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 cæteris festos dies
ludorum celebrandos, quantum ad alias voluptates, et ad ipsam requiem
animi et corporis conceditur temporis: Quantum alii tempestivis
conviviis, quantum aleæ, quantum pilæ, tantum mihi egomet ad hæc 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 æra 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'Académie, 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 Villérs, president of the seminary des Evéques 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 Villérs 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 Villérs 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 Menæon 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 præfect 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 Ecclesiæ universæ
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 Dauphiné, 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 Menæon and
Monologue. The Menæon 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 Menæon 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 Menæon, 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 Antiquæ_. 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, "_Græcos eo cultu prosequi homines in sanctorum ordinem
ascriptos, ut ilios incocent_." Bib. Theologica, vol. iii. 668. From the
Menæon, 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 Cæsar, 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, Boæus,
                                              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 Pichegrû. 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 Manichæns, 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. Irenæus, 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 Verâ Compunctione_ (the latter particularly) he
thought excellent.[2]

Footnotes:
1.  For this and many other valuable works we naturally look to
    Stonyhurst. If the Musæ 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
    Porées, future Strachans, future Stanleys, future Heskeys, future
    Stricklands. If any of them would favor us with a translation of
    Father Montreuil's _Vie de Jésus 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 Biblicæ_. 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 Chrétien_,
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'Abbé 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, "sacrâ 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 sevère_ 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. Honoré_. 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 à l'Auteur de l'Année Littéraire 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 Cæsar; 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 Animæ_ 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 Condé, 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 Relâchement qui s'est introduit
dans l'Observation du Voeu de Pauvreté_, 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) Prænobilis Angius.
Sacerdos et Alumnus Collegii Anglorum Duaci.
Ibidem S. T. Professor, Postmodum Missionarius in Patria.
Præses II. Collegii Regii Anglorum Audomari.
Vicarius Generalis
Illustrissimorum Philomelien. Deboren. Atrebaten. Audomarea
Ex vetustâ Ortus prosapiâ
In utrisque Angliæ et Galliæ Regnis
Amplâ et Florente.
Suavissimis Moribus,
Summis acceptissimus, Infimis benignus,
Omnium necessitatibus inserviens,
Pro Deo.

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

Nobilissimæe Juventutis Institutionem,
Sacrarum Virginum curam,
Reverendissimorum Antistitum negotia,
Suscepit, promovit, expedivit,
Opera, Scriptis, Hortatubus.
Sanctorum rebus gestis a Puentiâ inhærens,
Acta omnia pernoscens,
Mentem et Sapientiam altê imbibens.
Multa scripsit de Sanctorum vitis,
Plena Sanctorum Spiritu, librata judicio, polita stylo,
Summæ ubertatis et omnigenæ eruditiouis.
Apastolicæ sedis et omnis officii semper observantissimus.
Pie obiit 15 Mensis Maii 1773.
Natus annis 63.
Sacerdos 39.
Præses 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 à 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. Cæsarius 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. Cæsar. 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
    Monasticâ 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 Cæsar 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 _Italicæ Historiæ Scriptores_, his
_Kalendaria Ecclesiæ Universæ 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 Menæa 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. Règies de la Critique, t. 2, p. 12, 20, et Diss. 3, p. 134.
13. See Mabillon, Disquis. de Cursu Gallic. §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. Cæsarius 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. Litér. 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 Sceté, 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 Débonnaire, 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. Barsimæus, 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-Près, 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. Mariæ_
    for which Dom Martenne would have us read _S. Martinæ_; 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, (Hær. 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 Musæo Italico,) Faustinus
    the Bishop, (apud Bolland. hac die. p. 3,) &c. The French name
    Etrennes is pagan, from _strenæ_, 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 Cæsar, 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. Præf. 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 Françoise 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-comté, 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 Sceté, 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 Sceté, 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 Sceté, 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 Sceté;) 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 Rancè 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 Ananiæ Abbate, edita ab
    Hugone Menardo, O.S.B. in 4to Parisiis, 1638. Item, Codex Regularum
    collectus a S. Benedicto Ananiæ, auctus a Luca Holstenio, two vols.
    4to. Romæ, 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 Chrét. 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 Débonnaire, 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 Débonnaire, who, in his history of
    the divisions between the sons of Lewis le Débonnaire, (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 Cæsarea, 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 Cæsarea, 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 Ferté-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 édifiantes et curieuses.
3.  Don Claude Leauté, 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. Irenæus.[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. Pères des Dé certs, T. 3, p. 91. The antiquity of this
piece is confirmed by Montfaucon, Catal. Bibl. Coislianæ, 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,
Cæsarius, 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 Fôtes,
    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, quæst 36, a. 7.
    Federicus Miegius Diss. _De Stellá à Magis conspectâ_ 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 Judæos, 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. vitæ 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. Cæsar. Serm. 139, &c. See Maldonat. on
    Saint Matt. ii. for the grounds of this opinion. Honoratus of St.
    Mary, Règles 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, Timæus, 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 Præf. 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 Ælia, 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 autôi] for [Greek: ôi apokeitai] Both which
    falsifications St. Justin Martyr charges upon Aquila, (Dial. cum
    Tryphon. p. 224, 395, 284, ed. Thirlbii.) and St. Irenæus 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, (_Præf. in Paralip. et Præf. 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 (Vindiciæ 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, (Vindiciæ, 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, Prælim. 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 Débonnaire, 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 Débonnaire 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. Sæc. 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 Débonnaire,[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,
sæc. 10, c. 9, sæc. 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 Miræus 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. Prælo. 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 Cæsarea 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 perfectâ Christi formâ.

{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 Cæsar 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 Cæsarea 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 Fécam[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 Fécam, 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. Fécam,
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 Fécam 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 Fécam, 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-Saussayè, 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 Briè, (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 Labbé, 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 Menæa, 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 Cérèmonies 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 Æones 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.
Sæc. 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, Cæsarea. 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 his resolution, he says, "I began
then to know, by a little experience, what immense pleasure is found in
thy service, and how sweet that peace is, which is its inseparable
companion."[1] To relinquish entirely all his worldly engagements, he
left Scotland, and embraced the austere Cistercian order, at Rieval, in
a valley upon the hanks of the Rie, in Yorkshire, where a noble lord,
called Walter {134} Especke, had founded a monastery in 1122. At the age
of twenty-four, in 1133, he became a monk under the first abbot,
William, a disciple of St. Bernard. Fervor adding strength to his tender
delicate body, he set himself cheerfully about practising the greatest
austerities, and employed much of his time in prayer and the reading of
pious books. He converted his heart with great ardor to the love of God,
and by this means finding all his mortifications sweet and light, he
cried out,[2] "That yoke doth not oppress, but raiseth the soul; that
burden hath-wings, not weight." He speaks of divine charity always in
raptures, and by his frequent ejaculations on the subject, it seems to
have been the most agreeable occupation of his soul. "May thy voice
(says he) sound in my ears, O good Jesus, that my heart may learn how to
love thee, that my mind may love thee, that the interior powers, and, as
it were, bowels of my soul, and very marrow of my heart, may love thee,
and that my affections may embrace thee, my only true good, my sweet and
delightful joy! What is love? my God! If I mistake not, it is the
wonderful delight of the soul, so much the more sweet as more pure, so
much the more overflowing and inebriating as more ardent. He who loves
thee, possesses thee; and he possesses thee in proportion as he loves,
because thou art love. This is that abundance with which thy beloved are
inebriated, melting away from themselves, that they may pass into thee,
by loving thee."[3] He had been much delighted in his youth with reading
Tully; but after his conversion, found that author, and all other
reading, tedious and bitter, which was not sweetened with the honey of
the holy name of Jesus, and seasoned with the word of God, as he says in
the preface to his book, _On spiritual friendship_. He was much edified
with the very looks of a holy monk, called Simon, who had despised high
birth, an ample fortune, and all the advantages of mind and body, to
serve God in that penitential state. This monk went and came as one deaf
and dumb, always recollected in God; and was such a lover of silence,
that he would scarce speak a few words to the prior on necessary
occasions. His silence, however, was sweet, agreeable, and full of
edification. Our saint says of him, "The very sight of his humility
stifled my pride, and made me blush at the immortification of my looks.
The law of silence practised among us, prevented my ever speaking to him
deliberately; but, one day, on my speaking a word to him inadvertently,
his displeasure appeared in his looks for my infraction of the rule of
silence; and he suffered me to lie some time prostrate before him to
expiate my fault; for which I grieved bitterly, and which I never could
forgive myself."[4] This holy monk, having served God eight years in
perfect fidelity, died in 1142, in wonderful peace, repeating with his
last breath, "I will sing eternally, O Lord, thy mercy, thy mercy, thy
mercy!"

St. Aelred, much against his inclination, was made abbot of a new
monastery of his order, founded by William, Earl of Lincoln, at Revesby,
in Lincolnshire, in 1142, and of Rieval, over three hundred monks, in
1143. Describing their life, he says, that they drank nothing but water;
ate little, and that coarse; labored hard, slept little, and on hard
boards; never spoke, except to their superiors on necessary occasions;
carried the burdens that were laid on them without refusing any; went
wherever they were led; had not a moment for sloth, or amusements of any
kind, and never had any lawsuit or dispute.[5] St. Aelred also mentions
their mutual charity and peace in the most affecting manner, and is not
able to find words to express the joy he felt at the sight of every one
of them. His humility and love of solitude made him constantly refuse
many bishoprics which were pressed {135} upon him. Pious reading and
prayer were his delight. Even in times of spiritual dryness, if he
opened the divine books, he suddenly found his soul pierced with the
light of the Holy Ghost. His eyes, though before as dry as marble,
flowed with tears, and his heart abandoned itself to sighs accompanied
with a heavenly pleasure, by which he was ravished in God. He died in
1166, and the fifty-seventh of his age, having been twenty-two years
abbot. See his works published at Douay in 1625, and in Bibl. Cisterc.
t. 5, particularly his _Mirrour of Charity_; Hearne's Notes on Gulielmus
Neubrigensis, who dedicated to our saint the first book of his history,
t. 3, p. 1: likewise his life in Capgrave, and the annals of his order.
The general chapter held at Citeaux in 1250, declared him to be ranked
among the saints of their order; as Henriquez and the additions to the
Cistercian Martyrology testify. In the new Martyrology published by
Benedict XIV. for the use of this order, the feast of St. Aelred is
marked on the 2d of March,[6] with a great eulogium of his learning,
innocence of life, wonderful humility, patience, heavenly conversation,
gift of prophecy, and miracles.

Footnotes:
1.  Spec. {} 1, c. 28.
2.  Spec. l. 1, c. 5.
3.  Ibid. l. 1, c. 1.
4.  Ibid. l. 1, c. ult.
5.  L. 2, c. 2.
6.  P. 304


JANUARY XIII.

ST. VERONICA, OF MILAN.

From her life, in Bollandus, t. 1, p. 890.

A.D. 1497.

ALL states furnish abundant means for attaining to sanctity and
Christian perfection, and it is only, owing to our sloth and tepidity
that we neglect to make use of them. This saint could boast of no
worldly advantages either by birth or fortune.[1] Her parents maintained
their family by hard labor in a village near Milan, and were both very
pious; her father never sold a horse, or any thing else he dealt in,
without being more careful to acquaint the purchaser with all that was
secretly faulty in it, than to recommend its good qualities. His narrow
circumstances prevented his giving his daughter any schooling, so that
she never learned to read; but his own, and his devout wife's example,
and fervent though simple instructions, filled her tender heart from the
cradle with lively sentiments of virtue. The pious {136} maid from her
infancy applied herself to continual prayer, was very attentive to the
instructions given in the catechism; and the uninterrupted consideration
of the holy mysteries, and the important truths of religion, engrossed
her whole soul to themselves. She was, notwithstanding, of all others,
the most diligent and indefatigable in labor; and so obedient to her
parents and masters, even in the smallest trifles, so humble and
submissive to her equals, that she seemed to have no will of her own.
Her food was coarse and very sparing, and her drink the same which the
poorer sort of people used in that country, water, except sometimes
whey, or a little milk. At her work she continually conversed in her
heart with God; insomuch that in company she seemed deaf to their
discourses, mirth, and music. When she was weeding, reaping, or at any
other labor in the fields, she strove to work at a distance from her
companions, to entertain herself the more freely with her heavenly
spouse. The rest admired her love of solitude, and on coming to her,
always found her countenance cheerful, yet often bathed in tears, which
they sometimes perceived to flow in great abundance; though they did not
know the source to be devotion: so carefully did Veronica conceal what
passed in her soul between her and God.

Through a divine call to a religious and conventual state of life, she
conceived a great desire to become a nun, in the poor, austere, and
edifying convent of St. Martha, of the order of St. Austin in Milan. To
qualify herself for this state, being busied the whole day at work, she
sat up at night to learn to read and write, which the want of an
instructor made a great fatigue to her. One day being in great anxiety
about her learning, the Mother of God, to whom she had always
recommended herself, in a comfortable vision bade her banish that
anxiety; for it was enough if she knew three letters: The first, purity
of the affections, by placing her whole heart on God alone, loving no
creature, but in him and for him; the second, never to murmur, or be
impatient at the sins, or any behavior of others, but to bear them with
interior peace and patience, and humbly to pray for them; the third, to
set apart some time every day to meditate on the passion of Christ.
After three years' preparation, she was admitted to the religious habit
in St. Martha's. Her life was entirely uniform, perfect, and fervent in
every action, no other than a living copy of her rule, which consisted
in the practice of evangelical perfection reduced to certain holy
exercises. Every moment of her life she studied to accomplish it to the
least tittle, and was no less exact in obeying the order or direction of
any superior's will. When she could not obtain leave to watch in the
church so long as she desired, by readily complying, she deserved to
hear from Christ, that obedience was a sacrifice the most dear to him,
who, to obey his Father's will, came down from heaven, _becoming
obedient even unto death_.[2]

She lay three years under a lingering illness, all which time she would
never be exempted from any duty of the house, or part of her work, or
make use of the least indulgence, though she had leave; her answer
always was, "I must work while I can, while I have time." It was her
delight to help and serve every one. She always sought with admirable
humility the last place, and the greatest drudgery. It was her desire to
live always on bread and water. Her silence was a sign of her
recollection and continual prayer, in which her gift of abundant and
almost continual tears was most wonderful. She nourished them by
constant meditation on her own miseries, on the love of God, the joys of
heaven, and the sacred passion of Christ. She always spoke of her own
sinful life, as she called it, though it was most innocent, with the
most feeling sentiments of compunction. She was favored by God with many
extraordinary visits and {137} comforts. By moving exhortations to
virtue, she softened and converted several obdurate sinners. She died at
the hour which she had foretold, in the year 1497, and the fifty-second
of her age. Her sanctity was confirmed by miracles. Pope Leo X., by a
bull in 1517, permitted her to be honored in her monastery in the same
manner as if she had been beatified according to the usual form. The
bull may be seen in Bollandus.[3] Her name is inserted on this day in
the Roman Martyrology, published by Benedict XIV., in the year 1749; but
on the 28th of this month, in that of the Austin friars, approved by the
same pope.

       *       *       *       *       *

Christian perfection consists very much in the performance of our
ordinary actions, and the particular duties of our respective stations.
God, as the good father and great master of the family of the world,
allots to every one his proper place and office in it; and it is in this
variety of states by which it subsists; and in their mutual dependence
upon each other, that its good order and beauty consist. It is the most
holy and wise appointment of providence and the order of nature, that
the different stations in the world be filled. Kings and subjects, rich
and poor, reciprocally depend upon each other; and it is the command of
God that every one perform well the part which is assigned him. It is,
then, by the constant attendance on all the duties of his state, that a
person is to be sanctified. By this all his ordinary actions will be
agreeable sacrifices to God, and his whole life a continued chain of
good works. It is not only in great actions, or by fits and starts, but
in all that we do, and in every moment, that we are bound to live to
God. The regulation of this point is of essential importance in a
virtuous life, that every action may be performed with regularity,
exactitude in all its circumstances, and the utmost fervor, and by the
most pure motive, referred solely to divine honor, in union with the
most holy actions and infinite merits of Christ. Hence St. Hilary
says,[4] "When the just man performs all his actions, with a pure and
simple view to the divine honor and glory, as the apostle admonishes us,[5]
his whole life becomes an uninterrupted prayer; and as he passes his
days and nights in the accomplishment of the divine will, it is true to
say, that the whole course of a holy life is a constant meditation on
the law of God." Nevertheless this axiom, that the best devotion is the
constant practice of a person's ordinary duties, is abused by some, to
excuse a life of dissipation. Every one is bound to live to himself in
the first place, and to reserve leisure for frequent exercises of
devotion; and it is only by a spirit of perfect self-denial, humility,
compunction, and prayer, and by an assiduous attention of the soul to
God, that our exterior ordinary actions will be animated by the motives
of divine faith and charity, and the spirit of true piety nourished in
our breasts; in this consists the secret of a Christian life in all
states.

Footnotes:
1.  The print of the holy face of our Saviour on a linen cloth, is kept
    in Saint Peter's church at Rome, with singular veneration. It is
    mentioned in an ancient ceremonial of that church, dedicated to
    Celestin II. in 1143, published by Mabillon, (Museum Ital. t 2 p.
    122;) also in Matthew of Westminster, Flores Hist. under Innocent
    III. who died in 1216; and in a Bull of Nicholas IV. in 1290. It was
    called Veronica, or true image of our Lord's face, from Vera and
    Iconica, a word used by St. Gregory of Tours. (Vit. Patr. c, 12.)
    for an image, from the Greek word Icon. Some moderns imagine that it
    served at the burial of out Lord; others say, that a devout woman
    wiped his face with it, when he was fainting under the load of his
    cross, going to mount Calvary. In some particular missals, as in
    that of Mentz in 1493, among the votive masses, is one "de Sancta
    Veronica sei vultu Domini," in the same manner as there is a mass,
    "On the cross." Such devotions are directed to honor our Lord, with
    a remembrance of this relic, memorial, or pledge. From this office
    of the Veronica is taken an Anthem and Prayer which are said in some
    private churches, as a commemoration of the holy face of Lucca,
    which is a very ancient and miraculous crucifix, in the chapel of
    the Holy Cross, in the cathedral dedicated to St. Martin at Lucca. A
    copy of the true Veronica is kept in the Cistercian nunnery at
    Montreuil, a present of Urban IV. to this house, his sister being a
    nun there. See his letter to them in Chiffleter, "de Linteis
    sepulchralibus Domini." This letter was dated in 1249, when the
    author was archdeacon and chaplain to Innocent IV. Some private
    writers and churches have given the name of St. Veronica to the
    devout woman who is said to have presented this linen cloth to our
    divine Redeemer; but without sufficient warrant. See Rapebroch Matt.
    t. 7, p. 356, n. 126, and Chatelain. Notes on the Martyr, on Jan.
    13, pp. 201, 222.
2.  Phil. ii. 8.
3.  T. 1, p. 889.
4.  S. Hilar. in Ps. i. p. 20.
5.  1 Cor. x. 31.

ST. KENTIGERN, BISHOP OF GLASCO, C.

IN ANCIENT BRITISH, KYNDEYRN; SURNAMED MUNGHO, OR MUNGHU.

THIS eminent saint of the ancient church of North Britain, was of royal
blood among the Picts, or original inhabitants of that country, and born
about the year 516. He was placed very young under the discipline of St.
Servanus, bishop and abbot of Culros, a monastery, situated upon the
frith which divides Lothian from Fife. By this holy prelate he was
trained up in the perfect spirit of Christian meekness and piety. For
his innocence and great virtues he was beloved by his master, and all
who were acquainted {138} with that religious family, above all his
fellow-disciples, for which reason he was called Munghu, or Mungho,
which in the language of that country signified "one dearly beloved;"
and this is the name which the Scots usually give him to this day. When
he was grown up, by the direction of St. Servanus, he retired to a place
called Glasghu, where he led a solitary life in great abstinence, till
the clergy and people earnestly demanded him for their bishop. He was
consecrated by an Irish bishop, invited over for that purpose, and fixed
his see at Glasghu, or Glasco, where he assembled a numerous company of
religious brethren, who formed their rule of life upon the model of the
primitive Christians at Jerusalem. The saint's diocese was of vast
extent, reaching from sea to sea, and being wild and uncultivated,
afforded continual exercise for his zeal and patience; he travelled
always on foot, sparing no pains to spread the light of the gospel among
the unbelievers, of whom he converted and baptized great numbers. The
Pelagian heresy having taken deep root among the Christians in those
parts, he so vigorously opposed that fatal, growing evil, as entirely to
banish that hydra out of the church of the Picts. Besides the recital of
the whole Psalter, he performed every day several other exercises of
devotion; lived in a constant union of his soul with God, and by
perpetual abstinence, rigorous fasts, and other extraordinary
austerities, he made his whole life an uninterrupted course of penance.
Every Lent he retired from the sight and conversation of men, into some
desert, to hold a close communication with God in solitude. As both in
his virtues and labors he imitated the apostles, so God was pleased to
authorize his preaching, by conferring on him an apostolic grace of the
miraculous powers. Out of his monks and disciples, he sent many
missionaries to preach the faith in the north of Scotland, in the isles
of Orkney, in Norway, and Iceland.

The form of government among the Straith-Cluid Britons and the
Cumbrians, the latter inhabiting the country from the Picts' wall, to
the Ribble in Lancashire, was in part aristocratical; for many petty
lords or princes enjoyed so great authority in their respective
territories, as often to wage war among themselves: yet they all obeyed
one monarch, who usually resided at Alcluyd, or Dunbritton. Besides the
feuds and quarrels of particular chieftains and their clans, there
happened about that time several revolutions in the monarchy. We learn
from the book entitled the Triades, that when St. Kentigern was made
bishop of Glasco, Gurthmel Wledig was king of the North Britons, and
contemporary with Arthur. He was succeeded by Rydderch, surnamed Hael,
i.e. _The Liberal_, who vanquished his enemies and rivals in war,
especially by the great victory of Arderyth, in 577.[1] He was a
religious and deserving prince, and his magnificence, generosity, and
other virtues, are extolled by the ancient author of the Triades, by
Merlin, Taliessin, the old laws of the Britons, and the authors of the
lives of St. Kentigern and St. Asaph. This prince, however, was
afterwards obliged by rebellious subjects, under Morcant Mawr, and
Aeddon, surnamed Uraydog, or _The Treacherous_, to fly into Ireland. The
impious Morcant (as he is styled in the fragment of St. Asaph's life,
extant in Coch-Asaph) usurped the throne of the Straith-Cluid Britons;
but the Cumbrians, who dwelt on the south side of the wall, were
protected by Urien, lord of Rheged, a nobleman who had lived at the
court of king Arthur, and whose great qualities are celebrated by the
pens of Lhowarch-Hen, (his cousin-german,) Taliessin, and the author of
the Triades. In the beginning of the usurpation of Morcant Mawr, St.
Kentigern was obliged to fly into Wales, where he stayed some time with
St. David, at Menevia, {139} till Cathwallain, (uncle to king Maelgun
Gwynedh,[2]) a religious prince of part of Denbighshire, bestowed on him
the land at the meeting of the rivers Elwy and Cluid, on which he built
a famous monastery and school, called from the river Elwy, Llan-Elwy, or
absolutely Elgwy, where a great number of disciples and scholars soon
put themselves under his direction. St. Kentigern was here when St.
David died, in 546, or rather in 544, when the first of March fell on a
Tuesday.[3] After the death of the usurper Morcant, Rydderch returned
from Ireland, and recovered his crown, and St. Kentigern, leaving his
school to the care of St. Asaph, (whose name the town, which was raised
at Elgwy, bears to this day,) went back to Glasco, taking with him
several hundreds of his scholars; their number having probably been much
increased after the death of Daniel, bishop of Bangor, which happened
between the years 542 and 545. The return of St. Kentigern to his see,
is generally placed about the year 560, nor can it be placed later,
since in 565 he had a conference with St. Columbo, when that holy man
came over to Scotland, in order to convert the northern Picts, to whom
St. Kentigern had already sent missionaries.[4] Wharton therefore justly
places the residence of St. Kentigern in Wales, from the year 543 to
560.[5] King Rydderch powerfully seconded the zeal of our saint in all
his undertakings, being his constant friend and protector; as were the
two princes who afterward succeeded him, Guallauc, (who seems to have
been his son,) and Morcant Mwynfawn, (who was certainly his brother.)
The valor of Rydderch, and these two successors, which is highly
commended by an ancient author in Nennius, and other British historians,
was the bulwark of their dominions against the inroads of the Saxons.
St. Kentigern employed his zeal all this time, with wonderful success,
in correcting abuses, reforming the manners of his flock, and
propagating the faith; was favored with a wonderful gift of miracles,
and died in 601, aged eighty-five years. His tomb, in his titular church
at Glasco, was famous for miracles, and his name was always most
illustrious in the Scottish calendars. See his ancient life, Leland de
Scriptor. Usher, Ant. c. 15. Hector Boetius, Leslie, &c.

Footnotes:
1.  Vaughn's Dissert. on the British Chron. Carte. t. 1, p. 211.
2.  See Notes on St. Gildas and St. David.
3.  Usher, Ant. Brit. c. 14.
4.  Vit. S. Kentigerni. Usher, Antiqu. c. 15, p. 358.
5.  Wharton de Episcopis Asaphensibus, pp. 300, 302.

This is also the Octave of the Epiphany.[1] The principal object of the
devotion of the church on this day is the baptism of our Saviour by St.
John in the Jordan. We learn from the great council of Oxford, in
1222,[2] that it was then kept a holyday of the third class; on which
all were obliged to hear mass, though they might work afterwards. In
France and Germany all servile work was forbidden on it, by the
capitulars of Lewis le Débonnaire.[3] The emperor Theodosius II. forbids
all civil courts and transactions during eight days before the festival
of the Epiphany, and as many after it.

Footnotes:
1.  The church prolongs more solemn festivals during eight days, with a
    daily continuation of the sacred office proper to each such
    festival. This term is called its octave, and the eighth day is
    called the octave-day.
2.  Can. 8.
3.  L. 2, de feriis.

{140}


JANUARY XIV.

ST. HILARY, BISHOP.

From his own writings, and the histories of that age, which furnish the
most authentic memoirs of his life. See what Dom Coutant, the Benedictin
monk, has recorded of him in his excellent edition of his works; as also
Tillemont, t. 7, Ceillier, t. 5, and Rivet, Hiss. Lit. t. 1, part 2, p.
139. The two books, the one of his life, the other of his miracles, by
Fortunatus of Poictiers, 600, are inaccurate. Both the Fortunatases were
from Italy; and probably one was the author of the first, and the other
of the second book.

A.D. 368.

ST. AUSTIN, who often urges the authority of St. Hilary against the
Pelagians, styles him _the illustrious doctor of the churches_.[1] St.
Jerom says[2] that he was a _most eloquent man, and the trumpet of the
Latins against the Arians_; and in another place, that in _St. Cyprian_
and _St. Hilary_, God had transplanted two _fair cedars_ out of the
world into his church.[3]

St. Hilary was born at Poictiers, and his family one of the most
illustrious in Gaul.[4] He spent his youth in the study of eloquence. He
himself testifies that he was brought up in idolatry, and gives us a
particular account of the steps by which God conducted him to the
knowledge of his saving faith.[5] He considered by the glimmering or
faint light of reason, that man, who is created a moral and free agent,
is placed in this world for the exercise of patience, temperance, and
other virtues, which he saw must receive from God a recompense after
this life. He ardently set about learning what God is; and after some
researches into the nature of the Supreme Being, quickly discovered the
absurdity of polytheism, or a plurality of gods; and was convinced that
there can be only one God, and that the same is eternal, unchangeable,
all-powerful, the first cause and author of all things. Full of these
reflections, he met with the holy scriptures, and was wonderfully
affected with that just and sublime description Moses gives of God in
those words, so expressive of his self-existence,[6] I AM WHO AM: and
was no less struck with the idea of his immensity and supreme dominion,
illustrated by the most lively images in the inspired language of the
prophets. The reading of the New Testament put an end to, and completed
his inquiries; and he learned from the first chapter of St. John, that
the Divine Word, God the Son, is coeternal and consubstantial with the
Father. Here he checked his natural curiosity, avoided subtilties, and
submitted his understanding to divine revelation, resolving what seemed
incomprehensible into the veracity and power of God; and not presuming
to measure divine mysteries by his shallow capacity. Being thus brought
to the knowledge of faith, he received the heavenly regeneration by
baptism. From that time forth he so squared his whole life by the rules
of piety, and so zealous were his endeavors to confirm others in the
faith of the holy Trinity, and to encourage all to virtue, that he
seemed, though a layman, already to possess the grace of the priesthood.

He was married before his conversion to the faith; and his wife, by whom
he had a daughter named Apra, or Abram, was yet living, when he was
chosen bishop of Poictiers, about the year 353; but from the time of
{141} his ordination he lived in perpetual continency.[7] He omitted no
endeavors to escape this promotion: but his humility only made the
people the more earnest to see him vested with that dignity; and indeed
their expectations were not frustrated in him, for his eminent virtue
and capacity shone forth with such a lustre, as soon drew upon him the
attention, not only of all Gaul, but of the whole church. Soon after he
was raised to the episcopal dignity, he composed, before his exile,
elegant comments on the gospel of Saint Matthew, which are still extant.
Those on the Psalms he compiled after his banishment.[8] Of these
comments on the Psalms, and on St. Matthew, we are chiefly to understand
St. Jerom, when he recommends, in a particular manner, the reading of
the works of St. Hilary to virgins and devout persons.[9] From that time
the Arian controversy chiefly employed his pen. He was an excellent
orator and poet. His style is lofty and noble, beautified with
rhetorical ornaments and figures, but somewhat studied; and the length
of his periods renders him sometimes obscure to the unlearned,[10] as
St. Jerom takes notice.[11] It is observed by Dr. Cave, that all his
writings breathe an extraordinary vein of piety. Saint Hilary solemnly
appeals to God,[12] that he held it as the great work of his life, to
employ all his faculties to announce God to the world, and to excite all
men to the love of him. He earnestly recommends the practice of
beginning every action and discourse by prayer,[13] and some act of
divine praise;[14] as also to meditate on {142} the law of God day and
night, to pray without ceasing, by performing all our actions with a
view to God their ultimate end, and to his glory.[15] He breathes a
sincere and ardent desire of martyrdom, and discovers a soul {143}
fearless of death and torments. He had the greatest veneration for
truth, sparing no pains in its pursuit, and dreading no dangers in its
defence. The emperor Constantius, having labored for several years to
compel the eastern churches to embrace Arianism, came into the West: and
after the overthrow of the tyrant Magnentius, made some stay at Arles,
while his Arian bishops held a council there, in which they engaged
Saturninus, the impious bishop of that city, in their party, in 353. A
bolder Arian council at Milan, in 355, held during the residence of the
emperor in that city, required all to sign the condemnation of St.
Athanasius. Such as refused to comply were banished; among whom were St.
Eusebius of Vercelli, Lucifer of Cagliari, and St. Dionysius of Milan,
into whose see Auxentius, the Arian, was intruded. St. Hilary wrote on
that occasion his first book to Constantius, in which he mildly
entreated him to restore peace to the church. He separated himself from
the three Arian bishops in the West, Ursacius, Valens, and Saturninus,
and exhibited an accusation against the last in a synod at Beziers. But
the emperor, who had information of the matter from Saturninus, sent an
order to Julian, then Cæsar, and surnamed afterwards the Apostate, who
at that time commanded in Gaul, for St. Hilary's immediate banishment
into Phrygia, together with St. Rhodanius, bishop of Toulouse. The
bishops in Gaul being almost all orthodox, remained in communion with
St. Hilary, and would not suffer the intrusion of any one into his see,
which in his absence he continued to govern by his priests. The saint
went into banishment about the middle of the year 356, with as great
alacrity as another would take a journey of pleasure, and never
entertained the least disquieting thought of hardships, dangers, or
enemies, having a soul above both the smiles and frowns of the world,
and fixed only on God. He remained in exile somewhat upwards of three
years, which time he employed in composing several learned works. The
principal and most esteemed of these is that _On the Trinity, against
the Arians_, in twelve {144} books. In them he proves the
consubstantiality of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. He teaches that
the church is one, out of which all heresies spring; not that by this
she is distinguished, as standing always one, always alone against them
all, and confounding them all: whereas they by perpetual divisions tear
each other in pieces, and so become the subject of her triumph.[16] He
proves that Arianism cannot be the faith of Christ, because not revealed
to St. Peter, upon whom the church was built and secured forever; for
whose faith Christ prayed, that it might never fail; who received the
keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whose judiciary sentence on earth is
that of heaven:[17] all which arguments he frequently urges.[18] He
proves the divinity of Christ by the miracles wrought at the sepulchres
of the apostles and martyrs, and by their relics: for the devils
themselves confess Christ's godhead, and roar and flee at the presence
of the venerable bones of his servants,[19] which he also mentions and
urges in his invective against Constantius.[20] In 358, he wrote his
book _On Synods_, or _On the Faith of the Orientals_, to explain the
terms and variation of the eastern Arians in their synods.

In his exile he was informed that his daughter Apra, whom he had left in
Gaul, had thoughts of embracing the married state; upon which he
implored Christ, with many tears, to bestow on her the precious jewel of
virginity. He sent her a letter that is still extant, in which he
acquaints her, that if she contemned all earthly things, spouse,
sumptuous garments, and riches, Christ had prepared for her, and had
shown unto him, at his prayers and tears, an inestimable never-falling
diamond, infinitely more precious than she was able to frame to herself
an idea of. He conjures her by the God of heaven, and entreats her not
to make void his anxiety for her, nor to deprive herself of so
incomparable a good. Fortunatus assures us that the original letter was
kept with veneration in the church of Poictiers, in the sixth century,
when he wrote, and that Apra followed his advice, and died happily at
his feet after his return.[21] St. Hilary sent to her with this letter
two hymns, composed by himself; one for the evening, which does not seem
to have reached our times; the other for the morning, which is the hymn
_Lucis largitor splendide_.

The emperor, by an unjust usurpation in the affairs of the Church,
assembled a council of Arians at Seleucia, in Isauria, to undermine the
great council of Nice. St. Hilary, who had then passed four years in
banishment, in Phrygia, was invited thither by the Semi-Arians, who
hoped from his lenity that he would be useful to their party in crushing
the staunch Arians, that is, those who adhered strictly to the doctrine
of Arius. But no human considerations could daunt his courage. He boldly
defended the decrees of Nice, till at last, tired out with hearing the
blasphemies of the heretics, he withdrew to Constantinople. The weak
emperor was the dupe sometimes of the Arians, and at other times of the
Semi-Arians. These last prevailed at Seleucia, in September, 359, as the
former did in a council held at Constantinople in the following year,
360, where having the advantage, they procured the banishment of the
Semi-Arians, less wicked than themselves. St. Hilary, who had withdrawn
from Seleucia to Constantinople, presented to the emperor a request,
called his second book to Constantius, begging the liberty of holding a
public disputation about religion with {145} Saturninus, the author of
his banishment. He presses him to receive the unchangeable apostolic
faith, injured by the late innovations, and smartly rallies the fickle
humor of the heretics, who were perpetually making new creeds, and
condemning their old ones, having made four within the compass of the
foregoing year; so that faith was become that of the times, not that of
the gospels, and that there were as many faiths as men, as great a
variety of doctrine as of manners, as many blasphemies as vices.[22] He
complains that they had their yearly and monthly faiths; that they made
creeds to condemn and repent of them; and that they formed new ones to
anathematize those that adhered to their old ones. He adds, that every
one had scripture texts, and the words _Apostolic Faith_, in their
mouths, for no other end than to impose on weak minds: for by attempting
to change faith, which is unchangeable, faith is lost; they correct and
amend, till weary of all, they condemn all. He therefore exhorts them to
return to the haven from which the gusts of their party spirit and
prejudice had driven them, as the only means to be delivered out of
their tempestuous and perilous confusion. The issue of this challenge
was, that the Arians, dreading such a trial, persuaded the emperor to
rid the East of a man that never ceased to disturb its peace, by sending
him back into Gaul; which he did, but without reversing the sentence of
his banishment, in 360.

St. Hilary returned through Illyricum and Italy to confirm the weak. He
was received at Poictiers with the greatest demonstrations of joy and
triumph, where his old disciple, St. Martin, rejoined him, to pursue the
exercises of piety under his direction. A synod in Gaul, convoked at the
instance of St. Hilary, condemned that of Rimini, which, in 359, had
omitted the word _Consubstantial_. Saturninus, proving obstinate, was
excommunicated and deposed for his heresy and other crimes. Scandals
were removed, discipline, peace, and purity of faith were restored, and
piety flourished. The death of Constantius put an end to the Arian
persecution. St. Hilary was the mildest of men, full of condescension
and affability to all: yet seeing this behavior ineffectual, he composed
an invective against Constantius, in which he employed severity, and the
harshest terms; and for which undoubtedly he had reasons that are
unknown to us. This piece did not appear abroad till after the death of
that emperor. Our saint undertook a journey to Milan, in 364, against
Auxentius, the Arian usurper of that see, and in a public disputation
obliged him to confess Christ to be true God, of the same substance and
divinity with the Father. St. Hilary indeed saw through his hypocrisy;
but this dissembling heretic imposed so far on the emperor Valentinian,
as to pass for orthodox. Our saint died at Poictiers, in the year 368,
on the thirteenth of January, or on the first of November, for his name
occurs in very ancient Martyrologies on both these days. In the Roman
breviary his office is celebrated on the fourteenth of January. The one
is probably that of some translation of his relics. The first was made
at Poictiers in the reign of Clovis I., on which see Cointe.[23] From
St. Gregory of Tours, it appears that before his time some part of St.
Hilary's relics was honored in a church in Limousin.[24] Alcuin mentions
the veneration of the same at Poictiers;[25] and it is related that his
relics were burned by the Huguenots at Poictiers.[26] But this we must
understand of some small portion, or of the dust remaining in his tomb.
For his remains were translated from Poictiers to the abbey of St.
Denys, near Paris, as is proved by the tradition of that abbey, a writer
of the abbey of Richenow, in {146} the ninth century,[27] and other
monuments.[28] Many miracles performed by St. Hilary are related by
Venantius Fortunatus, bishop of Poictiers, and are the subject of a
whole book added to his life, which seems to have been written by
another Fortunatus. St. Gregory of Tours, Flodoard, and others, have
mentioned several wrought at his tomb. Dom Coutant, the most judicious
and learned Maurist monk, has given an accurate edition of his works, in
one volume in folio, at Paris, in 1693, which was reprinted at Verona by
the Marquis Scipio Maffei, in 1730, together with additional comments on
several Psalms.

