire abolition. His name
occurs in the true martyrology of Bede, in the Roman and others. See
Theodoret, Hist. l. 5, c. 62, t. 3, p. 740.[1]

Footnotes:
1.  The martyrologies of Bede, Ado, Usuard, &c. mention St. Almachus, M.
    put to death at Rome, for boldly opposing the heathenish
    superstitions on the octave of our Lord's nativity. Ado adds, that
    he was slain by the gladiators at the command of Alypius, prefect of
    Rome. A prefect of this name is mentioned in the reign of
    Theodosius, the father of Honorius. This name, the place, day, and
    cause seeming to agree, Baronius, (Annot. In Martyr. Rom.) Bolland,
    and Baillet, doubt not but this martyr is the same with St.
    Telemachus, mentioned by Theodoret. Chatelain, canon of the
    cathedral at Paris, (Notes sur le Martyr. Rom. p. 8,) and Benedict
    XIV., (in Festo Circumcis. T. 10, p. 18.) think they ought to be
    distinguished, and that Almachus suffered long before Telemachus.
    Wake, (on Enthusiasm,) Geddes, &c. pretend the name to have been a
    mistake for Almanachum; but are convicted by Chatelain of several
    unpardonable blunders, and of being utterly unacquainted with
    ancient MSS. of this kind, and the manner of writing them. Scaliger
    and Salmasius tell us that the word Almanach is of Arabic
    extraction. La Crosse observes, (Bibl. Univ. T. 11,) that it occurs
    in Porphyry, (apud Eus. Praef. Evang. l. 3, c. 4,) who says that
    horoscopes are found [Greek: en tois almenichiaxois], where it seems
    of Egyptian origin. But whatever be the meaning of that term in
    Porphyry, Du Cange, after the strictest search, assures us that the
    barbarous word Almanach is never met with in any MS. Calendars or
    Ephemerides. Menage (Origine de la Langue Francoise V. Almanach)
    shows most probably that the word is originally Persian, with the
    Arabic article prefixed. It seems to have been first used by the
    Armenians to signify a calendar, ib.

ST. EUGENDUS, IN FRENCH OYEND, A.

AFTER the death of the two brothers, St. Romanus and St. Lupicinus, the
holy founders of the abbey of Condate, under whose discipline he had
been educated from seven years of age, he was first coadjutor to
Minausius, their immediate successor, and soon after, upon his demise,
abbot of that famous monastery. His life was most austere, his clothes
being sackcloth, and the same in summer as in winter. He took only one
small refection in the day, which was usually after sunset. He inured
himself to cold and all mortifications; and was so dead to himself, as
to seem incapable of betraying the least emotion of anger. His
countenance was always cheerful; yet he never laughed. By meekness he
overcame all injuries, was well skilled in Greek and Latin, and in the
holy scriptures, and a great promoter of the sacred studies in his
monastery. No importunities could prevail upon him to consent to be
ordained priest. In the lives of the first abbots of Condate, of which a
MS. copy is preserved in the Jesuit's library in the college of
Clermont, at Paris, enriched with MS. notes by F. Chifflet, it is
mentioned, that the monastery which was built by St. Romanus, of timber,
being consumed by fire, St. Eugendus rebuilt it of stone; and also near
the oratory, which St. Romanus had built, erected a handsome church in
honor of SS. Peter, Paul, and Andrew, enriched with precious relics. His
prayer was almost continual, and his devotion so tender, that the
hearing {072} of a pious word was sufficient visibly to inflame his
soil, and to throw him sometimes into raptures even in public, and at
table. His ardent sighs to be united with his God, were most vehement
during his last illness. Having called the priest among his brethren, to
whom he had enjoined the office of anointing the sick, he caused him to
anoint his breast according to the custom, says the author of his life,
and he breathed forth his happy soul five days after, about the year
510, and of his age sixty-one.[1] The great abbey of Condate, in
Franche-comte, seven leagues from Geneva, on mount Jura, or Mont-jou,
received from this saint the name of St. Oyend; till in the thirteenth
century it exchanged it for that of St. Claude; who having resigned the
bishopric of Besanzon, which see he had governed seven years in great
sanctity, lived fifty-five years abbot of this house, a perfect copy of
the virtues of St. Oyend, and died in 581. He is honored on the 6th of
June. His body remains entire to this day; and his shrine is the most
celebrated place of resort for pilgrims in all France.[2] See the life
of St. Oyend by a disciple, in Bollandus and Mabillon. Add the remarks
of Rivet. His. Liter. T. 3, p. 60.

Footnotes:
1.  The history of the first Abbots of Condate, compiled, according to
    F. Chifflet, in 1252, mentions translation of the relics of St.
    Eugendus, when they were enshrined in the same Church of St. Peter,
    which had been made with great solemnity, at which this author had
    assisted, and of which he testifies that he had already wrote the
    history here quoted. F. Chifflet regrets the loss of this piece, and
    adds that the girdle of St. Eugendus, made of white leather, two
    fingers broad, has been the instrument of miraculous cures, and that
    in 1601 Petronilla Birod, a Calvinist woman in that neighborhood,
    was converted to the Catholic faith, with her husband and whole
    family, having been suddenly freed from imminent danger of death and
    child-bearing, and safely delivered by the application of this
    relic.
2.  The rich abbey of St. Claude gave rise to a considerable town built
    about it, which was made an episcopal see by pope Benedict XIV., in
    1743: who, secularizing the monastery, converted it into a
    cathedral. The canons, to gain admittance, must give proof of their
    nobility for sixteen degrees, eight paternal and as many maternal.
    St. Romanus was buried at Beaume, St. Lucinius at Leu{}nne, and St.
    Oyend at Condate: whence this last place for several ages bore his
    name.

S. FANCHEA, OR FAINE, V.

HER feast has been kept for time immemorial in the parish church of
Rosairthir, in the diocese of Clogher, in Ulster: and at Kilhaine near
mount Bregh, on the borders of Meath, where her relics have been in
veneration. She seems to have been an abbess, and is thought to have
flourished in the sixth century, when many eminent saints flourished in
Ireland. Her name was not known to Bollandus or Sir James Ware. See
Chatelain.

S. MOCHUA, OR MONCAIN, ABBOT,

OTHERWISE CALLED CLAUNUS.

HAVING served his prince in the army, he renounced the world, and
devoted himself to God in a monastic state, with so much fervor as to
become a model of perfection to others. He is said to have founded
thirty churches, and one hundred and twenty cells, and passed thirty
years at one of these churches, which is called from him Teach Mochua,
but died at Dayrinis on the 1st of January, in the ninety-ninth year of
his age, about the sixth century. See his life in Bollandus, p. 45.

SAINT MOCHUA OF BELLA,

OTHERWISE CALLED CRONAN,

WAS contemporary to S. Congal, and founded the monastery (now a town)
named Balla, in Connaught. He departed to our Lord in the fifty-sixth
year of his age. See Bollandus, p. 49.

{073}


JANUARY II.

S. MACARIUS OF ALEXANDRIA,

ANCHORET.

From Palladius, bishop of Helenopolis, who had been his disciple, c. 20.
Rufin, Socrates, and others in Rosweide, D'Andilly, Cotelier, and
Bollandus, p. 85 See Tillemont, t. 8, p. 626. Bulteau, Hist. Mon.
d'Orient, l. 1, c. 9, p. 128.

A.D. 394.

ST. MACARIUS the younger, a citizen of Alexandria, followed the business
of a confectioner. Desirous to serve God with his whole heart, he
forsook the world in the flower of his age, and spent upwards of sixty
years in the deserts in the exercise of fervent penance and
contemplation. He first retired into Thebais, or Upper Egypt, about the
year 335.[1] Having learned the maxims, and being versed in the practice
of the most perfect virtue, under masters renowned for their sanctity;
still aiming, if possible, at greater perfection, he quitted the Upper
Egypt, and came to the Lower, before the year 373. In this part were
three deserts almost adjoining to each other; that of Scete, so called
from a town of the same name on the borders of Lybia; that of the Cells,
contiguous to the former, this name being given to it on account of the
multitude of hermit-cells with which it abounded; and a third, which
reached to the western branch of the Nile, called, from a great
mountain, the desert of Nitria. St. Macarius had a cell in each of these
deserts. When he dwelt in that of Nitria, it was his custom to give
advice to strangers, but his chief residence was in that of the Cells.
Each anchoret had here his separate cell, which he made his continued
abode, except on Saturday and Sunday, when all assembled in one church
to celebrate the divine mysteries, and partake of the holy communion. If
any one was absent, he was concluded to be sick, and was visited by the
rest. When a stranger came to live among them, every one offered him his
cell, and was ready to build another for himself. Their cells were not
within sight of each other. Their manual labor, which was that of making
baskets or mats, did not interrupt the prayer of the heart. A profound
silence reigned throughout the whole desert. Our saint received here the
dignity of priesthood, and shone as a bright sun influencing this holy
company, while St. Macarius the elder lived no less eminent in the
wilderness of Scete, forty miles distant. Palladius has recorded[2] a
memorable instance of the great self-denial professed and observed by
these holy hermits. A present was made of a newly-gathered bunch of
grapes to St. Macarius: the holy man carried it to a neighboring monk
who was sick; he sent it to another: it passed in like manner to all the
cells in the desert, and was brought back to Macarius, who was
exceedingly rejoiced to perceive the abstinence of his brethren, but
would not eat of the grapes himself.

The austerities of all the inhabitants of that desert were
extraordinary; but St. Macarius, in this regard, far surpasses the rest.
For seven years {074} together he lived only on raw herbs and pulse, and
for the three following years contented himself with four or five ounces
of bread a day, and consumed only one little vessel of oil in a year; as
Palladius assures us. His watchings were not less surprising, as the
same author informs us. God had given him a body capable of bearing the
greatest rigors; and his fervor was so intense, that whatever spiritual
exercise be heard of, or saw practised by others, be resolved to copy
the same. The reputation of the monastery of Tabenna, under St.
Pachomius, drew him to this place in disguise, some time before the year
349. St. Pachomius told him that he seemed too far advanced in years to
begin to accustom himself to their fastings and watchings; but at length
admitted him, on condition he would observe all the rules and
mortifications of the house. Lent approaching soon after, the monks were
assiduous in preparations to pass that holy time in austerities, each
according to his strength and fervor; some by fasting one, others two,
three, or four days, without any kind of nourishment; some standing all
day, others only sitting at their work. Macarius took some palm-tree
leaves steeped in water, as materials for his work, and standing in a
private corner, passed the whole time without eating, except a few green
cabbage leaves on Sundays. His hands were employed in almost continual
labor, and his heart conversed with God by prayer. If he left his
station on any pressing occasion, he never stayed one moment longer than
necessity required. Such a prodigy astonished the monks, who even
remonstrated to the abbot at Easter against a singularity of this
nature, which, if tolerated, might on several accounts be prejudicial to
their community. St. Pachomius entreated God to know who this stranger
was; and learning by revelation that he was the great Macarius, embraced
him, thanked him for his edifying visit, and desired him to return to
his desert, and there offer up his prayers for them.[3] Our saint
happened one day inadvertently to kill a gnat that was biting him in his
cell; reflecting that he had lost the opportunity of suffering that
mortification, he hastened from his cell for the marshes of Scete, which
abound with great flies, whose stings pierce even boars. There he
continued six months exposed to those ravaging insects; and to such a
degree was his whole body disfigured by them with sores and swellings,
that when he returned he was only to be known by his voice.[4] Some
authors relate[5] that he did this to overcome a temptation of the
flesh.

The virtue of this great saint was often exercised with temptations. One
was a suggestion to quit his desert and go to Rome, to serve the sick in
the hospitals; which, by due reflection, he discovered to be a secret
artifice of vain-glory inciting him to attract the eyes and esteem of
the world. True humility alone could discover the snare which lurked
under the specious gloss of holy charity. Finding this enemy extremely
importunate, he threw himself on the ground in his cell, and cried out
to the fiends: "Drag me hence if you can by force, for I will not stir."
Thus he lay till night, and by this vigorous resistance they were quite
disarmed.[6] As soon as he arose they renewed the assault; and he, to
stand firm against them, filled two great baskets with sand, and laying
them on his shoulders, travelled along the wilderness. A person of his
acquaintance meeting him, asked him what he meant, and made an offer of
easing him of his burden; but the saint made no other reply than this:
"I am tormenting my tormentor." He returned home in the evening, much
fatigued in body, but freed from the temptation. Palladius informs us,
that St. Macarius, desiring to enjoy more perfectly the sweets of
heavenly contemplation, at least for five days without interruption,
{075} immured himself within his cell for this purpose, and said to his
soul: "Having taken up thy abode in heaven, where thou hast God and the
holy angels to converse with, see that thou descend not thence: regard
not earthly things." The two first days his heart overflowed with divine
delights; but on the third he met with so violent a disturbance from the
devil, that he was obliged to stop short of his design, and to return to
his usual manner of life. Contemplative souls often desire, in times of
heavenly consolation, never to be interrupted in the glorious employment
of love and praise: but the functions of Martha, the frailty and
necessities of the human frame, and the temptations of the devil, force
them, though reluctant, from their beloved object. Nay, God oftentimes
withdraws himself, as the saint observed on this occasion, to make them
sensible of their own weakness, and that this life is a state of trial.
St. Macarius once saw, in a vision, devils closing the eyes of the monks
to drowsiness, and tempting them by diverse methods to distractions,
during the time of public prayer. Some, as often as they approached,
chased them away by a secret supernatural force, while others were in
dalliance with their suggestions. The saint burst into sighs and tears;
and, when prayer was ended, admonished every one of his distractions,
and of the snares of the enemy, with an earnest exhortation to employ,
in that sacred duty, a more than ordinary watchfulness against his
attacks.[7] St. Jerom[8] and others relate, that a certain anchoret in
Nitria, having left one hundred crowns at his death, which he had
acquired by weaving cloth, the monks of that desert met to deliberate
what should be done with that money. Some were for having it given to
the poor, others to the church: but Macarius, Pambo, Isidore, and
others, who were called the fathers, ordained that the one hundred
crowns should be thrown into the grave and buried with the corpse of the
deceased, and that at the same time the following words should be
pronounced: "_May thy money be with thee to perdition_."[9] This example
struck such a terror into all the monks, that no one durst lay up any
money by him.

Palladius, who, from 391, lived three years under our saint, was
eye-witness to several miracles wrought by him. He relates, that a
certain priest, whose head, in a manner shocking to behold, was consumed
by a cancerous sore, came to his cell, but was refused admittance; nay,
the saint at first would not even speak to him. Palladius, by earnest
entreaties, strove to prevail upon him to give at least some answer to
so great an object of compassion. Macarius, on the contrary, urged that
he was unworthy, and that God, to punish him for a sin of the flesh he
was addicted to, had afflicted him with this disorder: however, that
upon his sincere repentance, and promise never more during his life to
presume to celebrate the divine mysteries, he would intercede for his
cure. The priest confessed his sin with a promise, pursuant to the
ancient canonical discipline, never after to perform any priestly
function. The saint thereupon absolved him by the imposition of hands;
and a few days after the priest came back perfectly healed, glorifying
God, and giving thanks to his servant. Palladius found himself tempted
to sadness, on a suggestion from the devil, that he made no progress in
virtue, and that it was to no purpose for him to remain in the desert.
He consulted his master, who bade him persevere with fervor, never dwell
on the temptation, and always answer instantly the fiend: "My love for
Jesus Christ will not suffer me to quit my cell, where I am determined
to abide in order to please and serve him agreeably to his will."

The two saints of the name of Macarius happened one day to cross the
{076} Nile together in a boat, when certain tribunes, or principal
officers, who were there with their numerous trains, could not help
observing to each other, that those men, from the cheerfulness of their
aspect, must be exceeding happy in their poverty. Macarius of
Alexandria, alluding to their name, which in Greek signifies _happy_,
made this answer: "You have reason to call us happy, for this is our
name. But if we are happy in despising the world, are not you miserable
who live slaves to it?" These words, uttered with a tone of voice
expressive of an interior conviction of their truth, had such an effect
on the tribune who first spoke, that, hastening home, he distributed his
fortune among the poor, and embraced an eremitical life. In 375, both
these saints were banished for the catholic faith, at the instigation of
Lacius, the Arian patriarch of Alexandria. Our saint died in the year
394, as Tillemont shows from Palladius. The Latins commemorate him on
the 2d, the Greeks with the elder Macarius, on the 19th of January.

In the desert of Nitria there subsists at this day a monastery which
bears the name of St. Macarius. The monastic rule called St. Macarius's,
in the code of rules, is ascribed to this of Alexandria. St. Jerom seems
to have copied some things from it in his letter to Rusticus. The
concord, or collection of rules, gives us another, under the names of
the two SS. Macariuses; Serapion (of Arsinoe, or the other of Nitria;)
Paphnutius (of Becbale, priest of Scete;) and thirty-four other
abbots.[10] It was probably collected from their discipline, or
regulations and example. According to this latter, the monks fasted the
whole year, except on Sundays, and the time from Easter to Whitsuntide;
they observed the strictest poverty, and divided the day between manual
labor and hours of prayer; hospitality was much recommended in this
rule, but, for the sake of recollection, it was strictly forbid for any
monk, except one who was deputed to entertain guests, ever to speak to
any stranger without particular leave.[11] The definition of a monk or
anchoret, given by the abbot Rance of la Trappe, is a lively portraiture
of the great Macarius in the desert when, says he, a soul relishes God
in solitude, she thinks no more of any thing but heaven, and forgets the
earth, which has nothing in it that can now please her; she burns with
the fire of divine love, and sighs only after God, regarding death as
her greatest advantage; nevertheless they will find themselves much
mistaken, who, leaving the world, imagine they shall go to God by
straight paths, by roads sown with lilies and roses, in which they will
have no difficulties to conquer, but that the hand of God will turn
aside whatever could raise any in their way, or disturb the tranquillity
of their retreat: on the contrary, they must be persuaded that
temptations will everywhere follow them, that there is neither state nor
place in which they can be exempt, that the peace which God promises is
procured amidst tribulations, as the rose-bud amidst thorns; God has not
promised his servants that they shall not meet with trials, but that
with the temptation, he will give them grace to be able to bear it:[12]
heaven is offered to us on no other conditions; it is a kingdom of
conquest, the prize of victory--but, O God, what a prize!

Footnotes:
1.  Some confound our saint with Macarius of Pisper, or the disciple of
    Saint Antony. But the best critics distinguish them. The latter,
    with his fellow-disciple Amathas, buried St. Antony, who left him
    his staff, as Cronius, the Priest of Nitria, related to Palladius.
    To this Macarius of Pisper St. Antony committed the government of
    almost five thousand monks as appears from the life of saint
    Posthumias.
2.  Hist. Lausiac, c. 20.
3.  Pallad. Laus. c. 20.
4.  Ib.
5.  Rosweide b. 8, c. 20, p. 722.
6.  Pallad. Laus. c. 20.
7.  Rosweide, Vit. Patr. l. 2, c. 29, p. 481.
8.  S. Hier. ep. 18 (ol. 22) ad. Eustoch. T. 4, par. 2, p. 44, ed. Ben.
    et Rosw. Vit. Patr. l. 3, c. 319
9.  Acts viii. 20.
10. Concordia Regularum, autore S. Benedicto Ananiae Abbate, edita ab
    Hugone Menardo, O.S.B. in 4to Parisiis, 1638. Item, Codex Regularum
    collectus a S. Benedicto Ananiae, auctus a Luca Holstenio, two vols.
    4to. Romae, 1661.
11. C. 60, p. 809 edit. Mena{}.
12. 1 Cor. x. 13.

_On the same day_

Are commemorated many holy martyrs throughout the provinces of the Roman
empire; who, when Dioclesian, in 303, commanded the holy scriptures,
{077} wherever found, to be burnt, chose rather to suffer torments and
death than to be accessary {sic.} to their being destroyed by
surrendering them into the hands of the professed enemies of their
Author.[1]

Footnotes:
1.  See Baron. n. annal. et annot. in Martyr. Rom. Eus. l. 8, c. 2. H.
    Vales. not. ib. p. 163. Ruinart, in Acta SS Saturn &c. and S.
    Felicis. Fleury. Moeurs des Chret. p. 45. Tillem. Pers. de. Dicol.
    art. 10, t. 5. Lactant. de mort. Pers. c. 15 et 18, cum not. Baluz.
    &c.

_Also_, ST. CONCORDIUS, M.

A HOLY subdeacon, who in the reign of Marcus Antoninus, was apprehended
in a desert, and brought before Torquatus, governor of Umbria, then
residing at Spoletto, about the year 178. The martyr, paying no regard
to his promises or threats, in the first interrogatory was beaten with
clubs, and in the second was hung on the rack, but in the height of his
torments he cheerfully sang: "Glory be to thee, Lord Jesus!" Three days
after, two soldiers were sent by Torquatus, to behead him in the
dungeon, unless he would offer sacrifice to an idol, which a priest who
accompanied them carried with him for this purpose. The saint showed his
indignation by spitting upon the idol, upon which one of the soldiers
struck off his head. In the Roman Martyrology his name occurs on the
1st, in some others on the 2d of January. See his genuine acts in
Bollandus, p. 9, and Tillemont, t. 2, p. 439.

_Also_, ST. ADALARD, OR ADALARD. A.C.

Pronounced ALARD.[1]

THE birth of this holy monk was most illustrious, his father Bernard
being son of Charles Martel, and brother of king Pepin, so that Adalard
was cousin-german to Charlemagne, by whom he was called in his youth to
the court, and created count of his palace. A fear of offending God made
him tremble at the sight of the dangers of forfeiting his grace, with
which he was surrounded, and of the disorders which reigned in the
world. Lest he should be engaged to entangle his conscience, by seeming
to approve of things which he thought would endanger his salvation, he
determined to forsake at once both the court and the world. His
sacrifice was the more perfect and edifying, as he was endowed with the
greatest personal accomplishments of mind and body for the world, and in
the flower of his age; for he was only twenty years old, when, in 773,
he took the monastic habit at Corbie in Picardy, a monastery that had
been founded by queen Bathildes, in 662. After he had passed a year in
the fervent exercises of his novitiate, he made his vows; the first
employment assigned him in the monastery was that of gardener, in which,
while his hands were employed in the business of his calling, his
thoughts were on God and heavenly things. Out of humility, and a desire
of closer retirement, he obtained leave to be removed to mount Cassino,
where he hoped he should be concealed from the world; but his eminent
qualifications, and the great example of his virtue, betrayed and
defeated all the projects of his humility, and did not suffer him to
live long unknown; he was brought back to Corbie, and some years after
chosen abbot. Being obliged by Charlemagne often to attend at court, he
appeared there as the first among the king's counsellors, as he is
styled by Hincmar,[2] who had seen him there in 796. He was compelled by
Charlemagne {078} entirely to quit his monastery, and take upon him the
charge of chief minister to that prince's eldest son Pepin, who, at his
death at Milan in 810, appointed the saint tutor to his son Bernard,
then but twelve years of age. In this exalted and distracting station,
Adalard appeared even in council recollected and attentive to God, and
from his employments would hasten to his chamber, or the chapel, there
to plunge his heart in the centre of its happiness. During the time of
his prayers, tears usually flowed from his eyes in great abundance,
especially on considering his own miseries, and his distance from God.
The emperor recalled him from Milan, and deputed him to pope Leo III. to
assist at the discussion of certain difficulties started relating to the
clause inserted in the creed, concerning the procession of the Holy
Ghost from the Father and the Son. Charlemagne died in 814, on the 28th
of January, having associated his son, Lewis le Debonnaire, in the
empire in the foregoing September. While our saint lived in his
monastery, dead to the world, intent only on heavenly things,
instructing the ignorant, and feeding the poor, on whom he always
exhausted his whole revenue, Lewis declared his son, Lothaire, his
partner and successor in the empire, in 817: Bernard, who looked upon
that dignity as his right, his father Pepin having been eldest brother
to Lewis, rebelled, but lost both his kingdom and his life. Lewis was
prevailed upon, by certain flatterers, to suspect our saint to have been
no enemy to Bernard's pretensions, and banished him to a monastery,
situated in the little island Heri, called afterwards Hermoutier, and
St. Philebert's, on the coast of Aquitain. The saint's brother Wala (one
of the greatest men of that age, as appears from his curious life,
published by Mabillon) he obliged to become a monk at Lerins. His sister
Gondrada he confined in the monastery of the Holy Cross, at Poitiers;
and left only his other sister Theodrada, who was a nun, at liberty in
her convent at Soissons. This exile St. Adalard regarded as his gain,
and in it his tranquillity and gladness of soul met with no
interruptions. The emperor at length was made sensible of his innocence,
and, after five years' banishment, called him to his court towards the
close of the year 821; and, by the greatest honors and favors,
endeavored to make amends for the injustice he had done him. Adalard
(whose soul, fixed wholly on God, was raised above all earthly things)
was the same person in prosperity and adversity, in the palace as in the
cell, and in every station: the distinguishing parts of his character
were, an extraordinary gift of compunction and tears, the most tender
charity for all men, and an undaunted zeal for the relief and protection
of all the distressed. In 823, he obtained leave to return to the
government of his abbey of Corbie, where he with joy frequently took
upon himself the most humbling and mortifying employments of the house.
By his solicitude, earnest endeavors, and powerful example, his
spiritual children grew daily in fervor and divine love; and such was
his zeal for their continual advancement, that he passed no week without
speaking to every one of them in particular, and no day without
exhorting them all in general, by pathetic and instructive discourses.
The inhabitants of the country round his monastery had also a share in
his pious labors, and he exhausted on the poor the revenue of his
monastery, and whatever other temporal goods came to his hands, with a
profusion which many condemned as excessive, but which heaven, on urgent
occasions, sometimes approved by sensible miracles. The good old man
would receive advice from the meanest of his monks, with an astonishing
humility; when entreated by any to moderate his austerities, he
frequently answered, "I will take care of your servant, that he may
serve you the longer;" meaning himself. Several hospitals were erected
by him. During his banishment, another Adalard, who governed the
monastery by his appointment, began, upon our saint's project, to {079}
prepare the foundation of the monastery of New Corbie, vulgarly called
Corwey, in the diocese of Paderborn, nine leagues from that city, upon
the Weser, that it might be a nursery of evangelical laborers, to the
conversion and instruction of the northern nations. St. Adalard, after
his return to Corbie, completed this great undertaking in 822, for which
he went twice thither, and made a long stay, to settle the discipline of
his colony. Corwey is an imperial abbey; its territory reaches from the
bishopric of Paderborn to the duchy of Brunswick, and the abbot is one
of the eleven abbots, who sit with twenty-one bishops, in the imperial
diet at Ratisbon: but the chief glory of this house is derived from the
learning and zeal of St. Anscharius, and many others, who erected
illustrious trophies of religion in many barbarous countries. To
perpetuate the regularity which he established in his two monasteries,
he compiled a book of statutes for their use, of which considerable
fragments are extant:[3] for the direction of courtiers in their whole
conduct, he wrote an excellent book, On the Order of the Court; of which
work we have only the large extracts, which Hincmar has inserted in his
Instructions of king Carloman, the master-piece of that prelate's
writings, for which he is indebted to our saint. A treatise on the
Paschal Moon, and other works of St. Adalard, are lost. By those which
we have, also by his disciples, St. Paschasius Radbertus, St.
Anscharius, and others, and by the testimony of the former in his life,
it is clear that our saint was an elegant and zealous promoter of
literature in his monasteries: the same author assures us, that he was
well skilled, and instructed the people not only in the Latin, but also
in the Tudesque and vulgar French languages.[4] St. Adalard, for his
eminent learning, and extraordinary spirit of prayer and compunction,
was styled the Austin, the Antony, and the Jeremy of his age. Alcuin, in
a letter addressed to him under the name of Antony, calls him his
son;[5] whence many infer that he had been scholar to that great man.
St. Adalard was returned out of Germany to Old Corbie, when he fell sick
three days before Christmas: he received extreme unction some days
after, which was administered by Hildemar, bishop of Beauvais, who had
formerly been his disciple; the viaticum he received on the day after
the feast of our Lord's circumcision, about seven o'clock in the
morning, and expired the same day about three in the afternoon, in the
year 827, of his age seventy-three. Upon proof of several miracles, by
virtue of a commission granted by pope John XIX. (called by some XX.)
the body of the saint was enshrined, and translated with great solemnity
in 1040; of which ceremony we have a particular history written by St.
Gerard, who also composed an office in his honor, in gratitude for
having been cured of a violent headache through his intercession: the
same author relates seven other miracles performed by the same means.[6]
The relics of St. Adalard, except a small portion given to the abbey of
Chelles, are still preserved at Corbie, in a rich shrine and two smaller
cases. His name has never been inserted in the Roman Martyrology, though
he is honored as principal patron in many parish churches, and by
several towns on the banks of the Rhine and in the Low Countries. See
his life, compiled with accuracy, in a very florid pathetic style, by
way of panegyric, by his disciple Paschasius Radbertus, {080} extant in
Bollandus, and more correctly in Mabillon, (Act. Ben. t. 5, p. 306, also
the same abridged in a more historical style, by St. Gerard, first monk
of Corbie, afterwards first abbot of Seauve-majeur in Guienne, founder
by William, duke of Aquitain and count of Poitiers, in 1080. The history
of the translation of the saint's body, with an account of eight
miracles by the same St. Gerard, is also given us by Bollandus.)

Footnotes:
1.  It was usual among the ancient French, to add to certain words,
    syllables, or letters which they did not pronounce; as Chrodobert,
    or Rigobert, for Robert: Cloves for Louis; Clothaire for Lotharie,
    &c.
2.  Hinc. l. Inst. Regis, c. 12.
3.  Published by D'Achery, Spicil. tom. 4, p. 1, 20.
4.  From this testimony it is clear, that the French language, used by
    the common people, had then so much deviated from the Latin as to be
    esteemed a different tongue; which is also evident from Nithard, an
    officer in the army of Lewis le Debonnaire, who, in his history of
    the divisions between the sons of Lewis le Debonnaire, (published
    among the French historians by du Chesne,) gives us the original act
    of the agreement between the two brothers, Charles the Bald, and
    Lewis of Germany, at Strasburg, in 842.
5.  Alcuin, Ep. 107.
6.  St. Gerard, of Seauve-majeur, died on the 5th of April, 1095, and
    was canonized by C[oe]lestine III. in 1197. See his life, with an
    account of the foundation of his monastery, in Mabillon, Acts,
    Sanctorum ad S. Benedict. t. 9, p. 841.


JANUARY III.

ST. PETER BALSAM, M.

From his valuable acts in Ruinart, p. 501. Bollandus, p. 128. See
Tillemont, T. 5. Assemani, Act Mart. Occid. T. 2, p. 106.

A.D. 311.

PETER BALSAM, a native of the territory of Eleutheropolis, in Palestine,
was apprehended at Aulane, in the persecution of Maximinus. Being
brought before Severus, governor of the province, the interrogatory
began by asking him his name. Peter answered: "Balsam is the name of my
family, but I received that of Peter in baptism." SEVERUS. "Of what
family, and of what country are you?" PETER. "I am a Christian."
SEVERUS. "What is your employ?" PETER. "What employ can I have more
honorable, or what better thing can I do in the world, than to live a
Christian?" SEVERUS. "Do you know the imperial edicts?" PETER. "I know
the laws of God, the sovereign of the universe." SEVERUS. "You shall
quickly know that there is an edict of the most clement emperors,
commanding all to sacrifice to the gods, or be put to death." PETER.
"You will also know one day that there is a law of the eternal king,
proclaiming that every one shall perish, who offers sacrifice to devils:
which do you counsel me to obey, and which, do you think, should be my
option; to die by your sword, or to be condemned to everlasting misery,
by the sentence of the great king, the true God?" SEVERUS. "Seeing you
ask my advice, it is then that you obey the edict, and sacrifice to the
gods." PETER. "I can never be prevailed upon to sacrifice to gods of
wood and stone, as those are which you adore." SEVERUS. "I would have
you know, that it is in my power to revenge these affronts by your
death." PETER. "I had no intention to affront you. I only expressed what
is written in the divine law." SEVERUS. "Have compassion on yourself,
and sacrifice." PETER. "If I am truly compassionate to myself, I ought
not to sacrifice." SEVERUS. "My desire is to use lenity; I therefore
still do allow you time to consider with yourself, that you may save
your life." PETER. "This delay will be to no purpose, for I shall not
alter my mind; do now what you will be obliged to do soon, and complete
the work, which the devil, your father, has begun; for I will never do
what Jesus Christ forbids me."

Severus, on hearing these words, ordered him to be hoisted on the rack,
and while he was suspended in the air, said to him scoffing: "What say
you now, Peter; do you begin to know what the rack is? Are you yet
willing to sacrifice?" Peter answered: "Tear me with iron hooks, and
talk not of my sacrificing to your devils: I have already told you, that
I will sacrifice to that God alone for whom I suffer." Hereupon the
governor {081} commanded his tortures to be redoubled. The martyr, far
from fetching the least sigh, sung with alacrity those verses of the
royal prophet: _One thing I have asked of the Lord; this will I seek
after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my
life_.[1] _I will take the chalice of salvation, and will call upon the
name of the Lord_.[2] The governor called forth fresh executioners to
relieve the first, now fatigued. The spectators, seeing the martyr's
blood run down in streams, cried out to him: "Obey the emperors:
sacrifice, and rescue yourself from these torments." Peter replied: "Do
you call these torments? I, for my part, feel no pain: but this I know,
that if I am not faithful to my God, I must expect real pains, such as
cannot be conceived." The judge also said: "Sacrifice, Peter Balsam, or
you will repent it." PETER. "Neither will I sacrifice, nor shall I
repent it." SEVERUS. "I am just ready to pronounce sentence." PETER. "It
is what I most earnestly desire." Severus then dictated the sentence in
this manner: "It is our order, that Peter Balsam, for having refused to
obey the edict of the invincible emperors, and having contemned our
commands, after obstinately defending the law of a man crucified, be
himself nailed to a cross." Thus it was that this glorious martyr
finished his triumph, at Aulane, on the 3d of January, which day he is
honored in the Roman Martyrology, and that of Bede.

       *       *       *       *       *

In the example of the martyrs we see, that religion alone inspires true
constancy and heroism, and affords solid comfort and joy amidst the most
terrifying dangers, calamities, and torments. It spreads a calm
throughout a man's whole life, and consoles at all times. He that is
united to God, rests in omnipotence, and in wisdom and goodness; he is
reconciled with the world whether it frowns or flatters, and with
himself. The interior peace which he enjoys, is the foundation of
happiness, and the delights which innocence and virtue bring, abundantly
compensate the loss of the base pleasures of vice. Death itself, so
terrible to the worldly man, is the saint's crown, and completes his joy
and his bliss.

Footnotes:
1.  Ps. xxvi. 4.
2.  Ps. cxv. 4.

ST. ANTERUS, POPE.

HE succeeded St. Pontianus in 235. He sat only one month and ten days,
and is styled a martyr by Bede, Ado, and the present Roman Martyrology.
See Card. d'Aguirre, Conc. Hispan. T. 3. In the martyrology called S.
Jerom's, kept at S. Cyriacus's, it is said that he was buried on the
Appian road, in the Paraphagene, where the cemetery of Calixtus was
afterwards erected.

ST. GORDIUS.

MARTYRED at Caesarea, in Cappadocia, was a centurion to the army, but
retired to the deserts when the persecution was first raised by
Dioclesian. The desire of shedding his blood for Christ made him quit
his solitude, while the people of that city were assembled to the
Circus[1] to solemnize public games in honor of Mars. His attenuated
body, long beard and hair and ragged clothes, drew on him the eyes of
the whole assembly; yet, with this strange garb and mien, the graceful
air of majesty that appeared in his {082} countenance commanded
veneration. Being examined by the governor, and loudly confessing his
faith, he was condemned to be beheaded. Having fortified himself by the
sign of the cross,[2] he joyfully received the deadly blow. St. Basil,
on this festival, pronounced his panegyric at Caesarea, in which he says,
several of his audience had been eye-witnesses of the martyr's triumph.
Hom. 17, t. 1.

Footnotes:
1.  The _Circus_ was a ring, or large place, wherein the people sat and
    saw the public games.
2.  [Greek: Heautou ton tupon tou staurou perigrapsas.] St. Basil, t. 1,
    p. 452.

ST. GENEVIEVE, OR GENOVEFA, V.

CHIEF PATRONESS OF THE CITY OF PARIS.

HER father's name was Severus, and her mother's Gerontia: she was born
about the year 422, at Nanterre, a small village four miles from Paris,
near the famous modern stations, or Calvary, adorned with excellent
sculptures, representing our Lord's Passion, on Mount Valerien. When St.
Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, went with St. Lupus into Britain to oppose
the Pelagian heresy, he lay at Nanterre in his way. The inhabitants
flocked about them to receive their blessing, and St. Germanus made them
an exhortation, during which he took particular notice of Genevieve,
though only seven years of age. After his discourse he inquired for her
parents, and addressing himself to them, foretold their daughter's
future sanctity, and said that she would perfectly accomplish the
resolution she had taken of serving God, and that others would imitate
her example. He then asked Genevieve whether it was not her desire to
serve God in a state of perpetual virginity, and to bear no other title
than that of a spouse of Jesus Christ. The virgin answered, that this
was what she had long desired, and begged that by his blessing she might
be from that moment consecrated to God. The holy prelate went to the
church of the place, followed by the people, and, during long singing of
psalms and prayers, says Constantius,[1]--that is, during the recital of
None and Vespers,[2] as the author of the life of St. Genevieve
expresses it,[3] he held his hand upon the virgin's head. After he had
supped, he dismissed her, giving a strict charge to her parents to bring
her again to him very early the next morning. The father complied with
the commission, and St. Germanus asked Genevieve whether she remembered
the promise she had made to God. She said she did, and declared she
would, by the divine assistance, faithfully perform it. The bishop gave
her a brass medal, on which a cross was engraved, to wear always about
her neck, to put her in mind of the consecration she had made of herself
to God; and at the same time, he charged her never to wear bracelets, or
necklaces of pearls, gold, or silver, or any other ornaments of vanity.
All this she most religiously observed, and considering herself as the
spouse of Christ, gave herself up to the most fervent practices of
devotion and penance. From the words of St. Germanus, in his exhortation
to St. Genevieve never to wear jewels, Baillet and some others infer,
that she must have been a person of quality and fortune; but the ancient
Breviary and constant tradition of the place assure us, that her father
was a poor shepherd. Adrian, Valois, and Baluze, observe, that her most
ancient life ought not to be esteemed of irrefragable authority, and
that the words of St. Germanus are {083} not perhaps related with a
scrupulous fidelity.[4] The author of her life tells us, that the holy
virgin begging one day with great importunity that she might go to the
church, her mother struck her on the face, but in punishment lost her
sight, which she only recovered, two months after, by washing her eyes
twice or thrice with water which her daughter fetched from the well, and
upon which she had made the sign of the cross. Hence the people look
upon the well at Nanterre as having been blessed by the saint. About
fifteen years of age, she was presented to the bishop of Paris to
receive the religious veil at his hands, together with two other persons
of the same sex. Though she was the youngest of the three, the bishop
placed her the first, saying, that heaven had already sanctified her; by
which he seems to have alluded to the promise she had already made, in
the presence of SS. Germanus and Lupus, of consecrating herself to God.
From that time she frequently ate only twice in the week, on Sundays and
Thursdays. Her food was barley bread with a few beans. At the age of
fifty, by the command of certain bishops, she mitigated this austerity,
so far as to allow herself a moderate use of fish and milk. Her prayer
was almost continual, and generally attended with a large flow of tears.
After the death of her parents she left Nanterre, and settled with her
god-mother at Paris; but sometimes undertook journeys upon motives of
charity, and illustrated the cities of Meaux, Leon, Tours, Orleans, and
all other places wherever she went, with miracles and remarkable
predictions. God permitted her to meet with some severe trials; for at a
certain time all persons indiscriminately seemed to be in a combination
against her, and persecuted her under the opprobrious names of
visionary, hypocrite, and the like imputations, all tending to asperse
her innocency. The arrival of St. Germanus at Paris, probably on his
second journey to Britain, for some time silenced her calumniators; but
it was not long ere the storm broke out anew. Her enemies were fully
determined to drown her, when the archdeacon of Auxerre arrived with
_Eulogies_, or blessed bread, sent her by St. Germanus, as a testimony
of his particular esteem for her virtues, and a token of communion. This
seems to have happened while St. Germanus was absent in Italy in 449, a
little before his death. This circumstance, so providentially opportune,
converted the prejudices of her calumniators into a singular veneration
for her during the remainder of her life. The Franks or French had then
possessed themselves of the better part of Gaul; and Childeric, their
king, took Paris.[5] During the long blockade of that city, the citizens
being extremely distressed by famine, St. Genevieve, as the author of
her life relates, went out at the head of a company who were sent to
procure provisions, and brought back from Arcis-sur-Aube and Troyes
several boats laden with corn. Nevertheless, Childeric, when he had made
himself master of Paris, though always a pagan, respected St. Genevieve,
and, upon her intercession, spared the lives of many prisoners, and did
several other acts of clemency and bounty. Our saint, out of her
singular devotion to St. Dionysius and his companions, the apostles of
the country, frequently visited their tombs at the borough of
Catulliacum, which many think the borough since called Saint Denys's.
She also excited the zeal of many pious persons to build there a church
in {084} honor of St. Dionysius, which King Dagobert I. afterwards
rebuilt with a stately monastery in 629.[6] Saint Genevieve likewise
performed several pilgrimages, in company with other holy virgins, to
the shrine of St. Martin at Tours. These journeys of devotion she
sanctified by the exercise of holy recollection and austere penance.
King Clovis, who embraced the faith in 496, listened often with
deference to the advice of St. Genevieve, and granted liberty to several
captives at her request. Upon the report of the march of Attila with his
army of Huns, the Parisians were preparing to abandon their city, but
St. Genevieve persuaded them, in imitation of Judith and Hester, to
endeavor to avert the scourge, by fasting, watching, and prayer. Many
devout persons of her sex passed many days with her in prayer in the
baptistery; from whence the particular devotion to St. Genevieve, which
is practised at St. John-le-rond, the ancient public baptistery of the
church of Paris, seems to have taken rise. She assured the people of the
protection of heaven, and their deliverance; and though she was long
treated by many as an impostor, the event verified the prediction, that
barbarian suddenly changing the course of his march, probably by
directing it towards Orleans. Our author attributes to St. Genevieve the
first design of the magnificent church which Clovis began to build in
honor of SS. Peter and Paul, by the pious counsel of his wife Saint
Clotilda, by whom it was finished several years after; for he only laid
the foundation a little before his death, which happened in 511.[7] St.
Genevieve died about the same year, probably five weeks after that
prince, on the 3d of January, 512, being eighty-nine years old. Some
think she died before King Clovis. Prudentius, bishop of Paris, had been
buried about the year 409, on the spot where this church was built.
Clovis was interred in it: his remains were afterwards removed into the
middle of the choir, where they are covered with a modern monument of
white marble, with an inscription. St. Clotilda was buried near the
steps of the high altar in 545; but her name having been enrolled among
the saints, her relics were enshrined, and are placed behind the high
altar. Those of St. Alda, the companion of St. Genevieve, and of St.
Ceraunus, bishop of Paris, are placed in silver shrines on the altar of
S. Clotilda. The tombs of St. Genevieve and King Clovis were near
together. Immediately after the saint was buried, the people raised an
oratory of wood over her tomb, as her historian assures us, and this was
soon changed into the stately church built under the invocation of SS.
Peter and Paul. From this circumstance, we gather that her tomb was
situated in a part of this church, which was only built after her death.
Her tomb, though empty, is still shown in the subterraneous church, or
vault, betwixt those of Prudentius, and St. Ceraunus, bishop of Paris.
But her relics were enclosed, by St. {085} Eligius, in a costly shrine,
adorned with gold and silver, which he made with his own hands about the
year 630, as St. Owen relates in his life. In 845 these relics, for fear
of the Normans, were removed to Atis, and thence to Dravel, where the
abbot of the canons kept a tooth for his own church. In 850 they were
carried to Marisy, near Ferte-Milon, and five years after brought back
to Paris. The author of the original life of St. Genevieve concludes it
by a description of the Basilick which Clovis and St. Clotilda erected,
adorned with a triple portico, in which were painted the histories of
the patriarchs, prophets, martyrs, and confessors. This church was
several times plundered, and at length burnt, by the Normans. When it
was rebuilt, soon after the year 856, the relics of St. Genevieve were
brought back. The miracles which were performed there from the time of
her burial, rendered this church famous over all France, so that at
length it began to be known only by her name. The city of Paris has
frequently received sensible proofs of the divine protection, through
her intercession. The most famous instance is that called the miracle of
_Des Ardens_, or of the burning fever. In 1129, in the reign of Louis
VI., a pestilential fever, with a violent inward heat, and pains in the
bowels, swept off, in a short time, fourteen thousand persons; nor could
the art of physicians afford any relief. Stephen, bishop of Paris, with
the clergy and people, implored the divine mercy, by fasting and
supplications. Yet the distemper began not to abate till the shrine of
St. Genevieve was carried in a solemn procession to the cathedral.
During that ceremony many sick persons were cured by touching the
shrine; and of all that then lay ill of that distemper in the whole
town, only three died, the rest recovered, and no others fell ill. Pope
Innocent II. coming to Paris the year following, after having passed a
careful scrutiny on the miracle, ordered an annual festival in
commemoration of it on the 26th of November, which is still kept at
Paris. A chapel near the cathedral, called anciently St. Genevieve's the
Little, erected near the house in which she died, afterward, from this
miracle, (though it was wrought not at this chapel, but chiefly at the
cathedral, as Le Beuf demonstrates,) was called St. Genevieve des
Ardens, which was demolished in 1747, to make place for the Foundling
Hospital.[8] Both before and since that time, it is the custom, in
extraordinary public calamities, to carry the shrine of St. Genevieve,
accompanied with those of St. Marcel, St. Aurea, St. Lucan, martyr, St.
Landry, St. Merry, St. Paxentius, St. Magloire, and others, in a solemn
procession to the cathedral; on which occasion the regular canons of St.
Genevieve walk barefoot, and at the right hand of the chapter of the
cathedral, and the abbot walks on the right hand of the archbishop. The
present rich shrine of St. Genevieve was made by the abbot, and the
relics enclosed in it in 1242. It is said that one hundred and
ninety-three marks of silver, and eight of gold, were used in making it;
and it is almost covered with precious stones, most of which are the
presents of several kings and queens. The crown or cluster of diamonds
which glitters on the top, was given by Queen Mary of Medicis. The
shrine is placed behind the choir, upon a fine piece of architecture,
supported by four high pillars, two of marble, and two of jaspis.[9] See
the Ancient Life of St. Genevieve, written by an anonymous author,
eighteen years after her death, of which the best edition is given by F.
Charpentier, a Genevevan regular canon, in octavo, in 1697. It is
interpolated in several editions. Bollandus has added another more
modern life; see also Tillemont, t. 16, p. 621, and notes, ib. p. 802.
Likewise, Gallia Christiana Nova, t. 7, p. 700.

Footnotes:
1.  Constant. in vit. S. Germani. Altiss. l. 1, c. 20.
2.  _Nonam atque duodecim_. It deserves the attention of clergymen, that
    though anciently the canonical hours were punctually observed in the
    divine office, SS. Germanus and Lupus deferred None beyond the hour,
    that they might recite it in the church, rather than on the road.
    The word _duodecima_ used for Vespers, is a clear demonstration that
    the canonical hour of Vespers was not five, but six o'clock,--which,
    about the _equinox_, was the twelfth hour of the natural day: which
    is also proved from the name of the Ferial hymn at Vespers, _Jam ter
    quaternis_, &c. See Card. Bona, de div. Psalmodia, &c.
3.  Apud Bolland.
4.  See Piganiol, Descrip. de Paris, t. 8, v. Nanterre.
5.  Paris was called by the Romans the castle of the Parisians, being by
    its situation one of the strongest fortresses in Gaul; for at that
    time it was confined to the island of the river Seine, now called
    the Isle _du Palais_, and the _City_: though the limits of the city
    are now extended somewhat beyond that island, it is the smallest
    part of the town. This isle was only accessible over two wooden
    bridges, each of which was defended by a castle, which were
    afterwards called the _Great_ and _Little_ Chatelet. (See Lobineau.
    Hist. de la Ville de Paris, t. l, l. 1.) The greatest part of the
    neighboring country was covered with thick woods. The Roman
    governors built a palace without the island, (now in Rue de
    l'Harpe,) which Julian, the Apostate, while he commanded in Gaul,
    exceedingly embellished, furnished with water by a curious aqueduct,
    and, for the security of his own person, contrived a subterraneous
    passage from the palace to the castle or Great Chatelet; of all
    which works certain vestiges are to be seen at this day.
6.  Some think that Catualliacum was rather Montmartre than St. Denys's,
    and that the church built there in the time of St. Genevieve stood
    near the bottom of the mountain, because it is said in her life to
    have been at the place where St. Dionysius suffered martyrdom; and
    it is added, that she often visited the place, attended by many
    virgins, watched there every Saturday night in prayer, and that one
    night when she was going thither with her companions in the rain,
    and through very dirty roads, the lamp that was carried before her
    was extinguished, but lighted again upon her taking it into her own
    hands: all which circumstances seem not to agree to a place two
    leagues distant, like St. Denys's.
7.  The author of the life of St. Bathildes testifies, that Clovis built
    this church for the use of monks; which Mabillon confirms by other
    proofs, (Op. Posth. t. 2, p. 356.) He doubts not but it continued in
    their hands, till being burnt by the Normans in 856 (as appears from
    Stephen of Tournay, ep. 146,) it was soon after rebuilt, and given
    to secular canons. These, in punishment of a sedition, were expelled
    by the authority of Eugenius III., and Suger, abbot of St. Denys's,
    and prime minister to Lewis VII., or the Young, in 1148, who
    introduced into this church twelve regular canons of the order of
    St. Austin, chosen out of St. Victor's abbey, which had been erected
    about forty years before, and was then most famous for many great
    men, the austerity of its rule, and the piety and learning which
    flourished in it. Cardinal Francis Rochefoucault, the history of
    whose most edifying life and great actions will be a model of all
    pastoral virtues to all ages to come, having established an
    excellent reformation in the abbey of St. Vincent, at regular
    canons, at Senlis, when he was bishop of that see, being nominated
    abbot of St. Genevieve's by Lewis XIII., called from St. Vincent's
    F. Charles Faure, and twelve others, in 1624, and by their means
    introduced the same reformation in this monastery, which was
    confirmed in 1634, when F. Faure was chosen abbot coadjutor to the
    cardinal. He died in odor of sanctity in 667, the good cardinal
    having passed to a better life in 1645.
8.  _De Miraculo Ardentium_. See Anonym. ap. Bolland. et Brev. Paris. ad
    26 Nov.
9.  See Piganiol, Descr. de Paris, t. 5, p. 238, et Le Fevre Calendrier
    Hist. de l'Eglise de Paris, Nov 26, et Jan. 3. Gallia Christian.
    Nova, t. 7, p. 700. Le Beuf l. 2, p. 95, et l. 1, p. 387.

{086}


JANUARY IV.

ST. TITUS, DISCIPLE OF ST. PAUL, B.

See St. Paul, ep. ad Tit. and 1 and 2 ad Cor.; also, Tillemont T. 2,
Calmet, T. 8, Le Quien Oriens Christianus, T. 2, p. 256. F. Farlat
Illyrici sacri. T. 1, p. 354 ad 392.