       *       *       *       *       *

St. Hilary observes, that singleness of heart is the most necessary
condition of faith and true virtue, "For Christ teaches that only those
who become again as it were little children, and by the simplicity of
that age cut off the inordinate affections of vice, can enter the
kingdom of heaven. These follow and obey their father, love their
mother; are strangers to covetousness, ill-will, hatred, arrogance, and
lying, and are inclined easily to believe what they hear. This
disposition of affections opens the way to heaven. We must therefore
return to the simplicity of little children, in which we shall bear some
resemblance to our Lord's humility."[29] This, in the language of the
Holy Ghost, is called the foolishness of the cross of Christ,[30] in
which consists true wisdom. That prudence of the flesh and worldly
wisdom, which is the mother of self-sufficiency, pride, avarice, and
vicious curiosity, the source of infidelity, and the declared enemy of
the spirit of Christ, is banished by this holy simplicity; and in its
stead are obtained true wisdom, which can only be found in a heart freed
from the clouds of the passions, perfect prudence, which, as St. Thomas
shows, is the fruit of the assemblage of all virtues, and a divine light
which grace fails not to infuse. This simplicity, which is the mother of
Christian discretion, is a stranger to all artifice, design, and
dissimulation, to all views or desires of self-interest, and to all
undue respect or consideration of creatures. All its desires and views
are reduced to this alone, of attaining to the perfect union with God.
Unfeignedly to desire this one thing, to belong to God alone, to arrive
at his pure love, and to do his will in all things, is that simplicity
or singleness of heart of which we speak, and which banishes all
inordinate affections of the heart, from which arise the most dangerous
errors of the understanding. This is the essential disposition of every
one who sincerely desires to live by the spirit of Christ. That divine
spouse of souls, loves to communicate himself to such.[31] His
conversation (or as another version has it, his secret) is with the
simple.[32] His delight is in those who walk with simplicity.[33] This
is the characteristic of all the saints:[34] whence the Holy Ghost cries
out, Approach him not with a double heart.[35] That worldly wisdom is
not subject to the law of God, neither can it be.[36] Its intoxication
blinds men, and shuts their eyes to the light of divine revelation. They
arrogate to themselves the exclusive privilege of learning and clear
understanding: but the skepticism, the pitiful inconsistencies, and
monstrous extravagances, which characterize their writings and
discourses, make us blush to see so strong an alliance of ignorance and
presumption; and lament that the human mind should be capable of falling
into a state of so deplorable degeneracy. Among the fathers of the
church we admire men the most learned of their age, the most penetrating
and most judicious, and at the same time {147} the most holy and
sincere; who, being endowed with true simplicity of heart, discovered in
the mysteries of the cross the secrets of infinite wisdom, which they
made their study, and the rule of their actions.

Footnotes:
1.  L. 2, adv. Julian, c. 8.
2.  L. 2, adv. Rufin. p. 415.
3.  In Isa. c. 60.
4.  S. Hieron. in Catal.
5.  L. 1, de Trin. p. 1-10.
6.  Exod. iii. 14.
7.  The contrary is certainly a mistake in Dr. Cave; for St. Jerom,
    writing against Jovinian, says, in {} p. 175, that though the church
    was sometimes obliged to make choice of married men for the
    priesthood, because virgins, or unmarried, could not always be
    found, they notwithstanding lived ever after continent. _Certe
    confiteris, non posse esse episcopum qui in episcopatu filios
    faciat: alioqui si deprehensus fuerit non quasi vir tenebitur, sed
    quasi adulter condemnabitur, ib_. And in his book against
    Vigilantius, p. 28, he observes, that in the churches of the East,
    in Egypt, and in the apostolic see of Rome, those only were made
    clergymen, who were virgins, or single; or if they were married,
    they ceased to live as husbands. _Aut virgines clericos accipiunt,
    aut contintes; aut si uxores habuerint, mariti esse desinunt_, p.
    281.
8.  S. Hilar. in Ps. 53, n. 8, in Ps. 67, p. 15, and Contant, Armon. in
    S. Hilar. in Psalmos, p. 165.
9.  Ep. ad Lætam.
10. On the interpretation of certain obscure passages of the works of
    St. Hilary, see Dom Coutant, in an excellent preface to his edition
    of this father's works; also Witasse de Incarn. t. 2, &c.
11. Ep. 49, ad Paulinum, t. 4, p. 567.
12. Lib. 1, de Trinit.
13. Doubtless his love of prayer, and the assiduous application of his
    mind to that holy exercise, moved him to make the Psalms a main
    object of his sacred studies and meditation. His comments are
    elegant; though in them he dwells much on the literal sense, he
    neglects not the mystical and allegorical, every thing in these
    divine oracles being prophetic, as he takes notice, (in Ps. 142, n.
    1.) Often he finds the immediate literal sense clear; in other
    passages, he shows Christ and his Church to be pointed out. The true
    sense of the holy scriptures he teaches, only to be opened to us by
    the spirit of assiduous prayer, (in Ps. 125, n. 2, &c.) The fatal
    and opposite errors, which the overweening spirit and study of a
    false criticism have produced in every age, justify this general
    remark of the fathers, that though the succor of reasonable
    criticism ought by no means to be neglected, a spirit of prayer is
    the only key which can open to us the sacred treasures of the divine
    truths, by the light which it obtains of the Holy Ghost, and the
    spirit of simplicity, piety, and humility, which it infuses. In this
    disposition, the holy doctors of the Church discovered in the divine
    oracles that spirit of perfect virtue, which they imbibed and
    improved from their assiduous meditation. St. Hilary remarks, that
    the first lesson we are to study in them is, that of humility, in
    which "Christ has taught, that all the titles and prizes of our
    faith are comprised:" In humilitate docuit omnia fidei nomina et
    præmia contineri, (in Ps. 118, l. 20, n. 1, p. 358.) Whence the
    royal prophet entreats God, to consider nothing in him but his
    lowliness of heart, (v. 153, ibid.) This holy father sticks not to
    say, humility is the greatest work of our faith, our best sacrifice
    to God, (in Ps. 1311, n. 1. p. 442;) but true humility is
    accompanied with an invincible courage, and a firmness and constancy
    in virtue, which no fear of worldly powers is ever able to shake,
    (in Ps. xiv. p. 66.) St. Hilary laments, that even several pastors
    of the church thought it a part of piety to flatter princes. But
    true religion teaches us (Matt. x. 28) only to fear things which are
    justly to be feared, that is, to fear God, to fear sin, or what can
    hurt our souls: for what threatens only our bodies, this is to be
    despised, when the interest of God and our souls is concerned. We
    indeed study out of charity to give offence to no one, (1 Cor. x.
    32, 33;) but desire only to please men for God, not by contemning
    him, (in Ps. 52, p. 89, 90.) Prayer is the great Christian duty,
    which this holy doctor was particularly solicitous to inculcate,
    teaching that it consists in the cry of the heart; not in the lips,
    as David cried to God in his whole heart, Ps. cxviii. v. 145, (in
    Ps. cxviii. l. 19, p. 352.) We are to pour forth our souls before
    God, with earnestness, and with abundance of tears, (in Ps. 41, apud
    Marten. t. 9, p. 71.) Amidst the dangers and evils of this life, our
    only comfort ought to be in God, in the assured hope of his
    promises, and in prayer. (Ib.) That prayer is despised by God, which
    is slothful and lukewarm, accompanied with distrust, distracted with
    unprofitable thoughts, weakened by worldly anxiety and desires of
    earthly goods, or fruitless, for want of the support of good works,
    (in Ps. liv. p. 104.) All our actions and discourses ought to be
    begin by prayer, and the divine praise, (in Ps. lxiv. p. 162.) The
    day among Christians is always begun by prayer, and ended by hymns
    to God, (ib. n. 12, p. 169.) By this public homage of the church,
    and of every faithful soul in it, God is particularly honored, and
    he delights in it. (St. Jerom. in eund. Ps.) St. Hilary takes
    notice, that the night is of all others the most proper time for
    prayer; as the example of Christ, David, and other saints,
    demonstrates, (in Ps. cxviii. l. 8, p. 292.) He observes, that it
    cannot be doubted, but among all the acts of prayer, that of the
    divine praise is in general the most noble and most excellent: and
    that it is for his infinite goodness and mercy, in the first place,
    that we are bound to praise him, (in Ps. cxxxiv p. 469.) Next to
    this, he places the duty of thanksgiving. (Ib.) To be silent in the
    divine praises, he calls the greatest of all punishments; and takes
    notice, that every one makes what he loves the chiefest object of
    his joy: as we see in the drunkard, the covetous, or the ambitious
    man: thus the prophet makes the heavenly Jerusalem the beginning of
    his joy; always bearing in mind, that this is his eternal country,
    in which he will be associated with the troops of angels, be
    received into the kingdom of God, and put in possession of its
    glory; he therefore finds all other things insipid, and knows no
    other comfort or joy but in this hope, bearing always in mind, that
    the glorious inhabitants of that kingdom never cease singing the
    divine praises, saying, Holy, holy, holy, &c. (in Ps. cxxxvi. n. 11,
    p. 494.) In another place he tells us, that the prophet bears not
    the delays of his body, (moras corporis sui non patitur,) sighing
    with the apostle to be dissolved and clothed with immortality: but
    earnestly praying, that he may find mercy, and be delivered from
    falling into the lake of torments, (in Ps. cxlii. n. 8, 9, p. 549.)
    During this exile to meditate on eternity, and on the divine law and
    judgments, ought to be our assiduous occupation, (in Ps. cxlii. n.
    6, p. 548,) especially in time of tribulations and temptations, (in
    Ps. cxviii. l. 12, n. 10, p. 313.) The world is to be shunned, at
    least in spirit; first, because it is filled on every side with
    snares and dangers, secondly, that our souls may more freely soar
    above it, always thinking on God; hence, he says, our souls must be,
    as it were, spiritual birds of heaven, always raised high on the
    wing; and he cries out, "Thou art instructed in heavenly science:
    what hast thou to do with anxious worldly cares? Thou hast renounced
    the world; what hast thou to do with its superfluous concerns? Why
    dost thou complain if thou art taken in a snare, by wandering in a
    strange land, who oughtest to restrain thy affections from straying
    from home? Say rather, Who will give me wings as of a dove, and I
    will fly, and will be at rest?" Ps. liv. 7, (in Ps. cxviii. l. 14,
    p. 328.) To build a house for God, that is, to prepare a dwelling
    for him in our souls, we must begin by banishing sin, and all
    earthly affections, (in Ps. xxxi. p. 73;) for Christ, who is wisdom,
    sanctity, and truth, cannot establish his reign in the breast of a
    fool, hypocrite, or sinner, (in Ps. xli. p. 60, ap. Marten. t. 9.)
    It is easy for God, by penance, to repair his work, howsoever it may
    have been defaced by vice, as a potter can restore or improve the
    form of a vessel, while the clay is yet moist, (in Ps. ii. p. 47:)
    but he often inculcates that repentance, or the confession of sin,
    is a solemn profession of sinning no more, (in Ps. cxxxvii. p. 498,
    in Ps. li. and cxviii. p. 263, &c.) Every thing that is inordinate
    in the affections must be cut off. "The prophet gave himself entire
    to God, according to the tenor of his consecration of himself.
    Whatever lives in him, lives to God. His whole heart, his whole soul
    is fixed on God alone, and occupied in him, and he never loses sight
    of him. In all his works and thoughts God is before his eyes." Totum
    quod vivit, Deo vivit. (Ps. cxviii. l. 14, n. 16, p. 327.) Upon
    these words, _I am thy servant_, Ps. cxviii. v. 125, he observes,
    that every Christian frequently repeats this, but most deny by their
    actions what they profess in words, "It is the privilege of the
    prophet to call himself the servant of God in every affection of his
    heart, in every circumstance and action of his life," &c. (in Ps.
    cxviii. l. 17, p. 339.) He teaches that the angels, patriarchs, and
    prophets are as it were mountains protecting the church, (in Ps.
    cxxiv. n. 6, p. 404;) and that holy angels attend and succor the
    faithful, (in Ps. cxxxvii. p. 499;) assist them in time of combat
    against the devils, (in Ps. lxv. p. 178, and in Ps. cxxxiv. p. 475;)
    carry up their prayers to their heavenly Father with an eager zeal;
    and looking upon this ministry as an honor, (in Matt. c. 18, p.
    699.) That the church of Christ is one, out of which, as out of the
    ark of Noah, no one man be saved, (in Ps. cxlvi., xiv., lxiv.,
    cxxviii., and cxvvii. in Matt. c. 4, and 7 De Trinit. l. 7, p. 917.)
    He mentions fast days of precept, the violation of which renders a
    Christian a slave of the devil, a vessel of death, and fuel of hell,
    (in Ps. cxviii. l. 18, p. 349.) This crime he joins with pride and
    fornication, as sins at the sight of which every good Christian
    ought to pine away with grief and zeal, according to the words of
    Ps. cxviii. v. 139. Saint Hilary seems to have explained the whole
    Psalter, though only part is recovered by the editors of his works.
    To the comments published by Dom Coutant at Paris, in 1693, the
    marquis Scipio Maffei added some others on several other Psalms, in
    his edition at Verona, in 1730. Dom Martenne, in 1733, published
    others on certain other Psalms, which he had discovered in a
    manuscript at Anchin, in his Amplissima Monumentorum Collectio, t.
    9, p. 55. These comments on the Psalms, St. Hilary compiled after
    his exile, as appears from certain allusions to his books on the
    Trinity, and from his frequent reflections against the Arians.
    Nothing of this is found in his commentary on St. Matthew, which Dom
    Coutant shows to have been the first of his works in the order of
    time, composed soon after he was raised to the episcopal dignity. He
    here and there borrows short passages from Origen, but sticks closer
    to the literal sense, though he sometimes has recourse to the
    allegorical, for the sake of some moral instruction. St. Hilary is
    one of the first who published any Latin comments in the holy
    scriptures. Rheticius, bishop of Autun, and St. Victorinus of
    Passaw, though the latter wrote in Greek, had opened the way in the
    West in the beginning of the same century. St. Hilary, in this
    commentary on St. Matthew, excellently inculcates in few words the
    maxims of Christian virtue, especially fraternal charity and
    meekness, by which our souls pass to divine charity and peace, (in
    Matt. c. 4, v. 18, 19, p. 626:) and the conditions of fasting and
    prayer, though for the exposition of our Lord's prayer, he refers to
    that of St. Cyprian; adding that Tertullian has left us also a very
    suitable work upon it; but that his subsequent error has weakened
    the authority of his former writings which may deserve approbation,
    (in c. 5, p. 630.) The road to heaven he shows to be exceeding
    narrow, because even among Christians very few sincerely despise the
    world, and labor strenuously to subdue their flesh and all their
    passions, and to shun all the incentives of vice, (in c. 6, p. 368.)
    St. Peter he calls the Prince of the College of the Apostles, and
    the Porter of Heaven, and extols the authority of the keys conferred
    upon him, (in Matt. c. 7, p. 642, in c. 16, p. 690. Also 1. 6. de
    Trin. p. 891, 903, 9114.) He proves that Christ, in his bloody
    sweat, grieved more for the danger of his disciples and other
    causes, than for his own death; because he had in his last supper
    already consecrated his blood to be poured forth for the remission
    of sin. Numquid pati ipse nolebat. Atquin superius fundendum in
    remissionem peccatorum corporis sui sanguinem consecraverat, (S.
    Hilar. in Matt. c. 31, p. 743.) His twelve books on the Trinity he
    compiled during his banishment in Phrygia, between the years 356 and
    359, as is clear from his own express testimony, and that of St.
    Jerom. In the first book of this immortal monument of his admirable
    genius and piety, he beautifully shows that man's felicity is only
    to be found in God; and that the light of reason suffices to
    demonstrate this, which he illustrates by an account of his own
    conversion to the faith. After this he takes notice, that we can
    learn only by God's revelation, his nature, or what he is, he being
    the competent witness of himself, who it known only by himself, (n.
    18, p. 777.) In the second book he explains the Trinity, which we
    profess in the form of baptism, and says, that faith alone in
    believing, and sincerity and devotion in adoring, this mystery ought
    to suffice without disputing or prying, and laments, that by the
    blasphemies of the Sabellians and Arians, who perverted the true
    sense of the scriptures, he was compelled to dispute of things
    ineffable and incomprehensible which only necessity can excuse, (n.
    25.) He then proves the eternal generation of the Son, the
    procession of the Holy Ghost, and their consubstantiality in one
    nature, (l. 2 and 3.) He checks their presumption in pretending to
    fathom the Trinity, by showing that they cannot understand many
    miracles of Christ or corporeal things, which yet they confess to be
    most certain, (l. 3, n. 19, 20, 24.) He detects and confutes the
    subtilties of the Arians, in their various confessions of faith, (l.
    4, 5, 6,) also of the Sabellians and Photinians, (l. 7;) and
    demonstrates the divinity of Christ, from the confession of St.
    Peter, &c., (l. 6,) and of the very Jews, who were more sincere than
    the Arians, acknowledging that Christ called himself the natural Son
    of God. (John x. 31, &c. l. 7, n. 2, 3, p. 931.) The natural unity
    of the Father and Son, he demonstrates from that text, "I and my
    Father are one," and others, (l. 8,) and observes that both from the
    testimony of Christ in the holy scriptures, and from the faith of
    the church, we believe without doubting the Eucharist to be the true
    body and blood of Christ, (l. 8, n. 14, p. 955, 956.) He answers
    several objections from scripture, (l. 9,) and shows there was
    something in Christ (viz. the divine person, &c.) which did not
    suffer in his passion, (l. 10.) Other objections he confutes, (l.
    11,) and in his last book defends the eternity of the Son of God.
    Between August in 358, and May in 359, St. Hilary, after he had been
    three years in banishment, and was still in Asia, published his book
    On Synods, to inform the Catholics in Gaul, Britain, and Germany,
    what judgment they ought to form of several synods, held lately in
    the East, chiefly by the Arians and Semi-Arians: a work of great use
    in the history of those times, and in which St. Hilary's prudence,
    humility, modesty, greatness of soul, constancy, invincible
    meekness, and love of peace, shine forth. In this work he mollifies
    certain expressions of the Semi-Arians in their councils, because
    writing before the council of Rimini, he endeavored to gain them by
    this method, whereas he at other times severely condemned the same;
    as did also St. Athanasius, in his book on the same subject, and
    under the same title, which he composed after the council of Rimini;
    and expressly to show the variations of those heretics. (See
    Coutant, vit. S. Hilar. p. c. ci. et præf. in S. Hilar. de Synodis,
    p. 1147.) Fifteen fragments of St. Hilary's history of the councils
    of Rimini and Seleucia furnish important materials for the history
    of Arianism, particularly of the council of Rimini. In his first
    book to the emperor Constantius, which he wrote in 355 or 356, he
    conjures that prince with tears to restore peace to the church, and
    leave the decision of ecclesiastical causes to its pastors. The
    excellent request which he presented to Constantius at
    Constantinople, in 360, is called his second book to that prince.
    The third book ought to be styled, with Coutant, Against
    Constantius: for in it St. Hilary directs it to the Catholics, (n. 2
    and 12) though he often uses an apostrophe to Constantius. The saint
    wrote it five years after the council of Milan, in 355, as he
    testifies; consequently in 360, after that prince had rejected his
    second request; but it was only published after the death of that
    emperor, in the following year, as is clear from St. Jerom: He says
    Constantius, by artifices and flattery, was a more dangerous
    persecutor than Nero and Decius: he tells him, "Thou receivest the
    priests with a kiss, as Christ was betrayed by one: thou bowest thy
    head to receive their blessing, that thou mayest trample on their
    faith: thou entertainest them at thy table, as Judas went from table
    to betray his master." Fleury (l. 14, n. 26) bids us observe, in
    these words, with what respect emperors then treated bishops. St.
    Hilary in his elegant book against Auxentius, gives the catholics an
    account of his conferences with that heretic at Milan in 364.
14. In Ps. 64.
15. In Ps. 1, p. 19, 20.
16. Lib. 7, de Trinit. n. 4, p. 917.
17. Lib. 6, n. 37, 38, p. 904.
18. In Ps. 131, n. 4, p. 447, in cap. 16, Matt. n. 7, p. 690.
19. Lib. 11, de Trinit. n. 3.
20. Lib. 3, adv. Constant. n. 8, p. 1243, Ed. Ben.
21. This letter is commended by the most judicious critics, Baronius,
    Tillemont, Fleury, and Coutant, a monk of the congregation of St.
    Maur, in his edition of the works of St. Hilary, and others. The
    style is not pompous, but adapted to the capacity of a girl of
    thirteen years of age.
22. Facta est fides temporum, potius quam evangellorum, l. 2, ad Const.
    p. 1227. Tot nunc fides existere, quot voluntates, ib. Annuas atque
    menstruas de Deo fides decernimus, decretis poenitimusm poenitentes
    defendimus, defensos anathematizamus. ib. p. 1228.
23. Cointe Annal. Fr. ad ann. 538, n. 41, 42, 43.
24. L. de Gl. Conf. c. 2.
25. Alcuin, Hom. de S. Willibrodo.
26. Baillet, Vie de S. Hilaire.
27. Ap. Mab. anal. t. 4, p. 644.
28. Aimion. l. 4, c. 17 & 33. Coutant, Vit. S. Hilar. p. cxxiv, cxxv,
    cxxix.
29. S. Hilar. in Matt. c. 18, v. i. p. 698.
30. 1 Cor. i. 17, & iii. 18. S. Hilar. l. 3, de Trin. n. 24, 25, pp.
    822, 823.
31. 1 Par. xxix. 17.
32. Prov. iii. 32.
33. Prov. xi. 20.
34. 2 Cor. i. 12.
35. Eccles. i. 39.
36. Rom. viii. 7.


ST. FELIX OF NOLA, P. AND C.

IT is observed by the judicious Tillemont, with regard to the life of
this saint, that we might doubt of its wonderful circumstances, were
they not supported by the authority of a Paulinus; but that great
miracles ought to be received with the greater veneration, when
authorized by incontestable vouchers.

St. Felix was a native of Nola, a Roman colony in Campania, fourteen
miles from Naples, where his father Hermias, who was by birth a Syrian,
and had served in the army, had purchased an estate and settled himself.
He had two sons, Felix and Hermias, to whom at his death he left his
patrimony. The younger sought preferment in the world among the lovers
of vanity, by following the profession of arms, which at that time was
the surest road to riches and honors. Felix, to become in effect what
his name in Latin imported, that is, _happy_, resolved to follow no
other standard than that of the king of kings, Jesus Christ. For this
purpose, despising all earthly things, lest the love of them might
entangle his soul, he distributed the better part of his substance among
the poor, and was ordained Reader, Exorcist, and, lastly, Priest, by
Maximus, the holy bishop of Nola; who, charmed with his sanctity and
prudence, made him his principal support in these times of trouble, and
designed him for his successor.[1]

In the year 250, the emperor Decius raised a bloody persecution against
the church. Maximus, seeing himself principally aimed at, retired into
the deserts, not through the fear of death, which he desired, but rather
not to tempt God by seeking it, and to preserve himself for the service
of his flock. The persecutors not finding him, seized on Felix, who, in
his absence, was very vigilant in the discharge of all his pastoral
duties. The governor caused him to be scourged; then loaded with bolts
and chains about his neck, hands, and legs, and cast into a dungeon, in
which, as St. Prudentius informs us,[2] the floor was spread all over
with potsherds and pieces of broken glass, so that there was no place
free from them, on which the saint could either stand or lie. One night
an angel appearing in great glory, filled the prison with a bright
light, and bade St. Felix go and assist his bishop, who was in great
distress. The confessor, seeing his chains fall off, and the doors open,
followed his guide, and was conducted by heaven to the place where
Maximus lay, almost perished with hunger and cold, speechless, and
without sense: for, through anxiety for his flock, and the hardships of
his solitary retreat, he had suffered more than a martyrdom. Felix, not
being able to bring him to himself, had recourse to prayer; and
discovering thereupon a bunch of grapes within reach, he squeezed some
of the juice into his mouth, which had the desired effect. The good
bishop no sooner beheld his friend Felix, but he embraced him, and
begged to be conveyed back to his church. The saint, taking him on his
shoulders, carried him to his episcopal house in the city, before day
appeared, where a pious ancient woman took care of him.[3]

Felix, with the blessing of his pastor, repaired secretly to his own
lodgings, and there kept himself concealed, praying for the church
without ceasing till peace was restored to it by the death of Decius, in
the year 251. {148} He no sooner appeared again in public, but his zeal
so exasperated the pagans that they came armed to apprehend him; but
though they met him, they knew him not; they even asked him where Felix
was, a question he did not think proper to give a direct answer to. The
persecutors going a little further, perceived their mistake, and
returned; but the saint in the mean time had stepped a little out of the
way, and crept through a hole in a ruinous old wall, which was instantly
closed up by spiders' webs. His enemies never imagining any thing could
have lately passed where they saw so close a spider's web, after a
fruitless search elsewhere, returned in the evening without their prey.
Felix finding among the ruins, between two houses, an old well half dry,
hid himself in it for six months; and received during that time
wherewithal to subsist by means of a devout Christian woman. Peace being
restored to the church by the death of the emperor, the saint quitted
his retreat, and was received in the city as an angel sent from heaven.

Soon after, St. Maximus' dying, all were unanimous for electing Felix
bishop; but he persuaded the people to make choice of Quintus, because
the older priest of the two, having been ordained seven days before him.
Quintus, when bishop, always respected St. Felix as his father, and
followed his advice in every particular. The remainder of the saint's
estate having been confiscated in the persecution, he was advised to lay
claim to it, as others had done, who thereby recovered what had been
taken from them. His answer was, that in poverty he should be the more
secure of possessing Christ.[4] He could not even be prevailed upon to
accept what the rich offered him. He rented a little spot of barren
land, not exceeding three acres, which he tilled with his own hands, in
such manner as to receive his subsistence from it, and to have something
left for alms. Whatever was bestowed on him, he gave it immediately to
the poor. If he had two coats, he was sure to give them the better; and
often exchanged his only one for the rags of some beggar. He died in a
good old age, on the fourteenth of January, on which day the
Martyrology, under the name of St. Jerom, and all others of later date
mention him. Five churches have been built at, or near the place where
he was first interred, which was without the precinct of the city of
Nola. His precious remains are at present kept in the cathedral; but
certain portions are at Rome, Benevento, and some other places. Pope
Damasus, in a pilgrimage which he made from Rome to Nola, to the shrine
of this saint, professes, in a short poem which he composed in
acknowledgment, that he was miraculously cured of a distemper through
his intercession.

St. Paulinus, a Roman senator in the fifth age, forty-six years after
the death of St. Damasus, came from Spain to Nola, desirous of being
porter in the church of St. Felix. He testifies that crowds of pilgrims
came from Rome, from all other parts of Italy, and more distant
countries, to visit his sepulchre on his festival: he adds, that all
brought some present or other to his church, as wax-candles to burn at
his tomb, precious ointments, costly ornaments, and such like; but that
for his part, he offered to him the homage of his tongue, and himself,
though an unworthy victim. [5] He everywhere expresses his devotion to
this saint in the warmest and strongest terms, and believes that all the
graces he received from heaven were conferred on him through the
intercession of St. Felix. To him he addressed himself in all his
necessities; by his prayers he begged grace in this life, and glory
after {149} death.[6] He describes at large the holy pictures of the
whole history of the Old Testament, which were hung up in the church of
St. Felix, and which inflamed all who beheld them, and were as so many
books that instructed the ignorant. We may read with pleasure the pious
sentiments the sight of each gave St. Paulinus.[7] He relates a great
number of miracles that were wrought at his tomb, as of persons cured of
various distempers and delivered from dangers by his intercession, to
several of which he was an eye-witness. He testifies that he himself had
frequently experienced the most sensible effects of his patronage, and,
by having recourse to him, had been speedily succored.[8] St. Austin
also has given an account of many miracles performed at his shrine.[9]
It was not formerly allowed to bury any corpse within the walls of
cities. The church of St. Felix, out of the walls of Nola, not being
comprised under this prohibition, many devout Christians sought to be
buried in it, that their faith and devotion might recommend them after
death to the patronage of this holy confessor, upon which head St.
Paulinus consulted St. Austin. The holy doctor answered him by his book,
_On the care for the dead_: in which he shows that the faith and
devotion of such persons would be available to them after death, as the
suffrages and good works of the living in behalf of the faithful
departed are profitable to the latter. See the poems of St. Paulinus on
his life, confirmed by other authentic ancient records, quoted by
Tillemont, t. 4, p. 226, and Ruinart, Acta Sincera, p. 256; Muratori,
Anecd. Lat.

Footnotes:
1.  S. Paulin. Carm. 19, 20. Seu Natali, 4.
2.  De Cor. hymn 5.
3.  Paulin. Carm. 19.
4.  _Dives egebo Deo; nam Christum pauper habebo_. Paulin. Carm. 2.
    Natali S. Felicia 5.
5.  ________________ _Ego munere linguæ,
      Nudus opum, famulor, de me mea debita solvens
      Meque ipsum pro me, vilis licet hostia pendam._ Natal. 6
6.  Nat. 1, 2, &c.
7.  Nat. 9, 10.
8.  St. Paulin. Ep. 28 & 36. Carm. 13, 18, 21, 22, 23, 29, &c.
9.  St. August. Ep. 78, olim 137, lib. De curâ pro moritus, c. 16.

SS. ISAIAS, SABBAS,

AND thirty-eight other holy solitaries on mount Sinai, martyred by a
troop of Arabians in 273; likewise Paul, the abbot; Moses, who by his
preaching and miracles had converted to the faith the Ishmaelites of
Pharan; Psaes, a prodigy of austerity, and many other hermits in the
desert of Raithe, two days' journey from Sinai, near the Red Sea, were
massacred the same year by the Blemmyans, a savage infidel nation of
Ethiopia. All these anchorets lived on dates, or other fruits, never
tasted bread, worked at making baskets in cells at a considerable
distance from each other, and met on Saturdays, in the evening, in one
common church, where they watched and said the night office, and on the
Sunday received together the holy eucharist. They were remarkable for
their assiduity in praying and fasting. See their acts by Ammonius, an
eye-witness, published by F. Combefis; also Bulteau, Hist. Mon.
d'Orient, l. 2, c. 1, p. 209.

Also, many holy anchorets on mount Sinai, whose lives were faithful
copies of Christian perfection, and who met on Sundays to receive the
holy eucharist, were martyred by a band of Saracens in the fifth
century. A boy of fourteen years of age led among them an ascetic life
of great perfection. The Saracens threatened to kill him, if he did not
discover where the ancient monks had concealed themselves. He answered,
that death did not terrify him, and that he could not ransom his life by
a sin in betraying his fathers. They bade him put off his clothes:
"After you have killed me," said the modest youth, "take my clothes and
welcome: but as I never saw my body naked, have so much compassion and
regard for my shamefacedness, as to let me die covered." The barbarians,
enraged at this answer, fell on him with all their weapons at once, and
the pious youth died by as many martyrdoms as he had executioners. St.
Nilus, who had been formerly governor {150} of Constantinople, has left
us an account of this massacre in seven narratives: at that time he led
an eremitical life in those deserts, and had placed his son Theodulus in
this holy company. He was carried away captive, but redeemed after many
dangers. See S. Nili, Septem Narrationes; also, Bulteau, Hist. Mon.
d'Orient, l. 2, c. 2, p. 220.

S. BARBASCEMINUS,

AND SIXTEEN OF HIS CLERGY, MM.

HE succeeded his brother St. Sadoth in the metropolitical see of
Seleucia and Ctesiphon, in 342, which he held six years. Being accused
as an enemy to the Persian religion, and as one who spoke against the
Persian divinities, _Fire_ and _Water_, he was apprehended, with sixteen
of his clergy, by the orders of king Sapor II. The king seeing his
threats lost upon him, confined him almost a year in a loathsome
dungeon, in which he was often tormented by the Magians with scourges,
clubs, and tortures, besides the continual annoyance of stench, filth,
hunger, and thirst. After eleven months the prisoners were again brought
before the king. Their bodies were disfigured by their torments, and
their faces discolored by a blackish hue which they had contracted.
Sapor held out to the bishop a golden cup as a present, in which were a
thousand sineas of gold, a coin still in use among the Persians. Besides
this he promised him a government, and other great offices, if he would
suffer himself to be initiated in the rites of the sun. The saint
replied that he could not answer the reproaches of Christ at the last
day, if he should prefer gold, or a whole empire, to his holy law; and
that he was ready to die. He received his crown by the sword, with his
companions, on the 14th of January, in the year 346, and of the reign of
king Sapor II. the thirty-seventh, at Ledan, in the province of the
Huzites. St. Maruthas, the author of his acts, adds, that Sapor,
resolving to extinguish utterly the Christian name in his empire,
published a new terrible edict, whereby he commanded every one to be
tortured and put to death who should refuse to adore the sun, to worship
fire and water, and to feed on the blood of living creatures.[1] The see
of Seleucia remained vacant twenty years, and innumerable martyrs
watered all the provinces of Persia with their blood. St. Maruthas was
not able to recover their names, but has left us a copious panegyric on
then heroic deeds, accompanied with the warmest sentiments of devotion,
and desires to be speedily united with them in glory. See Acta Mart.
Orient. per Steph. Assemani, t. 1, p. 3.

Footnotes:
1.  The Christians observed for several ages, especially in the East,
    the apostolic temporary precept of abstaining from blood. Acts, xv.
    20. See Nat. Alexander Hist. Sæc. 1, dissert 9.

{151}


JANUARY XV.

ST. PAUL, THE FIRST HERMIT.

From his life, compiled by St. Jerom, in 365. Pope Gelasius I., in his
learned Roman council, in 494, commends this authentic history. St. Paul
is also mentioned by Cassian, St. Fulgentius, Sulpitius Severus,
Sidonius, Paulinus, in the life of St. Ambrose, &c. St. Jerom received
this account from two disciples of St. Antony, Amathas and Macariux. St.
Athanasius says, that he only wrote what he had heard from St. Antony's
own mouth, or from his disciples; and desires others to add what they
know concerning his actions. On the various readings and MS. copies of
this life, see the disquisition of P. Jem{} de Prato, an oratorian of
Verona, in his new edition of the works of Sulpitius Severus, t. l, app.
2, p. 403. The Greek history of St. Paul the hermit, which Bollandus
imagines St. Jerom to have followed, is evidently posterior; and borrows
from him, as Jos. Assemani shows. Comm. In Calend. Univ. t. 6, p. 92.
See Gudij Epistolæ, p. 278.

A.D. 342.

ELIAS and St. John the Baptist sanctified the deserts, and Jesus Christ
himself was a model of the eremitical state during his forty days' fast
in the wilderness; neither is it to be questioned but the Holy Ghost
conducted the saint of this day, though young, into the desert, and was
to him an instructor there; but it is no less certain, that an entire
solitude and total sequestration of one's self from human society, is
one of those extraordinary ways by which God leads souls to himself, and
is more worthy of our admiration, than calculated for imitation and
practice: it is a state which ought only to be embraced by such as are
already well experienced in the practices of virtue and contemplation,
and who can resist sloth and other temptations, lest, instead of being a
help, it prove a snare and stumbling-block in their way to heaven.

This saint was a native of the Lower Thebais, in Egypt, and had lost
both his parents when he was but fifteen years of age: nevertheless, he
was a great proficient in the Greek and Egyptian learning, was mild and
modest, and feared God from his earliest youth. The bloody persecution
of Decius disturbed the peace of the church in 250; and what was most
dreadful, Satan, by his ministers, sought not so much to kill the
bodies, as by subtle artifices and tedious tortures to destroy the souls
of men. Two instances are sufficient to show his malice in this respect:
A soldier of Christ, who had already triumphed over the racks and
tortures, had his whole body rubbed over with honey, and was then laid
on his back in the sun, with his hands tied behind him, that the flies
and wasps, which are quite intolerable in hot countries, might torment
and gall him with their stings. Another was bound with silk cords on a
bed of down, in a delightful garden, where a lascivious woman was
employed to entice him to sin; the martyr, sensible of his danger, bit
off part of his tongue and spit it in her face, that the horror of such
an action might put her to flight, and the smart occasioned by it be a
means to prevent, in his own heart, any manner of consent to carnal
pleasure. During these times of danger, Paul kept himself concealed in
the house of another; but finding that a brother-in-law was inclined to
betray him, that he might enjoy his estate, he fled into the deserts.
There he found many spacious caverns in a rock, which were said to have
been the retreat of money-coiners in the days of Cleopatra, queen of
Egypt. He chose for his dwelling a cat; in this place, near which were a
palm-tree[1] and a clear spring: the former by its leaves furnished him
with raiment, and by its fruit with food; and the latter supplied him
with water for his drink.

{152}

Paul was twenty-two years old when he entered the desert. His first
intention was to enjoy the liberty of serving God till the persecution
should cease; but relishing the sweets of heavenly contemplation and
penance, and learning the spiritual advantages of holy solitude, he
resolved to return no more among men, or concern himself in the least
with human affairs, and what passed in the world: it was enough for him
to know that there was a world, and to pray that it might be improved in
goodness. The saint lived on the fruit of his tree till he was
forty-three years of age, and from that time till his death, like Elias,
he was miraculously fed with bread brought him every day by a raven. His
method of life, and what he did in this place during ninety years, is
unknown to us: but God was pleased to make his servant known a little
before his death.

The great St. Antony, who was then ninety years of age, was tempted to
vanity, as if no one had served God so long in the wilderness as he had
done, imagining himself also to be the first example of a life so
recluse from human conversation: but the contrary was discovered to him
in a dream the night following, and the saint was at the same time
commanded, by Almighty God, to set out forthwith in quest of a perfect
servant of his, concealed in the more remote parts of those deserts. The
holy old man set out the next morning in search of the unknown hermit.
St. Jerom relates from his authors, that he met a centaur, or creature
not with the nature and properties, but with something of the mixed
shape of man and horse,[2] and that this monster, or phantom of the
devil, (St. Jerom pretends not to determine which it was,) upon his
making the sign of the cross, fled away, after having pointed out the
way to the saint. Our author adds, that St. Antony soon after met a
satyr,[3] who gave him to understand that he was an inhabitant of those
deserts, and one of that sort whom the deluded Gentiles adored for gods.
St. Antony, after two days and a night spent in the search, discovered
the saint's abode by a light that was in it, which he made up to. Having
long begged admittance at the door of his cell, St. Paul at last opened
it with a smile: they embraced, called each other by their names, which
they knew by divine revelation. St. Paul then inquired whether idolatry
still reigned in the world. While they were discoursing together, a
raven flew towards them, and dropped a loaf of bread before them. Upon
which St. Paul said, "Our good God has sent us a dinner. In this manner
have I received half a loaf every day these sixty years past; now you
are come to see me, Christ has doubled his provision for his servants."
Having given thanks to God they both sat down by the fountain; but a
little contest arose between them who should break the bread; St. Antony
alleged St. Paul's greater age, and St. Paul pleaded that Antony was the
stranger: both agreed at last to take up their parts together. Having
refreshed themselves at the spring, they spent the night in prayer. The
next morning St. Paul told his guest that the time of his death
approached, and that he was sent to bury him; adding, "Go and fetch the
cloak given you by St. Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, in which I
desire you to wrap my body." This he might say with the intent of being
left alone in prayer, while he expected to be called out of this world;
as also that he might testify his veneration for St. Athanasius, and his
high regard for the faith and communion of the Catholic church, on
account of which that holy bishop was then a great sufferer. St. Antony
was surprised to hear him mention the cloak, which he could not have
known but by divine revelation. Whatever was his motive for desiring to
be buried {153} in it, St. Antony acquiesced to what was asked of him:
so, after mutual embraces, he hastened to his monastery to comply with
St. Paul's request. He told his monks that he, a sinner, falsely bore
the name of a servant of God, but that he had seen Elias and John the
Baptist in the wilderness, even Paul in Paradise. Having taken the
cloak, he returned with it in all haste, fearing lest the holy hermit
might be dead, as it happened. While on his road, he saw his happy soul
carried up to heaven, attended by choirs of angels, prophets, and
apostles. St. Antony, though he rejoiced on St. Paul's account, could
not help lamenting on his own, for having lost a treasure so lately
discovered. As soon as his sorrow would permit, he arose, pursued his
journey, and came to the cave. Going in, he found the body kneeling, and
the hands stretched out. Full of joy, and supposing him yet alive, he
knelt down to pray with him, but by his silence soon perceived he was
dead. Having paid his last respects to the holy corpse, he carried it
out of the cave. While he stood perplexed how to dig a grave, two lions
came up quietly, and, as it were, mourning; and tearing up the ground,
made a hole large enough for the reception of a human body. St. Antony
then buried the corpse, singing hymns and psalms, according to what was
usual and appointed by the church on that occasion. After this he
returned home praising God, and related to his monks what he had seen
and done. He always kept as a great treasure, and wore himself on great
festivals, the garment of St. Paul, of palm-tree leaves patched
together. St. Paul died in the year of our Lord 342, the hundred and
thirteenth year of his age, and the ninetieth of his solitude, and is
usually called the _first hermit_, to distinguish him from others of
that name. The body of this saint is said to have been conveyed to
Constantinople, by the emperor Michael Comnenus, in the twelfth century,
and from thence to Venice in 1240.[4] Lewis I., king of Hungary,
procured it from that republic, and deposited it at Buda, where a
congregation of hermits under his name, which still subsists in Hungary,
Poland, and Austria, was instituted by blessed Eusebius of Strigonium, a
nobleman, who, having distributed his whole estate among the poor,
retired into the forests; and being followed by others, built the
monastery of Pisilia, under the rule of the regular canons of St.
Austin. He died in that house, January the 20th, 1270.

St. Paul, the hermit, is commemorated in several ancient western
Martyrologies on the 10th of January, but in the Roman on the 15th, on
which he is honored in the anthologium of the Greeks.

       *       *       *       *       *

An eminent contemplative draws the following portraiture of this great
model of an eremitical life:[5] St. Paul, the hermit, not being called
by God to the external duties of an active life, remained alone,
conversing only with God, in a vast wilderness, for the space of near a
hundred years, ignorant of all that passed in the world, both the
progress of sciences, the establishment of religion, and the revolutions
of states and empires; indifferent even as to those things without which
he could not live, as the air which he breathed, the water he drank, and
the miraculous bread with which he supported life. What did he do? say
the inhabitants of this busy world, who think they could not live
without being in a perpetual hurry of restless projects; what was his
employment all this while? Alas! ought we not rather to put this
question to them; what are you doing while you are not taken up in doing
the will of God, which occupies the heavens and the earth in all their
motions? Do you call that doing nothing which is the great end God {154}
proposed to himself in giving us a being, that is, to be employed in
contemplating, adoring, and praising him? Is it to be idle and useless
in the world to be entirely taken up in that which is the eternal
occupation of God himself, and of the blessed inhabitants of heaven?
What employment is better, more just, more sublime, or more advantageous
than this, when done in suitable circumstances? To be employed in any
thing else, how great or noble soever it may appear in the eyes of men,
unless it be referred to God, and be the accomplishment of his holy
will, who in all our actions demands our heart more than our hand, what
is it, but to turn ourselves away from our end, to lose our time, and
voluntarily to return again to that state of nothing out of which we
were formed, or rather into a far worse state?

Footnotes:
1.  Pliny recounts thirty-nine different sorts of palm-trees, and says
    that the best grow in Egypt, which are ever green, have leaves thick
    enough to make ropes and a fruit which serves in some places to make
    bread.
2.  Pliny, l. 7, c. 3, and others, assure us that such monsters have
    been seen. Consult the note of Rosweide.
3.  The heathens might feign their gods of the woods, from certain
    monsters sometimes seen. Plutarch, in his life of Sylla, says, that
    a satyr was brought to that general at Athens; and St. Jerom tells
    us, that one was shown alive at Alexandria, and after its death was
    salted and embalmed, and sent to Antioch that Constantine the Great
    might see it.
4.  See the whole history of this translation, published from an
    original MS. by F. Gamans, a Jesuit, inserted by Bollandus in his
    collection.
5.  F. Ambrose de Lombez, Capucin, Tr. de la Paix Intérieure, (Paris,
    1758,) p. 372.

ST. MAURUS, ABBOT

AMONG the several noblemen who placed their sons under the care of St.
Benedict, to be brought up in piety and learning, Equitius, one of that
rank, left with him his son Maurus, then but twelve years old, in 522.
The youth surpassed all his fellow monks in the discharge of monastic
duties, and when he was grown up, St. Benedict made him his coadjutor in
the government of Sublaco. Maurus, by his singleness of heart and
profound humility, was a model of perfection to all the brethren, and
was favored by God with the gift of miracles. St. Placidus, a fellow
monk, the son of the senator Tertullus, going one day to fetch water,
fell into the lake, and was carried the distance of a bow-shot from the
bank. St. Benedict saw this in spirit in his cell, and bid Maurus run
and draw him out. Maurus obeyed, walked upon the waters without
perceiving it, and dragged out Placidus by the hair, without sinking in
the least himself. He attributed the miracle to the prayers of St.
Benedict; but the holy abbot, to the obedience of the disciple. Soon
after that holy patriarch had retired to Cassino, he called St. Maurus
thither, in the year 528. Thus far St. Gregory, Dial. l. 2, c. 3, 4, 6.

St. Maurus coming to France in 543, founded, by the liberality of king
Theodebert, the great abbey of Glanfeuil, now called St. Maur-sur-Loire,
which he governed several years. In 581 he resigned the abbacy to
Bertulf, and passed the remainder of his life in close solitude, in the
uninterrupted contemplation of heavenly things, in order to prepare
himself for his passage to eternity. After two years thus employed, he
fell sick of a fever, with a pain in his side: he received the
sacraments of the church, lying on sackcloth before the altar of St.
Martin, and in the same posture expired on the 15th of January, in the
year 584. He was buried on the right side of the altar in the same
church,[1] and on a roll of parchment laid in his tomb was inscribed
this epitaph: "Maurus, a monk and deacon, who came into France in the
days of king Theodebert, and died the eighteenth day before the month of
February."[2] St. Maurus is named in the ancient French litany composed
by Alcuin, and in the Martyrologies of Florus, Usuard, and others. {155}
For fear of the Normans, in the ninth century, his body was translated
to several places; lastly, in 868, to St. Peter's des Fusses, then a
Benedictin abbey, near Paris,[3] where it was received with great
solemnity by Æneas, bishop of Paris. A history of this translation,
written by Eudo, at that time abbot of St. Peter's des Fusses, is still
extant. This abbey des Fusses was founded by Blidegisilus, deacon of the
church of Paris, in the time of king Clovis II. and of Audebert, bishop
of Paris: St. Babolen was the first abbot. This monastery was reformed
by St. Mayeul, abbot of Cluni, in 988: in 1533 it was secularized by
Clement VII. at the request of Francis I., and the deanery united to the
bishopric of Paris; but the church and village have for several ages
borne the name of St. Maur. The abbey of Glanfeuil, now called St.
Maur-sur-Loire, was subjected to this des Fosses from the reign of
Charles the Bald to the year 1096, in which Urban II., at the
solicitation of the count of Anjou, re-established its primitive
independence. Our ancestors had a particular veneration for St. Maurus,
under the Norman kings; and the noble family of Seymour (from the French
_Saint Maur_) borrow from him its name, as Camden observes in his
_Remains_. The church of St. Peter's des Fusses, two leagues from Paris,
now called St. Maurus's, was secularized, and made a collegiate, in
1533; and the canons removed to St. Louis, formerly called St. Thomas of
Canterbury's, at the Louvre in Paris, in 1750. The same year the relics
of St. Maurus were translated thence to the abbey of St.
Germain-des-Prez, where they are preserved in a rich shrine.[4] An arm
of this saint was with great devotion translated to mount Cassino, in
the eleventh century,[5] and by its touch a demoniac was afterwards
delivered, as is related by Desiderius at that time abbot of mount
Cassino,[6] who was afterwards pope, under the name of Victor III. See
Mabill. Annal. Bened. t. 1, l. 3 and 4; and the genuine history of the
translation of the body of St. Maurus to the monastery des Fosses, by
Endo, at that time abbot of this house. The life of St. Maurus, and
history of his translation, under the pretended name of Faustus, is
demonstrated by Cointe and others to be a notorious forgery, with
several instruments belonging to the same.[7]

Footnotes:
1.  Mab. Annal. Ben. t. 1, l. 7, ad annos 581, 584.
2.  All writers, at least from the ninth century, are unanimous in
    affirming with Amalarius, that St. Maurus of Anjou, the French
    abbot, was the same Maurus that was the disciple of St. Benedict;
    which is also proved against certain modern critics, by Dom Ruinart
    in his Apologia Missionis St. Mauri, in append. 1. annal. Bened. per
    Mabill. t. 1, p. 630. The arguments which are alleged by some for
    distinguishing them, may be seen in Chatelain's notes on the
    Martyrol. p. 253. In imitation of the congregation of SS. Vane and
    Hydulphus, then lately established in Lorraine, certain French
    Benedictin monks instituted a like reformation of their order, under
    the title of the congregation of St. Maurus, in 1621, which was
    approved of by Gregory XV. and Urban VIII. It is divided into six
    provinces, under its own general, who usually resides at St.
    Germain-des-Prez, at Paris. These monks live in strict retirement,
    and constantly abstain from flesh meat, except in the infirmary.
    Their chief houses are, St. Maur-sur-Loire, St. Germain-des Prez,
    Fleury, or St. Benoit-sur-Loire, Marmoutier at Tours, Vendome, St.
    Remigius at Rheims, St. Peter of Corbie, Fecan &c.
3.  Ib. l. 15, p. 465, l. 36, p. 82. See Dom Beaunier, Recueil
    Historique des Evech. et Abbayes, t. 1, p. 17.
4.  Dom Vaissette, Géographie Histor. t. 6, p. 515, and Le Beuf, Hist.
    du Diocèse de Paris, t. 5, p. 17. Piganiol, Descrip. of Paris, t. 8,
    p. 165, t. 3, p. 114, t. 7, p. 79.
5.  S. Odilo in vitâ S. Majoli; et Leo Ostiens in chron. Casin. l. 2, c.
    55.
6.  Victor III. Dial. l. 2. Ruinart, Apol. Miss. S. Mauri, p. 632.
    Mabill. Annal. Bened. l. 56, c. 73.
7.  Dom Freville, the Maurist monk, and curate of St. Symphorian's, at
    the abbey of St. Germain-des-Prez, has nevertheless made use of
    these pieces in a MS. history of the life and translations of this
    saint, which he has compiled, and of which he allowed me the
    perusal. When the relics of St. Maurus were translated to St.
    Germain-des-Prez, those of St. Babolen, who died about the year 671,
    and is honored is the Paris breviary on the 28th of June, and
    several others which had enriched the monastery des Fosses were
    conveyed to the church of St. Louis, at the Louvre.

ST. MAIN, ABBOT

THIS saint was a British bishop, who, passing into Little Britain in
France, there founded an abbey in which he ended his days.

ST. JOHN CALYBITE, RECLUSE.

HE was the son of Eutropius, a rich nobleman in Constantinople. He
secretly left home to become a monk among the Acæmetes.[1] After six
{156} years he returned disguised in the rags of a beggar, and subsisted
by the charity of his parents, as a stranger, in a little hut near their
house; hence he was called the Calybite.[2] He sanctified his soul by
wonderful patience, meekness, humility, mortification, and prayer. He
discovered himself to his mother, in his agony, in the year 450, and,
according to his request, was buried under his hut; but his parents
built over his tomb a stately church, as the author of his life
mentions. Cedrenus, who says it stood in the western quarter of the
city, calls it _the church of poor John_;[3] Zonaras, the church of St.
John Calybite.[4] An old church standing near the bridge of the isle of
the Tiber in Rome, which bore his name, according to an inscription
there, was built by pope Formosus, (who died in 896,) together with an
hospital. From which circumstance Du Cange[5] infers that the body of
our saint, which is preserved in this church, was conveyed from
Constantinople to Rome, before the broaching of the Iconoclast heresy
under Leo the Isarian, in 706: but his head remained at Constantinople
till after that city fell into the hands of the Latins, in 1204; soon
after which it was brought to Besanzon in Burgundy, where it is kept in
St. Stephen's church, with a Greek inscription round the case. The
church which bears the name of Saint John Calybite, at Rome, with the
hospital, is now in the hands of religious men of the order of St. John
of God. According to a MS. life, commended by Baronius, St. John
Calybite flourished under Theodosius the Younger, who died in 450:
Nicephorus says, under Leo, who was proclaimed emperor in 457; so that
both accounts may be true. On his genuine Greek acts, see Lambecius,
Bibl. Vind. t. 8, pp. 228, 395; Bollandus, p. 1035, gives his Latin acts
the same which we find in Greek at St. Germain-des-Prez. See Montfaucon,
Bibl. Coislianæ, p. 196. Bollandus adds other Latin acts, to which he
gives the preference. See also Papebroch, Comm. ad Januarium Græcum
metricum, t. 1. Maij. Jos. Assemani, in Calendaria Univ. ad 15 Jan. t.
6, p. 76. Chatelain, p. 283, &c.

Footnotes:
1.  Papebroch supposes St. John Calybite to have made a long voyage at
    sea; but this circumstance seems to have no other foundation than
    the mistake of those who place his birth at Rome, forgetting that
    Constantinople was then called New Rome. No mention is made of any
    long voyage in his genuine Greek acts, nor in the interpolated
    Latin. He sailed only threescore furlongs from Constantinople to the
    place called [Greek: Gomôn], and from the peaceful abode of the
    Acæmetes' monk, ([Greek: Eirênaion], or dwelling of peace,) opposite
    to Sosthenium on the Thrancian shore, where the monastery of the
    Acæmetes stood.
2.  From [Greek: kalubê], a cottage, a hut.
3.  Cedr. ad an. 461.
4.  Zonaras, p. 41.
5.  Du Cange, Constantinop. Christiana, l. 4, c. 6, n. 51.


ST. ISIDORE, PRIEST AND HOSPITALLER,

OF ALEXANDRIA.[1]

HE was taken from his cell where he had passed many years in the
deserts, ordained Priest, and placed in the dignity of hospitaller, by
St. Athanasius. He lived in that great city a perfect model of meekness,
patience, mortification, and prayer. He frequently burst into tears at
table, saying: "I who am a rational creature, and made to enjoy God, eat
the food of brutes, instead of feeding on the bread of angels."
Palladius, afterwards bishop of Helenopolis, on going to Egypt to
embrace an ascetic life, addressed himself first to our saint for
advice: the skilful director bade him go and exercise himself for some
time in mortification and self-denial, and then return for further
instructions. St. Isidore suffered many persecutions, first from Lucius
the Arian intruder, and afterwards from Theophilus, who unjustly accused
him of Origenism.[2] He publicly condemned that heresy at {157}
Constantinople, where he died in 403, under the protection of St.
Chrysostom. See Palladius in Lausiac, c. 1 and 2. Socrates, l. 6, c. 9.
Sozomen, c. 3 and 12. St. Jerom, Ep. 61, c. 15, ad Princip. Theodoret.
l. 4, c. 21. Pallad. de Vitâ S. Chrys. Bulteau, Hist. Mon. d'Orient. l.
1, c. 15

Footnotes:
1.  A hospitaller is one residing in an hospital, in order to receive
    the poor and strangers.
2.  St. Jerom's zeal against the Origenists was very serviceable to the
    church; yet his translation of Theophilus's book against the memory
    of St. Chrysostom, (ap. Fac. herm. l. 6, c. 4,) is a proof that it
    sometimes carried him too far. This weakens his charge against the
    holy hospitaller of Alexandria, whom Theophilus expelled Egypt, with
    the four long brothers, (Dioscorus, Ammonias, Eusebius, and
    Euthymius,) and about three hundred other monks. Some accuse
    Theophilus of proceeding against them out of mere jealousy. It is at
    least certain, that St. Isidore and the four long brothers
    anathematized Origenism at Constantinople, before St. Chrysostom
    received them to his communion, and that Theophilus himself was
    reconciled to them at Chalcedon, in the council at the Oak, without
    requiring of them any confession of faith, or making mention of
    Origen. (Sozom. l. 8, c. 17.) Many take the St. Isidore, mentioned
    in the Roman Martyrology, for the hospitaller; but Bulteau observes,
    that St. Isidore of Scété is rather meant; at least the former is
    honored by the Greeks.

ST. ISIDORE, P.H.

HE was priest of Scété, and hermit in that vast desert. He excelled in
an unparalleled gift of meekness, continency, prayer, and recollection.
Once perceiving in himself some motions of anger to rise, he that
instant threw down certain baskets he was carrying to market, and ran
away to avoid the occasion.[1] When, in his old age, others persuaded
him to abate something in his labor, he answered: "If we consider what
the Son of God hath done for us, we can never allow ourselves any
indulgence in sloth. Were my body burnt, and my ashes scattered in the
air, it would be nothing."[2] Whenever the enemy tempted him to despair,
he said, "Were I to be damned, thou wouldest yet be below me in hell;
nor would I cease to labor in the service of God, though assured that
this was to be my lot." If he was tempted to vain-glory, he reproached
and confounded himself with the thought, how far even in his exterior
exercises he fell short of the servants of God, Antony, Pambo, and
others.[3] Being asked the reason of his abundant tears, he answered: "I
weep for my sins: if we had only once offended God, we could never
sufficiently bewail this misfortune." He died a little before the year
391. His name stands in the Roman Martyrology, on the fifteenth of
January. See Cassian. coll. 18, c. 15 and 16. Tillem. t. 8, p. 440.

Footnotes:

1.  Cotellier, Mon. Gr. t. 1, p. 487.
2.  Ib. p. 686. Rosweide, l. 5, c. 7
3.  Cotel. ib. t. 2, p. 48. Rosweide, l. 3, c. 101, l. 7, c. 11.

SAINT BONITUS, BISHOP OF AUVERGNE, C.

(COMMONLY, IN AUVERGNE, BONET; AT PARIS, BONT.)

ST. BONET was referendary or chancellor, to Sigebert III., the holy king
of Austrasia; and by his zeal, religion, and justice, flourished in that
kingdom under four kings. After the death of Dagobert II., Thierry III.
made him governor of Marseilles and all Provence, in 680. His elder
brother St. Avitus II., bishop of Clermont, in Auvergne, having
recommended him for his successor, died in 689, and Bonet was
consecrated. But after having governed that see ten years, with the most
exemplary piety, he had a scruple whether his election had been
perfectly canonical; and having consulted St. Tilo, or Theau, then
leading an eremitical life at Solignac, resigned his dignity, led for
four years a most penitential life in the abbey of Manlieu, now of the
order of St. Bennet, and after having made a pilgrimage to Rome, died of
the gout at Lyons on the fifteenth of January in 710, being eighty-six
years old. His relics were enshrined in the cathedral at Clermont; but
some small portions are kept at Paris, in the churches of St. Germain
l'Auxerrois, and St. Bont, near that of St. Merry. See his life, {158}
written by a monk of Sommon in Auvergne, in the same century, published
by Bollandus, also le Cointe, an. 699. Gallia Christiana Nova, &c.

ST. ITA, OR MIDA, V. ABBESS

SHE was a native of Nandesi, now the barony of Dessee in the county of
Waterford, and descended from the royal family. Having consecrated her
virginity to God, she led an austere retired life at the foot of the
mountain Luach, in the diocese of Limerick, and founded there a famous
monastery of holy virgins, called Cluain-cred-hail. By the mortification
of her senses and passions, and by her constant attention to God and his
divine love, she was enriched with many extraordinary graces. The lesson
she principally inculcated to others was, that to be perpetually
recollected in God is the great means of attaining to perfection. She
died January 15, in 569. Her feast was solemnized in her church of
Cluain-cred-hail; in the whole territory of Hua-Conail, and at Rosmide,
in the territory of Nandesi. See her ancient life in Bollandus, Jan.
xvi., and Colgan, t. 1, p. 72, who calls her the second St. Bridget of
Ireland.


JANUARY XVI.

ST. MARCELLUS, POPE, M.

See the epitaph of eight verses, composed for this Pope, by St. Damasus,
carm. 48, and Tillemont, t. 5.

A.D. 310.

ST. MARCELLUS was priest under pope Marcellinus. whom he succeeded in
308, after that see had been vacant for three years and a half. An
epitaph written on him by pope Damasus, who also mentions himself in it,
says, that by enforcing the canons of holy penance, he drew upon himself
the contradictions and persecutions of many tepid and refractory
Christians, and that for his severity against a certain apostate, he was
banished by the tyrant Maxentius.[1] He died in 310, having sat one
year, seven months, and twenty days. Anastatius writes, that Lucina, a
devout widow of one Pinianus, who lodged St. Marcellus when he lived in
Rome, after his death converted her house into a church, which she
called by his name. His false acts relate, that among his other
sufferings, he was condemned by the tyrant to keep cattle in this place.
He is styled a martyr in the sacramentaries of Gelasius I. and St.
Gregory, and in the Martyrologies ascribed to St. Jerom and Bede, which,
with the rest of the Western calendars, mention his feast on the
sixteenth of January. His body lies under the high altar in the ancient
church, which bears his name, and gives title to a cardinal in Rome; but
certain portions of his relics are honored at Cluni, Namur, Mons, &c.

       *       *       *       *       *

God is most wonderful in the whole economy of his holy providence over
his elect: his power and wisdom are exalted infinitely above the
understanding {159} of creatures, and we are obliged to cry out, "Who
can search his ways?"[2] We have not penetration to discover all the
causes and ends of exterior things which we see or feel. How much less
can we understand this in secret and interior things, which fall not
under our senses? "Remember that thou knowest not his work. Behold he is
a great God, surpassing our understanding."[3] How does he make every
thing serve his purposes for the sanctification of his servants! By how
many ways does he conduct them to eternal glory! Some he sanctifies on
thrones; others in cottages; others in retired cells and deserts; others
in the various functions of an apostolic life, and in the government of
his church. And how wonderfully does he ordain and direct all human
events to their spiritual advancement, both in prosperity and in
adversity! In their persecutions and trials, especially, we shall
discover at the last day, when the secrets of his providence will be
manifested to us, the tenderness of his infinite love, the depth of his
unsearchable wisdom, and the extent of his omnipotent power. In all his
appointments let us adore these his attributes, earnestly imploring his
grace, that according to the designs of his mercy, we may make every
thing, especially all afflictions, serve for the exercise and
improvement of our virtue.

Footnotes:
1.  Damasus, carm. 26.
2.  Job xxxvi, 23.
3.  Ib.

ST. MACARIUS, THE ELDER, OF EGYPT

From the original authors of the lives of the fathers of the deserts, in
Rosweide, d'Andilly, Bollandus, 15 Jan., Tillemont, t. 13, p. 576,
collated with a very ancient manuscript of the lives of the Fathers,
published by Rosweide, &c., in the hands of Mr. Martin, of Palgrave, in
Suffolk.

A.D. 390.

ST. MACARIUS, the Elder, was born in Upper Egypt, about the year 300,
and brought up in the country in tending cattle. In his childhood, in
company with some others, he once stole a few figs, and ate one of them:
but from his conversion to his death, he never ceased to weep bitterly
for this sin.[1] By a powerful call of divine grace, he retired from the
world in his youth, and dwelling in a little cell in a village, made
mats, in continual prayer and great austerities. A wicked woman falsely
accused him of having defloured her; for which supposed crime he was
dragged through the streets, beaten, and insulted, as a base hypocrite,
under the garb of a monk. He suffered all with patience, and sent the
woman what he earned by his work, saying to himself: "Well, Macarius!
having now another to provide for, thou must work the harder." But God
discovered his innocency; for the woman falling in labor, lay in extreme
anguish, and could not be delivered till she had named the true father
of her child. The people converted their rage into the greatest
admiration of the humility and patience of the saint.[2] To shun the
esteem of men, he fled into the vast hideous desert of Scété,[3] being
then about thirty years of age. In this solitude he lived sixty years,
and became the spiritual parent of innumerable holy persons, who put
themselves under his direction, and were governed by the rules he
prescribed them; but all dwelt in separate hermitages. St. Macarius
admitted only one disciple with him, to entertain strangers. He was
{160} compelled by an Egyptian bishop to receive the order of
priesthood, about the year 340, the fortieth of his age, that he might
celebrate the divine mysteries for the convenience of this holy colony.
When the desert became better peopled, there were four churches built in
it, which were served by so many priests. The austerities of St.
Macarius were excessive; he usually ate but once a week. Evagrius, his
disciple, once asked him leave to drink a little water, under a parching
thirst; but Macarius bade him content himself with reposing a little in
the shade, saying: "For these twenty years, I have never once ate,
drunk, or slept, as much as nature required."[4] His face was very pale,
and his body weak and parched up. To deny his own will, he did not
refuse to drink a little wine when others desired him; but then he would
punish himself for this indulgence, by abstaining two or three days from
all manner of drink; and it was for this reason, that his disciple
desired strangers never to tender unto him a drop of wine.[5] He
delivered his instructions in few words, and principally inculcated
silence, humility, mortification, retirement, and continual prayer,
especially the last, to all sorts of people. He used to say, "In prayer,
you need not use many or lofty words. You can often repeat with a
sincere heart, Lord, show me mercy as thou knowest best. Or, assist me,
O God!"[6] He was much delighted with this ejaculation of perfect
resignation and love: "O Lord, have mercy on me, as thou pleasest, and
knowest best in thy goodness!"[7] His mildness and patience were
invincible, and occasioned the conversion of a heathen priest, and many
others.[8] The devil told him one day, "I can surpass thee in watching,
fasting, and many other things; but humility conquers and disarms
me."[9] A young man applying to St. Macarius for spiritual advice, he
directed him to go to a burying-place, and upbraid the dead; and after
to go and flatter them. When he came back, the saint asked him what
answer the dead had made: "None at all," said the other, "either to
reproaches or praises." "Then," replied Macarius, "go, and learn neither
to be moved with injuries nor flatteries. If you die to the world and to
yourself, you will begin to live to Christ." He said to another:
"Receive, from the hand of God, poverty as cheerfully as riches, hunger
and want as plenty, and you will conquer the devil, and subdue all your
passions."[10] A certain monk complained to him, that in solitude he was
always tempted to break his fast, whereas in the monastery, he could
fast the whole week cheerfully. "Vain-glory is the reason," replied the
saint; "fasting pleases, when men see you; but seems intolerable when
that passion is not gratified."[11] One came to consult him, who was
molested with temptations to impurity: the saint, examining into the
source, found it to be sloth, and advised him never to eat before
sunset, to meditate fervently at his work, and to labor vigorously,
without sloth, the whole day. The other faithfully complied, and was
freed from his enemy. God revealed to St. Macarius, that he had not
attained the perfection of two married women, who lived in a certain
town: he made them a visit, and learned the means by which they
sanctified themselves. They were extremely careful never to speak any
idle or rash words: they lived in the constant practice of humility,
patience, meekness, charity, resignation, mortification of their own
will, and conformity to the humors of their husbands and others, where
the divine law did not interpose: in a spirit of recollection they
sanctified all their actions by {161} ardent ejaculations, by which they
strove to praise God, and most fervently to consecrate to the divine
glory all the powers of their soul and body.[12]

A subtle heretic of the sect of the Hieracites, called so from Hierax,
who in the reign of Dioclesian denied the resurrection of the dead, had,
by his sophisms, caused some to stagger in their faith. St. Macarius, to
confirm them in the truth, raised a dead man to life, as Socrates,
Sozomen, Palladius, and Rufinus relate. Cassian says, that he only made
a dead corpse to speak for that purpose; then bade it rest till the
resurrection. Lucius, the Arian usurper of the see of Alexandria, who
had expelled Peter, the successor of St. Athanasius, in 376 sent troops
into the deserts to disperse the zealous monks, several of whom sealed
their faith with their blood: the chiefs, namely, the two Macariuses,
Isidore, Pambo, and some others, by the authority of the emperor Valens,
were banished into a little isle of Egypt, surrounded with great
marshes. The inhabitants, who were Pagans, were all converted to the
faith by the confessors.[13] The public indignation of the whole empire,
obliged Lucius to suffer them to return to their cells. Our saint,
knowing that his end drew near, made a visit to the monks of Nitria, and
exhorted them to compunction and tears so pathetically, that they all
fell weeping at his feet. "Let us weep, brethren," said he, "and let our
eyes pour forth floods of tears before we go hence, lest we fall into
that place where tears will only increase the flames in which we shall
burn."[14] He went to receive the reward of his labors in the year 390,
and of his age the ninetieth, having spent sixty years in the desert of
Scété.[15]

He seems to have been the first anchoret who inhabited this vast
wilderness; and this Cassian affirms.[16] Some style him a disciple of
St. Antony; but that quality rather suits St. Macarius of Alexandria;
for, by the history of our saint's life, it appears that he could not
have lived under the direction of St. Antony before he retired into the
desert of Scété. But he afterwards paid a visit, if not several, to that
holy patriarch of monks, whose dwelling was fifteen days' journey
distant.[17] This glorious saint is honored in the Roman Martyrology on
the 15th of January; in the Greek Menæa on the 19th. An ancient monastic
rule, and an epistle addressed to monks, written in sentences, like the
book of Proverbs, are ascribed to St. Macarius. Tillemont thinks them
more probably the works of St. Macarius of Alexandria, who had under his
inspection at Nitria five thousand monks.[18] Gennadius[19] says that
St. Macarius wrote nothing but this letter. This may be understood of
St. Macarius of Alexandria, though one who wrote in Gaul might not have
seen all the works of an author whose country was so remote, and
language different. Fifty spiritual homilies are ascribed, in the first
edition, and in some manuscripts, to St. Macarius of Egypt: yet F.
Possin[20] thinks they rather belong to Macarius of Pispir, who attended
St. Antony at his death, and seems to have been some years older than
the two great Macariuses, though some have thought him the same with the
Alexandrian.[21]

Footnotes:
1.  Bolland. 15. Jan. p. 1011, §39. Cotel. Mon. Gr{}t, l. 1, p. 546.
2.  Cotel. ib. p. 525. Rosweide, Vit. Patr. l. 3, c. 99, l. 5, c. 15,
    §25, p. 623.
3.  Mount Nitria was above forty miles from Alexandria, towards the
    Southwest. The desert of Scété lay eighty miles beyond Nitria, and
    was rather in Lybia than in Egypt. It was of a vast extent, and then
    were no roads thereabouts, so that men were guided only by the stars
    in travelling in those parts. See Tillemont on St. Amon and this
    Macarius.
4.  Socrates, l. 4, c. 23.
5.  Rosweide, Vit. Patr. l. 3, §3, p. 505, l. 5, c. 4, §26, p. 569.
6.  Rosweide, l. 3, c. 20, l. 5, c. 12. Cotel. p. 537.
7.  Domine, sicut scis et vis, miserere me!
8.  Rosweide, l. 3, c. 127. Cotel. t. 1, p. 547.
9.  Rosweide, l. 5, c. 15.
10. Rosweide, l. 7, c. 48. Cotel. t. 1, p. 537. Rosweide, ib. §9.
11. Cassian Collat. 5, c. 32.
12. Rosweide, l. 3, c. 97, l. 6, c. 3, §17, p. 657.
13. Theodoret, l. 4, c. 18, 19. Socr. l. 4, c. 22. Sozom. l. 6, c. 19,
20. Rufin. l. 2, c. 3. S. Hier. in Chrom. Oros. l. 7, c. 33. Pallad.
    Lausiac. c. 117.
14. Rosw. Vit. Part. l. 5, c. 3, §9. Cotel. Mon. Gr. p. 545.
15. Pallad. Lausiac. c. 19.
16. Cassian. Collat. 15, c. 13. Tillem. Note 3, p. 806.
17. Rosw. Vit. Patr. l. 5, c. 7, §9. Cotel. Apothegm. Patr. 530. Tillem.
    art. 4, p. 581, and Note 4, p. 80{}.
18. See Tillem. Note 3, p. 806.
19. Gennad. Cat. c. 10.
20. Possin. Ascet. pr. p. 17.
21.
    Du Pin allows these fifty homilies to be undoubtedly very ancient:
    in which judgment others agree, and the discourses themselves bear
    evident marks. Du Pin and Tillemont leave them to St. Macarius of
    Egypt; and his claim to them is very well supported by the learned
    English translator, who published them with an introduction, at
    London, in 1721, in octavo. The censure of Ceillier upon them seems
    too severe. Certain passages, which seem to favor Pelagianism, ought
    to be explained by others, which clearly condemn that heresy; or it
    must be granted that they have suffered some alteration. The
    composition is not very methodical, these homilies being addressed
    to monks, in answer to particular queries. The author exceedingly
    extols the peace and sweetness which a soul, crucified to the world,
    enjoys with the consolations of the Holy Ghost, who resides in her.
    But he says that the very angels deplore, as much as their state
    will permit, those unhappy souls which taste not these heavenly
    delights, as men weep over a dear friend who lies sick in his agony,
    and receives all nourishment from their hands. (St. Macar., hom. 1 &
    15.) Prayer, without which no one can be free from sin, is a duty
    which he strongly inculcates, (Hom. 2,) with perfect concord, by
    which we love, and are inclined to condescend to indifferent things,
    and to judge well of all men, so as to say, when we see one pray,
    that he prays for us; if he read, that he reads for us, and for the
    divine honor; if he rest or work, that he is employed for the
    advancement of the common good. (Hom. 3.) The practice of keeping
    ourselves constantly in the divine presence, he calls a principal
    duty, by which we learn to triumph over our enemies, and refer to
    the divine honor all we do; "for this one thing is necessary, that
    whether we work, read, or pray, we always entertain this life and
    treasure in our souls; having God constantly in our thoughts, and
    the Holy Ghost in our breasts." (Hom. 3.) A continual watchfulness,
    and strict guard upon all our senses, and in all our actions, is
    necessary, especially against vanity, concupiscence, and gluttony;
    without which, failings will be multiplied; pure and faithful souls
    God makes his chaste spouses; they always think on him, and place
    all their desires on him; but those who love the earth are earthly
    in their thoughts and affections, their corrupt inclinations gain
    such a mastery, that they seem natural to them. Vigilance is
    absolutely necessary to remove this insinuating enemy; and purity of
    conscience begets prudence, which can never be found under the
    tyranny of the passions, and which is the eye that guides the soul
    through the craggy paths of this life. Pure souls are raised by
    divine grace to dwell with God on earth by holy contemplation, and
    are fitted for eternal bliss, (Hom. 4;) true Christians differ in
    their desires and actions from other men. The wicked burn with
    lawless passions, and are disturbed with anxious desires and vain
    wishes, hunt after, and think of nothing but earthly pleasures; but
    the true Christian enjoys an uninterrupted tranquillity of mind and
    joy, even amidst crosses, and rejoices in sufferings and
    temptations, hope and divine grace sweetening their severest trials.
    The love of God with which they burn, makes them rejoice in all they
    suffer for his sake, and by his appointment. It is their most ardent
    desire to behold God in his glory, and to be themselves transformed
    into him. (2 Cor. iii.) Even now the sweetness with which God
    overwhelms them, renders them already, in some measure, partakers of
    his glory; which will be completed in them in heaven. (Hom. 5.) In
    prayer we must be freed from all anxious care, trouble of mind, and
    foreign thoughts; and must cry out to God with our whole hearts in
    tranquillity and silence; for God descends only in peace and repose,
    not amidst tumult and clamors. (Hom. 6.) A soul astonished to see
    God, who is crowned with infinite glory, visit her with so much
    sweetness, absorbed in hi, sovereignly despises all earthly things,
    and cries out to his in strains of admiration at his condescension
    and goodness. (Hom. 7) When a person, endowed with the gift of
    supernatural prayer, falls on his knees to pray, his heart is
    straight filled with the divine sweetness, and his soul exults in
    God as a spouse with her beloved. This joy in one hour of prayer in
    the silence of the night, makes a soul forget all the labors of the
    day; being wrapt in God, she expatiates in the depth of his
    immensity, and is raised above all the toys of this world to
    heavenly joys, which no tongue can express. Then she cries out, "Oh!
    that my soul could now ascend with my prayer out high, to be for
    evermore united with God!" But this grace is not always equal; and
    this light is sometimes stronger, and this ardor is sometimes more
    vehement, sometimes more gentle; sometimes the soul seems to herself
    to behold a cross shining with a dazzling brightness, wherewith her
    interior man is penetrated. Sometimes in a rapture she seems clothed
    with glory, in some measure as Christ appeared in his
    transfiguration. At other times, overwhelmed with a divine light,
    and drowned in the ocean of divine sweetness, she scarce remains
    herself, and becomes a stranger, and, as it were, foolish to this
    world, through the excess of heavenly sweetness, and relish of
    divine mysteries. A perfect state of contemplation is granted to no
    one in this life; yet when we go to pray, after making the sign of
    the cross, often grace so overwhelms the heart, and the whole man,
    filling every power with perfect tranquillity, that the soul,
    through excess of overflowing joy, becomes like a little child,
    which knows no evil, condemns no man, but loves all the world. At
    other times she seems as a child of God, to confide in him as in her
    father, to penetrate the heavenly mansions which are opened to her,
    and to discover mysteries which no man can express. (Hom. 8.) These
    interior delights can only be purchased by many trials; for a soul
    must be dead to the world, and burn with a vehement love of God
    alone, so that no creature can separate her from him, and she
    dedicate herself and all her actions to him, without reserve. (Hom.
    9.) For this, a most profound humility, cheerfulness, and courage
    are necessary; sloth, tepidity, and sadness being incompatible with
    spiritual progress. (Hom. 10.) The Holy Ghost is a violent fire in
    our breasts, which makes us always active, and spurs us on
    continually to aspire more and more vehemently towards God. (Hom.
    11.) The mark of a true Christian is, that he studies to conceal
    from the eyes of men all the good he receives from God. Those who
    taste how sweet God is, and know no satiety in his love, in
    proportion as they advance in contemplation, the more perfectly they
    see their own wants and nothingness: and always cry out, "I am most
    unworthy that this sun sheds its beams upon me." (Hom. 15.) In the
    following homilies, the author delivers many excellent maxims on
    humility and prayer, and tells us, that a certain monk, after having
    been favored with a wonderful rapture, and many great graces, fell
    by pride into several grievous sins. (Hom. 17.) A certain rich
    nobleman gave his estate to the poor, and set his slaves at liberty;
    yet afterwards fell into pride, and many enormous crimes. Another,
    who in the persecution had suffered torments with great constancy
    for the faith, afterwards, intoxicated with self-conceit, gave great
    scandal by his disorders. He mentions one who had formerly lived a
    long time with him in the desert, prayed often with him, and was
    favored with an extraordinary gift of compunction, and a miraculous
    power of curing many sick persons, was delighted with glory and
    applause of men, and drawn into the sink of vice. (Hom. 27.) To
    preserve the unction of the Holy Ghost, a person must live in
    constant fear, humility, and compunction. (Hom. 17.) Without Christ
    and his grace we can do nothing; but by the Holy Ghost dwelling in
    her, a soul becomes all light, all spirit, as joy, all love, all
    compassion. Unless a person be animated by divine grace, and
    replenished with all virtues, the best instructions and exhortations
    in their mouths produce very little good. (Hom 18.) The servant of
    God never bears in mind the good works he has done, but, after all
    his labors, sees how much is wanting to him; and how much he falls
    short of his duty, and of the perfection of virtue, and says every
    day to himself, that now he ought to begin, and that to-morrow
    perhaps God will call him to himself, and deliver him from his
    labors and dangers (Hom. 26.) The absolute necessity of divine grace
    he teaches in many places; also the fundamental article of original
    sin, (Hom. 48. pag. 101, t. 4, Bibl. Patr. Colon. an. {}6{}) which
    the Pelagians denied.