ST. TITUS was born a Gentile, and seems to have been converted by St.
Paul, who calls him his son in Christ. His extraordinary virtue and
merit gained him the particular esteem and affection of this apostle;
for we find him employed as his secretary and interpreter; and he styles
him his brother, and copartner in his labors; commends exceedingly his
solicitude and zeal for the salvation of his brethren,[1] and in the
tenderest manner expresses the comfort and support he found in him,[2]
insomuch, that, on a certain occasion, he declared that he found no rest
in his spirit, because at Troas he had not met Titus.[3] In the year 51,
he accompanied him to the council that was held at Jerusalem, on the
subject of the Mosaic rites. Though the apostle had consented to the
circumcision of Timothy, in order to render his ministry acceptable
among the Jews, he would not allow the same in Titus, apprehensive of
giving thereby a sanction to the error of certain false brethren, who
contended that the ceremonial institutes of the Mosaic law were not
abolished by the law of grace. Towards the close of the year 56, St.
Paul sent Titus from Ephesus to Corinth, with full commission to remedy
the several subjects of scandal, as also to allay the dissensions in
that church. He was there received with great testimonies of respect,
and was perfectly satisfied with regard to the penance and submission of
the offenders; but could not be prevailed upon to accept from them any
present, not even so much as his own maintenance. His love for that
church was very considerable, and at their request he interceded with
St. Paul for the pardon of the incestuous man. He was sent the same year
by the apostle a second time to Corinth, to prepare the alms that church
designed for the poor Christians at Jerusalem. All these particulars we
learn from St. Paul's two epistles to the Corinthians.

St. Paul, after his first imprisonment, returning from Rome into the
east, made some stay in the island of Crete, to preach there the faith
of Jesus Christ: but the necessities of other churches requiring his
presence elsewhere, he ordained his beloved disciple Titus bishop of
that island, and left him to finish the work he had successfully begun.
"We may form a judgment," says St. Chrysostom,[4] "from the importance
of the charge, how great the esteem of St. Paul was for his disciple."
But finding the loss of such a companion too material, at his return
into Europe the year after, the apostle ordered him to meet him at
Nicopolis in Epirus, where he intended to pass the winter, and to set
out for that place as soon as either Tychichus, or Arthemas, whom he had
sent to supply his place during his absence, should arrive in Crete. St.
Paul sent these instructions to Titus, in the canonical epistle
addressed to him, when on his Journey to Nicopolis, in autumn, in the
year 64. He ordered him to establish Priests,[5] that is, {087} bishops,
as St. Jerom, St. Chrysostom, and Theodoret expound it, in all the
cities of the island. He sums up the principal qualities necessary for a
bishop, and gives him particular advice touching his own conduct to his
flock, exhorting him to hold to strictness of discipline, but seasoned
with lenity. This epistle contains the rule of episcopal life, and as
such, we may regard it as faithfully copied in the life of this
disciple. In the year 65, we find him sent by St. Paul to preach in
Dalmatia.[6] He again returned to Crete, and settled the faith in that
and the adjacent little island. All that can be affirmed further of him
is, that he finished a laborious and holy life by a happy death in
Crete, in a very advanced old age, some affirm in the ninety-fourth year
of his age. The body of St. Titus was kept with great veneration in the
cathedral of Gortyna, the ruins of which city, the ancient metropolis of
the island, situated six miles from mount Ida, are still very
remarkable. This city being destroyed by the Saracens in 823, these
relics could never since be discovered: only the head of our saint was
conveyed safe to Venice, and is venerated in the Ducal basilica of St.
Mark (See Creta Sacra, Auctore Flaminio Cornelio, Senatore Veneto.
Venetiis, anno 1755, de S. Tito, T. 1, p. 189, 195.) St. Titus has been
looked upon in Crete as the first archbishop of Gortyna, which
metropolitical see is fixed at Candia, since this new metropolis was
built by the Saracens. The cathedral of the city of Candia, which now
gives its name to the whole island, bears his name. The Turks leave this
church in the hands of the Christians. The city of Candia was built in
the ninth century, seventeen miles from the ancient Gortyn or Gortyna.
Under the metropolitan of Candia, there are at present in this island
eleven suffragan bishops of the Greek communion.

When St. Paul assumed Titus to the ministry, this disciple was already a
saint, and the apostle found in him all the conditions which he charged
him so severely to require in those whom he should honor with the
pastoral charge. It is an illusion of false zeal, and a temptation of
the enemy, for young novices to begin to teach before they have learned
themselves how to practise. Young birds, which leave their nests before
they are able to fly, are sure to perish. Trees which push forth their
buds before the season, yield no fruit, the flowers being either nipped
by the frost, or destroyed by the sun. So those who give themselves up
to the exterior employments of the ministry, before they are thoroughly
grounded in the spirit of the gospel, strain their tender interior
virtue, and produce only unclean or tainted fruit. All who undertake the
pastoral charge, besides a thorough acquaintance with the divine law,
and the maxims and spirit of the gospel, and experience, discretion, and
a knowledge of the heart of man, or his passions, must have seriously
endeavored to die to themselves by the habitual practice of self-denial,
and a rooted humility; and must have been so well exercised in holy
contemplation, as to retain that habitual disposition of soul amidst
exterior employments, and in them to be able still to say, _I sleep, and
my heart watches_;[7] that is, I sleep to all earthly things, and am
awake only to my heavenly friend and spouse, being absorbed in the
thoughts and desires of the most ardent love.

Footnotes:
1.  2 Cor. viii. 16, xii. 18.
2.  2 Cor. vii. 6, 7.
3.  2 Cor. xi. 13.
4.  Hom. i. in Tit.
5.  [Greek: Presbuterous], Tit. i. 5. See the learned Dr. Hammond's
    dissertation on this subject. From the words of St. Paul, Tit. i. De
    Marca de Concord. l. 1, c. 3, n. 2. and Schelstrate, T. 2, Ant.
    Eccl. Diss. 4, c. 2 prove archbishops to be of apostolic
    institution.
6.  St. Titus certainly preached in Dalmatia, 2 Tim. iv. 10, &c. He is
    honored in that country as its principal apostle, on which see the
    learned Jesuit F. Fariat, Illyrici Sacr. T. i. p. 355. Saint
    Domnius, who is honored among the saints on the 7th of May, is said
    to have been ordained by him first bishop of Salona, then the
    metropolis, which see was afterwards translated to Spalatro.
7.  Cant. v.

{088}

ST. GREGORY, B.

HE was one of the principal senators of Autun, and continued from the
death of his wife a widower till the age of fifty-seven, at which time,
for his singular virtues, he was compelled from his private penitential
life, and consecrated bishop of Langres, which see he governed with
admirable prudence and zeal thirty-three years, sanctifying his pastoral
labors by the most profound humility, assiduous prayer, and
extraordinary abstinence and mortification. An incredible number of
infidels were converted by him from idolatry, and worldly Christians
from their disorders. He died about the beginning of the year 541, but
some days after the Epiphany. Out of devotion to St. Benignus, he
desired to be buried near that saint's tomb at Dijon, which town was
then in the diocese of Langres, and had often been the place of his
residence. This was executed by his virtuous son Tetricus--who succeeded
him in his bishopric. The 4th of January seems to have been the day of
the translation of his relics. He is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology.
See his miracles recorded by St. Gregory of Tours. Vit. Patr. c. 7.
Hist. Franc. l. 3, c. 15, 19. Cointe Annal. et Gall. Christ.

ST. RIGOBERT, OR ROBERT.

HE was abbot of Orbais, afterwards bishop of Rheims, was favored with
the gift of miracles, and suffered an unjust banishment under Charles
Martel. He was recalled by Pepin, but finding Milo in possession of his
see, retired to Gernicour, a village four or five leagues from Rheims,
where he led a retired life in the exercises of penance and prayer. He
died about the year 750, and was buried in the church of St. Peter at
Gernicour, which he had built. Hincmar, the fifth bishop from him,
translated his relics to the abbey of St. Theodoric, and nine years
after, to the church of St. Dionysius at Rheims. Fulco, Hincmar's
successor, removed them into the metropolitan church of our lady, in
which the greater part is preserved in a rich shrine; but a portion is
kept in the church of St. Dionysius there, and another portion in the
cathedral of Paris, where a chapel bears his name. See his anonymous
life in Bollandus; also Flodoard, l. 2. Hist. Rhemens. &c.

ST. RUMON, B.C.

WILLIAM of Malmesbury informs us, that the history of his life was
destroyed by the wars, which has also happened in other parts of
England. He was a bishop, though it is not known of what see. His
veneration was famous at Tavistock, in Devonshire, where Ordulf, earl of
Devonshire, built a church under his invocation, before the year 960.
Wilson, upon informations given him by certain persons of that country,
inserted his name on this day; in the second edition of his English
Martyrology. See Malmesb. l. 2. De gestis Pont. Angl. in Cridiensibus.

{089}


JANUARY V.

ST. SIMEON STYLITES, C.

From the account given of him by Theodoret, one of the most judicious
and most learned prelates of the church, who lived in the same country,
and often visited him; this account was written sixteen years before the
saint's death. Also from St. Simeon's life written by Antony, his
disciple, published genuine in Bollandus, and the same in Chaldaic by
Cosmas, a priest; all three contemporaries and eye-witnesses. This work
of Cosmas has been lately published by Monsignor Stephen Assemani,[1]
from a Chaldaic MS, which he proves to have been written in the year
474, fifteen years only after the death of St. Simeon. Also from the
ancient lives of SS. Euthyinius, Theodosius, Auxentius, and Daniel
Stylites. Evagrius, Theodorus Lector, and other most faithful writers of
that and the following age, mention the most wonderful actions of this
saint. The severest critics do not object to this history, in which so
many contemporary writers, several of them eye-witnesses, agree; persons
of undoubted veracity, virtue, and sagacity, who could not have
conspired in a falsehood, nor could have imposed upon the world facts,
which were of their own nature public and notorious. See Tillemont, T.
14.

A.D. 459.

ST. SIMEON was, in his life and conduct, a subject of astonishment, not
only to the whole Roman empire, but also to many barbarous and infidel
nations. The Persians, Medes, Saracens, Ethiopians, Iberians, and
Scythians, had the highest veneration for him. The kings of Persia
thought his benediction a great happiness. The Roman emperors solicited
his prayers, and consulted him on matters of the greatest importance. It
must, nevertheless, be acknowledged, that his most remarkable actions,
how instrumental soever they might be to this universal veneration and
regard for him, are a subject of admiration, not of imitation. They may
serve, notwithstanding, to our spiritual edification and improvement in
virtue; as we cannot well reflect on his fervor, without condemning and
being confounded at our own indolence in the service of God.

St. Simeon was son to a poor shepherd in Cilicia, on the borders of
Syria, and at first kept his father's sheep. Being only thirteen years
of age, he was much moved by hearing the beatitudes one day read in the
church, particularly these: _Blessed are they that mourn; blessed are
the clean of heart_. The youth addressed himself to a certain old man,
to learn the meaning of those words; and begged to know how the
happiness they promised was to be obtained. He told him that continual
prayer, watching, fasting, weeping, humiliation, and patient suffering
of persecutions, were pointed out by those texts as the road to _true
happiness_; and that a solitary life afforded the best opportunities for
enforcing the practice of these good works, and establishing a man in
solid virtue. Simeon, upon this, withdrew to a small distance, where,
falling prostrate upon the ground, he besought Him, who desires all may
be saved, to conduct him in the paths which lead to happiness and
perfection; to the pursuit of which, under the help of his divine grace,
he unreservedly from that moment devoted himself. At length, falling
into a slumber, he was favored with a vision, which it was usual with
him afterward to relate.. He seemed to himself to be digging a pit for
the foundation of a house, and that, as often as he stopped for taking a
little breath, which was four times, he was commanded each time to dig
deeper, till at length he was told he might desist, the pit being deep
enough to receive the intended foundation, on which he would be able to
raise a superstructure of what kind, and to what height he pleased. "The
event," says Theodoret, "verified the prediction; the actions of this
wonderful man were so superior {090} to nature, that they might well
require the deepest foundation of humility and fervor whereon to raise
and establish them."

Rising from the ground, he repaired {"here paired" in the original text}
to a monastery in that neighborhood under the direction of a holy abbot,
called Timothy, and lay prostrate at the gate for several days, without
either eating or drinking; begging to be admitted on the footing of the
lowest servant in the house, and as a general drudge. His petition was
granted, and he complied with the terms of it with great fervor and
affection for four months. During this time he learned the Psalter by
heart, the first task enjoined the novices; and his familiarity with the
sacred oracles it contains, greatly helped to nourish his soul in a
spiritual life. Though yet in his tender youth, he practised all the
austerities of the house; and, by his humility and charity, gained the
good-will of all the monks. Having here spent two years, he removed to
the monastery of Heliodorus, a person endowed with an admirable spirit
of prayer; and who, being then sixty-five years of age, had spent
sixty-two of them in that community, so abstracted from the world, as to
be utterly ignorant of the most obvious things in it, as Theodoret
relates, who was intimately acquainted with him. Here Simeon much
increased his mortifications; for whereas those monks ate but once a
day, which was towards night, he, for his part, made but one meal a
week, which was on Sundays. These rigors, however, he moderated at the
interposition of his superior's authority, and from that time was more
private in his mortifications. With this view, judging the rough rope of
the well, made of twisted palm-tree leaves, a proper instrument of
penance, he tied it close about his naked body, where it remained
unknown both to the community and his superior, till such time as it
having eat into his flesh, what he had privately done was discovered by
the stench proceeding from the wound. Three days successively his
clothes, which clung to it, were to be softened with liquids, to
disengage them; and the incisions of the physician, to cut the cord out
of his body, were attended with such anguish and pain, that he lay for
some time as dead. On his recovery, the abbot, to prevent the ill
consequences such a dangerous singularity might occasion, to the
prejudice of uniformity in monastic discipline, dismissed him.

After this he repaired to a hermitage, at the foot of mount Telnescin,
or Thelanissa, where he came to a resolution of passing the whole forty
days of Lent in a total abstinence, after the example of Christ, without
either eating or drinking. Bassus, a holy priest, and abbot of two
hundred monks, who was his director, and to whom he had communicated his
design, had left with him ten loaves and water, that he might eat if he
found it necessary. At the expiration of the forty days he came to visit
him, and found the loaves and water untouched, but Simeon stretched out
on the ground, almost without any signs of life. Taking a sponge, he
moistened his lips with water, then gave him the blessed Eucharist.
Simeon, having recovered a little, rose up, and chewed and swallowed by
degrees a few lettuce-leaves, and other herbs. This was his method of
keeping Lent during the remainder of his life; and he had actually
passed twenty-six Lents after this manner, when Theodoret wrote his
account of him; in which are these other particulars, that he spent the
first part of Lent in praising God standing; growing weaker, he
continued his prayer sitting; and towards the end, finding his spirits
almost quite exhausted, not able to support himself in any other
posture, he lay on the ground. However, it is probable, that in his
advanced years he admitted some mitigation of this wonderful austerity.
When on his pillar, he kept himself, during this fast, tied to a pole;
but at length was able to fast the whole term, without any support. Many
attribute this to the strength of his constitution, which was naturally
very {091} robust, and had been gradually habituated to such an
extraordinary abstinence. It is well known that the hot eastern climates
afford surprising instances of long abstinence among the Indians.[2] A
native of France has, within our memory, fasted the forty days of Lent
almost in that manner.[3] But few examples occur of persons fasting
upwards of three or six days, unless prepared and inured by habit.

After three years spent in this hermitage, the saint removed to the top
of the same mountain, where, throwing together some loose stones, in the
form of a wall, he made for himself an enclosure, but without any roof
or shelter to protect him from the inclemencies of the weather; and to
confirm his resolution of pursuing this manner of life, he fastened his
right leg to a rock with a great iron chain. Meletius, vicar to the
patriarch of Antioch, told him, that a firm will, supported by God's
grace, was sufficient to make him abide in his solitary enclosure,
without having recourse to any bodily restraint: hereupon the obedient
servant of God sent for a smith, and had his chain knocked off.

The mountain began to be continually thronged, and the retreat his soul
so much sighed after, to be interrupted by the multitudes that flocked,
even from remote and infidel countries, to receive his benediction; by
which many sick recovered their health. Some were not satisfied unless
they also touched him. The saint, to remove these causes of distraction,
projected for himself a new and unprecedented manner of life. In 423, he
erected a pillar six cubits high, and on it he dwelt four years; on a
second twelve cubits high, he lived three years; on a third, twenty-two
cubits high, ten years: and on a fourth, forty cubits high, built for
him by the people, he spent the last twenty years of his life. Thus he
lived thirty-seven years on pillars, and was called Stylites, from the
Greek word _Stylos_, which signifies a pillar. This singularity was at
first censured by all, as a mark of vanity or extravagance. To make
trial of his humility, an order was sent him, in the name of the
neighboring bishops and abbots, to quit his pillar and new manner of
life. The saint, ready to obey the summons, was for stepping down: which
the messenger seeing, said, that as he had shown a willingness to obey,
it was their desire that he might follow his vocation in God. His pillar
exceeded not three feet in diameter on the top, which made it impossible
for him to lie extended on it; neither would he allow a seat. He only
stooped, or leaned, to take a little rest, and often in the day bowed
his body in prayer. A certain person once reckoned one thousand two
hundred and forty-four such reverences of adoration made by him in one
day. He made exhortations to the people twice a day. His garments were
the skins of beasts, and he wore an iron collar about his neck. He never
suffered any woman to come within the enclosure where his pillar stood.
His disciple Antony mentions, that he prayed most fervently for the soul
of his mother after her decease.

God is sometimes pleased to conduct certain fervent souls through
extraordinary paths, in which others would find only dangers of
illusion, vanity, and self-will, which we cannot sufficiently guard
ourselves against. We should notwithstanding consider, that the sanctity
of these fervent souls does not consist in such wonderful actions, or
miracles, but in the perfection of their unfeigned charity, patience,
and humility; and it was the exercise {092} of these solid virtues that
rendered so conspicuous the life of this saint; these virtues he
nourished and greatly increased, by fervent and assiduous prayer. He
exhorted people vehemently against the horrible custom of swearing, as
also, to observe strict justice, to take no usury, to be assiduous at
church and in holy prayer, and to pray for the salvation of souls. The
great deference paid to his instructions, even by barbarians, is not to
be expressed. Many Persians, Armenians, and Iberians, with the entire
nation of the Lazi in Colchis, were converted by his miracles and
discourses, which they crowded to hear. Princes and queens of the
Arabians came to receive his blessing. Vararanes V. king of Persia,
though a cruel persecutor, respected him. The emperors Theodosius the
younger, and Leo, often consulted him, and desired his prayers. The
emperor Marcian visited him, disguised in the dress of a private man. By
his advice the empress Eudoxia abandoned the Eutychian party a little
before her death. His miracles and predictions are mentioned at large in
Theodoret and others. By an invincible patience he bore all afflictions,
austerities, and rebukes, without ever mentioning them. He long
concealed a horrible ulcer in his foot, swarming with maggots. He always
sincerely looked upon, and treated himself, as the outcast of the world,
and the last of sinners; and he spoke to all with the most engaging
sweetness and charity. Domnus, patriarch of Antioch, administered unto
him the holy communion on his pillar: undoubtedly he often received that
benefit from others. In 459, according to Cosmas, on a Wednesday, the 2d
of September, this incomparable penitent, bowing on a pillar, as if
intent on prayer, gave up the ghost, in the sixty-ninth year of his age.
On the Friday following his corpse was conveyed to Antioch, attended by
the bishops and the whole country. Many miracles, related by
Evagrius,[4] Antony, and Cosmas, were wrought on occasion; and the
people immediately, over all the East, kept his festival with great
solemnity.[5]

The extraordinary manner of life which this saint led, is a proof of the
fervor with which he sought to live in the most perfect sequestration
from creatures, and union with God and heaven. The most perfect
accomplishment of the Divine Will was his only view, and the sole object
of his desires; whence upon the least intimation of an order from a
superior, he was ready to leave his pillar; nor did he consider this
undertaking as any thing great or singular, by which he should appear
distinguished from others. By humility he looked upon himself as justly
banished from among men and hidden from the world in Christ. No one is
to practise or aspire after virtue or perfection upon a motive of
greatness, or of being exalted by it. This would be to fall into the
snare of pride, which is to be feared under the cloak of sanctity
itself. The foundation of Christian perfection is a love of humiliation,
a sincere spirit of humility. The heroic practice of virtue must be
undertaken, not because it is a sublime and elevated state, but because
God calls us to it, and by it we do his will, and become pleasing to
him. The path of the cross, or of contempt, poverty, and sufferings, was
chosen {093} by the Father for his divine Son, to repair his glory, and
restore to man the spiritual advantages of which sin had robbed him. And
the more perfectly we walk in his spirit, by the love and esteem of his
cross, the greater share shall we possess in its incomparable
advantages. Those who in the practice of virtue prefer great or singular
actions, because they appear more shining, whatever pretexts of a more
heroic virtue, or of greater utility to others they allege, are the
dupes of a secret pride, and follow the corrupt inclinations of their
own heart, while they affect the language of the saints. We are called
to follow Christ by bearing our crosses after him, leading at least in
spirit a hidden life, always trembling in a deep sense of our frailty,
and humbled in the centre of our nothingness, as being of ourselves the
very abstract of weakness, and an unfathomed abyss of corruption.

Footnotes:
1.  Act. Mart. T. 2, app {}.
2.  Lettres edifiantes et curieuses.
3.  Don Claude Leaute, a Benedictin monk of the congregation of St.
    Maur, in 1731, when he was about fifty-one years of age, had fasted
    eleven years, without taking any food the whole forty days, except
    what he daily took at mass; and what added to the wonder is, that
    during Lent he did not properly sleep, but only dozed. He could not
    bear the open air; and towards the end of Lent he was excessively
    pale and wasted. This fact is attested by his brethren and
    superiors, in a relation printed at Sens, in 1731; and recorded by
    Dom L'Isle, in his History of Fasting; and by Feyjoo, in his Theatro
    Critico Universal.
4.  Evagrius, l. 1, c. 13, 14.
5.  Monsignor Majelli, a domestic prelate to pope Benedict XIV., in his
    dissertation on the _Stylites_, or religious men living on pillars,
    represents the pillar of St. Simeon enclosed with rails around the
    top. Whenever he slept a little he leaned on them, or his staff.
    This author shows the order of the Stylites to have been propagated
    in the East from saint Simeon, down to the Saracen and Turkish
    empires. The inclemency of the air makes that manner of life
    impracticable to the West. However, St. Gregory of Tours mentions
    one (l. 8. c. 15) V{}filaick, a Lombard, and disciple of the abbot
    St. Yrier, who leaving Limousin went to Triers, and lived some time
    on a pillar in that neighborhood. He engaged the people of the
    villages to renounce the worship of idols, and to hew down the great
    statue of Diana at Ardens, that had been famous from the time of
    Domitian. The bishop ordered him to quit a manner of life too severe
    for the cold climate. He instantly obeyed, and lived afterwards in a
    neighboring monastery. He seems to have been the only _Stylite_ of
    the West. See Fleury, l. 35, T. 8, p. 54.

ST. TELESPHORUS, P.M.

HE was a Grecian by birth, and the seventh bishop of Rome. Towards the
end of the year 128, he succeeded Saint Sixtus I., sat eleven years, and
saw the havoc which the persecution of Adrian made in the church. "He
ended his life by an illustrious martyrdom," says Eusebius;[1] which is
also confirmed by St. Irenaeus.[2]

Footnotes:
1.  Hist. l. 4, c. 10.
2.  L. 3, c. 3.

ST. SYNCLETICA, V.

SHE was born at Alexandria in Egypt, of wealthy Macedonian parents. From
her infancy she had imbibed the love of virtue, and in her tender years
she consecrated her virginity to God. Her great fortune and beauty
induced many young noblemen to become her suitors for marriage, but she
had already bestowed her heart on her heavenly spouse. Flight was her
refuge against exterior assaults, and, regarding herself as her own most
dangerous enemy, she began early to subdue her flesh by austere fasts
and other mortifications. She never seemed to suffer more than when
obliged to eat oftener than she desired. Her parents, at their death,
left her heiress to their opulent estate; for the two brothers she had
died before them; and her sister being blind, was committed entirely to
her guardianship. Syncletica, having soon distributed her fortune among
the poor, retired with her sister into a lonesome monument, on a
relation's estate; where, having sent for a priest, she cut off her hair
in his presence, as a sign whereby she renounced the world, and renewed
the consecration of herself to God. Mortification and prayer were from
that time her principal employment; but her close solitude, by
concealing her pious exercises from the eyes of the world, has deprived
us in a great measure of the knowledge of them.

The fame of her virtue being spread abroad, many women resorted to her
abode to confer with bet upon spiritual matters. Her humility made her
unwilling to take upon herself the task of instructing, but charity, on
the other side, opened her mouth. Her pious discourses were inflamed
with so much zeal, and accompanied with such an unfeigned humility, and
with so many tears, that it cannot be expressed what deep impressions
they made on her hearers. "Oh," said the saint, "how happy should we be,
did we but take as much pains to gain heaven and please God, as
worldlings do to heap up riches and perishable goods! by land they
venture among thieves and robbers; at sea they expose themselves to the
fury of winds and storms; {094} they suffer shipwrecks, and all perils;
they attempt all, try all, hazard all; but we, in serving so great a
master, for so immense a good, are afraid of every contradiction." At
other times, admonishing them of the dangers of this life, she was
accustomed to say, "We must be continually upon our guard, for we are
engaged in a perpetual war; unless we take care, the enemy will surprise
us, when we are least aware of him. A ship sometimes passes safe through
hurricanes and tempests, yet, if the pilot, even in a calm, has not a
great care of it, a single wave, raised by a sudden gust, may sink her.
It does not signify whether the enemy clambers in by the window, or
whether all at once he shakes the foundation, if at last he destroys the
house. In this life we sail, as it were, in all unknown sea. We meet
with rocks, shelves, and sands; sometimes we are becalmed, and at other
times we find ourselves tossed and buffeted by a storm. Thus we are
never secure, never out of danger; and, if we fall asleep, are sure to
perish. We have a most intelligent and experienced pilot at the helm of
our vessel, even Jesus Christ himself, who will conduct us safe into the
haven of salvation, if, by our supineness, we cause not our own
perdition." She frequently inculcated the virtue of humility, in the
following words: "A treasure is secure so long as it remains concealed;
but when once disclosed, and laid open to every bold invader, it is
presently rifled; so virtue is safe so long as secret, but, if rashly
exposed, it but too often evaporates into smoke. By humility, and
contempt of the world, the soul, like an eagle, soars on high, above all
transitory things, and tramples on the backs of lions and dragons." By
these, and the like discourses, did this devout virgin excite others to
charity, humility, vigilance, and every other virtue.