{162}

ST. HONORATUS, ARCHBISHOP OF ARLES.

He was of a consular Roman family, then settled in Gaul, and was well
versed in the liberal arts. In his youth he renounced the worship of
idols, and gained his elder brother, Venantius, to Christ, whom he also
inspired with a contempt of the world. They desired to renounce it
entirely, but a {163} fond Pagan father put continual obstacles in their
way: at length they took with them St. Caprais, a holy hermit, for their
director, and sailed from Marseilles to Greece, with the design to live
there unknown, in some desert. Venantius soon died happily at Methone;
and Honoratus, being also sick, was obliged to return with his
conductor. He first led an eremitical life in the mountains, near
Frejus. Two small islands lie in the sea near that coast, one larger, at
a nearer distance from the continent, called Lero, now St. Margaret's;
the other smaller and more remote, two leagues from Antibes, named
Lerins, at present St. Honoré, from our saint, where he settled; and
being followed by others, he there founded the famous monastery of
Lerins, about the year 400. Some he appointed to live in community;
others, who seemed more perfect, in separate cells, as anchorets. His
rule was chiefly borrowed from that of St. Pachomius. Nothing can be
more amiable than the description St. Hilary has given of the excellent
virtues of this company of saints, especially of the charity, concord,
humility, compunction, and devotion which reigned among them, under the
conduct of our holy abbot. He was, by compulsion, consecrated archbishop
of Arles in 426, and died, exhausted with austerities and apostolical
labors, in 429. The style of his letters was clear and affecting: they
were penned with an admirable delicacy, elegance, and sweetness, as St.
Hilary assures. The loss of all these precious monuments is much
regretted. His tomb is shown empty under the high altar of the church
which bears his name at Arles; his body having been translated to Lerins
in 1391, where the greatest part remains. See his panegyric by his
disciple, kinsman, and successor, St. Hilary of Arles; one of the most
finished pieces extant in this kind. Dom Rivet, Hist. Lit. t. 2, p. 156.

ST. FURSEY,

SON OF FINTAN, KING OF PART OF IRELAND,

WAS abbot first of a monastery in his own country, in the diocese of
Tuam, near the lake of Orbsen, where now stands the church of
Kill-fursa, says Colgan. Afterwards, travelling with two of his
brothers, St. Foilan and St. Ultan, through England, he founded, by the
liberality of king Sigibert, the abbey of Cnobbersburg, now Burg-castle
in Suffolk. Saint Ultan retired into a desert, and St. Fursey, after
some time, followed him thither, leaving the government of his monastery
to St. Foilan. Being driven thence by the irruptions of king Penda, he
went into France, and, by the munificence of king Clovis II. and
Erconwald, the pious mayor of his palace, built the great monastery of
Latiniac, or Lagny, six leagues from Paris, on the Marne. He was deputed
by the bishop of Paris to govern that diocese in quality of his vicar;
on which account some have styled him bishop. He died in 650 at
Froheins, that is, Fursei-domus, in the diocese of Amiens, while he was
building another monastery at Peronne, to which church Erconwald removed
his body. His relics have been famous for miracles, and are still
preserved in the great church at Peronne, which was founded by Erconwald
to be served by a certain number of priests, and made a royal collegiate
church of canons by Lewis XI. Saint Fursey is honored as {164} patron of
that town. See his ancient life in Bollandus, from which Bede extracted
an account of his visions in a sickness in Ireland, l. 3, hist. c. 19.
See also his life by Bede in MS. in the king's library at the British
Museum, and Colgan, Jan. 16, p. 75, and Feb. 9, p. 282.

FIVE FRIARS, MINORS, MARTYRS.

BERARDUS, PETER, ACURSIUS, ADJUTUS, AND OTTO,

WERE sent by St. Francis to preach to the Mahometans of the West, while
he went in person to those of the East. They preached first to the Moors
of Seville, where they suffered much for their zeal, and were banished.
Passing thence into Morocco, they began there to preach Christ, and
being banished, returned again. The infidel judge caused them twice to
be scourged till their ribs appeared bare; he then ordered burning oil
and vinegar to be poured into their wounds, and their bodies to be
rolled over sharp stones and potsherds. At length the king caused them
to be brought before him, and taking his cimeter, clove their heads
asunder in the middle of their foreheads, on the 16th of January, 1220.
Their relics were ransomed, and are preserved in the monastery of the
holy cross in Coimbra. Their names stand in the Roman Martyrology, and
they were canonized by Sixtus IV. in 1481. See their acts in Bollandus
and Wading; also Chalippe, Vie de S. François, l. 3, t. 1, p. 275.

ST. HENRY, HERMIT.

THE Danes were indebted in part for the light of faith, under God, to
the bright example and zealous labors of English missionaries. Henry was
born in that country, of honorable parentage, and from his infancy gave
himself to the divine service with his whole heart. When he came to
man's estate he was solicited by his friends to marry, but having a
strong call from God to forsake the world, he sailed to the north of
England. The little island of Cocket, which lies on the coast of
Northumberland, near the mouth of the river of the same name, was
inhabited by many holy anchorets in St. Bede's time, as appears from his
life of St. Cuthbert.[1] This island belonged to the monastery of
Tinmouth, and, with the leave of the prior of that house, St. Henry
undertook to lead in it an eremitical life. He fasted every day, and his
refection, which he took at most only once in twenty-four hours, after
sunset, was only bread and water: and this bread he earned by tilling a
little garden near his cell. He suffered many assaults both from devils
and men; but by those very trials improved his soul in the perfect
spirit of patience, meekness, humility, and charity. He died in his
hermitage in 1127, on the 16th of January, and was buried by the monks
of Tinmouth, in the church of the Blessed Virgin, near the body of St.
Oswin, king and martyr. See his life in Capgrave and Bollandus.

Footnotes:
1.  Bede, Vit. S. Cuthberti, c. 24.

{165}


JANUARY XVII.


ST. ANTONY, ABBOT,

PATRIARCH OF MONKS.

From his life, compiled by the great St. Athanasius, vol. 2, p. 743, a
work much commended by St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Jerom, St. Austin,
Rufinus, Palladius, &c. St. Chrysostom recommends to all persons the
reading of this pious history, as full of instruction and edification.
Hom. 8, in Matt t. 7. p. 128. It contributed to the conversion of St.
Austin. Confess. l. 8, c. 6 and 28. See Tillemont, t. 7, Helyot, t. 1,
Stevens, Addit. Mon. Anglic. t. 1, Ceillier, &c.

A.D. 356.

ST. ANTONY was born at Coma, a village near Heraclea, or Great
Heracleopolis, in Upper Egypt, on the borders of Arcadia, or Middle
Egypt, in 251. His parents, who were Christians, and rich, to prevent
his being tainted by bad example and vicious conversation, kept him
always at home; so that he grew up unacquainted with any branch of human
literature, and could read no language but his own.[1] He was remarkable
from his childhood for his temperance, a close attendance on church
duties, and a punctual obedience to his parents. By their death he found
himself possessed of a very considerable estate, and charged with the
care of a younger sister, before he was twenty years of age. Near six
months after, he heard read in the church those words of Christ to the
rich young man: _Go sell what thou hast, and give it to the poor, and
thou shalt have treasure in heaven._[2] He considered these words as
addressed to himself; going home, he made over to his neighbors three
hundred _aruras_,[3] that is, above one hundred and twenty acres of good
land, that he and his sister might be free forever from all public taxes
and burdens. The rest of his estate he sold, and gave the price to the
poor, except what he thought necessary for himself and his sister. Soon
after, hearing in the church those other words of Christ; _Be not
solicitous for to-morrow_;[4] he also distributed in alms the moveables
which he had reserved; and placed his sister in a house of virgins,[5]
which most moderns take to be the first instance mentioned in history of
a nunnery. She was afterwards intrusted with the care and direction of
tethers in that holy way of life. Antony himself retired into a
solitude, near his village, in imitation of a certain old man, who led
the life of a hermit in the neighborhood of Coma. Manual labor, prayer,
and pious reading, were his whole occupation: and such was his fervor,
that if he heard of any virtuous recluse, he sought him out, and
endeavored to make the best advantage of his {166} example and
instructions. He saw nothing practised by any other in this service of
God, which he did not imitate: thus he soon became a perfect model of
humility, Christian condescension, charity, prayer, and all virtues. The
devil assailed him by various temptations; first, he represented to him
divers good works he might have been able to do with his estate in the
world, and the difficulties of his present condition: a common artifice
of the enemy, whereby he strives to make a soul slothful or dissatisfied
in her vocation, in which God expects to be glorified by her. Being
discovered and repulsed by the young novice, he varied his method of
attack, and annoyed him night and day with filthy thoughts and obscene
imaginations. Antony opposed to his assaults the strictest watchfulness
over his senses, austere fasts, humility, and prayer, till Satan,
appearing in a visible form, first of a woman coming to seduce him, then
of a black boy to terrify him, at length confessed himself vanquished.
The saint's food was only bread, with a little salt, and he drank
nothing but water; he never ate before sunset, and sometimes only once
in two, or four days: he lay on a rush mat, or on the bare floor. In
quest of a more remote solitude he withdrew further from Coma, and hid
himself in an old sepulchre; whither a friend brought him from time to
time a little bread. Satan was here again permitted to assault him in a
visible manner, to terrify him with dismal noises; and once he so
grievously beat him, that he lay almost dead, covered with bruises and
wounds; and in this condition he was one day found by his friend, who
visited him from time to time to supply him with bread, during all the
time he lived in the ruinous sepulchre. When he began to come to
himself, though not yet able to stand, he cried out to the devils, while
he yet lay on the floor, "Behold! here I am; do all you are able against
me: nothing shall ever separate me from Christ my Lord." Hereupon the
fiends appearing again, renewed the attack, and alarmed him with
terrible clamors, and a variety of spectres, in hideous shapes of the
most frightful wild beasts, which they assumed to dismay and terrify
him; till a ray of heavenly light breaking in upon him, chased them
away, and caused him to cry out: "Where wast thou, my Lord and my
Master? Why wast thou not here, from the beginning of my conflict, to
assuage my pains!" A voice answered: "Antony, I was here the whole time;
I stood by thee, and beheld thy combat: and because thou hast manfully
withstood thine enemies, I will always protect thee, and will render thy
name famous throughout the earth." At these words the saint arose, much
cheered, and strengthened, to pray and return thanks to his deliverer.
Hitherto the saint, ever since his retreat, in 272, had lived in
solitary places not very far from his village; and St. Athanasius
observes, that before him many fervent persons led retired lives in
penance and contemplation, near the towns; others remaining in the towns
imitated the same manner of life. Both were called ascetics, from their
being entirely devoted to the most perfect exercises of mortification
and prayer, according to the import of the Greek word. Before St.
Athanasius, we find frequent mention made of such ascetics: and Origen,
about the year 219,[6] says they always abstained from flesh, no less
than the disciples of Pythagoras. Eusebius tells us that St. Peter of
Alexandria practised austerities equal to those of the ascetics; he says
the same of Pamphilus; and St. Jerom uses the same expression of
Pierius. St. Antony had led this manner of life near Coma, till
resolving to withdraw into the deserts about the year 285, the
thirty-fifth of his age, he crossed the eastern branch of the Nile, and
took up his abode in the ruins of an old castle on the top of the
mountains; in which close solitude he lived almost twenty years, very
{167} rarely seeing any man, except one who brought him bread every six
months.

To satisfy the importunities of others, about the year 305, the
fifty-fifty of his age, he came down from his mountain, and founded his
first monastery at Phaium.[7] The dissipation occasioned by this
undertaking led him into a temptation of despair, which he overcame by
prayer and hard manual labor. In this new manner of life his daily
refection was six ounces of bread soaked in water, with a little salt;
to which he sometimes added a few dates. He took it generally after
sunset, but on some days at three o'clock; and in his old age he added a
little oil. Sometimes he ate only once in three or four days, yet
appeared vigorous, and always cheerful: strangers knew him from among
his disciples by the joy which was always painted on his countenance,
resulting from the inward peace and composure of his soul. Retirement in
his cell was his delight, and divine contemplation and prayer his
perpetual occupation. Coming to take his refection, he often burst into
tears, and was obliged to leave his brethren and the table without
touching any nourishment, reflecting on the employment of the blessed
spirits in heaven, who praise God without ceasing.[8] He exhorted his
brethren to allot the least time they possibly could to the care of the
body. Notwithstanding which, he was very careful never to place
perfection in mortification, as Cassian observes, but in charity, in
which it was his whole study continually to improve his soul. His under
garment was sackcloth over which he wore a white coat of sheep-skin,
with a girdle. He instructed his monks to have eternity always present
to their minds, and to reflect every morning that perhaps they might not
live till night, and every evening that perhaps they might never see the
morning; and to perform every action, as if it were the last of their
lives, with all the fervor of their souls to please God. He often
exhorted them to watch against temptations, and to resist the devil with
vigor: and spoke admirably of his weakness, saying: "He dreads fasting,
prayer, humility, and good works: he is not able even to stop my mouth
who speak against him. The illusions of the devil soon vanish,
especially if a man arms himself with the sign of the cross.[9] The
devils {168} tremble at the sign of the cross of our Lord, by which he
triumphed over and disarmed them."[10] He told them in what manner the
fiend in his rage had assaulted him by visible phantoms, but that these
disappeared while he persevered in prayer. He told them, that once when
the devil appeared to him in glory, and said, "Ask what you please; I am
the power of God:" he invoked the holy name of Jesus, and he vanished.
Maximinus renewed the persecution in 311; St. Antony, hoping to receive
the crown of martyrdom, went to Alexandria, served and encouraged the
martyrs in the mines and dungeons, before the tribunals, and at the
places of execution. He publicly wore his white monastic habit, and
appeared in the sight of the governor; yet took care never
presumptuously to provoke the judges, or impeach himself, as some rashly
did. In 312 the persecution being abated, he returned to his monastery,
and immured himself in his cell. Some time after he built another
monastery, called Pispir, near the Nile; but he chose, for the most
part, to shut himself up in a remote cell upon a mountain of difficult
access, with Macarius, a disciple, who entertained strangers. If he
found them to be _Hierosolymites_, or spiritual men, St. Antony himself
sat with them in discourse; if Egyptians, (by which name they meant
worldly persons,) then Macarius entertained them, and St. Antony only
appeared to give them a short exhortation. Once the saint saw in a
vision the whole earth covered so thick with snares, that it seemed
scarce possible to set down a foot without falling into them. At this
sight he cried out, trembling: "Who, O Lord, can escape them all?" A
voice answered him "Humility, O Antony!"[11] St. Antony always looked
upon himself as the least and the very outcast of mankind; he listened
to the advice of every one, and professed that he received benefit from
that of the meanest person. He cultivated and pruned a little garden on
his desert mountain, that he might have herbs always at hand to present
a refreshment to those who, on coming to see him, were always weary by
travelling over a vast wilderness and inhospitable mountain, as St.
Athanasius mentions. This tillage was not the only manual labor in which
St. Antony employed himself. The same venerable author speaks of his
making mats as an ordinary occupation. We are told that he once fell
into dejection, finding uninterrupted contemplation above his strength;
but was taught to apply himself at intervals to manual labor, by a
vision of an angel who appeared platting mats of palm-tree leaves, then
rising to pray, and after some time sitting down again to work; and who
at length said to him, "Do thus, and thou shalt be saved."[12] But St.
Athanasius informs us, that our saint continued in some degree to pray
while he was at work. He watched great part of the nights in heavenly
contemplation; and sometimes, when the rising sun called him to his
daily tasks, he complained that its visible light robbed him of the
greater interior light which he enjoyed, and interrupted his close
application and solitude.[13] He always rose after a short sleep at
midnight, and continued in prayer, on his knees with his hands lifted up
to heaven till sunrise, and sometimes till three in the afternoon, as
Palladius relates in his Lausiac history.

St. Antony; in the year 339, saw in a vision, under the figure of mules
kicking down the altar, the havoc which the Arian persecution made two
years after in Alexandria, and clearly foretold it, as St. Athanasius,
St. Jerom, and St. Chrysostom assure us.[14] He would not speak to a
heretic, unless to exhort him to the true faith; and he drove all such
from his mountain, calling them venomous serpents.[15] At the request of
the bishops, about {169} the year 355, he, took a journey to Alexandria,
to confound the Arians, preaching aloud in that city, that God the Son
is not a creature, but of the same substance with the Father; and that
the impious Arians, who called him a creature, did not differ from the
heathens themselves, _who worshipped and served the creature rather than
the Creator_. All the people ran to see him, and rejoiced to hear him;
even the pagans, struck with the dignity of his character, flocked to
him; saying, "We desire to see the man of God." He converted many, and
wrought several miracles: St. Athanasius conducted him back as far as
the gates of the city, where he cured a girl possessed by the devil.
Being desired by the duke or general of Egypt, to make a longer stay in
the city than he had proposed, he answered: "As fish die if they leave
the water, so does a monk if he forsakes his solitude."[16]

St. Jerom and Rufin relate, that at Alexandria he met with the famous
Didymus, and told him that he ought not to regret much the loss of eyes.
which were common to ants and flies, but to rejoice in the treasure of
that interior light which the apostles enjoyed, and by which we see God,
and kindle the fire of his love in our souls. Heathen philosophers, and
others, often went to dispute with him, and always returned much
astonished at his humility, meekness, sanctity, and extraordinary
wisdom. He admirably proved to them the truth and security of the
Christian religion, and confirmed it by miracles. "We," said he, "only
by naming Jesus Christ crucified, put to flight those devils which you
adore as gods; and where the sign of the cross is formed, magic and
charms lose their power." At the end of this discourse he invoked
Christ, and signed with the cross twice or thrice several persons
possessed with devils; in the same moment they stood up sound, and in
their senses, giving thanks to God for his mercy in their regard.[17]
When certain philosophers asked him how he could spend his time in
solitude, without the pleasure of reading books, he replied, that nature
was his great book, and amply supplied the want of others. When others,
despising him as an illiterate man, came with the design to ridicule his
ignorance, he asked them with great simplicity, which was first, reason
or learning, and which had produced the other? The philosophers
answered, "Reason, or good sense." "This, then," said Antony,
"suffices." The philosophers went away astonished at the wisdom and
dignity with which he prevented their objections. Some others demanding
a reason of his faith in Christ, on purpose to insult it, he put them to
silence by showing that they degraded the notion of the divinity, by
ascribing to it infamous human passions, but that the humiliation of the
cross is the greatest demonstration of infinite goodness, and its
ignominy appears the highest glory, by the triumphant resurrection, the
miraculous raising of the dead, and curing of the blind and the sick. He
then admirably proved, that faith in God and his works is more clear and
satisfactory than the sophistry of the Greeks. St. Athanasius mentions
that he disputed with these Greeks by an interpreter.[18] Our holy
author assures us, that no one visited St. Antony under any affliction
and sadness, who did not return home full of comfort and joy; and he
relates many miraculous cures wrought by him, also several heavenly
visions and revelations with which he was favored. Belacius, the duke or
general of Egypt, persecuting the Catholics with extreme fury, St.
Antony, by a letter, exhorted him to leave the servants of Christ in
peace. Belacius tore the letter, then spit and trampled upon it, and
threatened to make the abbot the next victim of his fury; but five days
after, as he was riding with Nestorius, governor of Egypt, their horses
began to play and prance, and the governor's horse, though otherwise
remarkably tame, by {170} justling, threw Belacius from his horse, and
by biting his thigh, tore it in such a manner that the general died
miserably on the third day.[19] About the year 337, Constantine the
Great, and his two sons, Constantius and Constans, wrote a joint letter
to the saint; recommending themselves to his prayers, and desiring an
answer. St. Antony seeing his monks surprised, said, without being
moved: "Do not wonder that the emperor writes to us, one man to another;
rather admire that God should have wrote to us, and that he has spoken
to us by his Son." He said he knew not how to answer it: at last,
through the importunity of his disciples, he penned a letter to the
emperor and his sons, which St. Athanasius has preserved; and in which
he exhorts them to the contempt of the world, and the constant
remembrance of the judgment to come. St. Jerom mentions seven other
letters of St. Antony, to divers monasteries, written in the style of
the apostles, and filled with their maxims: several monasteries of Egypt
possess them in the original Egyptian language. We have them in an
obscure, imperfect, Latin translation from the Greek.[20] He inculcates
perpetual watchfulness against temptations, prayer, mortification, and
humility.[21] He observes, that as the devil fell by pride, so he
assaults virtue in us principally by that temptation.[22] A maxim which
he frequently repeats is, that the knowledge of ourselves is the
necessary and only step by which we call ascend to the knowledge and
love of God. The Bollandists[23] give us a short letter of St. Antony to
St. Theodorus, abbot of Tabenna, in which he says that God had assured
him in a revelation, that he showed mercy to all true adorers of Jesus
Christ, though they should have fallen, if they sincerely repented of
their sin. No ancients mention any monastic rule written by St.
Antony.[24] His example and instructions have been the most perfect rule
for the monastic life to all succeeding ages. It is related[25] that St.
Antony, hearing his disciples express their surprise at the great
multitudes who embraced a monastic life, and applied themselves with
incredible ardor to the most austere practices of virtue, told them with
tears, that the time would come when monks would be fond of living in
cities and stately buildings, and of eating at dainty tables, and be
only distinguished from persons of the world by their habit; but that
still, some among them would arise to the spirit of true perfection,
whose crown would be so much the greater, as their virtue would be more
difficult, amid the contagion of bad example. In the discourses which
this saint made to his monks, a rigorous self-examination upon all their
actions, every evening, was a practice which he strongly inculcated.[26]
In an excellent sermon which he made to his disciples, recorded by St.
Athanasius,[27] he pathetically exhorts them to contemn the whole world
for heaven, to spend every day as if they knew it to be the last of
their lives, having death always before their eyes, continually to
advance in fervor, and to be always armed against the assaults of Satan,
whose weakness he shows at length. He extols the efficacy of the sign of
the cross in chasing him, and dissipating his illusions, and lays down
rules for the discernment of spirits, the first of which is, that the
devil leaves in the soul impressions of fear, sadness, confusion, and
disturbance.

{171}

St. Antony performed the visitation of his monks a little before his
death, which he foretold them with his last instructions, but no tears
could move him to die among them. It appears from St. Athanasius, that
the Christians had learned from the pagans their custom of embalming the
bodies of the dead, which abuse, as proceeding from vanity and sometimes
superstition, St. Antony had often condemned: this he would prevent, and
ordered that his body should be buried in the earth, as the patriarchs
were, and privately, on his mountain, by his two disciples Diacarius and
Amathas, who had remained with him the last fifteen years, to serve him
in his remote cell in his old age. He hastened back to that solitude,
and some time after fell sick: he repeated to these two disciples his
orders for their burying his body secretly in that place, adding; "In
the day of the resurrection, I shall receive it incorruptible from the
hand of Christ." He ordered them to give one of his sheep-skins, with a
cloak[28] in which he lay, to the bishop Athanasius, as a public
testimony of his being united in faith and communion with that holy
prelate; to give his other sheep-skin to the bishop Serapion; and to
keep for themselves his sackcloth. He added; "Farewell, my children,
Antony is departing, and will be no longer with you." At these words
they embraced him, and he, stretching out his feet, without any other
sign calmly ceased to breathe. His death happened in the year 355,
probably on the 17th of January, on which the most ancient Martyrologies
name him, and which the Greek empire kept as a holyday soon after his
death. He was one hundred and five years old. From his youth to that
extreme old age, he always maintained the same fervor in his holy
exercises: age to the last never made him change his diet (except in the
use of a little oil) nor his manner of clothing; yet he lived without
sickness, his sight was not impaired, his teeth were only worn, and not
one was lost or loosened. The two disciples interred him according to
his directions. About the year 561, his body[29] was discovered, in the
reign of Justinian, and with great solemnity translated to Alexandria,
thence it was removed to Constantinople, and is now at Vienne in France.
Bollandus gives us an account of many miracles wrought by his
intercession; particularly in what manner the distemper called the
Sacred Fire, since that time St. Antony's Fire, miraculously ceased
through his patronage, when it raged violently in many parts of Europe,
in the eleventh century.

{172}

A most sublime gift of heavenly contemplation and prayer was the fruit
of this great saint's holy retirement. Whole nights seemed to him short
in those exercises, and when the rising sun in the morning seemed to him
too soon to call him from his knees to his manual labor, or other
employments, he would lament that the incomparable sweetness which he
enjoyed, in the more perfect freedom with which his heart was taken up
in heavenly contemplation in the silent watching of the night, should be
interrupted or abated. But the foundation of his most ardent charity,
and that sublime contemplation by which his soul soared in noble and
lofty flights above all earthly things, was laid in the purity and
disengagement of his affections, the contempt of the world, a most
profound humility, and the universal mortification of his senses and of
the powers of his soul. Hence flowed that constant tranquillity and
serenity of his mind, which was the best proof of a perfect mastery of
his passions. St. Athanasius observes of him, that after thirty years
spent in the closest solitude, "he appeared not to others with a sullen
or savage, but with a most obliging sociable air."[30] A heart that is
filled with inward peace, simplicity, goodness, and charity, is a
stranger to a lowering or contracted look. The main point in Christian
mortification is the humiliation of the heart, one of its principal ends
being the subduing of the passions. Hence, true virtue always increases
the sweetness and gentleness of the mind, though this is attended with
an invincible constancy, and an inflexible firmness in every point of
duty. That devotion or self-denial is false or defective which betrays
us into pride or uncharitableness; and whatever makes us sour, morose,
or peevish, makes us certainly worse, and instead of begetting in us a
nearer resemblance of the divine nature, gives us a strong tincture of
the temper of devils.

Footnotes:
1.  St. Athanasius commends St. Antony's love of reading, both when he
    lived with his father, (p. 795, B.) and afterwards when he lived
    alone, (p. 797, C.) which we cannot naturally understand of his
    hearing others read, especially when he was alone; therefore, when
    St. Athanasius says, (p. 795, A.) that in his childhood he never
    applied himself to the study of letters, [Greek: grammata mathein],
    fearing the danger of falling into had company at school, he seems
    to mean only Greek letters, then the language of all the learned;
    for he must have learned at home the Egyptian alphabet. In the same
    manner we are to understand Evagrius and others, who relate, that a
    certain philosopher expressing his surprise how St. Antony could
    employ his time, being deprived of the pleasure of reading, the
    saint told him that the universe was his book. (Socr. l. 4, c. 23,
    Rosweide, Vit. Patr. l. 6, c. 4, St. Nilus, l. 4, p. 60.)
    Nevertheless, St. Austin imagined that St. Antony could read no
    alphabet, and learned by heart and meditated on the scriptures only
    by hearing them read by others (S. Aug. de Doctr. Chr. pr. p. 3, t.
    3.) See Rosweide, Not. in Vit. S. Antonii. Bolland. 17 Jan. p. 119,
    §64, Tillem. note 1, p. 666.
2.  Matt. xix. 21.
3.  An aura was one hundred cubits of land. See Lexicon Constantini.
    Fleury, l. 8, p. 418.
4.  Ibid. vi. 34.
5.  [Greek: Parthenôn], as St. Athanasius calls it, t. 2, p. 796, ed.
    Ben. He mentions that St. Antony, long after, paid her a visit, when
    she was very old, and superior or mistress of many virgins, [Greek:
    hathêgoumenên allôs parthenôn], n. 54. p. 837.
6.  Orig. lib. 5, p. 264.
7.  His first monastery was situated near the confines of Upper and
    Middle Egypt: it at first consisted of scattered cells. To visit
    some of these brethren, he is mentioned by St. Athanasius (Vit. p.
    461) to have crossed the Arsinotic canal, extremely infested with
    crocodiles. This is sometimes called his monastery near the river,
    and was situated not far from Aphroditopolis, the lower and more
    ancient city of that name, in Heptanomis, or Middle Egypt. St.
    Athanasius seems to place it in Thebais, or Upper Egypt, because it
    was near the borders, and the boundaries of Upper Egypt were
    extended much lower by those who divided Egypt only into two parts,
    the Upper and the Lower; as Sozomen, l. 2, c. 23, and others,
    frequently did. St. Antony, finding this solitude grow too public,
    and not bearing the distraction of continual visits, he travelled up
    the river to seek a more remote wilderness; but after mounting a
    little way, while he sat on the bank waiting to see a boat pass by,
    he changed his design, and instead of advancing southward, he went
    with certain Saracen merchants to the East, and in three days,
    doubtless on a camel, arrived at the great mountain towards the Red
    Sea, where he spent the latter years of his life; yet he frequently
    visited his first monastery, near Aphroditopolis. St. Hilarion going
    from this latter to St. Antony's great monastery on the mountain,
    performed that journey in three days, on camels, which a deacon,
    named Baisan, let to those who desired to visit St. Antony. This
    latter, near which the saint died, always continued a famous
    pilgrimage.

    Pispir was the monastery of St. Macarius, but is sometimes called
    St. Antony's, who often visited it. This was situated on the Nile,
    in Thebais, thirty measures or [Greek: sêmeia] from St. Antony's
    mountain, according to Palladius, (Laus. c. 63.) This some
    understand of Roman miles, others of Egyptian schæni of thirty
    furlongs each; thirty schæni are nine hundred stadia, or one hundred
    and thirteen miles. Pispir therefore seems not to have been very far
    from Aphroditopolis. See Kocher, (comment. In fastos Abyssinorum,)
    in the journal of Bern, ad an. 1761, t. 1, p. 160 and 169.

    A monastery, of which St. Antony is titular saint, still subsists a
    little above the ancient city of Aphroditon on the Nile. It is now
    called Der-mar-Antinious-el-Bahr, that is, The monastery of Antony
    at the river. See Pocock, p. 70, and the map prefixed to that part
    of his travels. Travelling from hence one day's journey up the
    river, then turning from the south towards the east, over sandy
    deserts, and a chain of high mountains, in which springs of water,
    in other parts very rare, are here and there found, and camels
    travel for one hundred miles, we arrive at St. Antony's great
    monastery, about six or seven hours journey from the Red Sea. See
    Pocock, ib. p. 128. Granger, Relation du Voyage, &c., p. 107. Nouv.
    Memoires des Missions, t. 5, p. 136. Vanslebius, Nouv. Relat. pp.
    299 and 309; and Maillet. Descr. de 'Egypte, p. 320. The Grotto of
    St. Paul is shown not very far from this great monastery; yet the
    road wing [sic] round the mountains, and a great way about it, seems
    to travellers as a great distance from it.
8.  St. Athan. Vit. Anton. n. 45, p. 830.
9.  P. 814.
10. P. 823, ed. Ben.
11. Rosweide, l. 3, c. 129. Cotelier, &c.
12. S. Nilus, ep. 24. Cotelier, Apoth. Patr. p. 340. Rosweide, Vit.
    Patr. l. 3, c. 105, l. 5, c. 7.
13. Cassian, Collat. c. 31.
14. S. Athan. n. 82, p. 857. S. Chrys. Hom. 8, in Matt. S. Hier. ep.
    {}6. Sozom. l. 6, c. 5.
15. S. Athan. n. 68, 69, p. 847.
16. Ibid. n. 85. p. 859.
17. Ibid. n. 80, p. 855.
18. N. 77, p. 858.
19. N. 86, p. 860.
20. Bibl. Patr. Colon. t. 4, p. 26. See S. Antonii. M. Epistolæ 20. curâ
    Abr. Eckellens. Paris, 1641. But only the above-mentioned seven
    letters can be regarded as genuine, except the discourses preserved
    by St. Athanasius in his life.
21. Ep. 2, ad Arsinoitas.
22. Ib.
23. Maij. t. 3, p. 355.
24. That under his name in Abraham Eckellensis is not of so high a
    pedigree. A large body of the monks of St. Basil in the East, since
    the seventh century, take the name of the Order of St. Antony, but
    retain the rule of St. Basil, comprised in his ascetic writings; and
    observe the same fasts, and other exercises, with all the other
    monks of the East, who are called of the order of St. Basil; which
    even the Maronites follow; though Tillemont denies it by mistake.
25. Rosweide, Vit. Patr. l. 5, c. 8. Abr. Eckellens. in Vit. S. Ant. p.
    106. Cotel. p. 344. Mart. Coptor.
26. S. Athan. n. 55, p. 858.
27. N. 16 & 43.
28. The Ependytes of St. Antony, mentioned by St. Athanasius, n. 46, p.
    831, has much embarrassed the critics: it seems to have been a cloak
    of white wool. It is clear, from St. Athanasius, that St. Antony's
    inner garment was a hair-cloth, over which he wore a cloak made of
    sheep-skin.
29. This translation of his relics to Alexandria, though doubted of by
    some Protestants, is incontestably confirmed by Victor of Tunone,
    (Chron. p. 11, in Scalig. Thesauro,) who lived then in banishment at
    Canope, only twelve miles from Alexandria; also, by St. Isidore of
    Seville, in the same age, Bede. Usuard, &c. They were removed to
    Constantinople when the Saracens made themselves masters of Egypt,
    about the year 635. (pee Bollandus, pp. 162, 1134.) They were
    brought to Vienne in Dauphine, by Joselin, a nobleman of that
    country, whom the emperor of Constantinople had gratified with that
    rich present, about the year 1070. These relics were deposited in
    the church of La Motte S. Didier, not far from Vienne, then a
    Benedictin priory belonging to the abbey of Mont-Majour near Arles,
    but now an independent abbey of regular canons of St. Antony. In
    1089, a pestilential erysipelas distemper, called the Sacred Fire,
    swept off great numbers in most provinces of France; public prayers
    and processions were ordered against this scourge; at length it
    pleased God to grant many miraculous cures of this dreadful
    distemper, to those who implored his mercy trough the intercession
    of St. Antony, especially before his relics; the church in which
    they were deposited was resorted to by great numbers of pilgrims,
    and his patronage was implored over the whole kingdom against this
    disease. A nobleman near Vienne, named Gaston, and his son Girond,
    devoted themselves and their estate to found and serve an hospital
    near this priory, for the benefit of the poor that were afflicted
    with this distemper: seven others joined them in their charitable
    attendance on the sick, whence a confraternity of laymen who served
    this hospital took its rise, and continued till Boniface VIII.
    converted the Benedictin priory into an abbey, which he bestowed on
    those hospitaller brothers, and giving them the religious rule of
    regular canons of St. Austin, declared the abbot general of this new
    order, called Regular Canons of St. Antony. An abbey in Paris, which
    belongs to this order, is called Little St. Antony's, by which name
    it is distinguished from the great Cistercian nunnery of St. Antony.
    The general or abbot of St. Antony's, in Viennois, enjoys a yearly
    revenue of about forty thousand livres according to Piganiol, Descr.
    de la Fr. t. 4, p. 249, and Dom Beaunier, Rec. Abbayes de Fr. p.
    982. The superiors of other houses of this order retain the name of
    commanders, and the houses are called commaranderies, as when they
    were hospitallers; so that the general is the only abbot. See
    Bollandus, Beaunict, F. Longueval, Hist. de l'Eglise de France, l.
    22, t. 8, p. 16, and Drouet, in the late edition of Moreri's Hist.
    Diction V Antoine, from memoirs communicated by M. Bordet, superior
    of the convent of this order at Paris.
30. S. Athan. n. 67, p. 847, & n. 73, p. 850.

SS. SPEUSIPPUS, ELEUSIPPUS, AND MELEUSIPPUS,

MARTYRS.