The devil, enraged to behold so much good, which all his machinations
were not capable to prevent, obtained permission of God, for her trial,
to afflict this his faithful servant, like another Job: but even this
served only to render her virtue the more illustrious. In the eightieth
year of her age she was seized with an inward burning fever, which
wasted her insensibly by its intense heat; at the same time an
imposthume was formed in her lungs; and a violent and most tormenting
scurvy, attended with a corroding hideous stinking ulcer, ate away her
jaws and mouth, and deprived her of her speech. She bore all with
incredible patience and resignation to God's holy will; and with such a
desire of an addition to her sufferings, that she greatly dreaded the
physicians would alleviate her pains. It was with difficulty that she
permitted them to pare away or embalm the parts already dead. During the
three last months of her life, she found no repose. Though the cancer
had robbed her of her speech, her wonderful patience served to preach to
others more movingly than words could have done. Three days before her
death she foresaw, that in the third day she should be released from the
prison of her body; and on it, surrounded by a heavenly light, and
ravished by consolatory visions, she surrendered her pure soul into the
hands of her Creator, in the eighty-fourth year of her age. The Greeks
keep her festival on the 4th, the Roman Martyrology mentions her on the
5th of January.[1] The ancient beautiful life of S. Syncletica is quoted
in the old lives of the fathers published by Rosweide, l. 6, and in the
ancient notes of St. John Climacus. It appears, from the work itself,
that the author was personally acquainted with the saint. It has been
ascribe to St. Athanasius, but without sufficient grounds. It was
translated into {095} French, though not scrupulously, by d'Andilly,
Vies des SS. Peres des De certs, T. 3, p. 91. The antiquity of this
piece is confirmed by Montfaucon, Catal. Bibl. Coislianae, p. 417.

Footnotes:
1.  She must not have lived later than the fourth century, for we find
    her life quoted in the fifth and sixth; and as she lived eighty-four
    years, she could not at least be much younger than St. Athanasius.
    From the age in which she lived, she is thought by some to have been
    the first foundress of nunneries, of religious women living in
    community, as St. Antony was of men. On this head consult Helyott,
    Hist. des Ord., and Mr. Stevens in his English Monasticon, c. 1, p.
    16. However, St. Antony's sister found a nunnery erected when she
    was but young, and this was prior to the time of Constantine the
    Great.


JANUARY VI.

THE EPIPHANY OF OUR LORD.

EPIPHANY, which in the original Greek signifies appearance or
manifestation, as St. Austin observes,[1] is a festival principally
solemnized in honor of the discovery Jesus Christ made of himself to the
Magi, or wise men; who, soon after his birth, by a particular
inspiration of Almighty God, came to adore him and bring him
presents.[2] Two other manifestations of our Lord are jointly
commemorated on this day in the office of the church; that at his
baptism, when the Holy Ghost descended on him in the visible form of a
dove, and a voice from heaven was heard at the same time: _This is my
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased_.[3] The third manifestation was
that of his divine power at the performance of his first miracle, the
changing of water into wine, at the marriage at Cana,[4] _by which he
manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him_.[5] Upon so
many accounts ought this festival to challenge a more than ordinary
regard and veneration; but from none more than us Gentiles, who, in the
persons of the wise men, our first-fruits and forerunners, were on this
day called to the faith and worship of the true God. Nothing so much
illustrates this mercy as the wretched degeneracy into which the
subjects of it were fallen. So great this, that there was no object so
despicable as not to be thought worthy of divine honors, no vice so
detestable as not to be enforced by the religion of those _times of
ignorance_,[6] as the scripture emphatically calls them. God had, in
punishment of their apostasy from him by idolatry, given them over to
the most shameful passions, as described at large by the apostle:
_Filled with all iniquity, fornication, covetousness, maliciousness,
envy, murder, contention, deceit, whisperers, detracters, proud,
haughty, disobedient, without fidelity, without affection, without
mercy, &c._[7] Such were the generality of our pagan ancestors, and such
should we ourselves have been, but for God's gracious and effectual call
to the true faith.

The call of the Gentiles had been foretold for many ages before in the
clearest terms. David and Isaias abound with predictions of this import;
the like is found in the other prophets; but their completion was a
mercy reserved for the times of the Messiah. It was to him, who was also
the consubstantial Son of God, that the eternal Father had made the
promise of all _nations for his inheritance_;[8] who being born the
spiritual king of the {096} whole world, for the salvation of _all
men_,[9] would therefore manifest his coming both to those that _were
near, and those that were afar off_;[10] that is, both to Jew and
Gentile. Upon his birth, angels[11] were dispatched ambassadors to the
Jews, in the persons of the poor shepherds, and a star[12] was the
divine messenger on this important errand to the Gentiles of the
East;[13] conformably to Balaam's prophecy,[14] who foretold the coming
of the Messias by that sign.

The summons of the Gentiles to Bethlehem to pay homage to the world's
Redeemer was obeyed by several whom the scripture mentions under the
name and title of _Magi_,[15] or wise men; but is silent as to their
number. The general opinion, supported by the authority of St. Leo,
Caesarius, Bede, and others, declares for three.[16] However, the number
was small, comparatively to those many others that saw that star, no
less than the wise men, but paid no regard to this voice of heaven:
admiring, no doubt, its uncommon brightness, but culpably ignorant of
the divine call in it, or hardening their hearts against its salutary
impressions, overcome by their passions, and the dictates of self-love.
In like manner do Christians, from the same causes, turn a deaf ear to
the voice of divine grace in their souls, and harden their hearts
against it in such numbers, that, notwithstanding their call, their
graces, and the mysteries wrought in their favor, it is to be feared,
that even among _them_ many _are called, but few are chosen_. It was the
case with the Jews, _with the most of whom_, St. Paul says, _God was not
well pleased_.[17]

How opposite was the conduct of the wise men! Instead of being swayed by
the dictates of self-love, by the example of the crowd, and of many
reputed moral men among them, they no sooner discovered the heavenly
messenger, but, without the least demur, set out on their journey to
find the Redeemer of their souls. Convinced that they had a call from
heaven by the star, which spoke to their eyes, and by an inward grace,
that spoke to their hearts, they cut off all worldly consultations,
human reasonings, and delays, and postponed every thing of this kind to
the will of God. Neither any affairs to be left unfinished, nor the care
of their provinces or families, nor the difficulties and dangers of a
long and tedious journey through deserts and mountains almost
unpassable, and this in the worst season of the year, and through a
country which in all ages had been notoriously {097} infested with
robbers: nothing of all this, or the many other false lights of worldly
prudence and policy, made use of, no doubt, by their counsellors and
dependents, and magnified by the enemy of souls, could prevail with them
to set aside or defer their journey; or be thought deserving the least
attention, when God called. They well know that so great a grace, if
slighted, might perhaps have been lost forever. With what confusion must
not this their active and undaunted zeal cover our sloth and cowardice!

The wise men being come, by the guidance of the star, into Jerusalem, or
near, it, it there disappears: whereupon they reasonably suppose they
are come to their journey's end, and upon the point of being blessed
with the sight of the new-born king: that, on their entering the royal
city, they shall in every street and corner hear the acclamations of a
happy people, and learn with ease the way to the royal palace, made
famous to all posterity by the birth of their king and Saviour. But to
their great surprise there appears not the least sign of any such
solemnity. The court and city go quietly on in seeking their pleasure
and profit! and in this unexpected juncture what shall these weary
travellers to? Were they governed by human prudence, this disappointment
is enough to make them abandon their design, and retreat as privately as
they can to screen their reputation, and avoid the raillery of the
populace, as well as to prevent the resentment of the most jealous of
tyrants, already infamous for blood. But true virtue makes trials the
matter and occasion of its most glorious triumphs. Seeming to be
forsaken by God, on their being deprived of extraordinary, they have
recourse to the ordinary means of information. Steady in the resolution
of following the divine call, and fearless of danger, they inquire in
the city with equal confidence and humility, and pursue their inquiry in
the very court of Herod himself: _Where is he that is born king of the
Jews?_ And does not their conduct teach us, under all difficulties of
the spiritual kind, to have recourse to those God has appointed to be
our spiritual guides, for their advice and direction? To _obey and be
subject to them_,[18] that so God may lead us to himself, as he guided
the wise men to Bethlehem by the directions of the priests of the Jewish
church.

The whole nation of the Jews, on account of Jacob's and Daniel's
prophecies, were then in the highest expectation of the Messiah's
appearance among them; the place of whose birth having been also
foretold, the wise men, by the interposition of Herod's authority,
quickly learned, from the unanimous voice of the Sanhedrim, or great
council of the Jews,[19] that Bethlehem was the place which was to be
honored with his birth; as having been pointed out by the prophet
Micheas,[20] several ages before. How sweet and adorable is the conduct
of divine providence! He teaches saints his will by the mouths of
impious ministers, and furnishes Gentiles with the means of admonishing
and confounding the blindness of the Jews. But graces are lost on carnal
and hardened souls. Herod had then reigned upwards of thirty years; a
monster of cruelty, ambition, craft, and dissimulation; old age and
sickness had at that time exasperated his jealous mind in an unusual
manner. He dreaded nothing so much as the appearance of the Messiah,
whom the generality then expected under the notion of a temporal prince,
and whom he could consider in no other light than that of a rival and
pretender to his crown; so no wonder that he was startled at the news of
his birth. All Jerusalem, likewise, instead of rejoicing at such happy
tidings, were alarmed and disturbed together with him. We {098} abhor
their baseness; but do not we, at a distance from courts, betray several
symptoms of the baneful influence of human respects running counter to
our duty? Likewise in Herod we see how extravagantly blind and foolish
ambition is. The divine infant came not to deprive Herod of his earthly
kingdom, but to offer him one that is eternal; and to teach him a holy
contempt of all worldly pomp and grandeur. Again, how senseless and
extravagant a folly was it to form designs against those of God himself!
who confounds the wisdom of the world, baffles the vain projects of men,
and laughs their policy to scorn. Are there no Herods now-a-days;
persons who are enemies to the spiritual kingdom of Christ in their
hearts?

The tyrant, to ward off the blow he seemed threatened with, has recourse
to his usual arts of craft and dissimulation. He pretends a no less
ardent desire of paying homage to the new-born king, and covers his
impious design of taking away his life, under the specious pretext of
going himself in person to adore him. Wherefore, after particular
examination about the time when the wise men first saw this star, and a
strict charge to come back and inform him where the child was to be
found, he dismisses them to the place determined by the chief priests
and scribes. Herod was then near his death; but as a man lives, such
does he usually die. The near prospect of eternity seldom operates in so
salutary a manner on habitual sinners, as to produce in them a true and
sincere change of heart.

The wise men readily comply with the voice of the Sanhedrim,
notwithstanding the little encouragement these Jewish leaders afford
them from their own example to persist in their search; for not one
single priest or scribe is disposed to bear them company, in seeking
after, and paying due homage to their own king. The truths and maxims of
religion depend not on the morals of those that preach them; they spring
from a higher source, the wisdom and veracity of God himself. When
therefore a message comes undoubtedly from God, the misdemeanors of him
that immediately conveys it to us can be no just plea or excuse for our
failing to comply with it. As, on the other side, an exact and ready
compliance will then be a better proof of our faith and confidence in
God, and so much the more recommend us to his special conduct and
protection, as it did the wise men. For no sooner had they left
Jerusalem, but, to encourage their faith and zeal, and to direct their
travels, God was pleased to show them the star again, which they had
seen in the East, and which continued to go before them till it
conducted them to the very place where they were to see and adore their
God and Saviour. Here its ceasing to advance, and probably sinking lower
in the air tells them in its mute language: "Here shall you find the
new-born king." The holy men, with an unshaken and steady faith, and in
transports of spiritual joy, entered the poor cottage, rendered more
glorious by this birth than the most sumptuous stately palace in the
universe, and finding the child with his mother, they prostrate
themselves, they adore him, they pour forth their souls in his presence
in the deepest sentiments of praise, thanksgiving, and a total sacrifice
of themselves. So far from being shocked at the poverty of the place,
and at his unkingly appearance, their faith rises and gathers strength
on the sight of obstacles which, humanly speaking, should extinguish it.
It captivates their understanding; it penetrates these curtains of
poverty, infancy, weakness, and abjection; it casts them on their faces,
as unworthy to look up to this star, this God of Jacob: they confess him
under this disguise to be the only and eternal God: they own the excess
of his goodness in becoming man, and the excess of human misery, which
requires for its relief so great a humiliation of the Lord of glory. St.
Leo thus extols their faith and devotion: "When a star had conducted
them to adore Jesus, they did not find him commanding devils, or raising
the dead, {099} or restoring sight to the blind, or speech to the dumb,
or employed in any divine actions; but a silent babe, under the care of
a solicitous mother, giving no sign of power, but exhibiting a miracle
of humility."[21] Where shall we find such a faith in Israel? I mean
among the Christians of our days. The wise men knew by the light of
faith that he came not to bestow on us earthly riches, but to banish our
love and fondness for them, and to subdue our pride. They had already
learned the maxims of Christ, and had imbibed his spirit: whereas
Christians are for the greatest part such strangers to it, and so
devoted to the world, and its corrupt maxims, that they blush at poverty
and humiliation, and will give no admittance in their hearts to the
humility and the cross of Jesus Christ. Such by their actions cry out
with those men in the gospel: _We will not have this man to reign over
us_.[22] This their opposite conduct shows what they would have thought
of Christ and his humble appearance at Bethlehem.

The Magi, pursuant to the custom of the eastern nations, where the
persons of great princes are not to be approached without presents,
present to Jesus, as a token of homage, the richest produce their
countries afforded, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Gold, as an
acknowledgment of his regal power: incense, as a confession of his
Godhead: and myrrh, as a testimony that he was become man for the
redemption of the world. But their far more acceptable presents were the
holy sentiments and affections of their souls; their fervent charity,
signified by gold; their devotion, figured by frankincense; and the
unreserved sacrifice of themselves by mortification, represented by
myrrh.[23] The divine king, no doubt, richly repaid their generosity by
favors of a much greater excellency, the spiritual gifts of his grace.
It is with the like sentiments and affections of love, praise,
gratitude, compunction, and humility, that we ought frequently, and
particularly on this solemnity, to draw near, in spirit, to the infant
Jesus; making him an affectionate tender of our hearts, but first
cleansed by tears of sincere repentance.

The holy kings being about to return home, God, who saw the hypocrisy
and malicious designs of Herod, by a particular intimation diverted them
from their purpose of carrying back word to Jerusalem, where the child
was to be found. So, to complete their fidelity and grace, they returned
not to Herod's court; but, leaving their hearts with their infant
Saviour, took another road back into their own country. In like manner,
if we would persevere in the possession of the graces bestowed on us, we
must resolve from this day to hold no correspondence with a sinful
world, the irreconcilable enemy to Jesus Christ; but to take a way that
lies at a distance from it, I mean that which is marked out to us by the
saving maxims of the gospel. And pursuing this with an unshaken
confidence in his grace and merits, we shall safely arrive at our
heavenly country.

It has never been questioned but that the holy Magi spent the rest of
their lives in the fervent service of God. The ancient author of the
imperfect comment on St. Matthew, among the works of St. Chrysostom,
says, they were afterwards baptized in Persia, by St. Thomas the
apostle, and became themselves preachers of the gospel. Their bodies
were said to have been translated to Constantinople under the first
Christian emperors. From thence they were conveyed to Milan, where the
place in which they were deposited is still shown in the Dominicans'
church of that city. The emperor Frederick Barbarossa having taken
Milan, caused them to be translated to Cologne in Germany, in the
twelfth century.

Footnotes:
1.  St. Aug. Serm. 203, ol. 64, de div.
2.  According to Papebroch, it was pope Julius the First, in the fourth
    century, by whom the celebration of these two mysteries, the
    nativity and manifestation of Christ to the Magi, was first
    established in the western church on distinct days. The Greeks still
    keep the Epiphany with the birth of Christ on Christmas-day, which
    they call _Theophany_, or the manifestation of God, which is the
    ancient name for the Epiphany in St. Isidore of Pelusium, St.
    Gregory Nazianzen, Eusebius, &c. See Thomassi Tr. des Fotes,
    Martenne Anecd. T. 5, p. 206, B. et in Nota, ib.
3.  Matt. iii. 17.
4.  Footnote: Jo. ii. 11.
5.  Bollandus (Pref. gen. c. 4) and Ruinart (in Cal. in calce. act.
    Mart.) quote a fragment of Polemeus Sylvius written in 448, in which
    is said that all these three manifestations of Christ happened on
    this day, though S. Maximus of Turin was uncertain.
6.  Acts xvii. 30.
7.  Rom. i.
8.  Ps. ii. 8.
9.  1 Tim. ii. 4.
10. Eph. ii. 17.
11. Luke ii. 10, 11.
12. This phenomenon could not have been a real star, that is, one of the
    fixed, the least or nearest of which is for distance too remote, and
    for bulk too enormous, to point out any particular house or city
    like Bethlehem, as St. Chrysostom well observes; who supposes it to
    have been an angel assuming that form. If of a corporeal nature, it
    was a miraculous shining meteor, resembling a star, but placed in
    the lower region of our atmosphere; its motion, contrary to the
    ordinary course of the stars, performing likewise the part of a
    guide to these travellers; accommodating itself to their
    necessities, disappearing or returning as they could best or least
    dispense with its guidance. See S. Thomas, p. 3, quaest 36, a. 7.
    Federicus Miegius Diss. _De Stella a Magis conspecta_ in Thesauro
    Dissertationum in Nov. Testament. Amstelodami. An. 1702, T. 1,
    Benedictus XIV. de Canoniz. l. 4, part 1, c. 25.
13. What and where this East was, is a question about which interpreters
    have been much divided. The controverted places are Persia, Chaldea,
    Mesopotamia, and Arabia Felix. As they lay all more or less eastward
    from Palestine, so, in each of these countries, some antecedent
    notions of a Messias may be accounted for. In Persia and Chaldea, by
    the Jewish captivity and subsequent dispersion; also the prophecies
    of Daniel. In Arabia, by the proximity of situation and frequent
    commerce. In Mesopotamia, besides these, the aforesaid prophecy of
    Balaam, a native of that country.
14. Num. xxiv. 17.
15. In the eastern parts, particularly in Persia,_Magi_ was the title
    they gave to their wise men and philosophers. In what veneration
    they were there held appears from the most important affairs, sacred
    and civil, being committed to their administration. They were deemed
    the oracles of the eastern countries. These that came to Bethlehem
    on this solemn occasion are vulgarly called kings, as they very
    likely were at least of an inferior and subordinate rank. They are
    called princes by Tertullian, (L. contra Judaeos, c. 9, L. 5, contra
    Marcion.) See Gretser, l. 1. de Festis, c. 30, (T. 5, Op. nup. ad.
    Ratisp.) Baronius ad ann. l, n. 30, and the learned author Annot.
    ad histor. vitae Christi, Urbini, anno 1730, c. 7, who all agree that
    the Magi seem to have been governors, or petty princes, such
    anciently being often styled kings. See a full account of the Magi,
    or Magians, in Prideaux's Connexion, p. 1, b. 4.
16. St. Leo, Serm. 30, &c. St. Caesar. Serm. 139, &c. See Maldonat. on
    Saint Matt. ii. for the grounds of this opinion. Honoratus of St.
    Mary, Regles de la Critique, l. 3, diss. 4, a. 2, F. Ayala in Pictor
    Christian. l. 3, c. 3, and Benedict XIV. de Festis Christi. l. 1, c.
    2, de Epiph. n. 7, p. 22. This last great author quotes a picture
    older than St. Leo, found in an ancient Roman cemetery, of which a
    type was published at Rome in a collection of such monuments printed
    at Rome in 1737. T. 1., Tab. 22.
17. 1 Cor. x. 5.
18. Heb. xiii. 17.
19. This consisted principally of the chief priests and scribes or
    doctors of the law.
20. Ch. v. 2.
21. Ser. 36, in Epiph. 7, n. 2.
22. Luke xix. 14.
23. Myrrh was anciently made use of in embalming dead bodies: a fit
    emblem of mortification, because this virtue preserves the soul from
    the corruption of sin.

{100}

S. MELANIUS, B.C.

HE was a native of Placs or Plets, in the diocese of Vannes in Brittany
and had served God with great fervor in a monastery for some years, when
Noon the death of St. Amandus, bishop of Rennes, he was compelled by the
clergy and people to fill that see, though his humility made great
opposition. His virtue was chiefly enhanced by a sincere humility, and a
spirit of continual prayer. The author of his life tells us, that he
raised one that was dead to life, and performed many other miracles.
King Clovis after his conversion held him in great veneration. The
almost entire extirpation of idolatry in the diocese of Rennes was the
fruit of our saint's zeal. He died in a monastery which he had built at
Placs, the place of his nativity, according to Dom Morice, in 490. He
was buried at Rennes, where his feast is kept on the 6th of November. In
the Roman Martyrology he is commemorated on the 6th of January. St.
Gregory, of Tours, mentions a stately church erected over his tomb.
Solomon, sovereign prince of Brittany, in 840, founded a monastery under
his invocation, which still subsists in the suburbs of Rennes, of the
Benedictin order. See the anonymous ancient life of St. Melanius in
Bollandus; also St. Greg. Tour. l. de glor. Conf. c. 55. Argentre, Hist.
de Bretagne. Lobineau, Vies des Saints de Bretagne, p.32 Morice, Hist.
de Bretagne, note 28, p. 932.

SAINT NILAMMON, A HERMIT,

NEAR PELUSIUM, IN EGYPT,

WHO being chosen bishop of Geres, and finding the patriarch Theophilus
deaf to his tears and excuses, prayed that God would rather take him out
of the world than permit him to be consecrated bishop of the place, for
which he was intended. His prayer was heard, for he died before he had
finished it.[1] His name occurs in the modern Roman Martyrology on this
day. See Sozomen, Hist. l. 8, c. 19.

Footnotes:
1.  A like example is recorded in the life of brother Columban,
    published in Italian and French, in 1755, and abridged in the
    Relation de la Mort do quelques religieux de la Trappe, T. 4. p.
    334, 342. The life of this holy man from his childhood at Abbeville,
    the place of his birth, and afterwards at Marseilles, was a model of
    innocence, alms-deeds, and devotion. In 1710 he took the Cistercian
    habit, according to the reformation of la Trappe, at Buon Solazzo in
    Tuscany, the only filiation of that Institute. In this most rigorous
    penitential institute his whole comportment inspired with humility
    and devotion all who beheld him. He bore a holy envy to those whom
    he ever saw rebuked by the Abbot, and his compunction, charity,
    wonderful humility, and spirit of prayer, had long been the
    admiration of that fervent house, when he was ordered to prepare
    himself to receive holy orders, a thing not usually done in that
    penitential institute. The abbot had herein a private view of
    advancing him to the coadjutorship in the abbacy for the easing of
    his own shoulders in bearing the burden of the government of the
    house. Columban, who, to all the orders of his superior, had never
    before made any reply, on this occasion made use of the strongest
    remonstrances and entreaties, and would have had recourse to flight,
    had not his vow of stability cut off all possibility. Being by
    compulsion promoted gradually to the orders of deacon, he most
    earnestly prayed that God would by some means prevent his being
    advanced to the priesthood; soon after he was seized with a lameness
    in his hands, 1714, and some time after taken happily out of this
    world. These simples are most edifying in such persons who were
    called to a retired penitential life. In the clergy all promotion to
    ecclesiastical honors ought to be dreaded, and generally only
    submitted to by compulsion; which Stephen, the learned bishop of
    Tourney, in 1179, observes to be the spirit and rule of the
    primitive church of Christ, (ser. 2.) Yet too obstinate a resistance
    may become a disobedience, an infraction of order and peace, a
    criminal pusillanimity, according to the just remark of St. Basil,
    Reg. disput. c. 21 Innocent III. ep. ad Episc. Calarit. Decret. l.
    2, tit. 9, de Renunciatione.

SAINT PETER,

DISCIPLE of St. Gregory the Great, and first abbot of St. Austin's, in
Canterbury, then called St. Peter's. Going to France in 608, he was
drowned near the harbor of Ambleteuse, between Calais and Bologne, and
is named in the English and Gallican Martyrologies. See Bede, Hist. l.
1, c. 33.

{101}


JANUARY VII.

ST. LUCIAN, PRIEST AND MARTYR.

From his panegyric by St. Chrysostom, at Antioch, in 387, and pronounced
on his festival, T. 2, p. 524. And also from St. Jerom de script c. 77.
Eusebius, l. 8, c. 12, l. 9, c. 6, and Rufinus. See Tillemont T. 5, p.
474. Pagi, an. 311.

A.D. 312.