THEY were three twin brothers, who, with Leonilla their grandmother,
glorified God by an illustrious martyrdom in Cappadocia, probably in the
reign of Marcus Aurelius. The most ancient acts of their martyrdom,
published by Rosweide and Bollandus, place it in that country, and their
relics were brought from the East to Langres in France, while the first
race of French kings filled the throne. A copy of the acts of their
martyrdom, which was sent from Langres by one Varnahair, to St.
Ceraunus, bishop of Paris, in the beginning of the seventh century, by
an evident mistake or falsification, affirms their martyrdom to have
happened at Langres; by which false edition, Ado, and many others, were
led into the same mistake. From certain ancient writings kept at
Langres, mentioned by Gualtherot in his Anastasius of Langres, Chatelain
proves that these relics, with the head of St. Mammes, a martyr, also of
Cappadocia, were given by the emperor Zeno to a nobleman of Langres, who
had served him in his wars. By him this sacred treasure was deposited in
the church of Langres, in the time of the bishop Aprunculus, in 490, to
be a protection against devils. The cathedral of Langres, which bears
the title of Saint Mammes, is possessed of the head of that martyr in a
rich shrine. A brass tomb before the high altar, is said to have
contained the bodies of the three children who were thrown into the
furnace at Babylon, mentioned in the book of Daniel: but Chatelain
thinks it belonged to the three martyrs whose bodies were given by the
emperor Zeno to the count of Langres. The church called of St. {173}
Geome, or Sancti Gemini, that is, the twins, situated two miles from
Langres, belongs to a priory of regular canons, and is famous out of
devotion to those saints, though great part of their relics was
translated by Hariolf, duke of Burgundy, and his brother Erlolf, bishop
of Langres, into Suabia, and remains in the noble collegiate church of
St. Guy, or St. Vitus, at El{}ange. These holy martyrs are secondary
patrons of the diocese of Langres, and titular saints of many churches
in France and Germany. See Chatelain Notes on Jan. 17, p. 313.

ST. SULPICIUS THE PIOUS, B.

ARCHBISHOP OF BOURGES.

THE church of Bourges in France was founded by St. Ursin, who was sent
from Rome to preach the faith in Gaul. St. Gregory of Tours, in his
history, places his mission in the middle of the third century,[1] yet
in his book on the Glory of Confessors,[2] he tells us that he was
ordained by the disciples of the apostles, and governed many years the
church of Bourges, which he had planted. He was interred in a common
burial-place in a field without the city; but his remains were
translated thence by St. Germanus, bishop of Paris, and abbot of St.
Symphorian's,[3] and by Probianus, bishop of Bourges, and deposited in
the church of St. Symphorian, now called St. Ursin's.[4] This saint is
honored in the Roman Martyrology on the 9th of November; at Lisieux, and
some other places, on the 29th of December. Among the most eminent of
his successors, two are called Sulpicius, and both surnamed Pious; the
first, who is sometimes called the Severe, sat from the year 584 to 591,
and his relics are enshrined in the church of St. Ursin.[5] His name was
inserted in the Roman Martyrology by Baronius, on the 29th of January,
and occurs in other more ancient calendars.[6]

Footnotes:
1.  S. Gr. Tur. Hist. l. 1, c. 28.
2.  L. de Gl. Conf. c. 80.
3.  Fortunat. in Vitâ S. German Paris
4.  Gallia Christ. nova, t. 2, p. 4.
5.  See St. Greg. Turon. and Gallia Christ. nov. t. 2, p. 15.
6.  See Benedict XIV. Litter. Apost. præfix. Martyr. Rom. §46, p. 33.

ST. SULPICIUS II., ARCHBISHOP OF BOURGES,

SURNAMED LE DEBONNAIRE,

IS commemorated on this day in the Roman Martyrology. He was descended
of a noble family in Berry, and educated in learning and piety. His
large patrimony he gave to the church and poor; and being ordained
priest, served king Clothaire II. in quality of almoner and chaplain in
his armies; and on a time when he lay dangerously ill, restored him to
his health by prayer and fasting. In 624 he succeeded St. Austregesilus,
commonly called St. Outrille, in the see of Bourges. He reformed
discipline, converted all the Jews in his diocese, and employed his
whole time in prayer and laborious functions, chiefly in the instruction
of the poor. He died in 644. Among the letters of St. Desiderius of
Cahors, we have one which he sent to our saint with this title, "To the
holy patriarch, Sulpicius;"[1] and several of our saint to him.[2] The
famous monastery which bears his name at Bourges, is said to have been
founded by him under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin; it now
belongs to the congregation of St. Maur, and is enriched with part of
his relics, and with a portion of the blood of St. Stephen, who is the
titular saint of the stately cathedral. A bone of one of the arms {174}
of our saint, is kept in the famous parochial church in Paris, which is
dedicated to God under his invocation. See his ancient life in Bolland.
and Mab. sæc. 2, Ben. Gallia Christ. nova, t. 2, p. 18.

Footnotes:
1.  Apud Canis. Lect. Ant. t. 5, & Bibl. Patr. t. 8, l. 1, ep. 12.
2.  Ib. l. 2.

ST. MILGITHE, V.

THUS Dom Menard writes the name of this saint, who by Capgrave is called
Mildgyda, by Josselin, Milvida, and by Thomas of Ely, in a fragment of
the life of St. Andry, quoted by Mabillon, Milgrida. Wilson testifies
that her feast is mentioned on this day, in an ancient MS. English
Martyrology; though Menard places it on the 26th of February. Her
father, Merowald, was son of Penda, and brother of Peoda, Wulfher, and
Ethelred, kings of Mercia. Her mother, Domneva, was daughter of
Ermenred, who was brother to Erconbert, king of Kent, father of St.
Ercongata, who died a nun at Farmoutier, in France, under the discipline
of St. Aubierge, her aunt. Her brother Meresin died young, in the odor
of sanctity. Her elder sisters, SS. Mildred and Milburge, are very
famous in the English calendars. St. Milgithe imitated their illustrious
example, and contemning the fading pleasures and delights of the world,
retired into the monastery of Estrey, built by Egbert, king of Kent, not
far from Canterbury, and having served God in the heroic practice of all
Christian virtues, died happily about the close of the seventh century.
See Menard in Martyrol. Bened. Wilson's English Martyr. Capgrave and
Bolland. t. 2, p. 176.

ST. NENNIUS, OR NENNIDHIUS, ABBOT.

DESPISING the vanities of the world, though of the race of the monarchs
of Ireland, from his youth he made the science of the cross of Christ
the sole object of his ambition; and to engrave in his heart the lessons
which our divine Redeemer taught by that adorable mystery, was the
centre of all his desires. Having passed many years, first in the school
of St. Fiechus, archbishop of Leinster, and afterwards in the celebrated
monastery of Clonard, in the province of Meath, under its holy founder
St Finian, he retired into the isle of Inis-muighesamb, in the lake of
Erne, in the province of Ulster. Here, in process of time, he became the
director of many souls in the paths of Christian perfection, founded a
great monastery, and, on account of his eminent sanctity, and the number
of illustrious disciples whom he left behind him, is called one of the
twelve apostles of Ireland. He flourished in the sixth century, and has
been honored in Ireland among the saints. F. Colgan was not able to meet
with any acts of his life, though he is mentioned in the lives of
several other Irish saints. A church in the isle of the lake, formed by
the river Erne, is dedicated to God under his invocation.

{175}


JANUARY XVIII.

ST. PETER'S CHAIR AT ROME.

See Phæbeus, de Cathedrâ in quâ S. Petrus Romæ sedit, et de antiquitate
et præstantiâ solemnitatis Cathedræ Romanæ. Romæ, 1666, 8vo.; also
Chatelain, Notes on the Martyrology, p. 326.

ST. PETER having triumphed over the devil in the East, pursued him to
Rome in the person of Simon Magus. He who had formerly trembled at the
voice of a poor maid, now feared not the very throne of idolatry and
superstition. The capital of the empire of the world, and the centre of
impiety, called for the zeal of the prince of the apostles. God had
established the Roman empire, and extended its dominion beyond that of
any former monarchy, for the more easy propagation of his gospel. Its
metropolis was of the greatest importance for this enterprise. St. Peter
took that province upon himself; and, repairing to Rome, there preached
the faith and established his Episcopal chair, whose _successors_ the
bishops of Rome have been accounted in all ages. That St. Peter founded
that church by his _preaching_, is expressly asserted by Caius,[1] a
priest of Rome under pope Zephyrinus; who relates also that his body was
then on the Vatican-hill, and that of his fellow-laborer, St. Paul, on
the Ostian road. That he and St. Paul planted the faith at Rome, and
were both crowned with martyrdom at the same time, is affirmed by
Dionysius,[2] bishop of Corinth, in the second age. St. Irenæus,[3] who
lived in the same age, calls the church at Rome "The greatest and most
ancient church, founded by the two glorious apostles, Peter and Paul."
Eusebius, in several places,[4] mentions St. Peter's being at Rome, and
the several important transactions of this apostle in that city. Not to
mention Origen,[5] Hegesippus,[6] Arnobius,[7] St. Ambrose,[8], St.
Austin,[9] St. Jerom,[10] St. Optatus,[11] Orosius,[12] and others on
the same subject.[13] St. Cyprian[14] calls Rome the _chair_ of St.
Peter, (as Theodoret[15] calls it his _throne_,) which the general
councils and ecclesiastical writers, through every age, and on every
occasion, repeat. That St. Peter at least preached in Rome, founded that
church, and died there by martyrdom under Nero, are facts the most
incontestable by the testimony of all writers of different countries,
who lived near that time; persons of unquestionable veracity, and who
could not but be informed of the truth, in a point so interesting, and
of its own nature so public and notorious, as to leave them no
possibility of a mistake. This is also attested by monuments of every
kind; also by the prerogatives, rights, and privileges, which that
church enjoyed from those early ages; in consequence of this title.

It was an ancient custom, as cardinal Baronius[16] and Thomassin[17]
show by many examples, observed by churches, to keep an annual festival
of the {176} consecration of their bishops. The feast of the chair of
St. Peter is found in ancient Martyrologies, as in one under the name of
St. Jerom, at Esternach, copied in the time of St. Willibrord, in 720.
Christians justly celebrate the founding of this mother-church, the
centre of Catholic communion, in thanksgiving to God for his mercies on
his church, and to implore his future blessings.

       *       *       *       *       *

Christ has taught us {by} the divine model of prayer which he has
delivered to us, that we are bound to recommend to him, before all other
things, the exaltation of his own honor and glory, and to beg that the
kingdom of his holy grace and love be planted in all hearts. If we love
God above all things, and with our whole hearts, or have any true
charity for our neighbor, this will be the centre of all our desires,
that God be loved and served by all his creatures, and that he be
glorified in the most perfect manner, in our own souls. By placing this
at the head of our requests, we shall most strongly engage God to crown
all our just and holy desires. As one of his greatest mercies to his
church, we must earnestly beseech him to raise up in it zealous pastors,
eminently replenished with his Spirit, with which he animated his
apostles.

Footnotes:
1.  Apud Eus. l. 2, c. 24, alias 25.
2.  Ibid.
3.  L. 3, c. 3.
4.  L. 2, c. 13 & 15, &c.
5.  Ib. l. 3, c. 1.
6.  L. de. Excid. Hier. {}.
7.  L. 3.
8.  Ser. de Basilicis.
9.  L. de Hæres. c. 1, &c.
10. L. 17, ad Marcell.
11. Adv. Parm.
12. L. 7, c. 1.
13. The general opinion with Eusebius, St. Jerom, and the Roman
    calendar, fixes the first arrival of St. Peter at Rome in the second
    year of Claudius. If this date be true, the apostle returned into
    the East soon after; for he was imprisoned in Judæa, by Agrippa, in
    the year of Christ 43. Lactantius does not mention this first coming
    of St. Peter to Rome, but only the second, saying, that he came to
    Rome in the reign of Nero, who put him and St. Paul to death. L. de
    Mort. Persec. n. 2.
14. Ep. 55, ad. Cornel. pap.
15. L. 2, c. 17.
16. Notæ in Martyr.
17. Tr. des Fêtes, l. 2, c. 10.

SS. PAUL, AND THIRTY-SIX COMPANIONS, MM. IN EGYPT.

From their authentic acts in Ruinart, p. 624.

IN Egypt, thirty-seven Christian noblemen, all persons of high birth and
plentiful fortunes, but richer in the gifts of grace, entered into a
zealous confederacy to propagate the gospel throughout the country.
Their leader and head was one Paul, a true imitator of the great apostle
whose name he bore. They divided themselves into four several bands:
Paul and nine others went eastward: Recombus, with eight more, towards
the north: Thoonas, with the like number, to the south: and Papias, with
the remaining eight, to the west. They labored zealously in extending
the kingdom of Christ on every side, planting the faith, instructing the
docile, and purifying the souls of penitents who confessed their sins.
But the greatest part of the inhabitants of that great kingdom loved
darkness rather than light. The servants of God were treated with all
manner of injuries, apprehended, and laid in irons. The governor,
alarmed at the news of their enterprise, sent orders for their being
brought before him from different parts of the kingdom. He employed both
promises and threats to compel them to sacrifice. Paul answered, in the
name of them all, that it was better for them to die, saying: "Do not
spare us." The judge condemned them all to death: those who went to the
east and south, to be burned; those from the north, to be beheaded; and
those from the west to be crucified. But he was affrighted and surprised
beyond expression to see with what joy and courage this brave army
marched out, and bowed their heads to death. They suffered on the 18th
of January, but in what year it is not mentioned in their acts.

ST. PRISCA, V.M.

SHE was a noble Roman lady, and after many torments finished her triumph
by the sword, about the year 275. Her relics are preserved in the
ancient church which bears her name in Rome, and gives title in a
cardinal. {177} She is mentioned in the sacramentary of St. Gregory, and
in almost all western Martyrologies. The acts of her martyrdom deserve
no regard: St. Paul, in the last chapter of his epistle to the Romans,
salutes Aquila, a person of Pontus, of Jewish extraction, and Priscilla,
whom he and all churches thanked, because they had exposed themselves
for his sake. He mentions the church which assembled in their house,
which he attributes to no other among the twenty-five Christians whom he
saluted, and were then at Rome. This agrees with the immemorial
tradition at Rome, that St. Peter consecrated an altar, and baptized
there in an urn of stone, which is now kept in the church of St. Prisca.
Aquila and Priscilla are still honored in this church, as titular
patrons with our saint, and a considerable part of their relics lies
under the altar. Aquila and Priscilla were tent-makers, and lived at
Corinth when they were banished from Rome under Claudius: she who is
called Priscilla in the Acts of the Apostles, and Epistles to the Roman,
and first to the Corinthians, is named Prisca in the second to Timothy.
See the Roman Martyrology on the 18th of January and the 8th of July;
also Chatelain, not. p. 333.

ST. DEICOLUS, ABBOT.

IN IRISH DICHUL, CALLED BY THE FRENCH, ST. DEEL, OR DIEY

HE quitted Ireland, his native country, with St. Columban, and lived
with him, first in the kingdom of the East Angles, and afterwards at
Luxeu; but when his master quitted France, he founded the abbey of
Lutra, or Lure, in the diocese of Besanzon, which was much enriched by
king Clothaire II.[1] Amidst his austerities, the joy and peace of his
soul appeared in his countenance. St. Columban once said to him in his
youth: "Deicolus, why are you always smiling?" He answered in
simplicity: "Because no one can take my God from me." He died in the
seventh century. See his life and the history of his miracles in F.
Chifflet, and Mabillon, Acta Bened. t. 2, p. 103, both written by a monk
of Lure in the tenth century, as the authors of l'Hist. Lit. de la
France take notice, t. 6, p. 410. By moderns, this saint is called
Deicola; but in ancient MSS. Deicolus. In Franche-comté his name Deel is
frequently given in baptism, and Deele to persons of the female sex.

Footnotes:
1. The abbot of Lure was formerly a prince of the empire. At present the
abbey is united to that of Morbac in Alsace. Lure is situated three
leagues from Laxeu, which stands near mount Vosge, two leagues from
Lorraine towards the south.

ST. ULFRID, OR WOLFRED, BISHOP AND MARTYR.

HE was an Englishman of great learning and virtue; and preached the
faith, first in Germany; afterwards in Sweden, under the pious king Olas
II., who first took the title of king of Sweden; for his predecessors
had only been styled kings of Upsal. The good bishop converted many to
Christ; till in the year 1028, while he was preaching against the idol
Tarstans or Thor, and hewing it down with a hatchet, he was slain by the
pagans. See Adam of Bremen, who wrote his most faithful History of the
Church in the North, in 1080, l. 2 c. 44. Albert Kranxius, l. 4. Metrop.
c. 8. Baron. ad an. 1028, n. 10.

{178}


JANUARY XIX.

SS. MARIS, MARTHA, AUDIFAX, AND ABACHUM MM.

Abridged from their acts, concerning which see Bollandus, who allows
them, Tillem. t. 4, p. 673; and Chatelain, notes, p. 339.

A.D. 270.

MARIS, a nobleman of Persia, with his wife Martha, and two sons, Audifax
and Abachum, being converted to the faith, distributed his fortune among
the poor, as the primitive Christians did at Jerusalem, and came to Rome
to visit the tombs of the apostles. The emperor Aurelian then persecuted
the church, and by his order a great number of Christians were shut up
in the amphitheatre, and shot to death with arrows, and their bodies
burnt. Our saints gathered and buried their ashes with respect; for
which they were apprehended, and after many torments under the governor
Marcianus, Maris and his two sons were beheaded; and Martha drowned,
thirteen miles from Rome, at a place now called Santa Ninfa.[1] Their
relics were found at Rome in 1590. They are mentioned with distinction
in all the western Martyrologies from the sacramentary of St. Gregory.
Their relics are kept principally at Rome; part in the church of St.
Adrian, part in that of St. Charles, and in that of St. John of
Calybite. Eginhart, sole-in-law and secretary of Charlemagne, deposited
a portion of these relics, which had been sent him from Rome, in the
abbey of Selghenstadt, of which he was the founder, in the diocese of
Mentz.

       *       *       *       *       *

The martyrs and confessors triumphed over the devil by prayer; by this,
poor and weak as they were, they were rendered invincible, by engaging
Omnipotence itself to be their comfort, strength, and protection. If the
art of praying well be the art of living well, according to the received
maxim of the fathers and masters of a spiritual life,[2] nothing is
certainly of greater importance, than for us to learn this heavenly art
of conversing with God in the manner we ought. We admire the wonderful
effects which this exercise produced in the saints, who by it were
disengaged from earthly ties and made spiritual and heavenly, perfect
angels on earth; but we experience nothing of this in ourselves. Prayer
was in them the channel of all graces, the means of attaining all
virtues, and all the treasures of heaven. In us it is fruitless: the
reason is plain; for the promises of Christ cannot fail: we ask, and
receive not, because we ask amiss.

Footnotes:
1.  Ninfa, or Nympha, in the corrupted ages of the Latin tongue,
    signifies water. In this place are several pools called by the
    Italians from these martyrs, Santa Ninfa. See Chatelain, p. 340, and
    Du Cange.
2.  Vere novit recta vivere, qui recti novit orare. Inter Serm. S.
    Augustini, Sermon 55, in Appendix, ed. Ben. t. 5, p. 101.

{179}

ST. CANUTUS, KING OF DENMARK, M.

From his life, faithfully written by Ælnoth, a monk of Canterbury, who
had lived twenty-four years in Denmark, and wrote in 1105. It was
printed at Copenhagen, in 1602. See also Saxo Grammaticus, the most
elegant and judicious of the Danish historians.

A.D. 1086.

ST. CANUTUS, or KNUT, the fourth of that name, king of Denmark, was
natural son of Swein III., whose great uncle Canutus had reigned in
England. Swein having no lawful issue, took care of the education of
Canutus, who being endowed with excellent qualities both of mind and
body, answered perfectly well the care of his preceptors and governors.
It is hard to say, whether he excelled more in courage, or in conduct
and skill in war; but his singular piety perfectly eclipsed all his
other endowments. He scoured the seas of pirates, and subdued several
neighboring provinces which infested Denmark with their incursions. The
kingdom of Denmark was elective till the year 1660; wherefore, when
Swein died, many pitched upon our saint, whose eminent virtues best
qualified him for the throne; but the majority, fearing his martial
spirit, preferred his eldest natural brother Harald, the seventh king of
that name, who, for his stupidity and vices, was commonly called the
Slothful. Canutus retired into Sweden to king Halstan, who received him
with the greatest marks of kindness and esteem; but the king could never
induce him to undertake any expedition against Denmark; on the contrary,
the Christian hero employed all his power and interest in the service of
his country. Harald dying after two years' reign, Canutus was called to
succeed him.

Denmark had received the Christian faith long before; some say in 826,
but wanted a zealous hand at the helm, to put the finishing stroke to
that good work. St. Canutus seems to have been pitched upon by
providence for this purpose. He began his reign by a successful war
against the troublesome barbarous enemies of the state, and by planting
the faith in the conquered provinces of Courland, Samogitia, and
Livonia. Amidst the glory of his victories, he humbly prostrated himself
at the foot of the crucifix, laying there his diadem, and offering
himself and his kingdom to the King of kings. After having provided for
its peace and safety, and enlarged its territories, he married Eltha, or
Alice, daughter of Robert, earl of Flanders, by whom he had a pious son,
St. Charles, surnamed the Good, afterwards also earl of Flanders. His
next concern was to reform abuses at home. For this purpose, he enacted
severe, but necessary laws, for the strict administration of justice,
and repressed the violence and tyranny of the great, without respect of
persons. He countenanced and honored holy men, granted many privileges
and immunities to the clergy, to enhance the people's esteem of them;
and omitted nothing to convince them of their obligation to provide for
their subsistence by the payment of tithes. His charity and tenderness
towards his subjects made him study by all possible ways to ease them of
their burdens, and make them a happy people. He showed a royal
magnificence in building and adorning churches, and gave the crown which
he wore, of exceeding great value, to the church of Roschild, in
Zealand, his capital city, and the place of his residence, where the
kings of Denmark are yet buried. He chastised his body with fasting,
discipline, and hair-cloths. Prayer was his assiduous exercise. When
William the Conqueror had made himself master of England, Canutus sent
forces to assist the vanquished; but these troops finding no one willing
to {180} join them, were easily defeated in the year 1069. Some time
after, being invited by the conquered English, he raised an army to
invade this island, and expel the Normans; but through the treacherous
practices of his brother Olas, or Olaus, was obliged to wait so long on
the coast, that his troops deserted him. The pious king, having always
in view the service of God, and judging this a proper occasion to induce
his people to pay tithes to their pastors, he proposed to them either to
pay a heavy fine, by way of punishment for their desertion, or submit to
the law of tithes for the pastors of the church. Their aversion to the
latter made them choose the tax, to the great mortification of the king,
who, hoping they would change their resolution, ordered it to be levied
with rigor. But they, being incensed at the severity of the collectors,
rebelled. St. Canutus retired for safety into the isle of Fionia, and
was hindered from joining his loyal troops by the treachery of Blanco,
an officer, who, to deceive him, assured his majesty that the rebels
were returned to their duty. The king went to the church of St. Alban,
the martyr, to perform his devotions, and return God thanks for that
happy event. This the rebels being informed of by Blanco, they
surrounded the church with him at their head. In the mean time the holy
king, perceiving the danger that threatened his life, confessed his sins
at the foot of the altar, with great tranquillity and resignation, and
received the holy communion. His guards defended the church doors, and
Blanco was slain by them. The rebels threw in bricks and stones, through
the windows, by which they beat down the shrines of certain relics of
St. Alban and St. Oswald, which St. Canutus had brought over from
England. The saint, stretching out his arms before the altar, fervently
recommended his soul into the hands of his Creator: in which posture he
was wounded with a javelin, darted through the window, and fell a victim
to Christ. His brother Benedict, and seventeen others, were slain with
him, on the 10th of July, 1086, as Ælnoth, a contemporary author,
testifies, who has specified the date of all the events with the utmost
exactness. His wicked brother Olas succeeded him in the kingdom. God
punished the people during eight years and three months of his reign
with a dreadful famine, and other calamities; and attested the sanctity
of the martyr, by many miraculous cures of the sick at his tomb. For
which reason his relics were taken up out of their obscure sepulchre,
and honorably entombed towards the end of the reign of Olas. His
successor, Eric III., a most religious prince, restored piety and
religion, with equal courage and success, and sent ambassadors to Rome,
with proofs of the miracles performed, and obtained from the pope a
declaration authorizing the veneration of St. Canutus, the proto-martyr
of Denmark. Upon this occasion a most solemn translation of his relics,
which were put in a most costly shrine, was performed, at which Ælnoth,
our historian, was present. He adds, that the first preachers of the
faith in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, were English priests; that the
Danes then zealously embraced the Christian religion, but that the
Swedes still continued more obstinate, among whom Eschil, an Englishman,
received the crown of martyrdom, while he was preaching Christ to
certain savage tribes.

ST. HENRY, ARCHBISHOP OF UPSAL, M.

HE was an Englishman, and preached the faith in the North with his
countryman, cardinal Nicholas Breakspear, the apostle of Norway, and
legate of the holy see, afterwards pope Adrian IV., by whom he was
raised to this see, in 1148. St. Eric, or Henry, (for it is the same
name,) was {181} then the holy king of Sweden.[1] Our saint, after
having converted several provinces, went to preach in Finland, which
that king had lately conquered. He deserved to be styled the apostle of
that country, but fell a martyr in it, being stoned to death at the
instigation of a barbarous murderer, whom he endeavored to reclaim by
censures, in 1151. His tomb was in great veneration at Upsal, till his
ashes were scattered on the change of religion, in the sixteenth
century. See John Magnus, l. 1, Vit. Pout. Upsal. Olaus Magnus, l. 4.
Bollandus, and chiefly his life published by Benzelius. Monum. Suec. p.
33.

Footnotes:
1.  Stiernman, in his discourse, "On the State of Learning among the
    ancient Swedes," observes, that Sweden was chiefly converted to
    Christianity by English Saxon missionaries. The principal among
    these were Ansgar, Sigfrid, Roduard, Richolf, Edward, Eskil, David,
    and Henric, as he gives their names.

    In the history of the bishops and archbishops of Upsal, published by
    Benzelius in his Monum. Suec. p 37, the first whose name is recorded
    is Everin, whom Benzelius supposes to be the person whom St. Sigfrid
    consecrated to this see. He seems to have been one of his English
    colleagues. Stephen, the sixth bishop of Upsal, was the first
    archbishop. See the life of St. Sigfrid, and Benzelius's notes on
    the catalogue of the bishops of Upsol, p. 186.

ST. WULSTAN, BISHOP OF WORCESTER, C.

HE was a native of Icentum, in Warwickshire. In his youth, perceiving
himself somewhat touched with wanton love on seeing a woman dance, he
withdrew into a thicket hard by, and, lying prostrate, bewailed his
fault before God, with very great contrition. And he was endowed from
that time, by Almighty God, with the gift of such a constant
watchfulness over his senses, as prevented his being ever more annoyed
with the like temptations. He laid the foundation of his studies and
education in the monastery of Evesham, but completed the same at
Peterborough. His parents having by mutual consent taken the monastic
habit at Worcester; his father, Athelstan, in the great monastery of
men, and his mother, Wulfgeva, in a nunnery; St. Wulstan put himself
under the direction of Brithege, bishop of Worcester, by whom he was
advanced to the holy orders of priesthood. In this station he redoubled
his ardor for prayer, and practised greater austerities in the world,
than monks in their convents. At first, he allowed himself the use of
flesh; but being one day distracted in saying mass, by the smell of meat
that was roasting in the kitchen, he bound himself by vow never more to
eat any flesh. Not long after he entered himself a novice in the great
abbey at Worcester, where he was remarkable for the innocence and
sanctity of his life. The first charge with which he was intrusted in
the monastery, was the care of instructing the children. He was
afterwards made preceptor, and then treasurer of the church. In these
two last stations he devoted himself totally to prayer, and watched
whole nights in the church. As the meanest employments were always the
object of his love and choice, it was contrary to his inclination that
he was made prior of Worcester, and, in 1062, bishop of that see, when
Aldred was translated to that of York. Though not very learned, he
delivered the word of God with so much dignity and unction, as often to
move his whole audience to tears. He always recited the psalter while he
travelled, and never passed by any church or chapel without going in, to
pour forth his soul before the altar with tears, which seemed to stand
always ready in his eyes for prayer. When the conqueror had deprived the
English, both nobility and clergy, of the posts of honor they possessed
in the church and state, in favor of his Normans, on whose fidelity he
could depend, Wulstan kept his see, though not without a miracle, as St.
Aelred, Florentius, and Capgrave relate, as follows: In a synod, held at
Westminster, in which archbishop Lanfranc {182} presided, Wulstan was
called upon to give up his crosier and ring, upon pretext of his
simplicity and unfitness for business. The saint confessed himself unfit
for the charge, but said, that king Edward, with the concurrence of the
apostolic see, had compelled him to take it upon him, and that he would
deliver his crosier to him. Then going to the king's monument, he fixed
his crosier to the stone; then went and sat down among the monks. No one
was able to draw out the crosier till the saint was ordered to take it
again, and it followed his hand with ease. From this time the conqueror
treated him with honor. Lanfranc even commissioned him to perform the
visitation of the diocese of Chester for himself. When any English
complained of the oppression of the Normans, he used to tell them, "This
is a scourge of God for your sins, which you must bear with patience."
The saint caused young gentlemen who were brought up under his care, to
carry in the dishes and wait on the poor at table, to teach them the
practice of humiliation, in which he set the most edifying example. He
showed the most tender charity for penitents, and often wept over them,
while they confessed their sins to-him. He died in 1095, having sat
thirty-two years, and lived about eighty-seven. He was canonized in
1203. See his life by William of Malmesbury, in Wharton, t. 2, p. 244.
Also, a second, by Florence of Worcester, and a third in Capgrave; and
his history, at length, by Dr. Thomas, in his History of the Cathedral
of Worcester.

ST. BLAITHMAIC,

SON of an Irish king, and abbot in the isle of Hij, in Scotland. He was
martyred by Danish pirates, to whom he refused to betray the treasures
of the church, in 793. See his life, by Wilfridus Strabo, in Canisius
Antiq. {} &c.

ST. LOMER, OR LAUDOMARUS, ABBOT.

IN his childhood he kept his father's sheep; in which employment he
macerated his body by regular fasts, and spent his time in studies and
prayer, under the direction of a certain holy priest. Being afterwards,
by compulsion, ordained priest, he was made canon and cellerer (some
moderns say provost) of the church of Chartres. After some years he
retired into a neighboring forest: Mabillon thinks at the place where
now stands Bellomer, a monastery of the order of Fontevrald. Many
disciples being assembled near his hermitage, he removed with them into
another desert, where he built the monastery of Corbion, (at present a
priory called Moutier-au-Perche, six leagues from Chartres,) about the
year 575. A wonderful spirit of prayer, and gift of miracles, rendered
his name famous. He died on the 19th of January, in 593, at Chartres, in
the house of the bishop, who had called him thither some time before. In
the incursions of the Normans, his remains were removed from place to
place, till they were lodged at Perly, in Auvergne. His head is now kept
in the priory of Maissac, called St. Laumer's, in Auvergne; the rest of
his relics were removed to Blois, where an abbey was built which bears
his name. Set his anonymous life, written by one who knew him, in
Bollandus and Mabillon; also Chatelain and the Paris Breviary.

{183}


JANUARY XX.

ST. FABIAN, POPE, M.

See Tillemont, t. 3, p. 362.

A.D. 250.

HE succeeded St. Anterus in the pontificate, in the year 236. Eusebius
relates,[1] that in an assembly of the people and clergy, held for the
election of a pastor in his room, a dove, unexpectedly appearing,
settled, to the great surprise of all present, on the head of St.
Fabian; and that this miraculous sign united the votes of the clergy and
people in promoting him, though not thought of before, as being a layman
and a stranger. He governed the church sixteen years, sent St. Dionysius
and other preachers into Gaul, and condemned Privatus, a broacher of a
new heresy in Africa, as appears from St. Cyprian.[2] St. Fabian died a
glorious martyr in the persecution of Decius, in 250, as St. Cyprian and
St. Jerom witness. The former, writing to his successor, St. Cornelius,
calls him an incomparable man; and says, that the glory of his death had
answered the purity and holiness of his life.[3]

       *       *       *       *       *

The saints made God, and the accomplishment of his holy will, the great
object of all their petitions to their prayers, and their only aim in
all their actions. "God," says St. Austin,[4] "in his promises to hear
our prayers, is desirous to bestow himself upon us; if you find any
thing better than him, ask it, but if you ask any thing beneath him, you
put an affront upon him, and hurt yourself by preferring to him a
creature which he framed: pray in the spirit and sentiment of love, in
which the royal prophet said to him, 'Thou, O Lord, art my portion.'[5]
Let others choose to themselves portions among creatures, for my part,
Thou art my portion, Thee alone have I chosen for my whole inheritance."

Footnotes:
1.  Hist. l. 6, c. 29.
2.  Cypr. Ep. 30. Ed. Pam.
3.  Ep. 44 ad. Corn.
4.  S. Aug. Conc. 1, in Ps. 34.
5.  Ps. lxxii. 26.

ST. SEBASTIAN, M.

From his acts, written before the end of the fourth age. The gladiators,
who were abolished by Honorius, in 403, subsisted when these acts were
compiled. See Bollandus, who thinks St. Ambrose wrote them, also
Tillemont, t. 1, p. 551.

A.D. 288.

ST. SEBASTIAN was born at Narbonne, in Gaul, but his parents were of
Milan, in Italy, and he was brought up in that city. He was a fervent
servant of Christ, and though his natural inclinations gave him an
aversion to a military life, yet to be better able, without suspicion,
to assist the confessors and martyrs in their sufferings, he went to
Rome, and entered the army under the emperor Carinus, about the year
283. It happened that the martyrs, Marcus and Marcellianus, under
sentence of death, appeared in danger of being shaken in their faith by
the tears of their friends: Sebastian seeing this, stepped in, and made
them a long exhortation to constancy, which {184} he delivered with the
holy fire, that strongly affected all his hearers. Zoë, the wife of
Nicostratus, having for six years lost the use of speech by a palsy in
her tongue, fell at his feet, and spoke distinctly, by the saint's
making the sign of the cross on her mouth. She, with her husband
Nicostratus, who was master of the rolls,[1] the parents of Marcus and
Marcellianus, the jailor Claudius, and sixteen other prisoners, were
converted; and Nicostratus, who had charge of the prisoners, took them
to his own house, where Polycarp, a holy priest, instructed and baptized
them. Chromatius, governor of Rome, being informed of this, and that
Tranquillinus, the father of Saints Marcus and Marcellianus, had been
cured of the gout by receiving baptism, desired to be instructed in the
faith, being himself grievously afflicted with the same distemper.
Accordingly, having sent for Sebastian, he was cured by him, and
baptized, with his son Tiburtius. He then enlarged the converted
prisoners, made his slaves free, and resigned his prefectship.

Not long after, in the year 285, Carinus was defeated and slain in
Illyricum by Dioclesian, who, the year following, made Maximian his
colleague in the empire. The persecution was still carried on by the
magistrates, in the same manner as under Carinus, without any new
edicts. Dioclesian, admiring the courage and virtue of St. Sebastian,
who concealed his religion, would fain have him near his person, and
created him captain of a company of the pretorian guards, which was a
considerable dignity. When Dioclesian went into the East, Maximian, who
remained in the West, honored our saint with the same distinction and
respect. Chromatius, with the emperor's consent, retired into the
country in Campania, taking many new converts along with him. It was a
contest of zeal, out of a mutual desire of martyrdom, between St.
Sebastian and the priest Polycarp, which of them should accompany this
troop, to complete their instruction, and which should remain in the
city, to encourage and assist the martyrs, which latter was the more
dangerous province. St. Austin wished to see such contests of charity
among the ministers of the church.[2] Pope Caius, who was appealed to,
judged it most proper that Sebastian should stay in Rome, as a defender
of the church. In the year 286, the persecution growing hot, the pope
and others concealed themselves in the imperial palace, as a place of
the greatest safety, in the apartments of one Castulus, a Christian
officer of the court. St. Zoë was first apprehended, praying at St.
Peter's tomb on the feast of the apostles. She was stifled with smoke,
being hung by the heels over a fire. Tranquillinus, ashamed to be less
courageous than a woman, went to pray at the tomb of St. Paul, and was
seized by the populace, and stoned to death. Nicostratus, Claudius,
Castorius, and Victorinus were taken, and after being thrice tortured,
were thrown into the sea. Tiburtius, betrayed by a false brother, was
beheaded. Castulus, accused by the same wretch, was thrice put on the
rack, and afterwards buried alive. Marcus and Marcellianus were nailed
by the feet to a post, and having remained in that torment twenty-four
hours, were shot to death with arrows.

St. Sebastian, having sent so many martyrs to heaven before him, was
himself impeached before the emperor Dioclesian; who, having grievously
reproached him with ingratitude, delivered him over to certain archers
of Mauritania, to be shot to death. His body was covered with arrows,
and he left for dead. Irene, the widow of St. Castulus, going to bury
him, found him still alive, and took him to her lodgings, where, by
care, he recovered of his wounds, but refused to fly, and even placed
himself one day by a staircase where the emperor was to pass, whom he
first accosted, reproaching {185} him for his unjust cruelties against
the Christians. This freedom of speech, and from a person, too, whom he
supposed to have been dead, greatly astonished the emperor; but
recovering from his surprise, he gave orders for his being seized and
beat to death with cudgels, and his body thrown into the common sewer. A
pious lady called Lucina, admonished by the martyr in a vision, got it
privately removed, and buried it in the catacombs,[3] at the entrance of
the cemetery of Calixtus. A church was afterwards built over his relies
by pope Damasus, which is one of the seven ancient stationary churches
at Rome, but not one of the seven principal churches of that city, as
some moderns mistake; it neither being one of the five patriarchal
churches, nor one of the seventy-two old churches which give titles to
cardinals. Vandelbert, St. Ado, Eginard, Sigebert, and other
contemporary authors relate, that in the reign of Louis Débonnaire, pope
Eugenius II. gave the body of St. Sebastian to Hilduin, abbot of St.
Denys, who brought it into France, and it was deposited at St. Medard's,
at Soissons, on the 9th of December, in 826; with it is said to have
been brought a considerable portion of the relics of St. Gregory the
Great. The rich shrines of SS. Sebastian, Gregory, and Medard, were
plundered by the Calvinists, in 1564, and the sacred bones thrown into a
ditch, in which there was water. Upon the declaration of two
eye-witnesses, they were afterwards found by the Catholics; and in 1578,
enclosed in three new shrines, though the bones of the three saints
could not be distinguished from each other.[4] The head of this martyr,
which was given to St. Willibrord by pope Sergius, is kept at Esternach,
in the duchy of Luxemburg. Portions of his relics are shown in the
cathedral at St. Victor's; the Theatins and Minims at Paris; in four
churches at Mantua; at Malaca, Seville, Toulouse, Munich in the ducal
palace, Tournay in the cathedral, Antwerp in the church of the Jesuits,
and at Brussels, in the chapel of the court, not at St. Gudula's, as
some have mistaken.[5] St. Sebastian has been always honored by the
church, as one of her most illustrious martyrs. We read in Paul the
deacon, in what manner, in the year 680, Rome was freed from a raging
pestilence, by the patronage of this saint. Milan, in 1575, Lisbon, in
1599, and other places, have experienced, in like calamities, the
miraculous effects of his intercession with God in their behalf.