ST. LUCIAN, surnamed of Antioch, was born at Samosata, in Syria. He lost
his parents while very young; and being come to the possession of his
estate, which was very considerable, he distributed all among the poor.
He became a great proficient in rhetoric and philosophy, and applied
himself to the study of the holy scriptures under one Macarius at
Edessa. Convinced of the obligation annexed to the character of
priesthood, which was that of devoting himself entirely to the service
of God and the good of his neighbor, he did not content himself with
inculcating the practice of virtue both by word and example; he also
undertook to purge the scriptures, that is, both the Old and New
Testament, from the several faults that had crept into them, either by
reason of the inaccuracy of transcribers, or the malice of heretics.
Some are of opinion, that as to the Old Testament, he only revised it,
by comparing different editions of the Septuagint: others contend, that
he corrected it upon the Hebrew text, being well versed in that
language. Certain, however, it is that St. Lucian's edition of the
scriptures was much esteemed, and was of great use to St. Jerom.[1][2]

{102}

S. Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, says that Lucian remained some years
separated from the catholic communion,[3] at Antioch, under three
successive bishops, namely, Domnus, Timaeus, and Cyril. If it was for too
much favoring Paul of Samosata, condemned at Antioch in the year 269, he
must have been deceived, for want of a sufficient penetration into the
impiety of that dissembling heretic. It is certain, at least, that he
died in the catholic communion; which also appears from a fragment of a
letter written by him to the church of Antioch, and still extant in the
Alexandrian Chronicle. Though a priest of Antioch, we find him at
Nicomedia, in the year 303, when Dioclesian first published his edicts
against the Christians. He there suffered a long imprisonment for the
faith; for the Paschal Chronicle quotes these words from a letter which
he wrote out of his dungeon to Antioch, "All the martyrs salute you. I
inform you that the pope Anthimus (bishop of Nicomedia) has finished his
course by martyrdom." This happened in 303. Yet Eusebius informs us,
that St. Lucian did not arrive himself at the crown of martyrdom till
after the death of St. Peter of Alexandria, in 311, so that he seems to
have continued nine years in prison. At length he was brought before
the governor, or, as the acts intimate, the emperor himself, for the
word[4] which Eusebius uses may imply either. On his trial, he presented
to the judge an excellent apology for the Christian faith. Being
remanded to prison, an order was given that no food should be allowed
him; but, when almost dead with hunger, dainty meats that had been
offered to idols were set before him, which he would not touch. It was
not in itself unlawful to eat of such meats, as St. Paul teaches, except
where it would give scandal to the weak, or when it was exacted as an
action of idolatrous superstition, as was the case here. Being brought a
second time before the tribunal, he would give no other answer to all
the questions put to him, but this: "I am a Christian." He repeated the
same while on the rack, and he finished his glorious course in prison,
either by famine, or, according to St. Chrysostom, by the sword. His
acts relate many of his miracles, with other particulars; as that, when
bound and chained down on his back in prison, he consecrated the divine
mysteries upon his own breast, and communicated the faithful that were
present: this we also read in Philostorgius,[5] the Arian historian. St.
Lucian suffered at Nicomedia, where Maximinus II. resided.

His body was interred at Drepanum, in Bithynia, which, in honor of him,
Constantine the Great soon after made a large city, which he exempted
from all taxes, and honored with the name of Helenopolis, from his
mother. St. Lucian was crowned in 312, on the 7th of January, on which
day his festival was kept at Antioch immediately after his death, as
appears from St. Chrysostom.[6] It is the tradition of the church of
Arles, that the body of St. {103} Lucian was sent out of the East to
Charlemagne, who built a church under his invocation at Arles, in which
his relics are preserved.[7]

       *       *       *       *       *

The first thing that is necessary in the service of God, is earnestly to
search his holy will, by devoutly reading, listening to, and meditating
on his eternal truths. This will set the divine law in a clear and full
light, and conduct us, by unerring rules, to discover and accomplish
every duty. It will awake and continually increase a necessary
tenderness of conscience, which will add light and life to its
convictions, oblige us to a more careful trial and examination of all
our actions, keep us not only from evil, but from every appearance of
it, render us steadfast and immoveable in every virtuous practice, and
always preserve a quick and nice sense of good and evil. For this
reason, the word of God is called in holy scripture, _Light_, because it
distinguisheth between good and evil, and, like a lamp, manifesteth the
path which we are to choose, and disperseth that mist with which the
subtilty of our enemy and the lusts of our heart have covered it. At the
same time, a daily repetition of contrition and compunction washes off
the stains which we discover in our souls, and strongly incites us, by
the fervor and fruitfulness of our following life, to repair the sloth
and barrenness of the past. Prayer must be made our main assistant in
every step of this spiritual progress. We must pray that God would
enable us to search out and discover our own hearts, and reform whatever
is amiss in them. If we do this sincerely, God will undoubtedly grant
our requests; will lay open to us all our defects and infirmities, and,
showing us how far short we come of the perfection of true holiness of
life, will not suffer any latent corruptions in our affections to
continue undiscovered, nor permit us to forget the stains and ruins
which the sins of our life past have left behind them.

Footnotes:
1.  St. Hier. Catal. Vir. illustr. c. 77, Ep. 107, et Praef. in Paralip.
    Item Synopsis ap. St. Athan. ad fin.
2.  The Greek translation of the Old Testament, commonly called of the
    seventy, was made by the Jews living at Alexandria, and used by all
    the Hellenist Jews. This version of the Pentateuch appeared about
    two hundred and eighty-five years before Christ, according to Dr.
    Hody, (_de Bibliorum Textibus, Original. et Versionibus_, p. 570,
    &c.) that of the other parts somewhat later, and at different times,
    as the style seems to prove. The Jews even of Palestine at first
    gloried in this translation, as Philo testifies; but it being
    employed by the Christians against them, they began, soon after the
    beginning of the second century, to condemn it, alleging that it was
    not always conformable to the Hebrew original. This text had then
    suffered several alterations by the blunders, and, according to
    Kennicott, some few by the wilful malice of transcribers; though
    these differences are chiefly ascribed by Origen to alterations of
    the Hebrew text, introduced after the version was made. The seventy
    being exploded by the Jews, three new versions were set on foot
    among them. The first was formed in 129, by Aquila, of Sinope, in
    Pontus, whom the emperor Adrian, when he built Jerusalem, under the
    name of AElia, appointed overseer of that undertaking. He had been
    baptized, but for his conduct being expelled from among the
    Christians, became a Jew, and gave his new translation out of hatred
    to the Christians. A second was published about the year 175, by
    Theodotion, a native of Ephesus, some time a Christian, but a
    disciple first of the heretic Tatian, then of Marcion. At length he
    fell into Judaism, or at least connected obedience to the Ritual Law
    of Moses with a certain belief in Christ. His translation, which
    made its appearance in the reign of Commodus, was bolder than that
    of Aquila. The third version was formed about the year 200, by
    Symmachus, who having been first a Samaritan, afterwards, upon some
    disgust turned Jew. In this translation he had a double view of
    thwarting both the Jews and Christians. St. Jerom extols the
    elegance of his style, but says he walked in the steps of
    Theodotion; with the two former translators he substituted [Greek:
    neanis] for [Greek: parthenos] in the famous prophecy of Isaiah, (c.
    vii. v. 14,) and in that of Jacob, (Gen. xlix. 10,) [Greek: ta
    apokeimena autoi] for [Greek: oi apokeitai] Both which
    falsifications St. Justin Martyr charges upon Aquila, (Dial. cum
    Tryphon. p. 224, 395, 284, ed. Thirlbii.) and St. Irenaeus reproaches
    Aquila and Theodotion with the former, (p. 253, ed. Grebe.) Many
    additions from these versions, and several various readings daily
    creeping into the copies of the seventy, which were transcribed, to
    apply a remedy to this danger, Origen compiled his Hexapla, &c., of
    which see some account in the appendix to April 21. Before the year
    300 three other corrected editions of the old Greek version were
    published, the first by Lucian, the second by Hesychius, and the
    third by Pamphilus the martyr. The first was made use of in the
    churches, from Constantinople to Antioch; that of Hesychius was
    received at Alexandria, and in the rest of Egypt; and the third in
    the intermediate country of Palestine, as we are informed by St
    Jerom, (_Praef. in Paralip. et Praef. in Explic. Daniel_.) The edition
    of Lucian came nearest to the [Greek: koine] or common edition of
    the seventy, and was the purest as St. Jerom (ep. ad Suniam et
    Fretel. T. 2, col. 627,) and Euthymius affirm, and is generally
    allowed by modern critics, says Mr. Kennicott, (diss. 2, p. 397.)
    The excellent Vatican MS. of the seventy, published (though with
    some amendments from other MSS.) by Cardinal Carafa, at the command
    of Sixtus V., in 1587, is said in the preface to have been written
    before the year 390; but Blanchini (Vindiciae vet. Cod. p. 34)
    supposes it somewhat later. It is proved from St. Jerom's letter to
    Sunia and Fretela, and several instances, that this Vatican MS.
    comes nearest to the [Greek: koine], and to Lucian's edition, as
    Grabe, (See Annot. in ep. ad Sun. et Fretel. T. 2, col. 671,)
    Blanchini, (Vindiciae, p. 256) and Kennicott (diss. 2, p. 416) take
    notice: the old Alexandrian MS. kept in the British Museum at
    London, is thought by Grabe to have been written about the year 396;
    by Mills and Wetstein, (in their _Prolegom. in Nov. Test. Gr._) about
    one hundred years later. It was published by Grabe, though not pure;
    for in some places he gives the reading of this MS. in the margin,
    and prefers some other in the text. Though none of Origen's Asterics
    are retained, it comes nearest to his edition in the Hexapla, as
    Grabe, Montfaucon, and Kennicott agree: in some places it is
    conformable to Theodotion, or Symmachus, and seems mostly the
    Hesychian edition. See Montfaucon, Praelim. in Hexapla; Kennicott,
    diss. 2.
3.  [Greek: Aposunagwgos emo ne.]
4.  [Greek: Arxontos]
5.  2 B. 2, c. 12, 13.
6.  The Arians boasted that Arius had received his impious doctrine from
    St. Lucian: but he is justified with regard to that calumny by the
    silence of Saint Athanasius; the panegyrics of St. Chrysostom and
    St. Jerom; the express testimony of the ancient book, On the
    Trinity, among the works of St. Athanasius, Dial. 3, tom. 2, p. 179;
    his orthodox confession of faith in Sozomen, l. 3, c. 5, p. 502; and
    the authority of the church, which from his death has always ranked
    him among her illustrious martyrs.
7.  Saussaye Mart. Gallic. t. 1, p. 17. Chatelain, p. 114.

ST. CEDD, BISHOP OF LONDON.

HE was brother to St. Chad, bishop of Litchfield, and to St. Celin, and
Cimbert, apostolic priests, who all labored zealously in the conversion
of the English Saxons, their countrymen. St. Cedd long served God in the
monastery of Lindisfarne, founded by St. Aidan, and for his great
sanctity was promoted to the priesthood. Peada, the son of Penda, king
of Mercia, was appointed by his father king of the midland English; by
which name Bede distinguishes the inhabitants of Leicestershire, and
part of Lincolnshire and Derbyshire, from the rest of the Mercians. The
young king, with a great number of noblemen, servants, and soldiers,
went to Atwall, or Walton, the seat of Oswy, king of the Northumbers,
and was there baptized with all his attendants, by Finan, bishop of
Lindisfarne. Four priests, Saint Cedd, Adda, Betta, and Diuma, the last
a Scot, the rest English, were sent to preach the gospel to his people,
the midland English; among whom great multitudes received the word of
life with joy. King Penda himself obstructed not these missionaries in
preaching the faith in other parts of Mercia, but hated and despised
such as embraced the gospel, yet lived not up to it, saying, "Such
wretches deserved the utmost contempt, who would not obey the God in
whom they believed." St. Cedd, after laboring there some time with great
success, was called from this mission to a new harvest. Sigbercht, or
Sigebert, king of the East-Saxons, paying a visit to Oswy, in {104}
Northumberland, was persuaded by that prince to forsake his idols, and
was baptized by bishop Finan. When he was returned to his own kingdom,
he entreated king Oswy to send him some teachers, who might instruct his
people in the faith of Christ. Oswy called St. Cedd out of the province
of the midland English, and sent him with another priest to the nation
of the East-Saxons. When they had travelled over that whole province,
and gathered numerous churches to our Lord, St. Cedd returned to
Lindisfarne, to confer with bishop Finan about certain matters of
importance. That prelate ordained him bishop of the East-Saxons, having
called two other bishops to assist at his consecration. St. Cedd going
back to his province, pursued the work he had begun, built churches, and
ordained priests and deacons. Two monasteries were erected by him in
those parts, which seem afterwards to have been destroyed by the Danes,
and never restored. The first, he founded near a city, called by the
English Saxons, Ythancester, formerly Othona, seated upon the bank of
the river Pante, (now Froshwell,) which town was afterwards swallowed up
by the gradual encroaching of the sea. St. Cedd's other monastery was
built at another city called Tillaburg, now Tilbury, near the river
Thames, and here Camden supposes the saint chiefly to have resided, as
the first English bishops often chose to live in monasteries. But others
generally imagine, that London, then the seat of the king, was the
ordinary place of his residence, as it was of the ancient bishops of
that province, and of all his successors. In a journey which St. Cedd
made to his own country, Edilwald, the son of Oswald, who reigned among
the Deiri, in Yorkshire, finding him to be a wise and holy man, desired
him to accept of some possessions of land to build a monastery, to which
the king might resort to offer his prayers with those who should attend
the divine service without intermission, and where he might be buried
when he died. The king had before with him a brother of our saint,
called Celin, a priest of great piety, who administered the divine word,
and the sacraments, to him and his family. St. Cedd pitched upon a place
amidst craggy and remote mountains, which seemed fitter to be a retreat
for robbers, or a lurking place for wild beasts, than a habitation for
men. Here he resolved first to spend forty days in fasting and prayer,
to consecrate the place to God. For this purpose he retired thither in
the beginning of Lent. He ate only in the evening, except on Sundays,
and his meal consisted of an egg, and a little milk mingled with water,
with a small portion of bread, according to the custom of Lindisfarne,
derived from that of St. Columba, by which it appears that, for want of
legumes so early in the year, milk and eggs were allowed in that
northern climate, which the canons forbade in Lent. Ten days before the
end of Lent, the bishop was called to the king for certain pressing
affairs, so that he was obliged to commission his priest, Cynibil, who
was his brother, to complete it. This monastery being founded in 658,
was called Lestingay. St. Cedd placed in it monks, with a superior from
Lindisfarne; but continued to superintend the same, and afterwards made
several visits thither from London. Our saint excommunicated a certain
nobleman among the East-Saxons, for an incestuous marriage; forbidding
any Christian to enter his house, or eat with him. Notwithstanding this
prohibition, the king went to a banquet at his house. Upon his return,
the holy bishop met him, whom, as soon as the king saw, he began to
tremble, and lighting from his horse, prostrated himself at his feet,
begging pardon for his offence. The bishop touched him with the rod
which he held in his hand, and said, "O king, because thou wouldst not
refrain from the house of that wicked excommunicated person, thou
thyself shalt die in that very house." Accordingly, some time after, the
king was basely murdered, in 661. by this nobleman and another, {105}
both his own kinsmen, who alleged no other reason for their crime, than
that he was too easy in forgiving his enemies. This king was succeeded
by Suidhelm, the son of Sexbald, whom St. Cedd regenerated to Christ by
baptism. In 664, St. Cedd was present at the conference, or synod, of
Streneshalch, in which he forsook the Scottish custom, and agreed to
receive the canonical observance of the time of Easter. Soon after, a
great pestilence breaking out in England, St. Cedd died of it, in his
beloved monastery of Lestingay, in the mountainous part of Yorkshire,
since destroyed by the Danes, so that its exact situation is not known.
He was first buried in the open cemetery, but, not long after, a church
of stone being built in the same monastery, under the invocation of the
Blessed Virgin, the mother of our Lord, his body was removed, and laid
at the right hand of the altar. Thirty of the saint's religious brethren
in Essex, upon the news of his death, came to Lestingay, in the
resolution to live and die where their holy father had ended his life.
They were willingly received by their brethren, but were all carried off
by the same pestilence, except a little boy, who was afterwards found
not to have been then baptized, and being in process of time advanced to
the priesthood, lived to gain many souls to God. St. Cedd died on the
26th of October, but is commemorated in the English Martyrology on the
7th of January. See Bede, Hist. l. 3, c. 21, 22, 23. Wharton Hist.
Episc. Lond. &c.

ST. KENTIGERNA, WIDOW.

SHE is commemorated on the 7th of January, in the Aberdeen Breviary,
from which we learn, that she was of royal blood, daughter of Kelly,
prince of Leinster in Ireland, as Colgan proves from ancient monuments.
She was mother of the holy abbot St. Foelan, or Felan. After the death
of her husband, she left Ireland, and consecrated her to God in a
religious state, and lived in great austerity and humility, and died on
the 7th of January, in the year 728. Adam King informs us that a famous
parish church bears her name at Locloumont, in Inchelroch, a small
island into which she retired some time before her death, that she might
with greater liberty give herself up to heavenly meditation. See Brev.
Aberden. et Colgan ad 7 Jan. p. 23.

ST. ALDRIC, BISHOP OF MANS, C.

THIS saint was born of a noble family, of partly Saxon and partly
Bavarian extraction, about the year 800. At twelve years of age he was
placed by his father in the court of Charlemagne, in the family of Lewis
le Debonnaire, where, by his application to the exercises of devotion,
and to serious studies, and by his eminent virtue, he gained the esteem
of the whole court. But the false lustre of worldly honors had no charms
to one who, from his infancy, had entertained no other desire than that
of consecrating himself to the divine service. About the year 821,
bidding adieu to the court, he retired from Aix-la-chapelle to Metz,
where he entered himself amongst the clergy, in the bishop's seminary,
and received the clerical tonsure. Two years after, he was promoted to
the holy orders of deacon, and, after three years more, to the
priesthood. The emperor Lewis le Debonnaire called him again to court,
and made him his first chaplain and his confessor. In 832, St. Aldric
was chosen bishop of Mans, and consecrated on the 22d of December. The
emperor arrived at Mans three days after, and kept the {106} Christmas
holydays with him. The holy pastor was humble, patient, severe towards
himself, and mild and charitable to all others. He employed both his
patrimony and his whole interest and credit in relieving the poor,
redeeming captives, establishing churches and monasteries, and promoting
piety and religion. In the civil wars which divided the French monarchy,
his fidelity to his prince, and to his successor Charles the Bald, was
inviolable, for which he was for almost a year expelled, by the
factious, from his see; though it is a subject of dispute whether this
happened in the former or in the latter reign. It was a principal part
of his care, to maintain an exact discipline in his clergy; for whose
use he drew up a collection of canons, of councils, and decretals of
popes, called his Capitulars, which seems to have been the most learned
and judicious work of that kind which that age produced, so that the
loss of it is much regretted.[1] Some fragments have reached us of the
excellent regulations which he made for the celebration of the divine
service, in which he orders ten wax candles, and ninety lamps with oil,
to be lighted up in his cathedral on all great festivals.[2] We have
three testaments of this holy prelate extant.[3] The last is an edifying
monument of his sincere piety: in the two first, he bequeaths several
lands and possessions to many churches of his diocese, adding prudent
advice and regulations for maintaining good order, and a spirit of
charity, between the clergy and monks. In 836, he was deputed by the
council of Aix-la-chapelle, with Erchenrad, bishop of Paris, to Pepin,
king of Aquitain, who was then reconciled with the emperor his father;
and that prince was prevailed on by them to cause all the possessions of
churches, which had been seized by those of his party, to be restored.
Our saint assisted at the eighth council of Paris, in 846, and at the
council of Tours, in 849. The two last years of his life he was confined
to his bed by a palsy, during which time he redoubled his fervor and
assiduity in holy prayer, for which he had from his infancy an
extraordinary ardor. He died the 7th of January, 856, having been bishop
almost twenty-four years. He was buried in the church of St. Vincent, to
which, and the monastery to which it belongs, he had been a great
benefactor. His relics are honorably preserved there at this day, and
his festival has been kept at Mans from time immemorial. See his life
published by Baluze, T. 3, Miscell. from an ancient MS. belonging to his
church. The author produces many original public instruments, and seems
to have been contemporary. (See Hist Lit. de la France, T. 5, p. 145.)
Another life, probably compiled by a canon of the cathedral of Mans, in
the time of Robert, successor to Saint Aldric, is given us by Mabillon,
Annal. T. 3, p. 46, 246, 397, &c., but inserts some false pieces. (See
Hist. Lit. ib. p. 148.) The life of St. Aldric, which we find in
Bollandus, is a modern piece composed by John Moreau, canon of Mans.

Footnotes:
1.  See Baluze, Capitul. Regnum Fr. T. 2, p. 44.
2.  Ibid. p. 143.
3.  Ib. p. 63, 70, 72, 80.

SAINT THILLO,

CALLED IN FRANCE THEAU, IN FLANDERS TILLOINE, OR TILMAN, C.

HE was by birth a Saxon, and being made captive, was carried into the
Low Countries, where he was ransomed and baptized by St. Eligius. That
apostolical man sent him to his abbey of Solignac, in Limousin. St.
Thillo was called thence by St. Eligius, ordained priest, and employed
by him some time at Tournay, and in other parts of the Low Countries.
The inhabitants of the country of Isengihen, near Courtray, regard him
as their apostle. Some years after the death of St. Eligius, St. Thillo
returned to Solignac, {107} and lived a recluse near that abbey, in
simplicity, devotion, and austerities, imitating the Antonies and
Macariuses. He died in his solitude, about the year 702, of his age
ninety-four, and was honored with miracles. His name is famous in the
French and Belgic calendars, though it occurs not in the Roman. St.
Owen, in his life of St. Eligius, names Thillo first among the seven
disciples of that saint, who worked with him at his trade of goldsmith,
and imitated him in all his religious exercises, before that holy man
was engaged in the ministry of the church. Many churches in Flanders,
Auvergne, Limousin, and other places, are dedicated to God, under his
invocation. The anonymous life of St. Thillo, in Bollandus, is not
altogether authentic; the history which Mabillon gives of him from the
Breviary of Solignac, is of more authority, (Mab. Saec. 2, Ben. p. 996.)
See also Bulteau, Hist. Ben. T. i. l. 3, c. 16. Molanus in Natal. Sanct.
Belgii, &c.

ST. CANUT,

SECOND son of Eric the Good, king of Denmark, was made duke of Sleswig,
his elder brother Nicholas being king of Denmark. Their father, who
lived with his people as a father with his children, and no one ever
left him without comfort, says the ancient chronicle Knytling-Saga, p.
71, died in Cyprus, going on a pilgrimage to the holy land, in which he
had been received by Alexius Comnenus, emperor, at Constantinople, with
the greatest honor, and had founded an hospital at Lucca for Danish
pilgrims. He died in 1103, on the 11th of July. Mallet, 1. 2, p. 112.

Canut set himself to make justice and peace reign in his principality:
those warriors could not easily be restrained from plundering. One day,
when he had condemned several together to be hanged for piracies, one
cried out, that he was of blood royal, and related to Canut. The prince
answered, that to honor his extraction, he should be hanged on the top
of the highest mast of his ship, which was executed. (Helmold, l. 6, c.
49) Henry, king of the Sclavi, being dead, and his two sons, St. Canut
his nephew succeeded, paid homage to the emperor Lothaire II. and was
crowned by him king of the Obotrites, or western Sclavi. St. Canut was
much honored by that emperor, in whose court he had spent part of his
youth. Valor, prudence, zeal, and goodness, endeared him to all. He was
slain by conspiracy of the jealous Danes, the 7th of January, 1130, and
canonized in 1171. His son became duke of Sleswig, and in 1158 king of
Denmark, called Valdemar I. and the Great, from his virtuous and
glorious actions.

{108}


JANUARY VIII.

ST. APOLLINARIS, THE APOLOGIST,

BISHOP

From Eusebius, Theodoret, St. Jerom, &c. See Tillemont, Mem. t. 2, p.
492, and Hist des Emp. t. 2, p. 309.

A.D. 175.

CLAUDIUS APOLLINARIS, bishop of Hierapolis, in Phrygia, was one of the
most illustrious prelates of the second age. Notwithstanding the great
encomiums bestowed on him by Eusebius, St. Jerom, Theodoret, and others,
we know but very little of his actions; and his writings, which then
were held in great esteem, seem now to be all lost. Photius,[1] who had
read them, and who was a very good judge, commends them both for their
style and matter. He wrote against the Encratites, and other heretics,
and pointed out, as St. Jerom testifies,[2] from what philosophical sect
each heresy derived its errors. The last of these works was against the
Montanists and their pretended prophets, who began to appear in Phrygia
about the year 171. But nothing rendered his name so illustrious, as his
noble apology for the Christian religion, which he addressed to the
emperor Marcus Aurelius, about the year 175, soon after the miraculous
victory that prince had obtained over the Quadi by the prayers of the
Christians, of which the saint made mention.