Footnotes:
1.  Primiscrinius.
2.  Ep. 180.
3.  On Catacombs, see in St. Calixtus, Oct. 14.
4.  Chatelain, notes, p. 355. Baillet.
5.  Bollandus, Chatel. ib.

ST. EUTHYMIUS, ABBOT.

From his life, faithfully written forty years after his death, by Cyril
of Scythopolis, a monk of his monastery, one of the best writers of
antiquity, and author of the life of St. Sabas. See it accurately
published by Dom Lottin, Annal. Græc. t. 1, and Cotelier, Mon. Græc. t.
2, p. 200.

A.D. 473.

THE birth of this saint was the fruit of the prayers of his pious
parents, through the intercession of the martyr Polyeuctus. His father
was a noble and wealthy citizen of Melitene in Armenia. Euthymius was
educated in sacred learning, and in the fervent practice of prayer,
silence, humility, and mortification, under the care of the holy bishop
of that city, who ordained him priest, and constituted him his vicar and
general-overseer of the monasteries. The saint often visited that of St.
Polyeuctus, and spent whole nights in prayer on a neighboring mountain;
as he also did all the time from the octave of the Epiphany till towards
the end of Lent. The love of solitude daily growing stronger in his
breast, he secretly left his own country,{186} at twenty-nine years of
age: and, after offering up his prayers at the holy places in Jerusalem,
chose a cell six miles from that city, near the Laura[1] of Pharan. He
made baskets, and procured, by selling them, both his own subsistence
and alms for the poor. Constant prayer was the employment of his soul.
After five years he retired with one Theoctistus, a holy hermit, ten
miles further towards Jericho, where they lived together on raw herbs in
a cave. In this place he began to receive disciples, about the year 411.
He committed the care of his monastery to Theoctistus, and continued
himself in a remote hermitage, only giving audience on Saturdays and
Sundays, to those who desired spiritual advice. He taught all his monks
never to eat so much as to satisfy their hunger, but strictly forbade
among them all singularity in fasts, or any other common observances, as
savoring of vanity and self-will. According to his example, they all
retired into the deserts from the octave of the feast of the Epiphany
till the week before Easter, when they met again in their monastery, to
celebrate the office peculiar to Holy Week. He enjoined them constant
silence and manual labors: they gained their own subsistence, and a
surplus, which they devoted as first-fruits to God in the relief of the
poor.

St. Euthymius cured, by the sign of the cross and a short prayer,
Terebon, one half of whose body had been struck dead with a palsy. His
father, who was an Arabian prince, named Aspebetes, an idolater, had
exhausted on his cure, but to no purpose, the much-boasted arts of
physic and magic among the Persians, to procure some relief for his son.
At the sight of this miracle Aspebetes desired baptism, and took the
name of Peter. Such multitudes of Arabians followed his example, that
Juvenal, patriarch of Jerusalem, ordained him their bishop, and he
assisted at the council of Ephesus against Nestorius in 431. He built
St. Euthymius a Laura on the right hand of the road from Jerusalem to
Jericho, in the year 420. Euthymius could never be prevailed upon to
depart from his rules of strict solitude; but governed his monks by
proper superiors, to whom he gave his directions on Sundays. His
humility and charity won the hearts of all who spoke to him. He seemed
to surpass the great Arsenius in the gift of perpetual tears. Cyril
relates many miracles which he wrought, usually by the sign of the
cross. In the time of a great drought, he exhorted the people to
penance, to avert this scourge of heaven. Great numbers came in
procession to his cell, carrying crosses, singing Kyrie eleison, and
begging him to offer up his prayers to God for them. He said to them: "I
am a sinner, how can I presume to appear before God, who is angry at our
sins? Let us prostrate ourselves all together before him, and he will
hear us." They obeyed; and the saint going into his chapel with some of
his monks, prayed prostrate on the ground. The sky grew dark on a
sudden, rain fell in abundance, and the year proved remarkably fruitful.

St. Euthymius showed great zeal against the Nestorian and Eutychian
heretics. The turbulent empress Eudocia, after the death of her husband
Theodosius, retired into Palestine, and there continued to favor the
latter with her protection. Awaked by the afflictions of her family,
particularly in the plunder of Rome, and the captivity of her daughter
Eudocia, and her two granddaughters, carried by the Vandals into Africa,
she sent to beg the advice of St. Simeon Stylites. He answered, that her
misfortunes were the punishment of her sin, in forsaking and persecuting
the orthodox faith; and ordered her to follow the direction of
Euthymius. She knew that our saint admitted no woman within the precinct
of his Laura, no more than St. Simeon suffered them to step within the
enclosure of the mandra or lodge {187} about his pillar. She therefore
built a tower on the east side of the desert, thirty furlongs from the
Laura, and prayed St. Euthymius to meet her there. His advice to her was
to forsake the Eutychians and their impious patriarch Theodosius, and to
receive the council of Chalcedon. She followed his advice as the command
of God, and returning to Jerusalem, embraced the Catholic communion with
the orthodox patriarch Juvenal; and an incredible number followed her
example. She spent the rest of her life in works of penance and piety.
In 459, she desired St. Euthymius to meet her at her tower, designing to
settle on his Laura sufficient revenues for its subsistence. He sent her
word to spare herself the trouble, and to prepare herself for death; for
God summoned her before his tribunal. She admired his disinterestedness,
returned to Jerusalem, and died shortly after. One of the latest
disciples of our saint was the young St. Sabas, whom he tenderly loved.
In the year 473, on the 13th of January, Martyrius and Elias, to both
whom St. Euthymius had foretold the patriarchate of Jerusalem, came with
several others to visit him, and to conduct him into his Lent-retreat.
But he said he would stay with them all that week, and leave them on the
Saturday following, meaning, by death. Three days after he gave orders
that a general watching should be observed on the eve of St. Antony's
festival, on which he made a discourse to his spiritual children,
exhorting them to humility and charity. He appointed Elias his
successor, and foretold Domitian, a beloved disciple, that he would
follow him out of this world, on the seventh day, which happened
accordingly. Euthymius died on Saturday the 28th day of January, being
ninety-five years old, of which he had spent sixty-eight in the deserts.
Cyril relates his having appeared several times after his death, and the
many miracles that were wrought by his intercession; to several of which
he declares himself an eye-witness. St. Sabas kept his festival
immediately after his death; which is observed both by the Latins and
Greeks. The latter always style him the Great. It appears from his life
that he was ordained priest before he embraced an eremitical state, and
that he founded two monasteries, besides a Laura, which was also
converted into a monastery after his death.

Footnotes:
1.  A Laura consisted of cells at a little distance from one another,
    and not under the same roof, as a monastery.

ST. FECHIN, ABBOT.

AN ancient hymn on this saint is published by Bollandus. He is honored
with singular devotion at Foure, anciently called Fobhar, a village in
West-Meath, where he governed a monastery with great sanctity; and
happily departed to our Lord in the year 664, being carried off in the
great pestilence which swept off four kings in Ireland; and which scarce
a third part of the inhabitants survived. See his life in Bollandus;
also Giraldus Cambr. Topog. Hibern. dist. 2, c. 52, and Colgan. Giraldus
mentions St. Fechin's mill at Foure, which out of respect it is forbid
for any woman ever to enter. Several churches, and some villages in
Ireland, take their name from this saint.

{188}


JANUARY XXI.

SAINT AGNES, V.M.

The following relation is taken from Prudentius, de Coron. hym. 14, St.
Ambrose, l. 1, de Virgin. & Offic. t. 1, c. 41, and other fathers. Her
acts are as ancient as the seventh century; but not sufficiently
authentic: nor are those given us in Chaldaic by Stephen Assemani of a
better stamp. They contradict St. Ambrose and Prudentius in supposing
that she finished her martyrdom by fire. See Tillemont, t. 5.

A.D. 304, or 305.

ST. JEROM says,[1] that the tongues and pens of all nations are employed
in the praises of this saint, who overcame both the cruelty of the
tyrant and the tenderness of her age, and crowned the glory of chastity
with that of martyrdom. St. Austin observes,[2] that her name signifies
chaste in Greek, and lamb in Latin. She has been always looked upon in
the church as a special patroness of purity, with the immaculate Mother
of God and St. Thecla. Rome was the theatre of the triumph of St. Agnes;
and Prudentius says, that her tomb was shown within sight of that city.
She suffered not long after the beginning of the persecution of
Dioclesian, whose bloody edicts appeared in March in the year of our
Lord 303. We learn from St. Ambrose and St. Austin, that she was only
thirteen years of age at the time of her glorious death. Her riches and
beauty excited the young noblemen of the first families of Rome, to vie
with one another in their addresses, who should gain her in marriage.[3]
Agnes answered them all, that she had consecrated her virginity to a
heavenly spouse, who could not be beheld by mortal eyes. Her suitors
finding her resolution impregnable to all their arts and importunities,
accused her to the governor as a Christian; not doubting but threats and
torments would overcome her tender mind, on which allurements could make
no impression. The judge at first employed the mildest expressions and
most inviting promises; to which Agnes paid no regard, repeating always,
that she could have no other spouse than Jesus Christ. He then made use
of threats, but found her soul endowed with a masculine courage, and
even desirous of racks and death. At last, terrible fires were made, and
iron hooks, racks, and other instruments of torture displayed before
her, with threats of immediate execution. The young virgin surveyed them
all with an undaunted eye; and with a cheerful countenance beheld the
fierce and cruel executioners surrounding her, and ready to dispatch her
at the word of command. She was so far from betraying the least symptom
of fear, that she even expressed her joy at the sight, and offered
herself to the rack. She was then dragged before the idols, and
commanded to offer incense: "but could by no means be compelled to move
her hand, except to make the sign of the cross," says St. Ambrose.

The governor seeing his measures ineffectual, said he would send her to
a house of prostitution, where what she prized so highly should be
exposed to the insults of the debauchees.[4] Agnes answered that Jesus
Christ was too jealous of the purity of his spouses, to suffer it to be
violated in such a manner; for he was their defender and protector. "You
may," said she, "stain your sword with my blood, but will never be able
to profane my body, consecrated to Christ." The governor was so incensed
at this, that he {189} ordered her to be immediately led to the public
brothel, with liberty to all persons to abuse her person at pleasure.
Many young profligates ran thither, full of the wicked desire of
gratifying their lust; but were seized with such awe at the sight of the
saint, that they durst not approach her; one only excepted, who,
attempting to be rude to her, was that very instant, by a flash, as it
were, of lightning from heaven, struck blind, and fell trembling to the
ground. His companions, terrified, took him up, and carried him to
Agnes, who was at a distance, singing hymns of praise to Christ, her
protector. The virgin by prayer restored him to his sight and health.[5]

The chief prosecutor of the saint, who at first sought to gratify his
lust and avarice, now labored to satiate his revenge, by incensing the
judge against her; his passionate fondness being changed into anger and
rage. The governor wanted not others to spur him on; for he was highly
exasperated to see himself baffled, and set at defiance by one of her
tender age and sex. Therefore, resolved upon her death, he condemned her
to be beheaded. Agnes, transported with joy on hearing this sentence,
and still more at the sight of the executioner, "went to the place of
execution more cheerfully," says St. Ambrose, "than others go to their
wedding." The executioner had secret instructions to use all means to
induce her to a compliance: but Agnes always answered she could never
offer so great an injury to her heavenly spouse; and having made a short
prayer, bowed down her neck to adore God, and receive the stroke of
death. The spectators wept to see so beautiful and tender a virgin
loaded with fetters, and to behold her fearless under the very sword of
the executioner, who with a trembling hand cut off her head at one
stroke. Her body was buried at a small distance from Rome, near the
Nomentan road. A church was built on the spot in the time of Constantine
the Great, and was repaired by pope Honorius in the seventh century. It
is now in the hands of Canon-Regulars, standing without the walls of
Rome; and is honored with her relics in a very rich silver shrine, the
gift of pope Paul V., in whose time they were found in this church,
together with those of St. Emerentiana.[6] The other beautiful rich
church of St. Agnes within the city, built by pope Innocent X., (the
right of patronage being vested in the family of Pamphili,) stands on
the place where her chastity was exposed. The feast of St. Agnes is
mentioned in all Martyrologies, both of the East and West, though on
different days. It was formerly a holyday for the women in England, as
appears from the council of Worcester, held in the year 1240. St.
Ambrose, St. Austin, and other fathers have wrote her panegyric. St.
Martin of Tours was singularly devout to her. Thomas à Kempis honored
her as his special patroness, as his works declare in many places. He
relates many miracles wrought, and graces received through her
intercession.

       *       *       *       *       *

Marriage is a holy state, instituted by God, and in the order of
providence and nature the general or most ordinary state of those who
live in the world. Those, therefore, who upon motives of virtue, and in
a Christian and holy manner engage in this state, do well. Those,
nevertheless, who for the sake of practising more perfect virtue, by a
divine call, prefer a state of perpetual {190} virginity, embrace that
which is more perfect and more excellent. Dr. Wells, a learned
Protestant, confesses that Christ[7] declares voluntary chastity, for
the kingdom of heaven's sake, to be an excellency, and an excellent
state of life.[8] This is also the manifest inspired doctrine of St.
Paul,[9] and in the revelations of St. John,[10] spotless virgins are
called, in a particular manner, the companions of the Lamb, and are said
to enjoy the singular privilege of following him wherever he goes. The
tradition of the church has always been unanimous in this point; and
among the Romans, Greeks Syrians, and Barbarians, many holy virgins
joyfully preferred torments and death to the violation of their
integrity, which they bound themselves by vow to preserve without
defilement, in mind or body. The fathers, from the very disciples of the
apostles, are all profuse in extolling the excellency of holy virginity,
as a special fruit of the incarnation of Christ, his divine institution,
and a virtue which has particular charms in the eyes of God, who
delights in chaste minds, and chooses to dwell singularly in them. They
often repeat that purity raises men, even in this mortal life, to the
dignity of angels; purifies the soul, fits it for a more perfect love of
God and a closer application to heavenly things, and disengages the mind
and heart from worldly thoughts and affections. It produces in the soul
the clearest resemblance to God. Chastity is threefold; that of virgins,
that of widows, and that of married persons; in each state it will
receive its crown, as St. Ambrose observes,[11] but in the first is most
perfect, so that St. Austin calls its fruit an hundred fold, and that of
marriage sixty fold; but the more excellent this virtue is, and the
higher its glory and reward, the more heroic and the more difficult is
its victory; nor is it perfect unless it be embellished with all other
virtues in an heroic degree, especially divine charity and the most
profound humility.

Footnotes:
1.  Ep. 8.
2.  Serm. 274.
3.  Footnote: S. Ambrose, l. 1, Virgin.
4.  Prudent. S. Ambrose.
5.  St. Basil witnesses, (l. de verâ Virgin.,) that when virgins were
    exposed by the persecutors to the attempts of lewd men, Christ
    wonderfully interposed in defence of their chastity. Tertullian
    reproached the heathens with this impiety, in these words: Apolog.
    "By condemning the Christian maid rather to the lewd youth than to
    the lion, you have acknowledged that a stain of purity is more
    dreaded by us than any torments or death. Yet your crafty cruelty
    avails you not: it rather serves to gain men over to our holy
    religion."
6.  This church gives title to a cardinal, and every year on her feast
    the abbot of St. Peter's ad Vincula blesses in it, at high mass, two
    lambs, which are thence carried to the pope, by whom they are again
    blessed. After which they are sent to the nuns of St. Laurence's in
    Panisperna, or sometimes to the Capucinesses, who make of their wool
    palliums, which his holiness blesses, and sends to archbishops as
    emblem of meekness and spotless purity.
7.  Matt. xix. 11.
8.  Wells, Paraph. on S. Matt. p. 185.
9.  1 Cor. vii. 7, 8, 25, 27, 32, 38.
10. Apoc. xiv. 1, 3, 4, 5.
11. S. Ambr. l. de Viduis, t. 5, p. 635.

SAINT FRUCTUOSUS, BISHOP OF TARRAGON, AND HIS COMPANIONS, MARTYRS

From his most valuable acts in Ruinart, quoted by St. Austin, Serm. 273,
and transcribed by Prudentius, hymno 6.

A.D. 259.

ST. FRUCTUOSUS was the zealous and truly apostolical bishop of Tarragon,
then the capital city of Spain. The persecution of Valerian and Gallien
raging in the year 259, he was apprehended by an order of Emilian the
governor, who sent the soldiers, called Beneficiarii,[1] for that
purpose. They seized the good bishop in his lodgings, with two deacons,
Augurius and Eulogius, on Sunday the 16th of January. He was then laid
down on his bed, and only asked leave to put on his shoes; after which
he cheerfully followed the guards, who committed him and his two
companions to close prison, where he spent his time with them in fervent
prayer, full of joy at the prospect of the crown prepared for them. He
gave his benediction to the faithful who visited him, and recommended
themselves to his prayers. On Monday he baptized in jail a catechumen
named Rogatianus. On Wednesday he kept the usual fast of the stations[2]
till none, or three o'clock in {191} the afternoon. On Friday, the sixth
day after their commitment, the 21st of January, the governor ordered
them to be brought before him, and asked Fructuosus if he knew the
contents of the late edict of the emperors. The saint answered that he
did not, but that whatever they were, he was a Christian. "The
emperors," said Emilian, "command all to sacrifice to the gods."
Fructuosus answered, "I adore one God, who made heaven and earth and all
things therein." Emilian said, "Do you not know that there are gods?"
"No," replied the saint. The proconsul said, "I will make you know it
shortly." St. Fructuosus then lifted up his eyes to heaven, and began to
pray in private. The proconsul broke out into this exclamation: "What
will any man fear or adore on earth, if he contemns the worship of the
immortal gods, and of the emperors?" Then turning to the deacon
Angurius, he bade him not regard what Fructuosus had said: but he
satisfied him in a few words that he adored the same almighty God.
Emilian lastly addressed himself to the other deacon, Eulogius, asking
him if he did not adore Fructuosus. The holy man answered, "I adore not
Fructuosus, but the same God whom he adores." Emilian asked Fructuosus
if he was a bishop; and added, upon his confessing it, "say you have
been one;" meaning that he was going to lose his dignity with his life:
and immediately condemned them to be burnt alive.

The pagans themselves could not refrain from tears, on seeing them led
to the amphitheatre; for they loved Fructuosus on account of his rare
virtues. The Christians accompanied them with a sorrow mixed with joy.
The martyrs exulted to behold themselves on the verge of a glorious
eternity. The faithful offered St. Fructuosus a cup of wine, but he
would not taste it, saying, it was not yet the hour of breaking the
fast, which was observed on Fridays till three o'clock, and it was then
only ten in the morning. The holy man hoped to end the station, or fast
of that day, with the patriarchs and prophets in heaven. When they were
come into the amphitheatre, Augustalis, the bishop's lector, came to him
weeping, and begged he would permit him to pull off his shoes. The
martyr said he could easily put them off himself, which he did. Felix, a
Christian soldier, stepped in, and desired he would remember him in his
prayers. Fructuosus said aloud: "I am bound to pray for the whole
Catholic church spread over the world from the east to the west;" as if
he had said, as St. Austin observes, who much applauds this sentence:[3]
"Remain always in the bosom of the Catholic church, and you will have a
share in my prayers." Martial, one of his flock, desired him to speak
some words of comfort to his desolate church. The bishop, turning to the
Christians, said, "My brethren, the Lord will not leave you a flock
without a pastor. He is faithful to his promises. Do not grieve for me.
The hour of my suffering is short." The martyrs were fastened to wooden
stakes to be burnt; but the flame seemed at first to respect their
bodies, having consumed only the bands with which their hands were tied,
giving them liberty to stretch out their arms in the form of a cross in
prayer, in which posture they gave up their souls to God before the fire
had touched them. Babylas and Mygdone, two Christian servants of the
governor, saw the heavens open, and the saints carried up with crowns on
their heads. The faithful came in the night, extinguished the fire, and
took out the half-burnt bodies. Every one carried some part of their
remains home with them; but being admonished from heaven, brought them
back and laid them in the same monument. St. Austin has left us a
panegyric on St. Fructuosus, pronounced on the anniversary day of his
martyrdom, on which his name has been always famous in the western
church, especially in Spain and Africa.

Footnotes:
1.  Beneficiarii were soldiers distinguished by certain privileges, and
    who stood for promotion, as Vege{tius} informs us, l. 2, c. 7.
2.  Wednesdays and Fridays were fast-days at that time; but only till
    none, that is, three in the afternoon, and called the fast of the
    stations.
3.  Serm. 273.

{192}


ST. VIMIN, OR VIVIAN, B.C., IN SCOTLAND.

BY the fervent practices of the most perfect monastic discipline in one
of the famous abbeys in Fifeshire, he qualified himself to become, by
word and example, a guide and director to many chosen souls in the paths
of evangelical perfection. This appeared in the fruits of his zealous
preaching and labors, when he was raised to the abbatial, and soon after
to the episcopal dignity; for at that time, very few bishoprics being
erected in Scotland, it was customary for learned and holy abbots of
great monasteries to be often consecrated bishops, and to be attended by
their monks in performing their functions; as venerable Bede informs us,
speaking of St. Aidan.[1] St. Vimin, to shun the danger of vain-glory,
to which the reputation of many miracles which he had wrought exposed
him, removed to a more solitary place, and there founded the abbey of
Holywood, called in Latin Sacrum-boscum, in succeeding ages famous for
many learned men; particularly the great mathematician, John à
Sacro-bosco, in the thirteenth century. King places the death of St.
Vimin in 615, but brings no proofs for dating it so high. The noble and
very ancient family of Wemse, in Fifeshire, is said in Scotland to be of
the same lineage with this saint. The ancient prayer in the Aberdeen
breviary on his festival, and other monuments, bear evidence to the
great devotion of the ancient Scottish church to his memory. See
Breviarium Aberdonense of Chronicou Skonense.

Footnotes:
1.  Bede, Hist. l. 4, c. 17, &c.

ST. PUBLIUS, B.M.

HE succeeded St. Dionysius the Areopagite in the see of Athens, as we
are assured by St. Dionysius of Corinth, quoted by Eusebius.[1] He went
to God by martyrdom, and St. Quadratus was chosen third bishop of that
city. See Le Quien, Or. Christ. t. 2, p. 169.

Footnotes:
1.  Euseb. l. 4, c. 22.

ST. EPIPHANIUS, BISHOP OF PAVIA,

FROM 467 TO 497.

THE reputation of Epiphanius for sanctity and miracles, gave him the
highest credit with all the last weak Roman emperors, and with the kings
Odoacer and Theodoric, though all of opposite interests. By his
admirable eloquence and charity he often disarmed the most savage
barbarians, obtained the lives and liberty of whole armies of captives,
the abolition of several oppressive laws, and the mitigation of heavy
public imposts and taxes. By his profuse charities he preserved an
incredible number of distressed persons from perishing, and by his zeal
he stemmed the torrent of iniquity in times of universal disorder and
calamity. He performed an embassy to the emperor Anthemius, and another
to king Euric at Toulouse; both to avert the dangers of war. He rebuilt
Pavia, which had been destroyed by Odoacer, and mitigated the fury of
Theodoric in the heat of his victories. He undertook a journey into
Burgundy, to redeem captives detained by the kings Gondebald and
Godegisile, and died of a cold and fever at Pavia, in the fifty-eighth
year of his age. His body was translated to Hildesheim in Lower {193}
Saxony, in 963. Brower thinks it lies in a silver coffin near the high
altar. His name is inserted in the Roman Martyrology. See his panegyric
in verse, by Ennodius, his successor, the master-piece of that author,
published by Bollandus and F. Sirmond. Consult also Marroni, of the
Schola Pia Comment. de Ecclesià & Episcopis Papiensibus. Romæ. An. 1758.

Footnotes:
1.  B. MACELAIN, A. His name in Irish signifies the son of Chilian.
    Passing into Belgic Gaul, in order to lead there an anchoretical
    life, he was appointed abbot of St. Michael's on the borders of
    Hainault, and of Vasour, or Vasencour, on the Meuse, in the diocese
    of Namur: monasteries which were just founded. He appointed St.
    Cadroe, who had accompanied him from Ireland, provost of the latter
    in 946, and died in 978. Ferrarius, Saussaye, and Wilson, falsely
    place this monastery of St. Michael's at Virdun, mistaking the
    epithet Vir Dni, which is given him in the chronicle of Flodoard,
    for the name of that town. Though he is styled saint in the
    catalogue of the abbots of Vasour, and by several martyrologists on
    this day, he never was honored in any public office even in either
    of his monasteries, as Bollandus observes; who makes the same remark
    of his two companions, B. Forannand and B. Cadroe. This latter was
    called from Vasour, and made abbot of St. Clement's, at Metz, where
    he died in 975. See Bolland. t. 2, p. 386. Chatelain, p. 371. Gallia
    Christ. Nova, t. 3, p. 570.

    B. FORANNAND, B.C. This saint is styled in ancient chronicles,
    Archbishop of Domnachmor, in Ireland. Domnach signifying church, and
    mor, the greater, says Mabillon: by which epithet many understand
    Armagh. Resigning his see, he travelled into Belgic Gaul, with
    twelve companions, among whom were B. Macelain, and B. Cadroe. After
    leading for some time an eremitical life, he was commanded by pope
    Benedict VII. to take upon him the charge of the government of
    Vasour, in which employment he died on the last day of April, in
    982. See Gallia Christ. Nova, t. 3. p. 571.


JANUARY XXII.

ST. VINCENT, MARTYR.

From Prudentius, hymn 5, and St. Austin, serm, 274, 275, 276, 277, all
four preached on his festivals. His ancient acts in Bollandus are also
authentic, but not those in Metaphrastes and Surius. See Tillemont t. 5,
p. 217.

A.D. 399.

THE most glorious martyr St. Vincent was born, some say at Saragossa,
others at Valentia, but most authors, and most probably, at Osca, now
Huesca, in Granada. He was instructed in the sacred sciences and in
Christian piety by Valerius, the bishop of that city, who ordained him
his deacon, and appointed him, though very young, to preach and instruct
the people. Dacian, a most bloody persecutor, was then governor of
Spain. The emperors Dioclesian and Maximian published their second and
third bloody edicts against the Christian clergy in the year 303, which
in the following year were put in force against the laity. It seems to
have been before these last that Dacian put to death eighteen martyrs at
Saragossa, who are mentioned by Prudentius, and in the Roman
Martyrology, January the 16th, and that he apprehended Valerius and
Vincent. They spilt some of their blood at Saragossa, but were thence
conducted to Valentia, where the governor let them lie long in prison,
suffering extreme famine and other miseries. The proconsul hoped that
this lingering torture would shake their constancy; but when they were
brought out before him, he was surprised to see them still intrepid in
mind, and vigorous in body, and reprimanded his officers, as if they had
not treated the prisoners according to his orders. Then, turning to the
champions of Christ, he employed alternately threats and promises to
induce them to sacrifice. Valerius, who had an impediment in his speech,
making no answer, Vincent said to him "Father, if you order me, I will
speak." "Son," said Valerius, "as I committed to you the dispensation of
the word of God, so I now charge you to answer in vindication of the
faith which we defend." The holy deacon then acquainted the judge that
they were ready to suffer every thing for the {194} true God, and little
regarded either his threats or promises in such a cause. Dacian
contented himself with banishing Valerius.[1] As for St. Vincent, he was
determined to assail his resolution by every torture his cruel temper
could suggest. St. Austin assures us, that he suffered torments far
beyond what any man could possibly have endured, unless supported by a
supernatural strength; and that he preserved such a peace and
tranquillity in his words, countenance, and gestures in the midst of
them, as astonished his very persecutors, and visibly appeared as
something divine; while the rage and distraction of Dacian's soul was as
visible in the violent agitations of his body, by his eyes sparkling
with fury, and his faltering voice.

The martyr was first stretched on the rack by his hands and feet, drawn
by cords and pulleys, till his joints were almost torn asunder: while he
hung in this posture, his flesh was unmercifully torn off with iron
hooks. Vincent, smiling, called the executioners weak and faint-hearted.
Dacian thought they spared him, and caused them to be beaten, which
afforded the champion an interval of rest: but they soon returned to
him, resolved fully to satisfy the cruelty of their master, who excited
them all the while to exert their utmost strength. They twice stayed
their hands to take breath, and let his wounds grow cold; then began
with fresh vigor to rend and tear his body, which they did in all its
limbs and parts with such cruelty, that his bones and bowels were in
most places exposed bare to sight. The more his body was mangled, the
more did the divine presence cherish and comfort his soul, and spread a
greater joy on his countenance. The judge, seeing the streams of blood
which flowed from all the parts of his body, and the frightful condition
to which it was reduced, was obliged to confess, with astonishment, that
the courage of the young nobleman had vanquished him; and his rage
seemed somewhat abated. Hereupon he ordered a cessation of his torments,
begging of the saint for his own sake, that if he could not be prevailed
upon to offer sacrifice to the gods, he would at least give up the
sacred books to be burnt, according to the order of the late edicts. The
martyr answered, that he feared his torments less than that false
compassion which he testified. Dacian, more incensed than ever,
condemned him to the most cruel of tortures, that of fire upon a kind of
gridiron, called by the acts the legal torture.[2] The saint walked with
joy to the frightful engine, so as almost to get the start of his
executioners, such was his desire to suffer. He mounted cheerfully the
iron bed, in which the bars were framed like scythes, full of sharp
spikes made red-hot by the fire underneath. On this dreadful gridiron,
the martyr was stretched out at length, and bound fast down. He was not
only scourged thereon, but, while one part of his body was broiling next
the fire, the other was tortured by the application of red-hot plates of
iron. His wounds were rubbed with salt, which the activity of the fire
forced the deeper into his flesh and bowels. All the parts of his body
were tormented in this manner, one after the other, and each several
times over. The melted fat dropping from the flesh, nourished and
increased the flames; which, instead of tormenting, seemed, as St.
Austin says, to give the martyr new vigor and courage; for the more he
suffered, the greater seemed to be the inward joy and consolation of his
soul. The rage and confusion of the tyrant exceeded all bounds: he
appeared not able to contain himself, and was continually inquiring what
Vincent did and what he said; but was always answered, that he suffered
with joy in his countenance, and seemed every moment to acquire new
strength and resolution. {195} He lay unmoved, his eyes turned towards
heaven, his mind calm, and his heart fixed on God in continual prayer.

At last, by the command of the proconsul, he was thrown into a dungeon
and his wounded body laid on the floor strewed with broken potsherds,
which opened afresh his ghastly wounds, and cut his bare flesh. His legs
were set in wooden stocks, stretched very wide, and strict orders were
given that he should be left without provisions, and that no one should
be admitted to see or speak to him. But God sent his angels to comfort
him, with whom he sung the praises of his protector. The jailer
observing through the chinks the prison filled with light, and the saint
walking and praising God, was converted upon the spot to the Christian
faith, and afterwards baptized. At this news Dacian chafed, and even
wept through rage, but ordered some repose should be allowed the
prisoner. The faithful were then permitted to see him, and coming in
troops wiped and kissed his wounds, and dipped cloths in his blood,
which they kept as an assured protection for themselves and their
posterity. After this a soft bed was prepared for him, on which he was
no sooner laid but he expired, the happy moment he had not ceased to
pray for ever since his torments, and his first call to martyrdom.
Dacian commanded his body to be thrown on a marshy field among rushes;
but a crow defended it from wild beasts and birds of prey. The acts in
Ruinart and Bollandus, and the sermon attributed to St. Leo, add, that
it was then tied to a great stone and cast into the sea in a sack, but
miraculously carried to the shore, and revealed to two Christians. They
laid it in a little chapel out of the walls of Valentia, where God
honored these relics with many miracles, as the acts and St. Austin
witness. Prudentius informs us, that the iron on which he lay, and other
instruments of his passion, were likewise preserved with veneration.
Childebert, king of France, or rather of Paris, besieging Saragossa,
wondered to see the inhabitants busied continually in making
processions. Being informed they carried the stole of St. Vincent about
the walls in devout prayer, and had been miraculously protected by that
martyr's intercession, he raised the siege upon condition that relic
should be given him. This he with great solemnity brought to Paris, and
enriched with it the magnificent church and abbey of St. Vincent, now
called St. Germain-des-Prés, which he built in 559, and which his
successor Clotaire caused to be dedicated.[3] In the year 855, his
sacred bones were discovered at Valentia, and conveyed into France, and
deposited in the abbey of Castres, now an episcopal see in Languedoc,
where they remain; but several portions have been given to the abbey of
St. Germain-des-Prés at Paris, and other churches; and part was burnt at
Castres by the Huguenots about the end of the sixteenth century.[4]
Aimoinus, a contemporary monk, wrote the history of this translation,
with an account of many miracles which attended it.[5] St. Gregory of
Tours mentions a portion of his relics to have been famous for miracles,
in a village church near Poictiers.[6] In the life of St. Domnolus,
mention is made of a portion placed by him in a great monastery in the
suburb of the city of Mans. But it is certain that the chief part of
this martyr's body was conveyed to Lisbon. To escape the cruel
persecution of the Saracen king Abderamene, at Valentia, many Christians
privately withdrew themselves, and, carrying with them the body of St.
Vincent, took shelter on the southwest cape, called {196} the Sacred
Promontory, and from these relics St. Vincent's, in the kingdom of
Algarb, then under the Saracens. Alphonsus Henry, the most pious first
king of Portugal, son of count Henry, having defeated five Moorish
kings, at Ourique, in the year 1139, received from those faithful
keepers the body of St. Vincent, sent it by sea to Lisbon, and built the
royal monastery of the Cross of regular canons of St. Austin, in which
he most religiously deposited this treasure, rendered more famous by
miracles, in the year 1148. This account is recorded by contemporary
unexceptionable vouchers in Bollandus, p. 406. Mariana, and especially
Thomas ab Incarnatione, a regular canon, in his Historiâ Ecclesiæ
Lusitanæ, printed at Lisbon, A.D. 1759, Sæc. 4, c. 6, t. 1, p. 215. The
Portuguese, ever since the year 1173, keep an annual commemoration of
this translation on the 15th of September, which feast was confirmed by
Sixtus V.

Prudentius finishes his hymn on this holy martyr by a prayer to him,
that he would present the marks of his sufferings to Christ, to move him
to compassion in his behalf.

       *       *       *       *       *

God never more visibly manifested his power, nor gave stronger or more
wonderful proofs of his tenderness and love for his church, than when he
suffered it to groan under the most violent oppression and persecution;
nor does his grace anywhere appear more triumphant than in the victories
of his martyrs under the severest trials, and in the heroic virtues
which they displayed amidst torments and insults. Under the slightest
disappointments and afflictions we are apt to fall into discouragement,
and to imagine, by our sloth and impatience, that our situation is of
all others the most unhappy and intolerable. If nature feels, and we
implore the divine mercy, and a deliverance, if this may be conducive to
God's honor, we must be careful never to sink under the trials, or
consent to the least secret murmuring: we must bear them if not with
joy, at least with perfect submission; and remain assured that God only
seems to withdraw himself from us, that we may follow him more
earnestly, and unite ourselves more closely to him.

Footnotes:
1.  He is named in the Roman Martyrology, January the 28th, and his
    relics are kept with veneration at Saragossa, famous for miracles
    wrought by them even in the last age. See Bollandus, January the
    28th, p. 838.
2.  Quæstio legitima.
3.  S. Greg. Tur. Hist. Franc. l. 3, c. 29. Aimoin. de Gestis Franc. l.
    2, c. 19 and 20. Ade In Chron. &c.
4.  See Chatelain, Notes on the Martyrol. p. 378.
5.  This Aimoinus is something more ancient than another monk of the
    same name, who has left a history of France. His relation depends
    upon the authority of Audald, a monk of Conques in the diocese of
    Rhodes, who brought them from Valentia into Languedoc. See his
    account in Bollandus, which yet the Spaniards deny, and say it could
    only be a small part of these bones: or the body of another martyr
    of the same name.
6.  De Gk. Mart. l. 1, c. 90.

ST. ANASTASIUS, MARTYR.

From his genuine acts, which are commended in the seventh general
council, abut one hundred and sixty years after his death.

A.D. 628.

ST. ANASTASIUS was a trophy of the holy cross of Christ, when it was
carried away into Persia by Chosroës, in the year 614, after he had
taken and plundered Jerusalem. The martyr was a Persian, son of a
Magian, instructed in the sciences of that sect, and a young soldier in
the Persian troops. Upon hearing the news of the taking of the cross by
his king, he became very inquisitive concerning the Christian religion:
and its sublime truths made such an impression on his mind, that being
returned into Persia from an expedition into the Roman empire, he left
the army with his brother, who also served in it, and retired to
Hierapolis. In that city he lodged with a devout Persian Christian, a
silversmith, with whom he went often to prayer. The holy pictures which
he saw, moved him exceedingly, and gave him occasion to inquire daily
more into our faith, and to admire the courage of the martyrs whose
glorious sufferings were painted in the churches. At length, desirous of
baptism, he left Hierapolis, which city was subject to the Persians, and
went to Jerusalem, where he received that sacrament by the hands of
Modestus who governed that church as vicar during the absence {197} of
the patriarch Zachary, whom Chosroës had led away captive into Persia.
In baptism he changed his Persian name Magundat, into that of
Anastasius, meaning, according to the signification of that Greek word,
that he was risen from death to a new and spiritual life. He had
prepared himself with wonderful devotion for that sacrament while a
catechumen, and he spent in no less fervor the several days after it,
which persons baptized passed in white garments, in prayer, and in
receiving more perfect instructions in the faith. At the end of this
term, Anastasius, the more easily and more perfectly to keep inviolably
his sacred baptismal vows and obligations, desired to become a monk in a
monastery five miles distant from Jerusalem. Justin, the abbot, made him
first learn the Greek tongue and the psalter; then cutting off his hair,
gave him the monastic habit, in the year 621.

Anastasius was always the first at all spiritual duties, especially in
assisting at the celebration of the divine mysteries. His attention to
pious discourse testified the earnest thirst of his soul; nor was he
less fervent in practice. He never read the triumphs of the martyrs
without abundance of tears, and burned with an ardent desire of the like
happiness. Being molested beyond measure with blasphemous thoughts of
magic and superstitions, which his father had taught him, he was
delivered from that troublesome temptation by discovering it to his
director, and by his advice and prayers. After seven years spent in
great perfection in this monastery, his desire of martyrdom daily
increasing, and having been assured by a revelation, that his prayers
for that grace were heard, he left that house, and visited the places of
devotion in Palestine, at Diospolis, Garizim, and our Lady's church at
Cæsarea, where he stayed two days. This city, with the greatest part of
Syria, was then subject to the Persians. The saint seeing certain
Persian soothsayers of the garrison occupied in their abominable
superstitions in the streets, boldly spoke to them, remonstrating
against the impiety of such practices. The Persian magistrates
apprehended him as a suspected spy; but he informed them that he once
enjoyed the dignity of Magian with them, and had renounced it to become
a humble follower of Christ. Upon this confession he was thrown into a
dungeon, where he lay three days without eating of drinking, till the
return of Marzabanes, the governor, to the city. Being interrogated by
him, he confessed his conversion to the faith, and equally despised his
offers of great preferments, and his threats of crucifying him.
Marzabanes commanded him to be chained by the foot to another criminal,
and his neck and one foot to be also linked together by a heavy chain,
and condemned him in this condition to carry stones. The Persians,
especially those of his own province of Rasech, and his former
acquaintance, upbraided him as the disgrace of his country, kicked and
beat him, plucked his beard, and loaded him with burdens above his
strength. The governor sent for him a second time, but could by no means
prevail with him to pronounce the impious words which the Magians used
in their superstitions: he said, "That the wilful calling them to
remembrance would defile the heart." The judge then threatened he would
write immediately to the king against him, if he did not comply. "Write
what you please," said the saint, "I am a Christian: I repeat it again,
I am a Christian." Marzabanes commanded him to be forthwith beaten with
knotty clubs. The executioners were preparing themselves to bind him
fast on the ground; but the saint told him it was unnecessary, for he
had courage enough to lie down under the punishment without moving, and
he regarded it as his greatest happiness and pleasure to suffer for
Christ. He only begged leave to put off his monk's habit, lest it should
be treated with contempt, which only his body deserved. He therefore
laid it aside in a respectful manner, and then stretched himself on the
ground, and without {198} being bound did not stir all the time of the
cruel torment, bearing it without changing his posture. The governor
again threatened him to acquaint the king of his obstinacy: "Whom ought
we rather to fear," said Anastasius, "a mortal man, or God, who made all
things out of nothing?" The judge pressed him to sacrifice to fire, and
to the sun and moon. The saint answered, he could never acknowledge as
gods, creatures which God had made only for our use; upon which he was
remanded to prison.

His old abbot hearing of his sufferings, sent two monks to assist him,
and ordered prayers for him. The confessor, after carrying stones all
the day, spent the greatest part of the night in prayer, to the surprise
of his companions: one of whom, a Jew, saw and showed him to others at
prayer in the night, shining in brightness and glory like a blessed
spirit, and angels praying with him. As the confessor was chained to a
man condemned for a public crime, he prayed always with his neck bowed
downwards, keeping his chained foot near his companion not to disturb
him. Marzabanes in the mean time having informed Chosroës, and received
his orders, acquainted the martyr by a messenger, without seeing him,
that the king would be satisfied on condition he would only by word of
mouth abjure the Christian faith: after which he might choose whether he
would be an officer in the king's service, or still remain a Christian
and a monk; adding, he might in his heart always adhere to Christ,
provided he would but for once renounce him in words privately, in his
presence, "in which there could be no harm, nor any great injury to his
Christ," as he said. Anastasius answered firmly, that he would never
even seem to dissemble, or to deny his God. Then the governor told him,
that he had orders to send him bound into Persia to the king. "There is
no need of binding me," said the saint: "I go willingly and cheerfully
to suffer for Christ." The governor put on him and on two other
prisoners the mark, and gave orders that they should set out after five
days. In the mean time, on the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, the
14th of September, at the request of the Comerciarius, or tax-gatherer
for the king, who was a Christian of distinction, Anastasius had leave
to go to the church and assist at the divine service. His presence and
exhortations encouraged the faithful, excited the tepid to fervor, and
moved all to tears. He dined that day with the Comerciarius, and then
returned with joy to his prison. On the day appointed, the martyr left
Cæsarea, in Palestine, with two other Christian prisoners, under a
strict guard, and was followed by one of the monks whom the abbot had
sent to assist and encourage him. The acts of his martyrdom were written
by this monk, or at least from what be related by word of mouth. The
saint received great marks of honor, much against his inclination, from
the Christians wherever he came. This made him fear lest human applause
should rob trim of his crown by infecting his heart with pride. He wrote
from Hierapolis, and again from the river Tigris, to his abbot, begging
the prayers of his brethren.

Being arrived at Barsaloe in Assyria, six miles from Discartha, or
Dastagerde, near the Euphrates, where the king then was, the prisoners
were thrown into a dungeon till his pleasure was known. An officer came
from Chosroës to interrogate the saint, who made answer, with regard to
his magnificent promises, in these words: "My religious habit and poor
clothes show that I despise from my heart the gaudy pomp of the world.
The honors and riches of a king, who must shortly die himself, are no
temptation to me." Next day the officer returned to the prison, and
endeavored to intimidate him by blustering threats and reproaches. But
the saint said calmly: "My lord judge, do not give yourself so much
trouble about me. By the grace of Christ I am not to be moved: so
execute your pleasure without more ado." The officer caused him to be
unmercifully beaten with staves, after {199} the Persian manner,
insulting him all the time, and often repeating, that because he
contemned the king's bounty, he should be treated in that manner every
day as long as he lived. This punishment was inflicted on him three
days; on the third the judge commanded him to be laid on his back, and a
heavy beam pressed down by the weight of two men on his legs, crushing
the flesh to the very bone. The martyr's tranquillity and patience
astonished the officer, who went again to acquaint the king of his
behavior. In his absence the jailer, being a Christian by profession,
though too weak to resign his place rather than detain such a prisoner,
gave every one free access to the martyr. The Christians immediately
filled the prison; every one sought to kiss his feet or chains, and kept
as relics whatever had been sanctified by their touch: they also
overlaid his fetters with wax, in order to receive their impression. The
saint, with confusion and indignation, strove to hinder them, and
expressed how extremely dissatisfied he was with such actions. The
officer returning from the king caused him to be beaten again, which the
confessor bore rather as a statue, than as flesh and blood. Then he was
hung up for two hours by one hand, with a great weight at his feet, and
tampered with by threats and promises. The judge despairing to overcome
him, went back to the king; for his last orders, which were, that he and
all the Christian captives should be put to death. He returned speedily
to put them in execution, and caused Anastasius's two companions, with
threescore and six other Christians, to be strangled one after another
on the banks of the river, before his face, whom the judge all the time
pressed to return to the Persian worship, and to escape so disgraceful a
death, promising, in case of compliance, that he should be made one of
the greatest men in the court. Anastasius, with his eyes lifted up to
heaven, gave thanks to God for bringing his life to so happy a
conclusion; and said he expected that he should have met with a more
cruel death in the torture of all his members: but seeing God granted
him one so easy, he embraced with joy that end of a life which he
otherwise must shortly have lost in a more painful manner. He was
accordingly strangled, and after his death his head was cut off. This
was in the year 628, the seventeenth of the emperor Heraclius, on the
22d of January, on which day both the Latins and Greeks keep his
festival. His body, among the other dead, was exposed to be devoured by
dogs, but it was the only one they left untouched. It was afterwards
redeemed by the Christians, who laid it in the monastery of St. Sergius,
a mile from the place of his triumph, in the city Barsaloe, called
afterwards from that monastery, Sergiopolis. The monk that attended him
brought back his Colobium, or liners tunic without sleeves. The saint's
body was afterwards brought into Palestine. Some years after, it was
removed to Constantinople, and lastly to Rome.

The seventh general council[1] proves the use of pious pictures from the
head of this holy martyr, and his miraculous image, then kept at Rome
with great veneration: where it is still preserved in the church
belonging to the monastery of our Lady ad Aquas Sylvias, which now bears
the name of SS. Vincent and Anastasius.[2] The rest of his relics are
reposited in the holy chapel ad Scalas Sanctas, near St. John Lateran.
See the history of many miracles wrought by them in Bollandus. St.
Anastasius foretold the speedy fall of the tyrant Chosroës: and ten days
after his martyrdom the emperor Heraclius entered Persia.

Footnotes:
1.  Act. 4.
2.  Mabill. Iter. Ital. p. 141.

{200}


JANUARY XXIII.

ST. RAYMUND, OF PENNAFORT, C.

From the bull of his canonization, by Clement VIII. in 1601, and his
life, written by several Spanish, Italian, and French authors. See
Fleury, b. 78, n. 55, 84, and chiefly Touron, Hommes Illustres de
l'Ordre de S. Domin. t. 1, p. 1.

A.D. 1275.

THE house of Pegnafort, or, as it is pronounced, Pennafort, was
descended from the counts of Barcelona, and nearly allied to the kings
of Aragon. Raymund was born in 1175, at Pennafort, a castle in
Catalonia, which in the fifteenth century was changed into a convent of
the order of St. Dominick. Such was his rapid progress in his studies,
that at the age of twenty he taught philosophy at Barcelona, which he
did gratis, and with so great reputation, that he began then to be
consulted by the ablest masters. His principal care was to instil into
his scholars the most perfect maxims of a solid piety and devotion, to
compose all differences among the citizens, and to relieve the
distressed. He was about thirty years of age when he went to Bologna, in
Italy, to perfect himself in the study of the canon and civil law,
commenced Doctor in that faculty, and taught with the same
disinterestedness and charity as he had done in his own country. In 1219
Berengarius, bishop of Barcelona, who had been at Rome, took Raymund
home with him, to the great regret of the university and senate of
Bologna; and, not content with giving him a canonry in his church, made
him his archdeacon, grand vicar, and official. He was a perfect model to
the clergy, by his innocence, zeal, devotion, and boundless liberalities
to the poor, whom he called his creditors. In 1222 he took the religious
habit of St. Dominick at Barcelona, eight months after the death of the
holy founder, and in the forty-seventh year of his age. No person was
ever seen among the young novices more humble, more obedient, or more
fervent. To imitate the obedience of a Man-God, who reduced himself to a
state of subjection to his own creatures, to teach us the dangers and
deep wound of self-will, and to point out to us the remedy, the saint
would depend absolutely on the lights of his director in all things. And
it was upon the most perfect self-denial that he laid the foundation of
that high sanctity which he made the object of his most earnest desires.
The grace of prayer perfected the work which mortification had begun. In
a spirit of compunction he begged of his superiors that they would
enjoin him some severe penance, to expiate the vain satisfaction and
complacency which he said he had sometimes taken in teaching. They
indeed imposed on him a penance, but not such a one as be expected. It
was to write a collection of cases of conscience for the instruction and
conveniency of confessors and moralists. This produced his Sum, the
first work of that kind. Had his method and decisions been better
followed by some later authors of the like works, the holy maxims of
Christian morality had been treated with more respect by some moderns
than they have been, to our grief and confusion.

Raymund joined to the exercises of his solitude the functions of an
apostolical life, by laboring without intermission in preaching,
instructing, hearing confessions with wonderful fruit, and converting
heretics, Jews, and Moors. Among his penitents were James, king of
Aragon, and St. Peter Nolasco, {201} with whom he concerted the
foundation of the Order of the B. Virgin of mercy for the redemption of
captives. James, the young king of Aragon, had married Eleonora of
Castile within the prohibited degrees, without a dispensation. A legate
was sent by pope Gregory IX. to examine and judge the case. In a council
of bishops of the two kingdoms, held at Tarragon, he declared the
marriage null, but that their son Don Alphonso should be reputed
lawfully born, and heir to his father's crown. The king had taken his
confessor with him to the council, and the cardinal legate was so
charmed with his talents and virtue, that he associated him in his
legation, and gave him a commission to preach the holy war against the
Moors. The servant of God acquitted himself of that function with so
much prudence, zeal, and charity, that he sowed the seeds of the total
overthrow of those infidels in Spain. His labors were no less successful
in the reformation of the manners of the Christians detained in
servitude under the Moors, which were extremely corrupted by their long
slavery or commerce with these infidels. Raymund showed them, by words
full of heavenly unction and fire, that, to triumph over their bodily,
they must first conquer their spiritual enemies, and subdue sin in
themselves, which made God their enemy. Inculcating these and the like
spiritual lessons, he ran over Catalonia, Aragon, Castile, and other
countries. So general a change was wrought hereby in the manners of the
people, as seemed incredible to all but those who were witnesses of it.
By their conversion the anger of God was appeased, and the arms of the
faithful became terrible to their enemies. The kings of Castile and Leon
freed many places from the Moorish yoke. Don James, king of Aragon,
drove them out of the islands of Majorca and Minorca, and soon after, in
1237, out of the whole kingdom of Valentia. Pope Gregory IX. having
called St. Raymund to Rome in 1230, nominated him his chaplain, (which
was the title of the Auditor of the causes of the apostolic palace,) as
also grand penitentiary. He made him likewise his own confessarius, and
in difficult affairs came to no decision but by his advice. The saint
still reserved himself for the poor, and was so solicitous for them that
his Holiness called him their father. He enjoined the pope, for a
penance, to receive, hear, and expedite immediately all petitions
presented by them. The pope, who was well versed in the canon law,
ordered the saint to gather into one body all the scattered decree, of
popes and councils, since the collection made by Gratian in 1150.
Raymund compiled this work in three years, in five books, commonly
called the Decretals, which the same pope Gregory confirmed in 1234. It
is looked upon as the best finished part of the body of the canon law;
on which account the canonists have usually chosen it for the texts of
their comments. In 1235, the pope named St. Raymund to the archbishopric
of Tarragon, the capital of Aragon: the humble religious man was not
able to avert the storm, as he called it, by tears and entreaties; but
at length fell sick through anxiety and fear. To restore him to his
health, his Holiness was obliged to consent to excuse him, but required
that he should recommend a proper person. The saint named a pious and
learned canon of Gironne. He refused other dignities with the like
constancy.

For the recovery of his health he returned to his native country, and
was received with as much joy as if the safety of the whole kingdom, and
of every particular person, had depended on his presence. Being restored
again to his dear solitude at Barcelona, he continued his former
exercises of contemplation, preaching, and administering the sacrament
of penance. Except on Sundays, he never took more than one very small
refection in the day. Amidst honors and applause he was ever little in
his own eyes. He appeared in the schools like a scholar, and in his
convent begged the {202} superior to instruct him in the rules of
religious perfection, with the humility and docility of a novice.
Whether he sung the divine praises with his brethren, or prayed alone in
his cell, or some corner of the church, he poured forth an abundance of
tears; and often was not able to contain within himself the ardor of his
soul. His mildness and sweetness were unalterable. The incredible number
of conversions of which he was the instrument, is known only to Him who,
by his grace, was the author of them. He was employed frequently in most
important commissions, both by the holy see and by the king. But he was
thunderstruck by the arrival of four deputies from the general chapter
of his order at Bologna, in 1238, with the news that he was chosen third
general, Jordan of Saxony being lately dead. He wept and entreated, but
at length acquiesced in obedience. He made the visitation of his order
on foot, without discontinuing any of his penitential austerities, or
rather exercises. He instilled into his spiritual children a love of
regularity, solitude, mortification, prayer, sacred studies, and the
apostolical functions, especially preaching. He reduced the
constitutions of the order into a clearer method, with notes on the
doubtful passages. Thus his code of rules was approved in three general
chapters. In one held at Paris in 1239, he procured the establishment of
this regulation, that a voluntary demission of a superior, founded upon
just reasons, should be accepted. This he contrived in his own favor;
for, to the extreme regret of the order, he in the year following
resigned the generalship, which he had held only two years. He alleged
for his reason his age of sixty-five years. Rejoicing to see himself
again a private religious man, he applied himself with fresh vigor to
the exercises and functions of an apostolical life, especially the
conversion of the Saracens. Having this end in view, he engaged St.
Thomas to write his work 'Against the Gentiles;' procured the Arabic and
Hebrew tongues to be taught in several convents of his order; and
erected convents, one at Tunis, and another at Murcia, among the Moors.
In 1256, he wrote to his general that ten thousand Saracens had received
baptism. King James took him into the island of Majorca. The saint
embraced that opportunity of cultivating that infant church. This prince
was an accomplished soldier and statesman, and a sincere lover of
religion, but his great qualities were sullied by a base passion for
women. He received the admonitions of the saint with respect, and
promised amendment of life, and a faithful compliance with the saint's
injunctions in every particular; but without effect. St. Raymund, upon
discovering that he entertained a lady at his court with whom he was
suspected to have criminal conversation, made the strongest instances to
have her dismissed, which the king promised should be done, but
postponed the execution. The saint, dissatisfied with the delay, begged
leave to retire to his convent at Barcelona. The king not only refused
him leave, but threatened to punish with death any person that should
undertake to convey him out of the island. The saint, full of confidence
in God, said to his companion, "A king of the earth endeavors to deprive
us of the means of retiring; but the King of heaven will supply them."
He then walked boldly to the waters, spread his cloak upon them, tied up
one corner of it to a staff for a sail, and having made the sign of the
cross, stepped upon it without fear, while his timorous companion stood
trembling and wondering on the shore. On this new kind of vessel the
saint was wafted with such rapidity, that in six hours he reached the
harbor of Barcelona, sixty leagues distant from Majorca. Those who saw
him arrive in this manner met him with acclamations. But he, gathering
up his cloak dry, put it on, stole through the crowd, and entered his
monastery. A chapel and a tower, built on the place where he landed,
have transmitted the memory of this miracle to posterity. {203} This
relation is taken from the bull of his canonization, and the earliest
historians of his life. The king became a sincere convert, and governed
his conscience, and even his kingdoms, by the advice of St. Raymund from
that time till the death of the saint. The holy man prepared himself for
his passage to eternity, by employing days and nights in penance and
prayer. During his last illness, Alphonsus, king of Castile, with his
queen, sons, and brother; and James, king of Aragon, with his court,
visited him, and received his last benediction. He armed himself with
the last sacraments; and, in languishing sighs of divine love, gave up
his soul to God, on the 6th of January, in the year 1275, and the
hundredth of his age. The two kings, with all the princes and princesses
of their royal families, honored his funeral with their presence: but
his tomb was rendered far more illustrious by miracles. Several are
recorded in the bull of his canonization, published by Clement VIII. in
1601. Bollandus has filled fifteen pages in folio with an account of
them. His office is fixed by Clement X. to the 23d of January.

       *       *       *       *       *

The saints first learned in solitude to die to the world and themselves,
to put on the spirit of Christ, and ground themselves in a habit of
recollection and a relish only for heavenly things, before they entered
upon the exterior functions even of a spiritual ministry. Amidst these
weighty employments, not content with reserving always the time and
means of frequent retirement for conversing with God and themselves, in
their exterior functions by raising their minds to heaven with holy
sighs and desires, they made all their actions in some measure an
uninterrupted prayer and exercise of divine love and praise. St.
Bonaventure reckons it among the general exercises of every religious or
spiritual man,[1] "That he keep his mind always raised, at least
virtually, to God: hence, whensoever a servant of God has been
distracted from attending to him for ever so short a space, he grieves
and is afflicted, as if he was fallen into some misfortune, by having
been deprived of the presence of such a friend who never forgets us.
Seeing that our supreme felicity and glory consists in the eternal
vision of God, the constant remembrance of him is a kind of imitation of
that happy state: _this_ the reward, _that_ the virtue which entitles us
to it. Till we are admitted to his presence, let us in our exile always
bear him in mind: every one will behold him in heaven with so much the
greater joy, and so much the more perfectly, as he shall more
assiduously and more devoutly have remembered him on earth. Nor is it
only in our repose, but also in the midst of our employments, that we
ought to have him present to our minds, in imitation of the holy angels,
who, when they are sent to attend on us, so acquit themselves of the
functions of this exterior ministry as never to be drawn from their
interior attention to God. As much as the heavens exceed the earth, so
much larger is the field of spiritual meditation than that of all
terrestrial concerns."

Footnotes:
1.  S. Bonav. de Profectu Religios. l. 2, c. 20. p. 604.

ST. JOHN THE ALMONER, C.

PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA.

HE received his surname from his profuse alms-deeds; was nobly
descended, very rich, and a widower, at Amathus in Cyprus, where, having
buried all his children, he employed the whole income of his estate in
the {204} relief of the poor, and was no less remarkable for his great
piety. The reputation of his sanctity raised him to the patriarchal
chair of Alexandria about the year 605, at which time he was upwards of
fifty years of age. On his arrival in that city, he ordered an exact
list to be taken of his Masters. Being asked who these were, his answer
was, "The poor;" namely, on account of their great interest in the court
of heaven in behalf of their benefactors. Their number amounted to seven
thousand five hundred, whom he took under his special protection, and
furnished with all necessaries. He prepared himself, by this action, to
receive the fulness of grace in his consecration. On the same day he
published severe ordinances, but in the most humble terms, conjuring and
commanding all to use just weights and measures, in order to prevent
injustices and oppressions of the poor. He most rigorously forbade all
his officers and servants ever to receive the least presents, which are
no better than bribes, and bias the most impartial. Every Wednesday and
Friday he sat the whole day on a bench before the church, that all might
have free access to him to lay their grievances before him, and make
known their necessities. He composed all differences, comforted the
afflicted, and relieved the distressed. One of his first actions at
Alexandria was to distribute the eighty thousand pieces of gold which he
found in the treasury of his church, among hospitals and monasteries. He
consecrated to the service of the poor the great revenues of his see,
then the first in all the East, both in riches and rank. Besides these,
incredible charities flowed through his hands in continual streams,
which his example excited every one to contribute according to their
abilities. When his stewards complained that he impoverished his church,
his answer was, that God would provide for them. To vindicate his
conduct, and silence their complaints, he recounted to them a vision he
had in his youth, of a beautiful woman, brighter than the sun, with an
olive garland on her head, whom he understood to be Charity, or
compassion for the miserable; who said to him "I am the eldest daughter
of the great King. If you enjoy my favor, I will introduce you to the
great monarch of the universe. No one has so great an interest with him
as myself, who was the occasion of his coming down from heaven to become
man for the redemption of mankind." When the Persians had plundered the
East, and sacked Jerusalem, St. John entertained all that fled from
their swords into Egypt; and sent to Jerusalem, for the use of the poor
there, besides a large sum of money, one thousand sacks of corn, as many
of pulse, one thousand pounds of iron, one thousand loads of fish, one
thousand barrels of wine, and one thousand Egyptian workmen to assist in
rebuilding the churches; adding, in his letter to Modestus, the bishop,
that he wished it had been in his power to have gone in person, and
contributed the labor of his hands towards carrying on that holy work.
He also sent two bishops and an abbot to ransom captives. No number of
necessitous objects, no losses, no straits to which he saw himself often
reduced, discouraged him, or made him lose his confidence in divine
providence, and resources never failed him in the end. When a certain
person, whom he had privately relieved with a most bountiful alms,
expressed his gratitude in the strongest terms, the saint cut him short,
saying, "Brother, I have not yet spilt my blood for you, as Jesus
Christ, my master and my God, commands me." A certain merchant, who had
been thrice ruined by shipwrecks, had as often found relief from the
good patriarch, who the third time gave him a ship belonging to the
church, laden with twenty thousand measures of corn. This vessel was
driven by a storm to the British Islands, and a famine raging there, the
owners sold their cargo to great advantage, {205} and brought back a
considerable value in exchange, one half in money, the other in pewter.

The patriarch lived himself in the greatest austerity and poverty, as to
diet, apparel, and furniture. A person of distinction in the city, being
informed that our saint had but one blanket on his bed, and this a very
sorry one, sent him one of value, begging his acceptance of it, and that
he would make use of it for the sake of the donor. He accepted of it,
and put it to the intended use, but it was only for one night; and this
he passed in great uneasiness, with severe self-reproaches for being so
richly covered, while so many of his masters (his familiar term for the
poor) were so ill accommodated. The next morning he sold it, and gave
the price to the poor. The friend being informed of it, bought it for
thirty-six pieces, and gave it him a second, and a third time; for the
saint always disposed of it in the same way, saying facetiously, "We
shall see who will be tired first." He was well versed in the
scriptures, though a stranger to the pomp of profane eloquence. The
functions of his ministry, prayer, and pious reading, employed his whole
time. He studied with great circumspection to avoid the least idle word,
and never chose to speak about temporal affairs, unless compelled by
necessity, and then only in very few words. If he heard any detract from
the reputation of their neighbor, he was ingenious in turning the
discourse to some other subject, and he forbade them his house, to deter
others from that vice. Hearing that when an emperor was chosen, it was
customary for certain carvers to present to him four or five blocks of
marble, to choose one out of them for his tomb, he caused his grave to
be half dug, and appointed a man to come to him on all occasions of
pomp, and say, "My lord, your tomb is unfinished; be pleased to give
your orders to have it completed, for you know not the hour when death
will seize you." The remembrance of the rigorous account which we are to
give to God, made him often burst into the most pathetic expressions of
holy fear. But humility was his distinguishing virtue, and he always
expressed, both in words and actions, the deepest sentiments of his own
nothingness, sinfulness, miseries, and pride. He often admired how
perfectly the saints saw their own imperfections, and that they were
dust, worms, and unworthy to be ranked among men.

The saint regarded injuries as his greatest gain and happiness. He
always disarmed his enemies of their rancor by meekness, and frequently
fell at the feet of those who insulted him, to beg their pardon.
Nicetas, the governor, had formed a project of a new tax, very
prejudicial to the poor. The patriarch modestly spoke in their defence.
The governor in a passion left him abruptly. St. John sent him this
message towards evening: "The sun is going to set:" putting him in mind
of the advice of the apostle: _Let not the sun go down upon your anger_.
This admonition had its intended effect on the governor, and pierced him
to the quick. He arose, and went to the patriarch, bathed in tears,
asked his pardon, and by way of atonement, promised never more to give
ear to informers and tale-bearers. St. John confirmed him in that
resolution, adding, that he never believed any man whatever against
another, till he himself had examined the party accused; and that he
punished all calumniators and tale-bearers in a manner which might deter
others from so fatal a vice. Having in vain exhorted a certain nobleman
to forgive one with whom he was at variance, he soon after invited him
to his private chapel to assist at his mass, and there desired him to
recite with him the Lord's prayer. The saint stopped at that petition;
_Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those that trespass against
us_. When the nobleman had recited it alone, he conjured him to reflect
on what he had been saying to God at the hour of the tremendous
mysteries, {206} begging to be pardoned in the same manner as he forgave
others. The other, feeling himself struck to the heart, fell at his
feet, and from that moment was sincerely reconciled with his adversary.
The saint often exhorted men against rash judgment, saying,
"Circumstances easily deceive us; magistrates are bound to examine and
judge criminals; but what have private persons to do with others, unless
it be to vindicate them?" He used to relate many examples of persons who
were found innocent and eminent saints, though they had been condemned
by the world upon circumstances; as that of a certain monk, who brought
to that city a Jewess whom he had converted, but was accused as guilty
of lewdness with her, and cruelly scourged; for he said nothing to
justify himself, out of a desire of humiliation and suffering. But his
innocence and sanctity were soon after brought to light. St. John
employed Sophronius and John Moschus in reducing to the faith the
Severians and other heretics. Observing that many amused themselves
without the church, during part of the divine office, which was then of
a very considerable length, he followed them out, and seated himself
among them, saying, "My children, the shepherd must be with his flock."
This action, which covered them with confusion, prevented their being
guilty of that irreverence any more. As he was one day going to church,
he was accosted on the way by a woman who demanded justice against her
son-in-law that had injured her. The woman being ordered by some
standers-by to wait the patriarch's return from church, he overhearing
them, said, "How can I hope that God will hear my prayer, if I put off
the petition of this woman?" Nor did he stir from the place till he had
redressed the grievance complained of.

Nicetas, the governor, persuaded the saint to accompany him to
Constantinople, to pay a visit to the emperor. St. John was admonished
from heaven, while he was on his way, at Rhodes, that his death drew
near, and said to Nicetas, "You invite me to the emperor of the earth;
but the King of heaven calls me to himself." He therefore sailed for
Cyprus, and soon after died happily at Amathus, about the year of our
Lord 619, in the sixty-fourth of his age, and tenth of his patriarchal
dignity. His body was afterwards carried to Constantinople, where it was
kept a long time. The Turkish emperor made a present of it to Matthias,
king of Hungary, which he deposited in his chapel at Buda. In 1530 it
was translated to Tall, near Presbourg; and, in 1632, to the cathedral
itself of Presbourg, where, according to Bollandus, it still remains.
The Greeks honor this saint on the 11th of November, the day of his
death; but the Roman Martyrology on the 23d of January, the day marked
for the translation of his relics. His life, written by his two vicars,
Sophronius and Moschus, is lost; but we have that by Leontius, bishop of
Naplouse in Cyprus, from the relation of the saint's clergy, commended
in the seventh general council. It is published more correct by Rosweide
and Bollandus. We have another life of this saint, conformable to the
former, given us by Metaphrastes. See Le Quien, Oriens Christi, t. 2, p.
446.

ST. EMERENTIA, V.M.

SHE suffered about the year 304, and is named in the Martyrologies under
the name of St. Jerom, Bede, and others. She is said in her acts to have
been stoned to death, while only a catechumen, praying at the tomb of
St. Agnes.

{207}

ST. CLEMENT OF ANCYRA, B.M.

HE suffered under Dioclesian, and is ranked by the Greeks among the
great martyrs. His modern Greek acts say, his lingering martyrdom was
continued by divers torments during twenty-eight years; but are
demonstrated by Baronius and others to be of no authority. Two churches
at Constantinople were dedicated to God under the invocation of St.
Clement of Ancyra; one called of the Palace, the other now in Pera, a
suburb of that city. Several parts of his relics were kept with great
devotion at Constantinople. His skull, which was brought thence to Paris
when Constantinople was taken by the Latins, in the thirteenth century,
was given by queen Anne of Austria to the abbey of Val de Grace. See
Chatelain, p. 386. Le Quien, Oriens Chr. t. 1, p. 457.

ST. AGATHANGELUS,

THE fellow-martyr of St. Clement, bishop of Ancyra. His relics, with
those of St. Clement, lay in a church in the suburbs of Constantinople,
now called Pera; but were brought into the West when that city was taken
by the Latins.

ST. ILDEFONSUS, B.

HE was a learned Benedictin abbot of a monastery called Agaliense, in a
suburb of Toledo, promoted to the archbishopric of that city after the
death of Eugenius, in December, 657, according to F. Flores; sat nine
years and two months, and died on the 23d of January, 667, according to
the same learned author, in the eighteenth year of king Rescisvintho.
His most celebrated work is a book On the spotless virginity of the
Virgin Mary, against Helvidius, Jovinian, and a certain Jew: he breathes
in it the most tender devotion to her, and confidence in her
intercession with her Son. He had a singular devotion to St. Leocadia,
patroness of Toledo. Certain sermons of St. Ildefonsus on the B.
Virgin Mary, and some letters, are published by Flores.[1] Some of his
letters, which were first given us by D'Achery, were reprinted by
cardinal D'Aguirre.[2] In Spanish this saint is called Ildefonso, and by
the common people Alanso, for Alphonsus, which is an abbreviation of
Ildefonsus. See his short life by St. Julian, bishop of Toledo,
twenty-three years after his death. In Mabillon, sæc. 2. Fleury, b. 39,
n. 40. That by Cixila is not authentic. See especially the remarks of
the learned F. Flores on these two lives, &c., in his Spana Sagrada, t.
5, tr. 5, c. 3, n. 31, p. 275, and app. 9, ib. p. 522. F. Flores reckons
St. Ildefonsus the thirty-first bishop of Toledo, from St. Eugenius, the
disciple of St. Dionysius of Paris, whom, with the writers of his
country, he counts the first, in the year 112.

Footnotes:
1.  F. Flores. Spana Sagrada, t. 5, append. 7, p. 490.
2.  Card. D'Aguirre, Conc. Hispan. t. 2, p. 534.

{208}

ST. EUSEBIUS,

AN ABBOT BETWEEN ANTIOCH AND BER[OE]A

HIS example was a perpetual and a most moving sermon, and his very
countenance inspired all who beheld him with the love of virtue. He took
nourishment but once in four days, but would not allow any of his monks
to pass above two days without eating. He prescribed them mortifications
of each sense in particular, but made perpetual prayer his chief rule,
ordering them to implore the divine mercy in their hearts, in whatever
labor their hands were employed. While Ammianus, who had resigned to him
the government of the abbey, was one day reading aloud, out of the
scriptures, for their mutual edification, Eusebius happened to cast his
eye on certain laborers in the field where they sat, so as not to give
due attention to the lecture: to punish himself for this slight fault,
he put on, and wore till his death, for above forty years, a heavy iron
collar about his neck, fastened by a stiff chain to a great iron girdle
about his middle, so that he could only look downwards under his feet:
and he never afterwards stirred out of his cell but by a narrow passage
from his cell to the chapel. His sanctity drew many disciples to him. He
flourished in the fourth century. See Theodoret Philoth. c. 4. Item
Hist. Eccles. l. 4, c. 28.


JANUARY XXIV.

ST. TIMOTHY, B. AND M.

See Tillemont, t. 2, p. 142.

ST. TIMOTHY, the beloved disciple of St. Paul, was of Lycaonia, and
probably of the city Lystra. His father was a Gentile, but his mother
Eunice a Jewess. She, with Lois his grandmother, embraced the Christian
religion, and St. Paul commends their faith. Timothy had made the holy
scriptures his study from his infancy.[1] When St. Paul preached in
Lycaonia, in the year 51, the brethren of Iconium and Lystra gave him so
advantageous a character of the young man, that the apostle, being
deprived of St. Barnaby, took him for the companion of his labors, but
first circumcised him at Lystra. For though the Jewish ceremonies ceased
to be obligatory from the death of Christ, it was still lawful to use
them (but not as of precept and obligation) till about the time of the
destruction of Jerusalem with the temple, that the synagogue might be
buried with honor. Therefore St. Paul refused to circumcise Titus, born
of Gentile parents, to assert the liberty of the gospel, and to condemn
those who erroneously affirmed circumcision to be still of precept in
the New Law. On the other side, he circumcised Timothy, born of a
Jewess, by that condescension to render him the more acceptable to the
Jews, and to make it appear that himself was no enemy to their law. St.
Chrysostom[2] here admires the prudence, steadiness, {209} and charity
of St. Paul; and we may add, the voluntary obedience of the disciple.
St. Austin[3] extols his zeal and disinterestedness in immediately
forsaking his country, his house, and his parents, to follow this
apostle, to share in his poverty and sufferings. After he was
circumcised, St. Paul, by the imposition of hands, committed to him the
ministry of preaching, his rare virtue making ample amends for his want
of age. From that time the apostle regarded him not only as his disciple
and most dear son, but as his brother, and the companion of his
labors.[4] He calls him a man of God,[5] and tells the Philippians, that
he found no one so truly united to him in heart and sentiments, as
Timothy.[6] This esteem of the apostle is a sufficient testimony of the
extraordinary merit of the disciple, whose vocation and entrance into
the ministry was accompanied with prophecies in his behalf.[7]

St. Paul travelled from Lystra over the rest of Asia, sailed into
Macedon, and preached at Philippi, Thessalonica, and Ber[oe]a, in the year
52. Being compelled to quit this last city by the fury of the Jews, he
left Timothy behind him, to confirm the new converts there. On St.
Paul's arrival at Athens he sent for him, but being informed that the
Christians of Thessalonica lay under a very heavy persecution for the
faith, he soon after deputed him to go thither, to comfort and encourage
them under it; and he returned to St. Paul, then at Corinth, to give him
an account of his success in that commission.[8] Upon this the apostle
wrote his first epistle to the Thessalonians. From Corinth St. Paul went
to Jerusalem, and thence to Ephesus, where he spent two years. Here he
formed a resolution of returning into Greece, and sent Timothy and
Erastus before him through Macedon, to apprize the faithful in those
parts of his intention, and to prepare the alms intended to be sent the
Christians of Jerusalem.

Timothy had a particular order to go afterwards to Corinth, to correct
certain abuses, and to revive in the minds of the faithful there the
doctrine which the apostle had taught them; who, writing soon after to
the Corinthians, earnestly recommended this disciple to them.[9] St.
Paul waited in Asia for his return, and then went with him into Macedon
and Achaia. St. Timothy left him at Philippi, but rejoined him at Troas.
The apostle on his return to Palestine was imprisoned, and after two
years custody at Cæsarea, was sent to Rome. Timothy seems to have been
with him all or most of this time, and is named by him in the titles of
his epistles to Philemon, and to the Philippians and Thessalonians, in
the years 61 and 62. St. Timothy himself suffered imprisonment for
Christ, and gloriously confessed his name, in the presence of many
witnesses; but was set at liberty.[10] He was ordained bishop by a
prophecy, and a particular order of the Holy Ghost.[11] He received by
this imposition of hands, not only the grace of the sacrament, and the
authority to govern the church, but also the power of miracles, and the
other exterior gifts of the Holy Ghost. St. Paul being returned from
Rome into the East, in the year 64, left St. Timothy at Ephesus, to
govern that church, to oppose false teachers, and to ordain priests,
deacons, and even bishops.[12] For St. Chrysostom[13] and other fathers
observe, that he committed to him the care of all the churches of Asia:
and St. Timothy is always named the first bishop of Ephesus.[14]

St. Paul wrote his first epistle to Timothy from Macedon, in 64; and his
second, in 65, from Rome, while there in chains, to press him to come to
Rome, that he might see him again before he died. It is an effusion of
his heart, full of tenderness towards this his dearest son. In it he
encourages {210} him, endeavors to renew and stir up in his soul that
spirit of intrepidity, and that fire of the Holy Ghost, with which he
was filled at his ordination; gives him instructions concerning the
heretics of that time, and adds a lively description of such as would
afterwards arise.[15]

We learn[16] that St. Timothy drank only water: but his austerities
having prejudiced his health, on account of his weak stomach and
frequent infirmities, St. Paul ordered him to use a little wine. The
fathers observe that he only says a little, even in that necessity,
because the flesh is to be kept weak, that the spirit may be vigorous
and strong. St. Timothy was then young: perhaps about forty. It is not
improbable that he went to Rome to confer with his master. In the year
64 he was made by St. Paul bishop of Ephesus, before St. John arrived
there, who resided also in that city as an apostle, and exercising a
general inspection over all the churches of Asia.[17] St. Timothy is
styled a martyr in the ancient martyrologies.