Marcus Aurelius having long attempted, without success, to subdue the
Germans by his generals, resolved in the thirteenth year of his reign,
and of Christ 171, to lead a powerful army against them. He was beyond
the Danube, (for Germany was extended much further eastward than it is
at present,) when the Quadi, a people inhabiting that tract now called
Moravia, surrounded him in a very disadvantageous situation, so that
there was no possibility that either he or his army could escape out of
their hands, or subsist long where they were, for want of water. The
twelfth legion, called the Melitine, from a town of that name in
Armenia, where it had been quartered a long time, was chiefly composed
of Christians. These, when the army was drawn up, but languid and
perishing with thirst, fell upon their knees, "as we are accustomed to
do at prayer," says Eusebius, and poured forth earnest supplications to
God in this public extremity of their state and emperor, though hitherto
he had been a persecutor of their religion. The strangeness of the sight
surprised the enemies, who had more reason to be astonished at the
event; for all on a sudden the sky was darkened with clouds, and a thick
rain showered down with impetuosity just as the Barbarians had assailed
the Roman camp. The Romans fought and drank at the same time, catching
the rain, as it fell, in their helmets, and often swallowing it mingled
with blood. Though by this means exceedingly refreshed, the Germans were
much too strong for them; but the storm being driven by a violent wind
upon their faces, and accompanied with dreadful flashes of lightning,
and loud thunder, the Germans were deprived of their sight, beaten down
to the ground, and terrified to such a degree, that they were entirely
routed and put to flight. Both heathen and Christian writers give this
account of the victory. The heathens ascribe it, some to the power of
{109} magic, others to their gods, as Dio Cassius;[3] but the Christians
unanimously recount it as a miracle obtained by the prayers of this
legion, as St. Apollinaris in his apology to this very emperor, who
adds, that as an acknowledgment, the emperor immediately gave it the
name of the Thundering Legion, and from him it is so called by
Eusebius,[4] Tertullian,[5] St. Jerom,[6] and St. Gregory of Nyssa.[7]

The Quadi and Sarmatians brought back thirteen thousand prisoners, whom
they had taken, and begged for peace on whatever conditions it should
please the emperor to grant it them. Marcus Aurelius hereupon took the
title of the _seventh time emperor_, contrary to custom, and without the
consent of the senate, regarding it as given him by heaven. Out of
gratitude to his Christian soldiers, he published an edict, in which he
confessed himself indebted for his delivery _to the shower obtained_,
PERHAPS, _by the prayers of the Christians_;[8] and more he could not
say without danger of exasperating the pagans. In it he forbade, under
pain of death, any one to accuse a Christian on account of his religion;
yet, by a strange inconsistency, especially in so wise a prince, being
overawed by the opposition of the senate, he had not the courage to
abolish the laws already made and in force against Christians. Hence,
even after this, in the same reign, many suffered martyrdom, though
their accusers were also put to death; as in the case of St. Apollonius
and of the martyrs of Lyons. Trajan had in like manner forbid Christians
to be accused, yet commanded them to be punished with death if accused,
as may be seen declared by him in his famous letter to Pliny the
Younger. The glaring injustice of which law Tertullian demonstrates by
an unanswerable dilemma.

St. Apollinaris, who could not see his flock torn in pieces and be
silent, penned his apology to the emperor, about the year 172, to remind
him of the benefit he had received from God by the prayers of the
Christians, and to implore his protection. We have no account of the
time of this holy man's death, which probably happened before that of
Marcus Aurelius. The Roman Martyrology mentions him on the 8th of
January.

       *       *       *       *       *

We believe the same great truths, and divine mysteries,--we profess the
same faith which produced such wonderful fruits in the souls of the
saints. Whence comes it that it has not the like effects in us?--that
though we acknowledge virtue to be the richest treasure of the soul of
man, we take little pains about it, passionately seek the things of this
world, are cast down and broken under every adversity, and curb and
restrain our passions only by halves?--that the most glorious objects,
God and heaven, and the amazing and dreadful truths, a judgment to come,
hell, and eternity, strike us so feebly, and operate so little in us?
The reason is plain: because we meditate not sufficiently on these great
truths. Our notions of them are dim and imperfect; our thoughts pass so
slightly over them, that they scarce retain any print or traces of them.
Otherwise it is impossible that things {110} so great and terrible
should excite in us no fear, or that things in their own nature
infinitely amiable, should enkindle in us no desire. Slight and faint
images of things move our minds very weakly, and affect them very
coldly, especially in such matters as are not subject to our senses. We
therefore grossly deceive ourselves in not allotting more time to the
study of divine truths. It is not enough barely to believe them, and let
our thoughts now and then glance upon them: that knowledge which shows
us heaven, will not bring us to the possession of it, and will deserve
punishments, not rewards, if it remain slight, weak, and superficial. By
serious and frequent meditation it must be concocted, digested, and
turned into the nourishment of our affections, before it can be powerful
and operative enough to change them, and produce the necessary fruit in
our lives. For this all the saints affected solitude and retreats from
the noise and hurry of the world, as much as their circumstances allowed
them.

Footnotes:
1.  {}
2.  Ep. 83, ad Magn.
3.  B. 71.
4.  Hist. B. 5, c. 5.
5.  Apol. c. 5. L. ad Scap. c. 4.
6.  Chron.
7.  Or. 2, de 40 mart.
8.  _Christianorum_ FORTE _militum precationibus impetrato imbri_.
    Tertull. Apolog. c. 5. Euseb. l. 5, c. 5. Some take the word _forte_
    here to signify, _casually, accidentally, as hap was_. Several
    learned Protestants have written in defence of this miracle: see Mr.
    Weston's dissertation in 1748. The exceptions of Le Clerc, Hist.
    Eccl. p. 744, and of Moyle, in his essay on the Thundering Legion,
    deserve no notice. The deliverance of the emperor is represented on
    the _Columna Antoniniana_, in Rome, by the figure of a Jupiter
    Pluvius, being that of an old man flying in the air, with his arms
    expanded, and a long beard which seems to waste away in rain. The
    soldiers are there represented as relieved by this sudden tempest,
    and in a posture, partly drinking of the rain-water, and partly
    fighting against the enemy; who, on the contrary are represented as
    stretched out on the ground with their horses, and upon them only
    the dreadful part of the storm descending. The original letter of
    Marcus Aurelius concerning this matter, was extant when Tertullian
    and St. Jerom wrote. See Hier. in Chron. Euseb. ad annum 176. Tert.
    Apol. c. 5, et lib. ad Scapul. The letter of Marcus Aurelius to the
    senate now extant, is rejected as supposititious by Scaliger,
    (Animadv. In Eus. ad an. 189.).It is published in the new edition of
    the works of Marcus Aurelius, printed by Robert Fowlis in 1748, t.
    1, p. 127, in Greek, t. 2, p. 126, in Latin, with notes, ib. p. 212.
    Mamachi, t. 1, p 366.

ST. SEVERINUS, ABBOT,

AND APOSTLE OF NORICUM, OR AUSTRIA.

From his life, by Eugippius his disciple, who was present at his death.
See Tillemont, t. 16, p. 168. Lambecius Bibl. Vend. t. 1, p. 28, and
Bollandus, p. 497.

A.D. 482.

WE know nothing of the birth or country of this saint. From the purity
of his Latin, he was generally supposed to be a Roman; and his care to
conceal what he was according to the world, was taken for a proof of his
humility, and a presumption that he was a person of birth. He spent the
first part of his life in the deserts of the East; but, inflamed with an
ardent zeal for the glory of God, he left his retreat to preach the
gospel in the North. At first he came to Astures, now Stokeraw, situate
above Vienna; but finding the people hardened in vice, he foretold the
punishment God had prepared for them, and repaired to Comagenes, now
Haynburg on the Danube, eight leagues westward of Vienna. It was not
long ere his prophecy was verified; for Astures was laid waste, and the
inhabitants destroyed by the sword of the Huns, soon after the death of
Attila. St. Severinus's ancient host with great danger made his escape
to him at Comagenes. By the accomplishment of this prophecy, and by
several miracles he wrought, the name of the saint became famous.
Favianes, a city on the Danube, twenty leagues from Vienna, distressed
by a terrible famine, implored his assistance. St. Severinus preached
penance among them with great fruit; and he so effectually threatened
with the divine vengeance a certain rich woman, who had hoarded up a
great quantity of provisions, that she distributed all her stores among
the poor. Soon after his arrival, the ice of the Danube and the Ins
breaking, the country was abundantly supplied by barges up the rivers.
Another time by his prayers he chased away the locusts, which by their
swarms had threatened with devastation the whole produce of the year. He
wrought many miracles; yet never healed the sore eyes of Bonosus, the
dearest to him of his disciples, who spent forty years in almost
continual prayer, without any abatement of his fervor. The holy man
never ceased to exhort all to repentance and piety: he redeemed
captives, relieved the oppressed, was a father to the poor, cured the
sick, mitigated or averted public calamities, and brought a blessing
wherever he came. Many cities desired him for their bishop; but he
withstood their importunities by urging, that it was sufficient he had
relinquished his dear solitude for their instruction and comfort.

{111}

He established many monasteries, of which the most considerable was one
on the banks of the Danube, near Vienna; but he made none of them the
place of his constant abode, often shutting himself up in a hermitage
four leagues from his community, where be wholly devoted himself to
contemplation. He never ate till after sunset, unless on great
festivals. In Lent he ate only once a week. His bed was sackcloth spread
on the floor in his oratory. He always walked barefoot, even when the
Danube was frozen. Many kings and princes of the Barbarians came to
visit him, and among them Odoacer, king of the Heruli, then on his march
for Italy. The saint's cell was so low that Odoacer could not stand
upright in it. St. Severinus told him that the kingdom he was going to
conquer would shortly be his; and Odoacer seeing himself, soon after,
master of Italy, sent honorable letters to the saint, promising him all
he was pleased to ask; but Severinus only desired of him the restoration
of a certain banished man. Having foretold his death long before it
happened, he fell ill of a pleurisy on the 5th of January, and on the
fourth day of his illness, having received the viaticum, and arming his
whole body with the sign of the cross, and repeating that verse of the
psalmist, _Let every spirit praise the Lord_,[1] he closed his eyes, and
expired in the year 482. Six years after, his disciples, obliged by the
incursions of Barbarians, retired with his relics into Italy, and
deposited them at Luculano, near Naples, where a great monastery was
built, of which Eugippius, his disciple, and author of his life, was
soon after made the second abbot. In the year 910 they were translated
to Naples, where to this day they are honored in a Benedictin abbey,
which bears his name. The Roman and other Martyrologies place his
festival on this day, as being that of his death.

       *       *       *       *       *

A perfect spirit of sincere humility is the spirit of the most sublime
and heroic degree of Christian virtue and perfection. As the great work
of the sanctification of our souls is to be begun by humility, so must
it be completed by the same. Humility invites the Holy Ghost into the
soul, and prepares her to receive his graces; and from the most perfect
charity, which he infuses, she derives a new interior light, and an
experimental knowledge of God and herself, with an _infused_ humility
far clearer in the light of the understanding, in which she sees God's
infinite greatness, and her own total insufficiency, baseness, and
nothingness, after a quite new manner; and in which she conceives a
relish of contempt and humiliations as her due, feels a secret sentiment
of joy in suffering them, sincerely loves her own abjection, dependence,
and correction, dreads the esteem and praises of others, as snares by
which a mortal poison may imperceptibly insinuate itself into her
affections, and deprive her of the divine grace; is so far from
preferring herself to any one, that she always places herself below all
creatures, is almost sunk in the deep abyss of her own nothingness,
never speaks of herself to her own advantage, or affects a show of
modesty in order to appear humble before men, in all good, gives the
_entire_ glory to God alone, and as to herself, glories only in her
infirmities, pleasing herself in her own weakness and nothingness,
rejoicing that God is the great _all_ in her and in all creatures.

Footnotes:
1.  Ps. 150.

{112}

ST. LUCIAN,

APOSTLE OF BEAUVAIS, IN FRANCE.

HE preached the gospel in Gaul, in the third century; came from Rome,
and was probably one of the companions of St. Dionysius, of Paris, or at
least of St. Quintin. He sealed his mission with his blood at Beauvais,
under Julian, vicar or successor to the bloody persecutor Rictius Varus,
in the government of Gaul, about the year 290. Maximian, called by the
common people Messien, and Julian, the companions of his labors, were
crowned with martyrdom at the same place a little before him. His
relics, with those of his two colleagues, were discovered in the seventh
age, as St. Owen informs us in his life of St. Eligius. They are shown
in three gilt shrines, in the abbey which bears his name, and was
founded in the eighth century. Rabanus Maurus says, that these relics
were famous for miracles in the ninth century.

St. Lucian is styled only martyr, in most calendars down to the
sixteenth century, and in the Roman Martyrology, and the calendar of the
English Protestants, in all which it is presumed that he was only
priest; but a calendar compiled in the reign of Lewis le Debonnaire,[1]
gives him the title of bishop, and he is honored in that quality at
Beauvias. See Bollandus, p. 540; though the two lives of this saint,
published by him, and thought to be one of the ninth, the other of the
tenth age, are of little or no authority. Tillemont, T. 4, p. 537.
Loisel and Louvet, Hist. de Beauvais, p. 76.

Footnotes:
1.  Spicileg. T. 10, p. 130.

ST. PEGA, V.

SHE was sister to St. Guthlack, the famous hermit of Croyland, and
though of the royal blood of the Mercian kings, forsook the world, and
led an austere retired life in the country which afterwards bore her
name, in Northamptonshire, at a distance from her holy brother. Some
time after his death she went to Rome, and there slept in the Lord,
about the year 719. Ordericus Vitalis says, her relics were honored with
miracles, and kept in a church which bore her name at Rome, but this
church is not now known. From one in Northamptonshire, a village still
retains the name of Peagkirk, vulgarly Pequirk; she was also titular
saint of a church and monastery in Pegeland, which St. Edward the
Confessor united to Croyland. She is called St. Pee in Northamptonshire,
and St. Pege at Croyland. See Ingulph. et Ord. Vitalis, l. 4. Florence
of Worcester, ad ann. 714. Harpsfield, sec. 8, c. 19.

ST. VULSIN, BISHOP OF SHIREBURN, C.

WILLIAM of Malmesbury informs us, that St. Dunstan, when bishop of
London, appointed him abbot of twelve monks at Thorney, since called
Westminster, where Saint Mellitus had built a church in honor of St.
Peter. Vulsin was afterwards chosen bishop of Shireburn; his holy life
was crowned with a happy death in 973. He is called Ultius by Matthew of
Westminster, {113} but his true ancient name, given by Capgrave, is
Vulsin. See Malmesbury de Pontif. Angl. l. 2. Capgrave and Harpsfield,
saec. 10, c. 9, saec. 11, c. 16.

ST. GUDULA, V.

CALLED IN BRABANT GOULE, OR ERGOULE, IN FLEMISH SINTE-R-GOELEN,

PATRONESS OF BRUSSELS.

ST. AMALBERGE, mother of this saint, was niece to Pepin, mayor of the
palace. Gudula was educated at Nivelle, under the care of St. Gertrude,
her cousin and god-mother; after whose death, in 664, she returned to
the house of count Witger, her father, and having by vow consecrated her
virginity to God, led there a most austere and holy life, in watching,
fasting, and prayer. By her profuse alms, in which she bestowed her
whole revenue on the poor, she was truly the mother of all the
distressed; though her father's castle was two miles from the church of
our Saviour at Morzelle, she went thither early every morning, with a
maid to carry a lantern before her; and the wax taper being once put
out, is said to have miraculously lighted again at her prayers, whence
she is usually represented in pictures with a lantern. She died on the
8th of January, not in 670, as Miraeus says, but in 712, and was buried
at Ham, near Villevord. In the reign of Charlemagne, her body was
removed to the church of our Saviour at Morzelle, and placed behind the
high altar; this emperor, out of veneration of her memory, often
resorted thither to pray, and founded there a nunnery, which soon after
changed its name of St. Saviour for that of St. Goule: this house was
destroyed in the irruptions of the Normans. The relics of St. Gudula, by
the care of Charles, duke of Lorrain, (in which Brabant was then
comprised,) were translated to Brussels, in 978, where they were first
deposited to the church of St. Gery, but in 1047, removed into the great
collegiate church of St. Michael, since called from her St. Gudula's.
See her life wrote by Hubert of Brabant, in the eleventh century, soon
after this translation of her relics to St. Michael's, who assures us
that he took the whole relation from an ancient life of this saint,
having only changed the order and style.

ST. NATHALAN, BISHOP OF ABERDEEN, C.

HE possessed a large estate, which he distributed among the poor; and
seeing that agriculture is an employment best suiting a life of
contemplation, he made this an exercise of penance, joining with the
same assiduous prayer. He was a proficient in profane and sacred
learning, and being made bishop, (to which dignity he was raised by the
pope, in a journey of devotion which he made to Rome,) he continued to
employ his revenues in charities as before, living himself in great
austerity by the labor of his hands, and at the same time preaching the
gospel to the people. By his means Scotland was preserved from the
Pelagian heresy. He was one of the apostles of that country, and died in
452. He resided at Tullicht, now in the diocese of Aberdeen, and built
the churches of Tullicht Bothelim, and of the Hill; in the former of
these he was buried, and it long continued famous for miracles wrought
by his relics, which were preserved there till the change of religion.
See King, the Chronicles of Dumferling, and the lessons of the Aberdeen
Breviary on this day. The see of Aberdeen was {114} not then regularly
established; it was first erected at Murthlac by St. Bean, in the
beginning of the eleventh century, and translated thence to Aberdeen by
Nectan, the fourth bishop, in the reign of king David.[2] See Hector
Boetius in the lives of the bishops of Aberdeen,[3] and Spotswood, b. 2,
p. 101.

Footnotes:
1.  The Aberdeen Breviary resembles that called _of Sarum_, and contains
    the feasts of many French saints. It was printed at Edinburg, by
    Walter Chapman, in 1509.
2.  Few authentic memoirs of the ancient Scotch church, or history, have
    been handed down to us, except those of certain noble families. A
    catalogue of the bishops of Galloway, from St. Ninianus, in 450; of
    the archbishops of Glascow, from St. Kentigern; of St. Andrew's,
    from the year 840; and of the bishops of the other sees, from the
    twelfth century, is printed at the end of an old edition of
    Spotsword in 166{} and reprinted by bishop Burnet, in an appendix to
    his memoirs of the house of Hamilton.
3.  De vitis episcopor. Aberd. Praelo. Afrensiano, anno 1522.


JANUARY IX.

ST. PETER OF SEBASTE, B.C.

From the life of his sister St. Macrina, composed by their brother St.
Gregory of Nyssa; and from St. Gregory Naz. Or. 20. See also Theodoret,
Hist. Eccl. l. 4, c. 30. Rufin, l. 2., c. 9, and the judicious
compilation of Tillemont, in his life of St. Gregory of Nyssa, art. 6,
t. 9, p. 572.

About the year 387.

THE family of which St. Peter descended, was very ancient and
illustrious; St. Gregory Nazianzen tells us, that his pedigree was made
up of a list of celebrated heroes; but their names are long since buried
in oblivion, while those of the saints which it gave to the church, and
who despised the world and its honors, are immortal in the records of
the church, and are written in the book of life; for the light of faith,
and the grace of the Almighty, extinguishing in their breasts the sparks
of worldly ambition, inspired them with a most vehement ardor to attain
the perfection of Christian virtue, and changed their family into a
house of saints; three brothers were at the same time eminently holy
bishops, St. Basil, St. Gregory of Nyssa, and St. Peter of Sebaste; and
their eldest sister, St. Macrina, was the spiritual mother of many
saints and excellent doctors; their father and mother, St. Basil the
Elder, and St. Emolia, were banished for their faith in the reign of the
emperor Galerius Maximian, and fled into the deserts of Pontus; they are
recorded together in the Roman Martyrology, on the 30th of May: the
grandmother of our pious and fruitful family of saints, was the
celebrated St. Macrina the Elder, who was instructed in the science of
salvation, by St. Gregory Thaumaturgus. St. Peter of Sebaste was the
youngest of ten children, and lost his father in his cradle, some think
before he was born; and his eldest sister, Macrina, took care of his
education, in which it was her only aim to instruct him in the maxims of
religion, and form him to perfect piety; profane studies she thought of
little use, to one who designed to make salvation the sole end of all
his inquiries and pursuits, nor did he ever make them any part of his
employment, confining his views to a monastic state. His mother had
founded two monasteries, one for men, the other for women; the former
she put under the direction of her son Basil, the latter under that of
her daughter Macrina. Peter, whose thoughts were wholly bent on
cultivating the seeds of piety that had been sown in him, retired into
the house governed by his brother, situated on the bank of the river
Iris; when St. Basil was obliged to quit that post, in 362, he left the
abbacy in the hands of St. Peter, who discharged this office for {115}
several years with great prudence and virtue. When the provinces of
Pontus and Cappadocia were visited by a severe famine, he gave a
remarkable proof of his charity; human prudence would have advised him
to be frugal in the relief of others, till his own family should be
secured against that calamity; but Peter had studied the principles of
Christian charity in another school, and liberally disposed of all that
belonged to his monastery, and whatever he could raise, to supply with
necessaries the numerous crowds that daily resorted to him, in that time
of distress. Soon after St. Basil was made bishop of Caesarea in
Cappadocia, in 370, he promoted his brother Peter to the priesthood; the
holy abbot looked on the holy orders he had received as a fresh
engagement to perfection. His brother St. Basil died on the 1st of
January, in 379, and his sister Macrina in November, the same year.
Eustathius, bishop of Sebaste, in Armenia, a violent Arian, and a
furious persecutor of St. Basil, seems to have died soon after them, for
St. Peter was consecrated bishop of Sebaste in 380, to root out the
Arian heresy in that diocese, where it had taken deep root; the zeal of
a saint was necessary, nor can we doubt but God placed our saint in that
dignity for this purpose. A letter which St. Peter wrote, and which is
prefixed to St. Gregory of Nyssa's books against Eunomius, has entitled
him to a rank among the ecclesiastical writers, and is a standing proof,
that though he had confined himself to sacred studies, yet by good
conversation and reading, and by the dint of genius, and an excellent
understanding, he was inferior to none but his incomparable brother
Basil, and his colleague Nazianzen, in solid eloquence. In 381, he
attended the general council held at Constantinople, and joined the
other bishops in condemning the Macedonian heretics. Not only his
brother St. Gregory, but also Theodoret, and all antiquity, bear
testimony to his extraordinary sanctity, prudence, and zeal. His death
happened in summer, about the year 387, and his brother of Nyssa
mentions, that his memory was honored at Sebaste (probably the very year
after his death) by an anniversary solemnity, with several martyrs of
that city.[1] His name occurs in the Roman Martyrology, on the 9th of
January.

       *       *       *       *       *

We admire to see a whole family of saints! This prodigy of grace, under
God, was owing to the example, prayers, and exhortations of the elder
St. Macrina, which had this wonderful influence and effect; from her
they learned most heartily and deeply to imbibe the true spirit of
self-denial and humility, which all Christians confess to be the
fundamental maxim of the gospel; but this they generally acknowledge in
speculation only, whereas it is in the heart that this foundation is to
be laid: we must entertain no attachment, says St. Gregory of Nyssa,[2]
to any thing, especially where there is most danger of passion, by some
sensual pleasure annexed; and we must begin by being upon our guard
against sensuality in eating, which is the most ancient enemy, and the
father of vice: we must observe in our whole life the most exact rule of
temperance, never making the pleasure of sense our end, but only the
necessity of the use we make of things, even those in which a pleasure
is taken. In another treatise he says,[3] he who despises the world,
must also renounce himself, so as never to follow his own will, but
purely to seek in all things the will of God; we are his in justice, his
will must be the law and rule of our whole life. This precept of dying
to ourselves, that Christ may live in us, and all our affections and
actions governed by his spirit, is excellently inculcated by St. Basil
the Great.[4]

Footnotes:
1.  St. Gr. Nyss. ep. ad Flav. t. 3, p. 645.
2.  St. Gr. Nyss. de Virg. c. 9.
3.  St. Basil, in Ps. 34, de Bapt. l. 1, et interr. 237.
4.  Id. de perfecta Christi forma.

{116}

SS. JULIAN AND BASILISSA, MM.

ACCORDING to their acts, and the ancient Martyrologies, though engaged
in a married state, they by mutual consent lived in perpetual chastity,
sanctified themselves by the most perfect exercises of an ascetic life,
and employed their revenues in relieving the poor and the sick; for this
purpose they converted their house into a kind of hospital, in which, if
we may credit their acts, they sometimes entertained a thousand indigent
persons. Basilissa attended those of her sex, in separate lodgings from
the men, of whom Julian took care, who from his charity is surnamed the
Hospitalarian. Egypt, where they lived, had then begun to abound with
examples of persons, who, either in cities or in deserts, devoted
themselves to the most perfect exercises of charity, penance, and
contemplation. Basilissa, after having stood severe persecutions, died
in peace; Julian survived her many years, and received the crown of a
glorious martyrdom, together with Celsus a youth, Antony a priest,
Anastatius, and Marcianilla the mother of Celsus. They seem to have
suffered in the reign of Maximin II., in 313, on the 6th of January;
for, in the most ancient lectionary used in the church of Paris, under
the first race of the French kings, quoted by Chatelain,[1] and several
ancient calendars, their festival is marked on that day, or on the eve.
On account of the concurrence of the Epiphany, it was deferred in
different churches to the 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 27, 28, or
29th, of January; 12, 13, 14, 17, 19, 24, or 27th, of February; 20, 21,
or 22d of June; or 31st of August. The menology, published by Canisius,
places the martyrdom of St. Julian and his companions, at Antinopolis in
Egypt; certain ancient MS. copies of the Martyrology, which bear the
name of St. Jerom, say more correctly Antinous: by mistaking the
abbreviation of this name in some MS. copies, several Latins have read
it Antioch;[2] and the Latin acts say these martyrs suffered at Antioch
in Egypt: but no town of that name is ever mentioned in that country;
though Seleucus, the son of Antiochus, gave it to sixteen cities which
he built in Asia, as Appian takes notice. Many churches and hospitals in
the east, and especially in the west, bear the name of one or other of
these martyrs: at Antioch, in Syria, our St. Julian was titular saint of
a famous church and St. Julian of Anazarbus, of two others. Chatelain[3]
proves from ancient images and other monuments, that four churches at
home, and three out of five at Paris, which bear the name of St. Julian,
were originally dedicated under the name of St. Julian the hospitalarian
and martyr; though some of these latter afterward took either St. Julian
bishop of Mans, confessor, or St. Julian of Brioude, martyr, for patron.
The same has happened to some, out of the great number of churches and
hospitals in the Low Countries, erected under his invocation; but the
hospitalarian and martyr is still retained in the office of the greatest
part, especially at Brussels, Antwerp, Tournay, Douay, &c. In the time
of St. Gregory the Great, the skull of St. Julian, husband of St.
Basilissa, was brought out of the east into France, and given to queen
Brunehault; she gave it to the nunnery which she founded at Etampes;
part of it is at present in the {117} monastery of Morigny, near
Etampes, and part in the church of the regular canonesses of St.
Basilissa, at Paris.[4]

Footnotes:
1.  Notes sur le Martyrol. 6 Jan., p. 106. Mabill. Lit. Gallic. l. 2,
    pp. 115, 116.
2.  The abbreviation _Antio_ for Antinous, found in a MS. copy mentioned
    by Chatelain, p. 106, was probably mistaken for Antioch, a name
    better known. Certain circumstances related from the false acts of
    these martyrs, by St. Antoninus, gave occasion to the painters in
    Italy to represent St. Julian as a sportsman with a hawk on his
    hand; and in France, as a boatsman, in a barge; and the postilions
    and bargemen keep his feast, as of their principal patron.
3.  Notes on Jan. 6, p. 109.
4.  See Chatelain, notes on Jan. 6, p. 110, from a MS. at Morigny.


ST. MARCIANA, V.M.

SHE was a native of Rusuccur in Mauritania, and courageously despising
all worldly advantages, to secure to herself the possession of the
precious jewel of heavenly grace, she was called to the trial in the
persecution of Dioclesian, which was continued in Africa under his
successors, till the death of Severus, who was declared Caesar in 305,
and slain in 309. St. Marciana was beaten with clubs, and her chastity
exposed to the rude attempts of pagan gladiators, in which danger God
miraculously preserved her, and she became the happy instrument of the
conversion of one of them to the faith: at length she was torn in pieces
by a wild bull and a leopard, in the amphitheatre at Caesarea in
Mauritania. She is the same who is commemorated on the 12th of July, in
the ancient breviary of Toledo; and in the Roman, and some other
Martyrologies, both on the 9th of July, and on the 9th of January. See a
beautiful ancient hymn in her praise, in the Mozarabic breviary, and her
acts in Bollandus, though their authority is not altogether certain.
Consult Tillemont, t. 5, p. 263. Chatelain, notes on the 9th of January
p. 146.

ST. BRITHWALD, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.

HE was abbot of Glastenbury, but resigning that dignity, came to the
little monastery of Riculf, or Riculver, near the isle of Thanet, in
Kent, that he might improve himself in the study of the Holy Scriptures,
in the neighborhood of St. Theodorus; after whose death he was promoted
to the see of Canterbury, in 692, in which he sat thirty-seven years and
six months, a living {icon} of perfection to this church. He died in
731. See John of Glastenbury, published by Hearne; William of
Malmesbury, in the antiquities of Glastenbury, published by Thomas Gale;
and Bede, l. 5, c. 9, and 24.

ST. FELAN, OR FOELAN, ABBOT

HIS name is famous in the ancient Scottish and Irish Calendars. The
example and instructions of his pious parents, Feriach and St.
Kentigerna, inspired him from the cradle with the most ardent love of
virtue. In his youth, despising the flattering worldly advantages to
which high birth and a great fortune entitled him, he received the
monastic habit from a holy abbot named Mundus, and passed many years in
a cell at some distance from the monastery, not far from St. Andrew's.
He was by compulsion drawn from this close solitude, being chosen abbot.
His sanctity in this public station shone forth with a bright light.
After some years he resigned this charge, and retired to his uncle
Congan, brother to his mother, in a place called Siracht, a mountainous
part of Glendarchy, now in Fifeshire, where, with the assistance of
seven others, he built a church, near which he served for several years.
God glorified him by a wonderful gift of miracles; and called him to the
reward of his labors on the 9th of January, in the seventh century.
{118} He was buried in Straphilline, and his relics were long preserved
there with honor. This account is given us of him in the lessons of the
Aberdeen Breviary.[1] The Scottish historians[2] attribute to the
intercession of St. Felan a memorable victory obtained by king Robert
Bruce, in 1314, over a numerous army of English, at Bannocburn, not far
from Sterling, in the reign of Edward II. of England, who narrowly
escaped, being obliged to pass the Tweed in a boat, with only one
companion. See Lesley, l. 17; Boetius, l. 14. Chatelain certainly
mistakes in confounding this saint with St. Finan, bishop of
Lindisfarne.[3]

Footnotes:
1.  T. 1, part 2, fol. 28.
2.  Hector Boetius, l. 14, &c.
3.  St. Felan flourished in the county of Fife, and probably in the
    monastery of Pettinuime, where his memory was famous, as is
    testified by the author of MS. memoirs on the Scottish saints,
    preserved in the college of the Scots at Paris, who declares himself
    to have been a missionary priest in Scotland to 1609. The county of
    Fife was famous for the rich and most ancient monasteries of
    Dumferling, Lindore, St. Andrew's, or Colrosse, or Courose,
    Pettinuime, Balmure, and Petmoace; and two stately nunneries:
    Aberdaure and Elcho. All these noble buildings they levelled to the
    ground with incredible fury, crying, "Pull down, pull down: the
    crows' nest must be utterly exterminated, lest they should return
    and attempt again to renew their settlement." Ib. MS. fol. 7.

ST. ADRIAN, ABBOT AT CANTERBURY

DIVINE Providence conducted this holy man to Britain, in order to make
him an instructor of innumerable saints. Adrian was an African by birth,
and was abbot of Nerida, not far from Naples, when pope Vitalian, upon
the death of St. Deusdedit the archbishop of Canterbury, judged him, for
his skill in sacred learning, and experience in the paths of true
interior virtue, to be of all others the most proper person to be the
doctor of a nation, zealous in the pursuit of virtue, but as yet
ignorant in the sciences, and in the canons of the church. The humble
servant of God found means to decline that dignity, by recommending St.
Theodorus as most capable, but refused not to share in the laborious
part of the ministry. The pope therefore enjoined him to be the
companion, assistant, and adviser of the apostolic archbishop, which
charge Adrian willingly took upon himself. In travelling through France
with St. Theodorus, he was stopped by Ebroin, the jealous mayor of the
palace, who feared lest the emperor of the East had given these two
persons, who were his born subjects, some commission in favor of his
pretensions to the western kingdoms. Adrian stayed a long time in
France, at Meaux, and in other places, before he was allowed to pursue
his journey. St. Theodorus established him abbot of the monastery of SS.
Peter and Paul, afterward called St. Austin, near Canterbury, where he
taught the learned languages and the sciences, and principally the
precepts and maxims of our divine religion. He had illustrated this
island by his heavenly doctrine, and the bright example of his virtues,
for the space of thirty-nine years, when he departed to our Lord on the
9th of January, in the year 710. His tomb was famed for miracles, as we
are assured by Joscelin the Monk, quoted by William of Malmesbury and
Capgrave; and his name is inserted in the English calendars. See Bede,
l. 4, c. 1, l. 5, c. 21. Malmesb. de Pontif. Angl. and Capgrave.

ST. VANENG, C.

FROM various fragments of ancient histories of his life, the most modern
of which was compiled in the twelfth century, it appears that Vaneng was
made by Clotaire III. governor of that part of Neustria, or Normandy,
which was anciently inhabited by the Caletes, and is called Pais de
Caux, {119} at which time he took great pleasure in hunting.
Nevertheless, he was very pious, and particularly devout to St. Eulalia
of Barcelona, called in Guienne, St. Aulaire. One night be seemed, in a
dream, to hear that holy Virgin and Martyr repeat to him those words of
our blessed Redeemer in the gospel, that "it is easier for a camel to
pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to be saved." Soon
after this he quitted the world, assisted St. Vandrille in building the
churches of SS. Peter and Paul at Fontenelles, and founded in the valley
of Fecam[1] a church in honor of the holy Trinity, with a great nunnery
adjoining, under the direction of St. Owes and St. Vandrille.
Hildemarca, a very virtuous nun, was called from Bourdeaux, and
appointed the first abbess. Under her, three hundred and sixty nuns
served God in this house, and were divided into as many choirs as were
sufficient, by succeeding one another, to continue the divine office
night and day without interruption. St. Vaneng died about the year 688,
and is honored, in the Gallican and Benedictin Martyrologies, on the 9th
of January; but at St. Vandrille's, and in other monasteries in
Normandy, on the 31st of January. This saint is titular patron of
several churches in Aquitain and Normandy; one near Touars in Poictou
has given its name to the village of St. Vaneng. His body is possessed
in a rich shrine, in the abbatial church of Our Lady at Ham, in Picardy,
belonging to the regular canons of St. Genevieve. See Mabillon, t. 2, p.
972; Bollandus, and chiefly the life of St. Vaneng, judiciously
collected and printed at Paris in 1700;[2] also, the breviary of the
abbey of Fontenelle, now St. Vandrille's. The abbeys of Fecam, St.
Vandrille, Jumiege, Bec, St. Stephen's at Caen, Cerisy, &c., are now of
the reformed congregation of St. Maur, abbot of St. Benignus, at Dijon,
whose life Bollandus has given us among the saints, January 1. Fecam,
honored by the dukes of Normandy above all their other monasteries, is
the richest and most magnificent abbey in Normandy.

Footnotes:
1.  The monastery of Fecam was ruined in the invasion of the Normans.
    Rollo, who came into France in 876, was baptized, and, after having
    founded the duchy of Normandy, died in 917. His sepulchral monument
    is shown in one of the chapels near the door in the cathedral at
    Rouen. His son William built a palace at Fecam, where his son
    Richard was born. The church of the Holy Trinity being
    re-established, this Richard placed in it secular canons; but, on
    his death-bed, ordered it to be put into the hands of the monks.
    This was executed by his successor, the monks being sent by William
    the most holy abbot.
2.  Ferrarius, an Italian servite, Du-Saussaye, Bollandus, and F. Giry,
    place among the saints of this day, Sithride, or Sedredo, an English
    virgin, and second abbess of Farmoutiers. Bede tells us (l. 3, c. 8)
    that she was daughter of St. Hereswide, by a former husband, before
    she married Annas, king of the East Angles, and that going to the
    monastery of Brie, (now Farmoutiers,) she was second abbess between
    St. Fara and St. Aubierge, King Annas's own daughter. But though St.
    Aubierge be honored at Farmoutiers in July, with great solemnity,
    and St. Arthongate in February, the name of Sedredo is not found in
    the calendar of any church, nor are any of her relics enshrined like
    the others, unless she be the same with St. Sissetrudis, who in some
    calendars is named on the 6th, in others on the 7th of May. But St.
    Sissetrude is called by Jonas of Bobio, cellerer, not abbess. See
    Chatelain, &c. 3.

{120}


JANUARY X.

SAINT WILLIAM, CONFESSOR,

ARCHBISHOP OF BOURGES.

From his life written by a faithful acquaintance at Bourges, (abridged
by Surius,) and again by Peter, a monk of Chaalis, both soon after his
death: collected by Dom le Nain, in his history of the Cistercians, t.
7. See also the notes of Bollandus, with a fragment of a third life, and
Gallia Christ. Nov. t. 2. p. 63.

A.D. 1209.

WILLIAM BERRUYER, of the illustrious family of the ancient counts of
Nevers, was educated by Peter the Hermit, archdeacon of Soissons, his
uncle by the mother's side. He learned from his infancy to despise the
folly and emptiness of the riches and grandeur of the world, to abhor
its pleasures, and to tremble at its dangers. His only delight was in
exercises of piety and in his studies, in which he employed his whole
time with indefatigable application. He was made canon, first of
Soissons, and afterwards of Paris; but he soon took the resolution of
abandoning all commerce with the world, and retired into the solitude of
Grandmont, where he lived with great regularity in that austere order,
till seeing its peace disturbed by a contest which arose between the
fathers and lay-brothers, he passed into the Cistercian, then in
wonderful odor of sanctity. He took the habit in the abbey of Pontigny,
and shining as a perfect model of monastic perfection, was after some
time chosen prior of that house, and afterwards abbot, first of
Fountaine-Jean, in the diocese of Sens, (a filiation of Pontigny,
founded in 1124, by Peter de Courtenay, son of king Louis the Fat,) and
some time after, of Chaalis, near Senlis, a much more numerous
monastery, also a filiation of Pontigny, built by Louis the Fat in 1136,
a little before his death. St. William always reputed himself the last
among his brethren. The universal mortification of his senses and
passions, laid in him the foundation of an admirable purity of heart,
and an extraordinary gift of prayer; in which he received great heavenly
lights, and tasted of the sweets which God has reserved for those to
whom he is pleased to communicate himself. The sweetness and
cheerfulness of his countenance testified the uninterrupted joy and
peace that overflowed his soul, and made virtue appear with the most
engaging charms in the midst of austerities.

On the death of Henry de Sully, archbishop of Bourges, the clergy of
that church requested his brother Endo, bishop of Paris, to come and
assist them in the election of a pastor. Desirous to choose some abbot
of the Cistercian Order, then renowned for holy men, they put on the
altar the names of three, written on as many billets. This manner of
election by lots would have been superstitious, and a tempting of God,
had it been done relying on a miracle without the warrant of divine
inspiration. But it deserved not this censure when all the persons
proposed seemed equally worthy and fit, as the choice was only
recommended to God, and left to this issue by following the rules of his
ordinary providence, and imploring his light, without rashness, or a
neglect of the usual means of scrutiny: prudence might sometimes even
recommend such a method, in order to terminate a debate when the
candidates seemed equally qualified. God, in such cases is said
sometimes to have miraculously interposed.

{121}

Eudo, accordingly, having written three billets, laid them on the altar,
and having made his prayer drew first the name of the abbot William, on
whom, at the same time, the majority of the votes of the clergy had made
the election fall, the 23d of November, 1200. This news overwhelmed
William, with grief. He never would have acquiesced, had he not received
a double command in virtue of obedience, from the pope, and from his
general the abbot of Citeaux. He left his clear solitude with many
tears, and was received at Bourges as one sent by heaven, and soon after
was consecrated. In this new dignity his first care was to conform both
his exterior and interior to the most perfect rules of sanctity; being
very sensible that a man's first task is to honor God perfectly in his
own soul. He redoubled all his austerities, saying, it was now incumbent
on him to do penance for others, as well as for himself. He always wore
a hair-shirt under his religious habit, and never added, nor diminished,
any thing in his clothes, either winter or summer. He never ate any
flesh-meat, though he had it at his table for strangers. His attention
to feed his flock was no less remarkable, especially in assisting the
poor both spiritually and corporally, saying, that he was chiefly sent
for them. He was most mild to penitent sinners; but inflexible towards
the impenitent, though he refused to have recourse to the civil power
against them, the usual remedy of that age. Many such he at last
reclaimed by his sweetness and charity. Certain great men, abusing his
lenity, usurped the rights of his church; but the saint strenuously
defended them even against the king himself, notwithstanding his threats
to confiscate his lands. By humility and resolution he overcame several
contradictions of his chapter and other clergy. By his zeal he converted
many of the Albigenses, contemporary heretics, and was preparing himself
for a mission among them, at the time he was seized with his last
illness. He would, notwithstanding, preach a farewell sermon to his
people, which increased his fever to such a degree that he was obliged
to set aside his journey, and take to his bed. Drawing near his end, he
received first extreme unction, according to the discipline of that
age;[1] then, in order to receive the viaticum, he rose out of bed, fell
on his knees melting in tears, and prayed long prostrate with his arms
stretched out in the form of a cross. The night following, perceiving
his last hour approach, he desired to anticipate the nocturns, which are
said at midnight; but having made the sign of the cross on his lips and
breast, was able to pronounce no more than the two first words. Then,
according to a sign made by him, he was laid on ashes in the hair-cloth
which he always privately wore. In this posture he soon after expired, a
little past midnight, on the morning of the 10th of January, in 1209.
His body was interred in his cathedral; and being honored by many
miracles, was taken up in 1217; and in the year following he was
canonized by pope Honorius III. His relics were kept with great
veneration till 1562, when they were burnt, and scattered in the winds
by the Huguenots, on occasion of their plundering the cathedral of
Bourges, as Baillet and Bollandus mention. A bone of his arm is shown
with veneration at Chaalis, whither it had been sent soon after the
saint's body was taken up; and a rib is preserved in the church of the
college of Navarre, at Paris, on which the canons of St. Bourges
bestowed it in 1399.[2] His festival is kept in that church with great,
solemnity, and a great concourse of devout persons; St. William being
regarded in several parts of France as one of the patrons of the nation,
though his name is not mentioned in the Roman Martyrology. The
celebrated countess Maud, his niece, out of veneration for his memory,
bestowed certain lands in the {122} Nivernois, on the church of
Bourges.[3] B. Philip Berruyer, a nephew of St. William, was archbishop
of Bourges from the year 1236 to 1260, in which he died in the odor of
sanctity. Nangi ascribes to him many miracles, and other historians bear
testimony to his eminent virtue.[4] Dom Martenne has published his
edifying original life.[5]

       *       *       *       *       *

If we look into the lives of all the saints, we shall find that it was
by a spirit and gift of prayer that the Holy Ghost formed in their
hearts the most perfect sentiments of all virtues. It is this which
enlightens the understanding, and infuses a spiritual knowledge, and a
heavenly wisdom, which is incomparably more excellent than that in which
philosophers pride themselves. The same purifies the affections,
sanctifies the soul, adorns it with virtues, and enriches it with every
gift of heaven. Christ, who is the eternal wisdom, came down among us on
earth to teach us more perfectly this heavenly language, and he alone is
our master in it. He vouchsafed also to be our model. In the first
moment in which his holy soul began to exist, it exerted all its powers
in contemplating and adorning the divine Trinity, and employed his
affections in the most ardent acts of praise, love, thanksgiving,
oblation, and the like. His whole moral life was an uninterrupted
prayer; more freely to apply himself to this exercise, and to set us an
example, he often retired into mountains and deserts, and spent whole
nights in prayer; and to this employment he consecrated his last breath
upon the cross. By him the saints were inspired to conceive an infinite
esteem for holy prayer, and such a wonderful assiduity and ardor in this
exercise, that many renounced altogether the commerce of men to only
that of God, and his angels; and the rest learned the art of conversing
secretly with heaven even amidst their exterior employments, which they
only undertook for God. Holy pastors have always made retirement and a
life of prayer their apprenticeship or preparation for the ministry, and
afterward, amidst its functions were still men of prayer in them, having
God always present to their mind, and setting apart intervals in the
day, and a considerable part of the nights, to apply themselves with
their whole attention to this exercise, in the silence of all creatures.

Footnotes:
1.  See Bellarmin, de Arte moriendi. Iuenin, de Sacram. t. 2, et Hist.
    des Sacr. t. 7.
2.  See Chatelain. Not. p. 161, Brev. Paris.
3.  Gallia Christ. Nov. t. 2, p. 63{?}.
4.  Ib. p. 69.
5.  Martenne Anecdot. t. 3, p. 1927.

ST. AGATHO, POPE.

AGATHO, a Sicilian by birth, was remarkable for his charity and
benevolence, a profound humility, and an engaging sweetness of temper.
Having been several years treasurer of the church of Rome, he succeeded
Domnus in the pontificate in 679. He presided by his three legates in
the sixth general council, and third of Constantinople, in 680, in the
reign of the pious emperor Constantine Pogonatus, against the
Monothelite heresy, which he confuted in a learned letter to that
emperor, by the tradition of the apostolic church of Rome:
"Acknowledged," says he, "by the whole Catholic church, to be the mother
and mistress of all other churches, and to derive her superior authority
from St. Peter, the prince of the apostles, to whom Christ committed his
whole flock, with a promise that his faith should never fail." This
epistle was approved as a rule of faith by the same council, which
declared, _that Peter spoke by Agatho_. This pope restored St. Wilfrid
to the see of York, and was a great benefactor to the Roman clergy and
to the churches. Anastatius says, that the number of his miracles
procured him the title of Thaumaturgus. He died in 682, having held the
pontificate {123} two years and a half. His feast is kept both by the
Latins and Greeks. See Anastatius published by Bianchini; also Muratori
and Labbe, Conc. t. 6, p. 1109.

       *       *       *       *       *

The style of this pope's letters is inferior to that both of his
predecessors and successors. The reason he alleges in excusing the
legates whom he sent to Constantinople for their want of eloquence,
because the graces of speech could not be cultivated amidst the
incursions of barbarians, while with much difficulty they earned Thor
daily subsistence by manual labor; "But we preserve," said he, with
simplicity of heart, "the faith, which our fathers have handed down to
us." The bishops, his legates, say the same thing: "Our countries are
harassed by the fury of barbarous nations. We live in the midst of
battles, inroads, and devastations; our lives pass in continual alarms
and anxiety, and we subsist by the labor of our hands."

ST. MARCIAN, PRIEST,

AND TREASURER OF THE CHURCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE, IN THE FIFTH AGE,

WAS born at Constantinople, though of a Roman family related to the
imperial house of the Theodosiuses. From his childhood he served God in
continual watching, fasting, and prayer, in imitation of St. John the
Baptist; and for the relief of the necessitous he gave away immense
occult alms. The time which was not employed in these charities, he
spent in holy retirement and prayer. In the reign of the emperor
Marcian, Anatolius the archbishop, offering violence to the saint's
humility, ordained him priest. In this new state the saint saw himself
under a stricter obligation than before of laboring to attain to the
summit of Christian perfection; and while he made the instruction of the
poor his principal and favorite employment, he redoubled his earnestness
in providing for their corporal necessities, and was careful never to
relax any part of his austerities. The severity of his morals was made a
handle, by those who feared the example of his virtue, as a tacit
censure of their sloth, avarice, and irregularities, to fasten upon him
a suspicion of Novatianism; but his meekness and silence at length
triumphed over the slander. This persecution served more and more to
purify his soul, and exceedingly improve his virtue. This shone forth
with greater lustre than ever, when the cloud was dispersed; and the
patriarch Gennadius, with the great applause of the whole body of the
clergy and people, conferred on him the dignity of treasurer, which was
the second in that church. St. Marcian built or repaired in a stately
manner a great number of churches in Constantinople, confounded the
Arians and other heretics, and was famous for miracles both before and
after his happy death, which happened towards the end of the fifth
century. He is honored both in the Greek Menaea, and Roman Martyrology,
on the 10th of January. See his ancient anonymous life in Surius, and
Bollandus; also Cedrenus, Sozomen, and Theodorus Lector, l. 1. Codinus
Orig. Constant. p. 60. See Tillemont, t. 16, p. 161.

{124}


JANUARY XI.

ST. THEODOSIUS, THE CENOBIARCH.

From his life by Theodorus, bishop of Petra, some time his disciple, in
Surius and Bollandus, and commended by Fleury, Baillet, &c.

A.D. 529.

ST. THEODOSIUS was born at Mogariassus, called in latter ages Marissa,
in Cappadocia, in 423. He imbibed the first tincture of virtue from the
fervent example and pious instructions of his virtuous parents. He was
ordained reader, but some time after being moved by Abraham's example to
quit his country and friends, he resolved to put this motion in
execution. He accordingly set out for Jerusalem, but went purposely out
of his road, to visit the famous St. Simeon Stylites on his pillar, who
foretold him several circumstances of his life, and gave him proper
instructions for his behavior in each. Having satisfied his devotion in
visiting the holy places in Jerusalem, he began to consider in what
manner he should dedicate himself to God in a religious state. The
dangers of living without a guide, made him prefer a monastery to a
hermitage; and he therefore put himself under the direction of a holy
man named Longinus, to whom his virtue soon endeared him in a very
particular manner. A pious lady having built a church under the
invocation of the Blessed Virgin, on the high road to Bethlehem,
Longinus could not well refuse her request, that his pupil should
undertake the charge of it; but Theodosius, who loved only to obey,
could not be induced by any entreaties to consent to this proposal:
absolute commands were necessary to force him to a compliance. Nor did
he govern long; for dreading the poison of vanity from the esteem of
men, he retired into a cave at the top of a neighboring desert mountain,
and employed his time in fasting, watching, prayers, and tears, which
almost continually flowed from his eyes. His food was coarse pulse and
wild herbs: for thirty years he never tasted so much as a morsel of
bread. Many desired to serve God under his direction: he at first
determined only to admit six or seven, but was soon obliged to receive a
greater number, and at length came to a resolution, which charity
extorted from him, never to reject any that presented themselves with
dispositions that seemed sincere. The first lesson which he taught his
monks was, that the continual remembrance of death is the foundation of
religious perfection; to imprint this more deeply in their minds, he
caused a great grave or pit to be dug, which might serve for the common
burial-place of the whole community, that by the presence of this
memorial of death, and by continually meditating on that object, they
might more perfectly learn to die daily. The burial-place being made,
the abbot one day, when he had led his monks to it, said, "The grave is
made, who will first perform the dedication?" Basil, a priest, who was
one of the number, falling on his knees, said to St. Theodosius, "I am
the person, be pleased to give me your blessing." The abbot ordered the
prayers of the church for the dead to be offered up for him, and on the
fortieth day, Basil wonderfully departed to our Lord in peace, without
any apparent sickness. When the holy company of disciples were twelve in
number, it happened that at the great feast of Easter they had nothing
to eat; they had not even bread for the sacrifice: some murmured; the
saint bid them trust {125} in God and he would provide: which was soon
remarkably verified, by the arrival of certain mules loaded with
provisions. The lustre of the sanctity and miracles of St. Theodosius,
drawing great numbers to him who desired to serve God under his
direction, his cave was too little for their reception; therefore,
having consulted heaven by prayer, he, by its particular direction,
built a spacious monastery at a place called Cathismus, not far from
Bethlehem, at a small distance from his cave, and it was soon filled
with holy monks. To this monastery were annexed three infirmaries; one
for the sick, the gift of a pious lady in that neighborhood; the two
others St. Theodosius built himself, one for the aged and feeble, the
other for such as had been punished with the loss of their senses, or by
falling under the power of the devil, for rashly engaging in a religious
state through pride, and without a due dependence on the grace of God to
carry them through it. All succors, spiritual and temporal, were
afforded in these infirmaries, with admirable order, care, and
affection. He erected also several buildings for the reception of
strangers, in which he exercised an unbounded hospitality, entertaining
all that came, for whose use there were one day above a hundred tables
served with provisions: these, when insufficient for the number of
guests, were more than once miraculously multiplied by his prayers. The
monastery itself was like a city of saints in the midst of a desert, and
in it reigned regularity, silence, charity, and peace. There were four
churches belonging to it, one for each of the three several nations of
which his community was chiefly composed, each speaking a different
language; the fourth was for the use of such as were in a state of
penance, which those that recovered from their lunatic or possessed
condition before, mentioned, were put into, and detained till they had
expiated their fault. The nations into which his community was divided,
were the Greeks, which were far the most numerous, and consisted of all
those that came from any provinces of the empire; the Armenians, with
whom were joined the Arabians and Persians; and, thirdly, the Bessi, who
comprehended all the northern nations below Thrace, or all who used the
Runic or Sclavonian tongue. Each nation sung the first part of the mass
to the end of the gospel, in their own church, but after the gospel, all
met in the church of the Greeks, where they celebrated the essential
part of the sacrifice in Greek and communicated all together.[1]

The monks passed a considerable part of the day and night at their
devotions in the church, and at the times not set apart for public
prayer and necessary rest, every one was obliged to apply himself to
some trade, of manual labor, not incompatible with recollection, that
the house might be supplied with conveniences. Sallust, bishop of
Jerusalem, appointed St. Sabas superior general of the hermits, and our
saint of the Cenobites, or religious men living in community throughout
all Palestine, whence he was styled the Cenobiarch. These two great
servants of God lived in strict friendship, and had frequent spiritual
conferences together; they were also united in their zeal and sufferings
for the church.

The emperor Anastasius patronized the Eutychian heresy, and used all
possible means to engage our saint in his party. In 513 he deposed
Elias, patriarch of Jerusalem, as he had banished Flavian II., patriarch
of Antioch, and intruded Severus, an impious heretic, into that see,
commanding the Syrians to obey and hold communion with him. SS.
Theodosius and Sabas maintained boldly the right of Elias, and of John
his successor; whereupon the imperial officers thought it most advisable
to connive at their proceedings, considering the great authority they
had acquired by {126} their sanctity. Soon after, the emperor sent
Theodosius a considerable sum of money, for charitable uses in
appearance, but in reality to engage him in his interest. The saint
accepted of it, and distributed it all among the poor. Anastasius now
persuading himself that he was as good as gained over to his cause, sent
him an heretical profession of faith, in which the divine and human
natures in Christ were confounded into one, and desired him to sign it.
The saint wrote him an answer full of apostolic spirit; in which,
besides solidly confuting the Eutychian error, he added, that he was
ready to lay down his life for the faith of the church. The emperor
admired his courage and the strength of his reasoning, and returning him
a respectful answer, highly commended his generous zeal, made some
apology for his own inconsiderateness, and protested that he only
desired the peace of the church. But it was not long ere he relapsed
into his former impiety and renewed his bloody edicts against the
orthodox, dispatching troops everywhere to have them put in execution.
On the first intelligence of this, Theodosius went over all the deserts
and country of Palestine, exhorting every one to be firm in the faith of
the four general councils. At Jerusalem, having assembled the people
together, he from the pulpit cried out with a loud voice: "If any one
receives not the four general councils as the four gospels, let him be
anathema." So bold an action in a man of his years, inspired with
courage those whom the edicts had terrified. His discourses had a
wonderful effect on the people, and God gave a sanction up his zeal by
miracles: one of these was, that on his going out of the church at
Jerusalem, a woman was healed of a cancer on the spot, by only touching
his garments. The emperor sent an order for his banishment, which was
executed; but dying soon after, Theodosius was recalled by his Catholic
successor, Justin; who, from a common soldier, had gradually ascended
the imperial throne.

Our saint survived his return eleven years, never admitting the least
relaxation in his former austerities. Such was his humility, that seeing
two monks at variance with each other, he threw himself at their
feet, and could not rise till they were perfectly reconciled; and once
having excommunicated one of his subjects for a crime, who
contumaciously pretended to excommunicate him in his turn, the saint
behaved as if he had been really excommunicated, to gain the sinner's
soul by this unprecedented example of submission, which had the desired
effect. During the last year of his life he was afflicted with a painful
distemper, in which he gave proof of an heroic patience, and an entire
submission to the will of God; for being advised by one that was an
eye-witness of his great sufferings, to pray that God would be pleased
to grant him some ease, he would give no ear to it, alleging that such
thoughts were impatience, and would rob him of his crown. Perceiving the
hour of his dissolution at hand, he gave his last exhortation to his
disciples, and foretold many things, which accordingly came to pass
after his death: this happened in the one hundred and fifth year of his
age, and of our Lord 529. Peter, patriarch of Jerusalem, and the whole
country, assisted with the deepest sentiments of respect at the
solemnity of his interment, which was honored by miracles. He was buried
in his first cell, called the cave of the magi, because the wise men,
who came to adore Christ soon after his birth, were said to have lodged
in it. A certain count being on his march against the Persians, begged
the hair shirt which the saint used to wear next his skin, and believed
that he owed the victory which he obtained over them, to the saint's
protection through the pledge of that relic. Both the Roman and Greek
calendars mention his festival on the 11th of January.

{127}

       *       *       *       *       *

The examples of the Nazarites and Essenes among the Jews, and of many
excellent and holy persons among the Christians through every age,
demonstrate that many are called by God to serve him in a retired
contemplative life; nay, it is the opinion of St. Gregory the Great,
that the world is to some persons so full of ambushes and snares, or
dangerous occasions of sin, that they cannot be saved but by choosing a
safe retreat. Those who from experience are conscious of their own
weakness, and find themselves to be no match for the world, unable to
countermine its policies, and oppose its power, ought to retire as from
the face of too potent an enemy; and prefer a contemplative state to a
busy and active life: not to indulge sloth, or to decline the service of
God and his neighbor, but to consult his own security, and to fly from
dangers of sin and vanity. Yet there are some who find the greatest
dangers in solitude itself; so that it is necessary for every one to
sound his own heart, take a survey of his own forces and abilities, and
consult God, that he may best he able to learn the designs of his
providence with regard to his soul; in doing which, a great purity of
intention is the first requisite. Ease and enjoyment must not be the end
of Christian retirement, but penance, labor, and assiduous
contemplation; without great fervor and constancy in which, close
solitude is the road to perdition. If greater safety, or an unfitness
for a public station, or a life of much business (in which several are
only public nuisances) may be just motives to some for embracing a life
of retirement, the means of more easily attaining to perfect virtue may
be such to many. Nor do true contemplatives bury their talents, or cease
either to be members of the republic of mankind, or to throw in their
mite towards its welfare. From the prayers and thanksgivings which they
daily offer to God for the peace of the world, the preservation of the
church, the conversion of sinners, and the salvation of all men,
doubtless more valuable benefits often accrue to mankind, than from the
alms of the rich, or the labors of the learned. Nor is it to be
imagined, how far and how powerfully their spirit, and the example of
their innocence and perfect virtue, often spread their influence; and
how serviceable persons who lead a holy and sequestered life may be to
the good of the world; nor how great glory redounds to God, by the
perfect purity of heart and charity to which many souls are thus raised.

Footnotes:
1.  See Le Brun, Explic. des Ceremonies de la Messe, t. 4, pp. 234-235,
    dissert. l. 4, art. 2.

ST. HYGINUS, P. AND M.

HE was placed in the chair of St. Peter after the martyrdom of St.
Telesphorus, in the year 139. Eusebius informs us,[1] that he sat four
years. The church then enjoyed some sort of calm, under the mild reign
of the emperor Antoninus Pius; though several martyrs suffered in his
time by the fury of the populace, or the cruelty of certain magistrates.
The emperor himself never consented to such proceedings; and when
informed of them by the governors of Asia, Athens, Thessalonica, and
Larissea, he wrote to them in favor of the Christians, as is recorded by
St. Justin and Eusebius.[2]

But the devil had recourse to other arts to disturb the peace of God's
church. Cerdo, a wolf in sheep's clothing, in the year 140, came from
Syria to Rome, and began to teach the false principles which Marcion
adopted afterward with more success. He impiously affirmed that there
were two Gods; the one rigorous and severe, the author of the Old
Testament; the other merciful and good, the author of the New, and the
father of Christ, sent by him to redeem man from the tyranny of the
former; and that Christ was not really born of the Virgin Mary, or true
man, but such {128} in shadow only and appearance. Our holy pope, by his
pastoral vigilance detected that monster, and cut him off from the
communion of the church. The heresiarch, imposing upon him by a false
repentance, was again received; but the zealous pastor having discovered
that he secretly preached this old opinions, excommunicated him a second
time.[3]

Another minister of Satan was Valentine, who being a Platonic
philosopher, puffed up with the vain opinion of his learning, and full
of resentment for another's being preferred to him in an election to a
certain bishopric in Egypt, as Tertullian relates,[4] revived the errors
of Simon Magus, and added to them many other absurd fictions, as of
thirty AEones or ages, a kind of inferior deities, with whimsical
histories of their several pedigrees. Having broached these opinions at
Alexandria, he left Egypt for Rome. At first he dissembled his heresies,
but by degrees his extravagant doctrines came to light. Hyginus, being
the mildest of men, endeavored to reclaim him without proceeding to
extremities; so that Valentine was not excommunicated before the first
year of St. Pius his immediate successor.

St. Hyginus did not sit quite four years, dying in 142. We do not find
that he ended his life by martyrdom, yet he is styled a martyr in some
ancient calendars, as well as in the present Roman Martyrology;
undoubtedly on account of the various persecutions which he suffered,
and to which his high station in the church exposed him in those
perilous times. See Tillemont, t. 2, p. 252.

Footnotes:
1.  Eus. l. 4, c. 11.
2.  Eus. l. 4, c. 30.
3.  St. Epiph. hom. 41; Iren. l. 3, c. 4; Euseb. &c.
4.  Tertull. l. contra Valent. c. 4.

ST. EGWIN, B.C.

HE was of the royal blood of the Mercian kings, devoted himself to the
divine service in his youth, and succeeded O{}or in the episcopal see of
Worcester, in 692. by his zeal and severity in reproving vice, he
stirred up some of his own flock to persecute him, which gave him an
opportunity of performing a penitential pilgrimage Rome. Some legends
tell us, that setting out he put on his legs iron shackles, and threw
the key into the river Severn, others say the Avon; but found it in the
belly of a fish, some say at Rome, others in his passage from France to
England. After his return, with the assistance of Coenred or Kenred,
king of Mercia, he founded the famous abbey of Evesham, under the
invocation of the Blessed Virgin. After this he undertook a second
journey to Rome, in the company of Coenred, king of the Mercians, and of
Offa, of the East Saxons, who gave up their temporal principalities to
labor with greater earnestness to secure an eternal crown. St. Egwin
died on the 30th of December, in 717, and was buried in the monastery of
Evesham. His body was translated to a more honorable place in 1183,
probably on the 11th of January, on which day many English Martyrologies
mark his festival. See his life in Capgrave, the Annals of Worcester, in
Wharton's Anglia Sacra; Malmesbury, l. 4, de Pontif. Ang. Harpsfield.
Saec. 8, c. 15, 18, and Dr. Thomas in his History the Cathedral of
Worcester. Monast. Anglic. vol. 1, p. 144, and vol. 2, p. 851. Leland's
Collections, vol. 1, pp. 240 and 298; vol. 3, p. 160. Dr. Brown Willis,
History of Abbeys, t. 1, p. 90.

ST. SALVIUS, OR SAUVE, BISHOP OF AMIENS,

FAMOUS for miracles, succeeded Ado in 672, and flourished in the reign
of Theodoric III. His relics rest at Montreuil, in Picardy, in the
Benedictin {129} Abbey which bears his name, whither they were
translated from the cathedral of Amiens, several years after his death,
as is related in his anonymous life, a piece of uncertain authority with
regard to his actions. A relic of this saint was formerly kept with
great veneration in the cathedral of Canterbury, mentioned in the
history of that church, &c. This saint must not be confounded with St.
Salvius of Alby, nor with the martyr of this name in Africa, on whose
festival St. Austin made a sermon. See his anonymous life in Bollandus;
also Baillet. Gall. Christ. Nova, t. 10, p. 1154. This seems the day of
his translation, and the 28th of October that of his death.


JANUARY XII.

ST. ARCADIUS, MARTYR.

From his ancient acts, much esteemed by Baronius, and inserted by
Ruinart in his authentic collection. St. Zeno of Verona made use of them
in his forty-ninth sermon on this martyr. See Tillemont. t. 5 p. 557.

THE time of this saint's martyrdom is not mentioned in his acts; some
place it under Valerian, others under Dioclesian: he seems to have
suffered in some city of Mauritania, probably the capital, Caesarea. The
fury of the tyrants raged violently, and the devil had instigated his
soldiers to wage, like so many wolves, a bloody war against the servants
of Jesus. Upon the least suspicion they broke into houses, made rigorous
searches, and if they found a Christian, they treated him upon the spot
with the greatest cruelty, their impatience not suffering them to wait
the bringing him before a judge. Every day new sacrileges were
committed; the faithful were compelled to assist at superstitious
sacrifices, to lead victims crowned with flowers through the streets, to
burn incense before idols, and to celebrate the enthusiastic feasts of
Bacchus. Arcadius, seeing his city in great confusion, left his estate
and withdrew to a solitary place in the neighboring country, serving
Jesus Christ in watching, prayer, and other exercises of a penitential
life. His flight could not be long a secret; for his not appearing at
the public sacrifices made the governor send soldiers to his house; who
surrounded it, forced open the doors, and finding one of his relations
in it, who said all he could to justify his kinsman's absence; they
seized him, and the governor ordered him to be kept in close custody
till Arcadius should be taken. The martyr, informed of his friend's
danger, and burning with a desire to suffer for Christ, went into the
city, and presenting himself to the judge, said: "If on my account you
detain my innocent relation in chains, release him; I, Arcadius, am come
in person to give an account of myself, and to declare to you, that he
knew not where I was." "I am willing," answered the judge, "to pardon
not only him, but you also, on condition that you will sacrifice to the
gods." Arcadius replied, "How can you propose to me such a thing? Do you
not know the Christians, or do you believe that the fear of death will
ever make me swerve from my duty? Jesus Christ is my life, and death is
my gain. Invent what torments you please; but know that nothing shall
make me a traitor to my God." The governor, in a rage, paused to devise
some unheard-of torment for him. Iron hooks seemed too easy; neither
plummets of lead, nor cudgels could satisfy his fury; the very rack he
thought by much too gentle. At last {130} imagining he had found a
manner of death suitable to his purpose, he said to the ministers of his
cruelty, "Take him, and let him see and desire death, without being able
to obtain it. Cut off his limbs joint by joint, and execute this so
slowly, that the wretch may know what it is to abandon the gods of his
ancestors for an unknown deity." The executioners dragged Arcadius to
the place, where many other victims of Christ had already suffered; a
place dear and sweet to all who sigh after eternal life. Here the martyr
lifts up his eyes to heaven, and implores strength from above; then
stretches out his neck, expecting to have his head cut off; but the
executioner bid him hold out his hand, and joint after joint chopped off
his fingers, arms, and shoulders. Laying the saint afterward on his
back, he in the same barbarous manner cut off his toes, feet, legs, and
thighs. The holy martyr held out his limbs and joints, one after
another, with invincible patience and courage, repeating these words,
"Lord, teach me thy wisdom:" for the tyrants had forgot to cut out his
tongue. After so many martyrdoms, his body lay a mere trunk weltering in
its own blood. The executioners themselves, as well as the multitude,
were moved to tears and admiration at this spectacle, and at such an
heroic patience. But Arcadius, with a joyful countenance, surveying his
scattered limbs all around him, and offering them to God, said, "Happy
members, now dear to me, as you at last truly belong to God, being all
made a sacrifice to him!" Then turning to the people, he said, "You who
have been present at this bloody tragedy, learn that all torments seem
as nothing to one who has an everlasting crown before his eyes. Your
gods are not gods; renounce their worship. He alone for whom I suffer
and die, is the true God. He comforts and upholds me in the condition
you see me. To die for him is to live; to suffer for him is to enjoy the
greatest delights." Discoursing in this manner to those about him, he
expired on the 12th of January, the pagans being struck with
astonishment at such a miracle of patience. The Christians gathered
together his scattered limbs, and laid them in one tomb. The Roman and
other Martyrologies make honorable mention of him on this day.

       *       *       *       *       *

We belong to God by numberless essential titles of interest, gratitude,
and justice, and are bound to be altogether his, and every moment to
live to him alone, with all our powers and all our strength: whatever it
may cost us to make this sacrifice perfect and complete, if we truly
love him, we shall embrace it with joy and inexpressible ardor. In these
sentiments we ought, by frequent express acts, and by the uninterrupted
habitual disposition of our souls, to give all we are and have to God,
all the powers of our souls, all the senses and organs of our bodies,
all our actions, thoughts, and affections. This oblation we may
excellently comprise in any of the first petitions of our Lord's prayer:
the following is a form of an oblation to our divine Redeemer, which St.
Ignatius of Loyola drew up and used to repeat: "O sovereign king, and
absolute Lord of all things, though I am most unworthy to serve you,
nevertheless, relying on your grace and boundless mercy, I offer myself
up entire to you, and subject whatever belongs to me to your most holy
will; and I protest, in presence of your infinite goodness, and in
presence of the glorious Virgin your mother, and your whole heavenly
court, that it is my most earnest desire, and unshaken resolution, to
follow and imitate you the nearest I am able, in bearing all injuries
and crosses with meekness and patience, and in laboring to die to the
world and myself in a perfect spirit of humility and poverty, that I may
be wholly yours and you may reign in me in time and eternity."

{131}

SAINT BENEDICT BISCOP,

COMMONLY CALLED BENNET.

HE was nobly descended, and one of the great officers of the court of
Oswi, the religious king of the Northumbers: he was very dear to his
prince, and was beholden to his bounty for many fair estates, and great
honors; but neither the favors of so good and gracious a king, nor the
allurements of power, riches, and pleasures, were of force to captivate
his heart, who could see nothing in them but dangers, and snares so much
the more to be dreaded, as fraught with the power of charming. At the
age therefore of twenty-five, an age that affords the greatest relish
for pleasure, he bid adieu to the world, made a journey of devotion to
Rome, and at his return devoted him wholly to the studies of the
scriptures and other holy exercises. Some time after his return to
England, Alcfrid, son of king Oswi, being desirous to make a pilgrimage
to the shrines of the apostles, engaged Biscop to bear him company to
Rome. The king prevented his son's journey; nevertheless our saint
travelled thither a second time, burning with an earnest desire of
improving himself in the knowledge of divine things, and in the love of
God. From Rome he went to the great monastery of Lerins, then renowned
for its regular discipline; there he took the monastic habit, and spent
two years in the most exact observance of the rule, and penetrated in
every exercise with its true spirit: after this he returned to Rome,
where he received an order of pope Vitalian to accompany St. Theodorus,
archbishop of Canterbury, and St. Adrian, to England. When he arrived at
Canterbury, St. Theodorus committed to him the care of the monastery of
SS. Peter and Paul, near that city, which abbacy he resigned to St.
Adrian upon his arrival in England. St. Bennet stayed about two years in
Kent, giving himself up to religious exercises and sacred studies, under
the discipline of those two excellent persons. Then he took a fourth
journey to Rome, with a view of perfecting himself in ecclesiastical
discipline, and the rules and practice of a monastic life; for which
purpose he made a considerable stay at Rome and other places: he brought
home with him a choice library, relics and pictures of Christ, the
Blessed Virgin, and other saints. When he returned to Northumberland,
king Egfrid (in whose father's court St. Bennet had formerly lived)
bestowed on him seventy ploughs or families of land for building a
monastery;[1] this the saint founded on the mouth of the river Were,
whence it was called Weremouth. When the monastery was built, St. Bennet
went over to France, and brought back with him skilful masons, who built
the church for this monastery of stone, and after the Roman fashion; for
till that time stone buildings were very rare in Britain, even the
church of Lindisfarne was of wood, and covered over with a thatch of
straw and reeds, till bishop Eadbert procured both the roof and the
walls to be covered with sheets of lead, as Bede mentions.[2] St. Bennet
also brought over glaziers from France, for the art of making glass was
then unknown in Britain. In a fifth journey to Rome, St. Bennet
furnished himself with a larger stock of good books, especially the
writings of the fathers, also of relics and holy pictures, with which he
enriched his own country.

His first monastery of Weremouth was entitled from Saint Peter, prince
of the apostles; and such was the edification which it gave, that the
same {132} king added to the saint a second donation of lands,
consisting of forty ploughs; on which Biscop built another monastery, at
a place called Girwy, now Jarrow, on the Tine, six miles distant from
the former, and this latter was called St. Paul's; these two monasteries
were almost looked upon as one; and St. Bennet governed them both,
though he placed in each a superior or abbot, who continued subject to
him, his long journey to Rome and other avocations making this
substitution necessary.[3] In the church of St. Peter at Weremouth he
placed the pictures of the Blessed Virgin, the twelve apostles, the
history of the gospel, and the visions in the revelation of St. John:
that of St. Paul's at Jarrow, he adorned with other pictures, disposed
in such manner as to represent the harmony between the Old and New
Testament, and the conformity of the figures in one to the reality in
the other. Thus Isaac carrying the wood which was to be employed in the
sacrifice of himself, was explained by Jesus Christ carrying his cross,
on which he was to finish his sacrifice; and the brazen serpent was
illustrated by our Saviour's crucifixion. With these pictures, and many
books and relics, St. Bennet brought from Rome in his last voyage, John,
abbot of St. Martin's, precentor in St. Peter's church, whom he
prevailed with pope Agatho to send with him, and whom he placed at
Weremouth to instruct perfectly his monks in the Gregorian notes, and
Roman ceremonies for singing the divine office. Easterwin, a kinsman of
St. Bennet, and formerly an officer in the king's court, before he
became a monk, was chosen abbot before our saint set out for Rome, and
in that station behaved always as the meanest person in the house; for
though he was eminently adorned with all virtues, humility, mildness,
and devotion seemed always the most eminent part of his character. This
holy man died on the 6th of March, when he was but thirty-six years old,
and had been four years abbot, while St. Bennet was absent in the last
journey to Rome. The monks chose in his place St. Sigfrid, a deacon, a
man of equal gravity and meekness, who soon after fell into a lingering
decay, under which he suffered violent pains in his lungs and bowels. He
died four months before our saint. With his advice, two months before
his death, St. Bennet appointed St. Ceolfrid abbot of both his
monasteries, being himself struck with a dead palsy, by which all the
lower parts of his body were without life; he lay sick of this distemper
three years, and for a considerable time was entirely confined to his
bed. During this long illness, not being able to raise his voice to the
usual course of singing the divine office, at every canonical hour he
sent for some of his monks and while they, being divided into two
choirs, sung the psalms proper for the hour of the day or night, he
endeavored as well as he could to join not only his heart, but also his
voice, with theirs. His attention to God he seemed never to relax, and
frequently and earnestly exhorted his monks to a constant observance of
the rule he had given them. "You must not think," said he, "that the
constitutions which you have received from me were my own invention,
for, having in my frequent journeys visited seventeen well-ordered
monasteries, I informed myself of all their laws and rules, and picking
out the best among them, these I have recommended to you." The saint
expired soon after, having received the viaticum on the 12th of January,
in 690. His relics, according to Malmesbury,[4] were translated to
Thorney abbey, in 970, but the monks of Glastenbury thought themselves
possessed at least of part of that treasure.[5] The true name of our
saint was Biscop {133} Baducing, as appears from Eddius-Stephen, in his
life of St. Wilfrid. The English Benedictins honor him as one of the
patrons of their congregation, and he is mentioned in the Roman
Martyrology on this day. See his life in Bede's history of the first
abbots of Weremouth, published by Sir James Ware, at Dublin, in 1664.

Footnotes:
1.  A plough, or family of land, was as much as one plough, or one yoke
    of oxen could throw up in a year, or as sufficed for the maintenance
    of a family.
2.  Hist. l. 3, c. 25.
3.  The abbeys of Weremouth and Jarrow were destroyed by the Danes. Both
    were rebuilt in part, and from the year 1083 were small priories or
    cells dependent on the abbey of Durham, till their dissolution {}th
    of Henry VIII.
4.  Malmes. l. 4, de Pontif.
5.  See Monast. Ang. t. 1, p. 4, and John of Glastenbury, Hist. Glasten.

TYGRIUS, A PRIEST,

WHO was scourged, tormented with the disjointing of his bones, stripped
of all his goods, and sent into banishment; and EUTROPIUS, lector, and
precentor of the church of Constantinople, who died in prison of his
torments, having been scourged, his cheeks torn with iron hooks, and his
sides burnt with torches; are honored in the Roman Martyrology with the
title of martyrs on the 12th of January.

ST. AELRED,

ABBOT OF RIEVAL, OR RIDAL, IN YORKSHIRE.

HE was of noble descent, and was born in the north of England, in 1109.
Being educated in learning and piety, he was invited by David, the pious
king of Scotland, to his court, made master of his household, and highly
esteemed both by him and the courtiers. His virtue shone with bright
lustre in the world, particularly his meekness, which Christ declared to
be his favorite virtue, and the distinguishing mark of his true
disciples. The following is a memorable instance to what a degree he
possessed this virtue: a certain person of quality having insulted and
reproached him in the presence of the king, Aelred heard him out with
patience, and thanked him for his charity and sincerity, in telling him
his faults. This behavior had such an influence on his adversary as made
him ask his pardon on the spot. Another time, while he was speaking on a
certain matter, one interrupted him with very harsh, reviling
expressions: the servant of God heard him with tranquillity, and
afterwards resumed his discourse with the same calmness and presence of
mind as before. His desires were ardent to devote himself entirely to
God, by forsaking the world; but the charms of friendship detained him
some time longer in it, and were fetters to his soul; reflecting,
notwithstanding, that he must sooner or later be separated by death from
those he loved most, he condemned his own cowardice, and broke at once
those bands of friendship, which were more agreeable to him than all
other sweets of life. He describes the situation of his soul under this
struggle, and says, "Those who saw me, judging by the gaudy show which
surrounded me, and not knowing what passed within my soul, said,
speaking of me: Oh, how well is it with him! how happy is he! But they
knew not the anguish of my mind; for the deep wound in my heart gave me
a thousand tortures, and I was not able to bear the intolerable stench
of my sins." But after he had taken