His acts, in some copies ascribed to the famous Polycrates, bishop of
Ephesus, but which seem to have been written at Ephesus, in the fifth or
sixth age, and abridged by Photius, relate, that under the emperor
Nerva, in the year 97, St. John being still in the isle of Patmos, St.
Timothy was slain with stones and clubs by the heathens, while he was
endeavoring to oppose their idolatrous ceremonies on one of their
festivals called Catagogia, kept on the 22d of January, on which the
idolaters walked in troops, every one carrying in one hand an idol, and
in the other a club. St. Paulinus,[18] Theodorus Lector, and
Philostorgius,[19] inform us, that his relics were with great pomp
translated to Constantinople in the year 356, in the reign of
Constantius. St. Paulinus witnesses, that the least portion of them
wrought many miracles wherever they were distributed. These precious
remains, with those of St. Andrew. and St. Luke, were deposited under
the altar, in the church of the apostles in that city, where the devils,
by their howlings, testified how much they felt their presence, says St.
Jerom;[20] which St. Chrysostom also confirms.[21]

       *       *       *       *       *

Pious reading was the means by which St. Timothy, encouraged by the
example and exhortations of his virtuous grandmother and mother, imbibed
in his tender years, and nourished during the whole course of his life,
the most fervent spirit of religion and all virtues; and his ardor for
holy reading and meditation is commended by St. Paul, as the proof of
his devotion and earliest desire of advancing in divine charity. When
this saint was wholly taken up in the most laborious and holy functions
of the apostolic ministry, that great apostle strongly recommends to him
always to be assiduous in the same practice,[22] and in all exercises of
devotion. A minister of the gospel who neglects regular exercises of
retirement, especially self-examination, reading, meditation, and
private devotion, forgets his first and most essential duty, the care he
owes to his own soul. Neither can he hope to kindle the fire of charity
in others, if he suffer it to be extinguished {211} in his own breast.
These exercises are also indispensably necessary in a certain degree, in
all states and circumstances of life; nor is it possible for a Christian
otherwise to maintain a spirit of true piety, which ought to animate the
whole body of all his actions, and without which even spiritual
functions want as it were their soul.

Footnotes:
1.  2 Tim. iii. 15.
2.  Præf. in 1 Tim.
3.  Serm. 177, n. 7.
4.  1 Thess. iii. 2. 1 Cor. iv. 17.
5.  1 Tim. vi. 11.
6.  Phil. ii. 20.
7.  1 Tim. i. 18.
8.  Acts xviii.
9.  1 Cor. xvi. 10.
10. Heb. xiii. 23.
11. 1 Tim. iv. 14.
12. 1 Tim. {}.
13. Hom. 15, in 1 Tim.
14. Eus. l. 3, c. {} Conc. t. 4, p. 699.
15. 2 Tim. iii. 1, 2.
16. 1 Tim. v. 23.
17. In the Apocalypse, which was written in the year 95, Christ
    threatens the bishop of Ephesus, because he was fallen from his
    first charity, and exhorts him to do penance and return to his first
    works. (Apoc. xi. 4.) Calmet says, that this bishop could be no
    other than St. Timothy; Pererius, Cornelieus à Lapide, Grotius,
    Alcazar, Bossuet, and other learned men, agree in this point; also
    Tillemont, t. 2, p. 147, and Bollandus ad 21 Jan. pp. 563 & 564.
    Nicholas à Lyra and Ribera cannot be persuaded that St. Timothy ever
    deserved such a censure, unless we understand it only of his flock.
    The others say, he might have fallen into some venial remissness in
    not reprehending the vices of others with sufficient vigor; which
    fault he repaired, upon this admonition, with such earnestness, as
    to have given occasion to his martyrdom, in 97. He was succeeded in
    the see of Ephesus by John I., who was consecrated by St. John
    Evangelist. (See Consitut. Apostol. l. 8, c. 46.) Onesiumus was
    third bishop of Ephesus. See Le Quien Oriens. Chris. t. 1, p. 672.
18. Carm. 26.
19. L. 3, c. 2.
20. In Vigilant. c. 2.
21. Hom. 1, ad Pop. Antioch.
22. 1 Tim. iv. 7 and 13.

ST. BABYLAS,

BISHOP OF ANTIOCH AND MARTYR.

From St. Chrysostom, l. contra Gentiles de S. Babylâ, and hom. de S.
Babylâ, t. 2, ed. Ben. p. 531. He wrote the first discourse against the
Gentiles, expressly to confound them by the miracles of this saint. He
spoke the second five years after, in 3871 on St. Babylas's feast,
before a numerous auditory, and mentions Flavian, the bishop of Antioch,
and others, who were to speak after him on the same subject. The
miracles were recent, performed before the eyes of many then present.
Nome of the three acts of this saint in Bollandus can be authentic. See
Tillemont, Mem. t. 3, p. 400, and Hist. des Empereurs, t. 3, and F.
Merlin. Dissertation contre M. Bayle sur ce que rapporte S. Chrysostome
du Martyre de S. Babylas, Mem. de Trevoux, Juin 1737, p. 1051. Also
Stilting, the Bollandist, in Vit. S. Chrysost. §15. p 439, ad 14
Septemb. t. 4.

About the year 250.

THE most celebrated of the ancient bishops of Antioch, after St.
Ignatius, was St. Babylas, who succeeded Zebinus in the year 237, and
governed that church with great zeal and virtue, about thirteen years,
under the emperors Gordian, Philip, and Decius. Philip, an Arabian by
birth, and of mean extraction, raised by the young emperor Gordian to be
prefect of the prætorian guards, perfidiously murdered his master at the
head of his victorious army in Persia, and caused himself to be
acknowledged emperor by the senate and people of Rome, in the year 244.
We have very imperfect histories of his reign. Eusebius says that he
abolished the public stews and promiscuous bathing in Rome, which
Alexander Severus, the most virtuous of the heathen emperors, had in
vain attempted to do. The same historian adds, it was averred[1] that
Philip, being a Christian, subjected himself to canonical penance at
Antioch, where being arrived on the eve of a great festival, as the
chronicle of Alexandria relates, he presented himself at the Christian
oratory, with his wife; but being excluded by the bishop, with a meek
rebuke for his crimes, he made his exomologesis, or confession, and
ranked himself among the penitents without doors. St. Jerom, Vincent of
Lerins, Orosius, and others, positively affirm that this emperor was a
Christian: and Eusebius, Rufinus, St. Jerom, Vincent of Lerins, and
Syncellus say, that Origen wrote two letters, one to the emperor Philip,
another to his wife, with an authority which the Christian priesthood
gave him over emperors.

Philip assisted at the heathenish solemnity of the thousandth year of
Rome; but his presence was necessary on that occasion, nor is he said to
have offered sacrifice. He was indeed a bad Christian, and probably only
a catechumen, an ambitious and cruel tyrant, who procured the death of
Misitheus, father-in-law of Gordian, murdered Gordian himself to usurp
his empire, and put to death the young prince, son of the king of
Persia, of the Parthians, left a hostage in his hands: circumstances
mentioned by St. Chrysostom. Having reigned something upwards of five
years, he was slain with his son Philip, his colleague in the empire, by
Decius, about the middle of the year 249. The peace and favor which the
church had enjoyed during his reign, had much increased her numbers, but
had relaxed the fervor of many, as we see in St. Cyprian's works, and in
the life of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus. Whole cities had embraced the
faith, and public {212} churches were erected. Decius equally hated the
Philips and the Christian religion, against which he published the most
cruel edicts in the year 250; which caused the seventh general
persecution, permitted by God to purge away the dross to his flock, and
to awake them to fervor.

St. Chrysostom extols the courage and zeal of St. Babylas, in shutting
the church-doors against an emperor and a barbarous tyrant, then at the
head of a victorious army. We find Philip styled conqueror of the
Parthians, in an inscription in Gruter,[2] by which he seems to have
returned triumphant, though Zonoras pretends he had bought a peace.
Eusebius mentions it as a report, that the emperor received the bishop's
rebuke with meekness, and submitted to public penance: but St.
Chrysostom insinuates, that the same tyrant, in a rage for being refused
admittance, threw St. Babylas into a dungeon, where he soon died. St.
Jerom says that Decius imprisoned him, which seems the true account. F.
Stilting thinks that Decius, after being proclaimed emperor in Pannonia,
marched first against Philip, and when he was slain, led his army into
Syria, where Priscus, Philip's brother, commanded the troops of those
parts, and Jotapian about that time assumed the purple, but was soon
crushed. At this time he doubts not but Decius was forbid by St. Babylas
to enter the church, because he was an idolater, and had perfidiously
murdered a prince who was the son of some king of a nation of
barbarians, who had sent him as a hostage to that tyrant. For many
transactions of that time are not recorded by the Roman historians. At
least it seems to have been under Decius that St. Babylas consummated
his martyrdom by the hardships of his prison: and when dying, ordered
his chains to be buried with him, as the happy instruments and marks of
his triumph. The Christians built a church over his tomb. His body
rested here about one hundred years, till 351, when Gallus Cæsar
translated it to Daphne, five miles from Antioch, to oppose the worship
of a famous idol of Apollo, which gave oracles in that place. Gallus
erected a church, sacred to the name of St. Babylas, near the profane
temple, and placed in it his venerable ashes in a shrine above ground.
The neighborhood of the martyr's relics struck the devil dumb, as is
averred by St. Chrysostom. Theodoret,[3] Sozomen, and others, who
triumph over the pagans on this account.[4] Eleven years after, Julian
the Apostate came to Antioch, in the year 362, and by a multitude of
sacrifices endeavored to learn of the idol the cause of his silence. At
length the fiend gave him to understand, that the neighborhood was full
of dead bones, which must be removed before he could be at rest and
disposed to give answers. Julian understood this of the body of St.
Babylas, and commanded that the Christians should immediately remove his
shrine to some distant place; but not touch the other dead bodies. Thus
do the fathers and Christian historians of that age relate this
miracle.[5] The Christians obeyed the order, and with great solemnity
carried back in procession the sacred relics to Antioch, singing on this
occasion the psalms which ridicule the vanity and feebleness of idols,
repeating after every verse: "May they who adore idols and glory in
false gods, blush with shame and be covered with confusion." The
following evening, lightning fell on the temple of Apollo, and reduced
to ashes all the rich and magnificent ornaments with which it was
embellished, and the idol itself, leaving only the walls standing.
Julian, the emperor's uncle, {213} and governor of the East, upon this
news hastened to Daphne, and endeavored by tortures to compel the
priests to confess if the accident had happened by any negligence, or by
the interposition of the Christians: but it was clearly proved by the
testimony of these very priests, and also by that of several peasants
who saw the fire fall from heaven, that lightning was the cause. The
Apostate durst not restore the idol lest the like thunder should fall on
his own head: but he breathed nothing but fury against the Christians in
general, more especially against those of Antioch, the fatal effects of
which he intended they should feel at his return from the Persian war.
Vain projects against God, who defeated them by his unhappy death in
that expedition! The ruins of this temple remained in the same condition
above twenty years after. The Roman Martyrology, with that of St. Jerom
and others of the West, celebrate the memory of St. Babylas on the 24th
of January, but the Greeks on the 4th of September, together with three
children martyred with him, as St. Chrysostom and others mention. His
body is said to be now at Cremona, brought from the East in the
crusades. St. Babylas is the titular saint of many churches in Italy,
France, and Spain.

Footnotes:
1.  [Greek: Touton katexei xristianon honta] Eus. l. 6, c. 3.
2.  P. 273.
3.  Theodoret l. 3. Hist. c. 6, and de Græcor. Affect. l. 10. Rufin.
    Chrys.
4.  St. Chrysostom has given us the lamentation of Libanius, the
    celebrated heathen sophist, bewailing the silence of Apollo at
    Daphne; adding that Julian had delivered him from the neighborhood
    of a dead man, which was troublesome to him.
5.  Ammianus Marcellinus, a heathen, and Julian's own historian, says b.
    2, p. 225, that he caused all the bones of dead men to be taken away
    to purify the place.

ST. SURANUS, ABBOT IN UMBRIA,

WHO gave all things, even the herbs out of his garden, to the poor. He
was martyred by the Lombards in the seventh century, and his relics were
famed for miracles.[1]

Footnotes:
1.  St. Greg. Dial. l. 4, c. 22.

ST. MACEDONIUS, ANCHORET IN SYRIA.

HE lived forty years on barley moistened in water, till finding his
health impaired, he ate bread, reflecting that it was not lawful for him
to shorten his life to shun labors and conflicts, as he told the mother
of Theodoret; persuading her, when in a bad state of health, to use a
proper food, which he said was physic to her. Theodoret relates many
miraculous cures of sick persons, and of his own mother among them, by
water on which he had made the sign of the cross, and that his own birth
was the effect of his prayers, after his mother had lived childless in
marriage thirteen years.[1] {214} The saint died, ninety years old, and
is named in the Greek menologies. See Theodoret, Hist. Eccles. l. 5, c.
19, and Philotheæ, c. 13. St. Chrysost. hom. 17, ad Pop. Antioch.

Footnotes:
1.  The great Theodoret was dedicated to God by his parents before he
    was born, and was educated in the study of every true branch of
    Syriac, Greek, and Hebrew learning. He gave a large estate to the
    poor, and entered a monastery near Apamea, but was taken out of it
    against his will, and consecrated bishop of Cyrus in 423, being very
    young. He converted all the Marcionites, Arians, and other heretics
    in his diocese, in which he reckons eight hundred churches, or
    parishes. (Ep. 113, p. 987.) Cyrus was a very small poor town in a
    desert country, eighty miles from Antioch, one hundred and twenty
    from Apamea, and one hundred and seventeen from Samosata. Though
    Theodoret lived in great poverty, he enriched the poor and the
    churches, and built for his city an aqueduct, two large bridges,
    porticoes, and baths. In 430 pope Celestin and St. Cyril of
    Alexandria wrote to John, patriarch of Antioch, against Nestorius,
    who on his side sent an orthodox letter to the same prelate: soon
    after St. Cyril wrote his third letter to Nestorius, to which he
    subjoined twelve anathematisms against the errors of Nestorius. In
    this writing certain obscure phrases occur, which John of Antioch
    thought favorable to the heresy of Apollinaris: whereupon he engaged
    Theodoret to undertake a confutation of them. Theodoret carried on
    this contest with great warmth in several writings, and when the
    ecumenical council of Ephesus was assembled in 431, refused, with
    John of Antioch, and the rest of the forty Oriental bishops, to
    enter it, because Nestorius had been condemned in it on the 21st of
    June, before they arrived at Ephesus on the 27th. They even went so
    far as to pretend to excommunicate St. Cyril, and form a schism in
    the church. F. Garnier, the most declared enemy to Theodoret among
    the moderns, lays to his charge several things, of which Tillemont
    and others clear him. It is certain that he wrote with great
    bitterness against St. Cyril, and his anathematisms, as appears from
    the works which he wrote upon that occasion, especially certain
    letters and fragments of his Pentalogus, (or work in five books,
    against St. Cyril,) still extant. But St. Cyril having made a clear
    confession of his faith in a letter to Acacius of Ber[oe]a, Theodoret
    loudly declared him orthodox, and this he proved even in letters
    which he wrote to Nestorius himself, and to Alexander of Hierapolis,
    his own metropolitan, the warmest of all St. Cyril's enemies. John
    of Antioch and many others made their peace with St. Cyril, about
    the month of April. In 433, Theodoret stood out some time longer, by
    refusing to condemn the person of Nestorius. St. Cyril and John of
    Antioch afterwards admitted him to their communion without requiring
    that condition, and Theodoret labored to gain over Alexander of
    Hierapolis; but in vain, so that this prelate was banished by the
    emperor; Theodoret himself, though he enjoyed the communion of St.
    Cyril, and of John of Antioch, was often accused, because he
    persisted to defend the person of Nestorius. The persecution was
    often renewed against Theodoret, so long as he adhered to Nestorius,
    especially after St. Cyril, St. Proclus, and all the western
    prelates condemned the writings of Theodorus of Mopsuestia, as the
    master of the heresiarch Nestorius in his capital error. The
    Orientals defended Theodorus, and Theodoret endeavored to justify
    him by several writings against St. Cyril, of which only fragments
    quoted in the fifth council are extant. St. Cyril, by his silence
    and moderation, calmed this dispute, and always maintained peace
    with the Orientals from the time it was settled between them. His
    death happened in June, 444, and Dioscorus, the impious Eutychian,
    was his successor. Theodorus, bishop of Mopsuestia, in Cilicia, who
    died in 428, in his erroneous writings laid the foundation both of
    the Pelagian and Nestorian heresies. Theodoret, in his writings
    against St. Cyril, adopts certain expressions which favored
    Nestorianism, and were condemned in the fifth general council;
    nevertheless, his sentiments were always orthodox, as is proved by
    Tillemont, (Art. 20, t. 15, p. 253,) Natalis Alexander, Graveson,
    &c. By exerting his zeal against Eutyches and Dioscorus, he incurred
    the indignation of their sect, and the false council of Ephesus
    pronounced a pretended sentence of deposition against him.
    Theodosius the younger first forbade him to stir out of his diocese,
    and when he desired to go to Rome to justify himself, in 450,
    banished him to his monastery near Apamea. The emperor Marcian put
    an end to the persecution raised by the Eutychians under his
    predecessor; yet Theodoret chose to continue in his monastery till
    he was called by pope Leo to assist at the council of Chalcedon. He
    had received, with great applause, the excellent letter of that pope
    to Flavian, and St. Leo declared null all the proceedings of
    Dioscorus against him at Ephesus, and restored him to his see,
    (Conc. t. 4, p. 622.) The council of Chalcedon met in 451, and in
    the seventh session, held on the 26th of October, Theodoret
    presented his request that his writings and faith might be examined.
    Those who were prepossessed against him would not allow any such
    examination, but required that he should anathematize Nestorius,
    which he at length did; and the council, with high commendations,
    declared him orthodox, and worthy of his see. Marcian, by a law
    published the following year, annulled the edict of Theodosius
    against him and Flavian. He died at Cyrus, about the year 458. The
    heresy of Nestorius he had clearly condemned from the beginning,
    with John of Antioch, in their exhortatory letter to Nestorius,
    (Conc. t. 3, p. 394). What mistakes and faults he fell into he
    cancelled by his edifying repentance; and the great virtues which he
    practised even under his disgrace, the extent of his learning, and
    the sublimity and acuteness of his genius, have established his
    reputation in all succeeding ages, and he is deservedly ranked among
    the must illustrious fathers of the church. His excellent writings
    are the most authentic monuments of his extraordinary learning and
    piety. He modestly compares himself (Proleg. in Osee. t. 2, p. 700)
    to the Jewish poor women, who in the building of the tabernacle,
    having neither gold nor silver to give to God towards this work,
    picked and gathered together the hair, thread, or cloths,
    contributed by others, or spun, or sewed something, not to be found
    quite empty-handed. St. Chrysostom was taken away from Antioch in
    397, and Theodoret was only born about the year 393: but though he
    had not the happiness of hearing his divine discourses, he took him
    for his principal model, and especially in his comments on the
    scriptures usually adhered to those of that incomparable doctor. His
    works were printed at Paris, in 1642, in four volumes in folio, to
    which F. Garnier, a learned Jesuit, in 1684, added a fifth under the
    title of an Auctarium, containing certain letters and discourses of
    this father, with several prolix historical dissertations on the
    Nestorian heresy. The judicious F. Sirmond, far more equitable than
    F. Garnier. admires Theodoret's brevity, joined with great
    perspicuity, especially in his commentaries, and commends the
    pleasing beauty and attic elegance of his style. Photius praises his
    fruitfulness of invention, the purity of his language, the choice of
    his words, and the smoothness and neatness of his style, in which he
    finds everywhere a decent and noble elevation, though he thinks his
    metaphors sometimes too bold. This great critic calls his method of
    short notes the most accomplished model for interpreting the holy
    scriptures, and mentions, as an instance of his sincere humility,
    that he never employs a single word, or produces a quotation for
    ostentation, never falling into digressions foreign to his purpose;
    we may almost say, that a superfluous word scarce ever escapes him.
    (Phot. Cod. 203, p. 526. Cod. 31, 46, 56.)

    His comments on St. Paul, and on most of the books of the old
    Testament, are concise literal, and solid, but contain not that
    inexhausted and excellent treasure of morality which we find in St.
    Chrysostom, whose commentaries Theodoret had always before him: this
    latter excels chiefly on the prophets. His church history, in five
    books, from the close of that of Eusebius in 324 to 429, is a
    valuable compilation. Photius justly prefers his style to that of
    Eusebius, Evagrius, Socrates, and Sozomen, as more historical,
    clear, and lofty, without any redundancy. (Cod. 31) His religious
    history, or Philothea, (_i.e._ History of the Friends of God,)
    contains the lives of thirty monks and anchorets of his time. He was
    himself an eye-witness to several of the miracles which he relates
    to have been wrought by the sign of the cross, holy water, and
    blessed oil. Of some other miracles which he mentions, he tells us
    that they were so authentic and notorious that no one who believes
    those of Moses, Elias, and the Apostles, could deny them. The five
    books, Of Heretical Fables, are a history of ancient heresies which
    he wrote at the request of Sporacius, one of the imperial
    commissaries at the council of Chalcedon, who was consul in 452. In
    the fourth book, he inveighs most bitterly against Nestorius, whom
    he had for some time unwarily favored. The letters of Theodoret
    which are extant, amount to the number of 146. His book Against the
    twelve Anthematisms of St. Cyril, he tacitly recalled by his
    condemnation of Nestorius; also his Pentalogus on the same subject,
    which is now lost, except some fragments preserved by Marius
    Mercator. His three dialogues against the Eutychians, he entitled
    Polymorphus, (_i.e._ of many shapes,) and Eranistes, that is, the
    Beggar, because the Eutychian error was gathered from the various
    heresies of Marcian, Valentin, Arius, and Apollinaris. The first
    dialogue he calls the Unchangeable, because in it he shows that the
    divine Word suffered no change by becoming man. The second is
    entitled The Inconfused, from the subject, which is to prove that in
    Christ, after the Incarnation, the divine and human nature remain
    really distinct. The third is called, The Impassible, because in it
    the author demonstrates that the divinity neither did nor could
    suffer; the same is the purport of his Demonstration by syllogisms.
    The dialogues were written about the year 447; for the author
    clearly confutes Eutyches, though he never names him; and it appears
    that St. Cyril was then dead, the author reckoning him in the end
    among the Catholic doctors, who had formerly flourished in the
    church, and among the stars which had enlightened the world. (Dial.
    2. p. 86, and 111.)

    Theodoret's ten sermons On Providence, is a work never yet
    paralleled by any other writer, ancient or modern, on that sublime
    subject; whether we consider the matter and the choice of thoughts,
    or the author's sincere piety, or his extensive knowledge, and the
    depth of his philosophical inquiries, or the strength and solidity
    of his reasoning, or the noble sublimity of the expression, and the
    elegance and perspicuity of the diction. It was the love of God
    which engaged him to undertake, in this task, the defence of the
    cause of our best Father and supreme Lord, as he modestly assures
    us, (p. 320,) and this motive animated him with fresh life and
    uncommon vigor in exerting and displaying the strength and beauty of
    his genius on so great a subject.

    His twelve discourses On healing the Prejudices of the Greeks, are
    an excellent apology for our faith against the pagans; a performance
    which falls little short of the former. In it we meet with many
    curious anecdotes relating to the heathenish theology of the
    ancients, and the impiety and vices with which their philosophers
    disgraced their profession. In the eighth of these discourses, which
    is entitled, On the Martyrs, he clearly demonstrates that the
    veneration which Christians pay to the saints in heaven, is entirely
    different from the worship which the heathens give to their false
    gods, and elegantly explains (pp. 591, 660, 606) in what manner the
    souls of the martyrs now in heaven, with the choirs of angels, are
    our protectors and mediators with God, the physicians of our bodies,
    and savers of our souls: the portions of their divided relics are
    the guard and protection of our cities, which through their
    intercession with God obtain divine gifts: Christians give their
    names to their children to put these under their patronage: it was a
    custom to hang up before their shrines, gold or silver images of
    eyes, feet, or hands, as tokens or memorials of health, or other
    benefits received by their means: they keep their festivals, as
    those of Peter, Paul, Thomas, Sergius, Marcellus, Leontius,
    Panteleemon, Antoninus, Mauritius, and others, in prayer, divine
    canticles, and holy sermons. The same he testifies in his other
    works. Almost every life of holy monks which he wrote, he closes by
    imploring their intercession, and mentions that as far as Rome,
    handicraftsman hang up in their shops the picture of St. Simeon
    Stylites, hoping by their devotion to share in the protection of his
    prayers. (Philoth. c. 26, p. 862.) We learn from, him, that
    Christians were always accustomed to make the sign of the cross on
    the cup before they drank. (Hist. Eccl. l. 3, c. 13.) He often
    extols the virtues of that holy sign, honored, as he says, by all
    Christians, whether Greeks, Romans, or Barbarians, (Serm. 6, de
    Prov. p. 580, t. 4,) and he relates, (Hist. Eccl. l. 3. c. 1,) that
    Julian the Apostate, by making it in a fright, drove away the devils
    which one of his enchanters was invoking. His book in praise of
    virginity, to which he refers us, (on 1 Cor. vii. 33.) is lost; also
    the book in which he confuted both Eutyches and Nestorius, which is
    mentioned by Gennadius (c. 89) and Marcellinus. (ad an. 466.) His
    book Against the Jews, and several others, have not reached us.
    Among those which are extant his Octateuch, (or comments on the five
    books of Moses, and those of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth,) to which he
    added comments on the books of Kings and Paralipomenon, much
    commended by Photius, seems to be the last work which he wrote. See
    Tillem. t. 15. Ceillier.

{215}

ST. CADOCUS, OR CADOC, ABBOT IN WALES.

CADOC was son to Gundleus, a prince of South Wales, by his wife Gladusa,
daughter of Braghan, whose name wax given to the province now called
Brecknockshire. His parents were not less ennobled by their virtues than
by their blood, and his father, who some years before his death
renouncing the world, led an eremitical life near a country church which
he had built, was honored in Wales among the saints. Cadoc, who was his
eldest son, succeeded in the government, but not long after followed his
father's example; and embracing a religious life, put himself under the
direction of St. Tathai, an Irish monk, who had opened a famous school
at Gwen{t}, the ancient Venta Silurum of the Romans, afterwards a
bishop's see, now in ruins in Monmouthshire. Our saint made such
progress both in learning and virtue, that when he returned into
Glamorganshire, his own country, he spread on every side the rays of his
wisdom and sanctity. Here, three miles from Cowbridge, he built a church
and a monastery, which was called Llan-carvan, or the Church of Stags,
and sometimes Nancarvan, that is, the Vale of Stags. The school which he
established in this place became most illustrious, and fruitful in great
and holy men. By our saint's persuasion St. Iltut renounced the court
and the world, and learned at Llan-carvan that science which he
preferred to all worldly treasures. He afterwards founded the great
monastery of Llan-Iltut. These two monasteries and that of St. Docuinus,
all situated in the diocese of Landaff, were very famous for many ages,
and were often governed by abbots of great eminence. St. Gildas, after
his return from Ireland, entered the monastery of St. Cadoc, where he
taught for one year, and copied a book of the gospels, which was long
preserved with great care in the church of St. Cadoc, and highly
reverenced by the Welsh, who used it in their most solemn oaths and
covenants. After spending there one year, St. Gildas and St. Cadoc left
Llan-carvan, being desirous to live in closer retirement. They hid
themselves first in the islands of Ronech and Echni. An ancient life of
St. Cadoc tells us, that he died at Benevenna, which is the {216} Roman
name of a place now called Wedon, in Northamptonshire. Some moderns take
it for Benevento, in Italy, where they suppose him to have died.
Chatelain imagines this St. Cadoc to be the same who is honored at
Rennes, under the name of Cadoc, or Caduad, and from whom a small island
on the coast of Vennes is called Enes-Caduad. St. Cadoc flourished in
the beginning of the sixth century, and was succeeded in the abbacy of
Llan-carvan, by Ellenius, "an excellent disciple of an excellent
master," says Leland. See the Acts of St. Cadoc, in Capgrave; Usher's
Antiquities, c. 13, p. 252. Chatelain's Notes on the. Martyr. p. 399.


JANUARY XXV.

THE CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL.

See Tillemont, t. 1, p. 192.

THIS great apostle was a Jew, of the tribe of Benjamin. At his
circumcision, on the eighth day after his birth, he received the name of
Saul. His father was by sect a Pharisee, and a denizen of Tarsus, the
capital of Cilicia: which city had shown a particular regard for the
cause of the Cæsars; on which account Cassius deprived it of its
privileges and lands; but Augustus, when conqueror, made it ample amends
by honoring it with many new privileges, and with the freedom of Rome,
as we read in the two Dions and Appian. Hence St. Paul, being born at
Tarsus, was by privilege a Roman citizen, to which quality a great
distinction and several exemptions were granted by the laws of the
empire.[1] His parents sent him young to Jerusalem, where he was
educated and instructed in the strictest observance of the law of Moses,
by Gamaliel,[2] a learned and noble Jew, and probably a member of the
Sanhedrim; and was a most scrupulous observer of it in every point. He
appeals even to his enemies to bear evidence how conformable to it his
life had been in every respect.[3] He embraced the sect of the
Pharisees, which was of all others the most severe, though by its pride
the most opposite to the humility of the gospel.[4] It was a rule among
the Jews that all their children were to learn some trade with their
studies, were it but to avoid idleness, and to exercise the body, as
well as the mind, in something serious.[5] It is therefore probable that
Saul learned in his youth the trade which he exercised even after his
apostleship, of making tents.[6]

Saul, surpassing all his equals in zeal for the Jewish law and their
traditions, which he thought the cause of God, became thereby a,
blasphemer, a persecutor, and the most outrageous enemy of Christ.[7] He
was one of those who combined to murder St. Stephen, and by keeping the
garments of all who stoned that holy martyr, he is said by St. Austin to
have stoned him by the hands of all the rest;[8] to whose prayers for
his enemies he ascribes {217} the conversion of St. Paul:[9] "If
Stephen," said he, "had not prayed, the church would never have had St.
Paul."

After the martyrdom of the holy deacon, the priests and magistrates of
the Jews raised a violent persecution against the church at Jerusalem,
in which Saul signalized himself above others. By virtue of the power he
had received from the high priest, he dragged the Christians out of
their houses, loaded them with chains, and thrust them into prison.[10]
He procured them to be scourged in the synagogues, and endeavored by
torments to compel them to blaspheme the name of Christ. And as our
Saviour had always been represented by the leading men of the Jews as an
enemy to their law, it was no wonder that this rigorous Pharisee fully
persuaded himself that _he ought to do many things contrary to the name
of Jesus of Nazareth_.[11] By the violences he committed, his name
became everywhere a terror to the faithful. The persecutors not only
raged against their persons, but also seized their estates and what they
possessed in common,[12] and left them in such extreme necessity, that
the remotest churches afterwards thought it incumbent on them to join in
charitable contributions to their relief. All this could not satisfy the
fury of Saul; he breathed nothing but threats and the slaughter of the
other disciples.[13] Wherefore, in the fury of his zeal, he applied to
the high priest and Sanhedrim for a commission to take up all Jews at
Damascus who confessed Jesus Christ, and bring them bound to Jerusalem,
that they might serve as public examples for the terror of others. But
God was pleased to show forth in him his patience and mercy; and, moved
by the prayers of St. Stephen and his other persecuted servants, for
their enemies, changed him, in the very heat of his fury, into a vessel
of election, and made him a greater man in his church by the grace of
the apostleship, than St. Stephen had ever been, and a more illustrious
instrument of his glory. He was almost at the end of his journey to
Damascus, when about noon, he and his company were on a sudden
surrounded by a great light from heaven, brighter than the sun.[14] They
all saw the light, and being struck with amazement, fell to the ground.
Then Saul heard a voice, which to him was articulate and distinct; but
not understood, though heard by the rest:[15] _Saul, Saul, why dost thou
persecute me?_ Christ said not: Why dost thou persecute my disciples?
but me: for it is he, their head, who is chiefly persecuted in his
servants. Saul answered: _Who art thou, Lord?_ Christ said: _Jesus of
Nazareth, whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the
goad:_ "to contend with one so much mightier than thyself. By
persecuting my church you make it flourish, and only prick and hurt
yourself." This mild expostulation of our Redeemer, accompanied with a
powerful interior grace, strongly affecting his soul, cured his pride,
assuaged his rage, and wrought at once a total change in him. Wherefore,
trembling and astonished, he cried out: _Lord, what wilt thou have me to
do?_ What to repair the past? What to promote your glory? I make a
joyful oblation of myself to execute your will in every thing, and to
suffer for your sake afflictions, disgraces, persecutions, torments, and
every sort of death. The true convert expressed this, not in a bare form
of words, nor with faint languid desires, nor with any exception lurking
in the secret recesses of his heart; but with an entire sacrifice of
himself, and an heroic victory over the world with its frowns and
charms, over the devils with their snares and threats, and over himself
and all inclinations of self-love; devoting himself totally to God. A
{218} perfect model of a true conversion, the greatest work of almighty
grace! Christ ordered him to arise and proceed on his journey to the
city, where he should be informed of what he expected from him. Christ
would not instruct him immediately by himself, but, St. Austin
observes,[16] sent him to the ministry[17] which he had established in
the church, to be directed in the way of salvation by those whom he had
appointed for that purpose. He would not finish the conversion and
instruction of this great apostle, whom he was pleased to call in so
wonderful a manner, but by remitting him to the guidance of his
ministers; showing us thereby that his holy providence has so ordered
it, that all who desire to serve him, should seek his will by listening
to those whom he has commanded us to hear, and whom he has sent in his
own name and appointed to be our guides. So perfectly would he abolish
in his servants all self-confidence and presumption, the source of error
and illusion. The convert, rising from the ground, found that, though
his eyes were open, he saw nothing. Providence sent this corporal
blindness to be an emblem of the spiritual blindness in which he had
lived, and to signify to him that he was henceforward to die to the
world, and learn to apply his mind totally to the contemplation of
heavenly things. He was led by the hand into Damascus, whither Christ
seemed to conduct him in triumph. He was lodged in the house of a Jew
named Judas, where he remained three days blind, and without eating or
drinking. He doubtless spent his time in great bitterness of soul, not
yet knowing what God required of him. With what anguish he bewailed his
past blindness and false zeal against the church, we may conjecture both
from his taking no nourishment during those three days, and from the
manner in which he ever after remembered and spoke of his having been a
blasphemer and a persecutor. Though the entire reformation of his heart
was not gradual, as in ordinary conversions, but miraculous in the order
of grace, and perfect in a moment; yet a time of probation and a severe
interior trial (for such we cannot doubt but he went through on this
occasion) was necessary to crucify the old man and all other earthly
sentiments in his heart, and to prepare it to receive the extraordinary
graces which God designed him. There was a Christian of distinction in
Damascus, much respected by the Jews for his irreproachable life and
great virtue; his name was Ananias. Christ appeared to this holy
disciple; and commanded him to go to Saul, who was then in the house of
Judas at prayer: Ananias trembled at the name of Saul, being no stranger
to the mischief he had done in Jerusalem, or to the errand on which he
was set out to Damascus. But our Redeemer overruled his fears, and
charged him a second time to go to him, saying: _Go, for he is a vessel
of election to carry my name before Gentiles and kings, and the children
of Israel: and I will show him how much he has to suffer for my name_.
For tribulation is the test and portion of all the true servants of
Christ. Saul in the mean time saw in a vision a man entering, and laying
his hands upon him, to restore his sight. Ananias, obeying the divine
order, arose, went to Saul, and laying his hands upon him, said:
_Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to thee on thy journey, hath
sent me that thou mayest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy
Ghost._ Immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he
recovered his eyesight. Ananias added: _The God of our fathers hath
chosen thee that thou shouldst know his will and see the just one, and
shouldst hear the voice from his mouth: and thou shalt be his witness
unto all men to publish what thou hast seen and heard. Arise, therefore,
be baptized and washed from thy sins, invoking the name of the Lord._
Saul then arose, was baptized,{219} and took some refreshment. He stayed
some few days with the disciples at Damascus, and began immediately to
preach in the synagogues, that Jesus was the Son of God, to the great
astonishment of all that heard him, who said: _Is not this he who
persecuted at Jerusalem those who invoked the name of Jesus, and who is
come hither to carry them away prisoners?_ Thus a blasphemer and a
persecutor was made an apostle, and chosen to be one of the principal
instruments of God in the conversion of the world.

       *       *       *       *       *

St. Paul never recalled to mind this his wonderful conversion, without
raptures of gratitude and praise to the divine mercy. The church, in
thanksgiving to God for such a miracle of his grace, from which it has
derived such great blessings, and to commemorate so miraculous an
instance of his almighty power, and to propose to penitents a perfect
model of a true conversion, has instituted this festival, which we find
mentioned in several calendars and missals of the eighth and ninth
centuries, and which pope Innocent III. commanded to be observed with
great solemnity. It was for some time kept a holy day of obligation in
most churches in the West; and we read it mentioned as such in England
in the council of Oxford in 1222, in the reign of king Henry III.[18]

Footnotes:
1.  Acts, xxi. 29, xxii. 3.
2.  Ibid. xxii. 3.
3.  Ibid. xxvi. 4.
4.  Ibid. xxvi. 5.
5.  Rabbi Juda says, "That a parent, who neglects his duty, is as
    criminal as if he taught his son to steal." See Grotius and Sanctius
    on Acts xviii. 3.
6.  These tents were for the use of soldiers and mariners, and were made
    of skins sewn together. {} think that his business was that of
    making tapestry and hangings for theatres.
7.  Gal. i. 14.
8.  Serm. 301.
9.  Ibid. l. 16, c. 4. Acts, vi.
10. Acts, viii. 3, xxii. 4, xxvi. 10.
11. Acts, xxvi. 9.
12. Heb. x. 32.
13. Acts, x. 1.
14. Acts, ix. xiii. xxvi.
15. So the Greek word [Greek: akoein] is often used in scripture, as in
    J{} xiv. 2. And thus the text is very reconcilable with Acts. xxii.
    9.
16. Qu. Evang. l. 2, c. 40, et præf. 1, de doctr. Christ. p. 32.
17. St. Austin doubts not but Ananias was a bishop, or at least a
    priest. The Greeks give him a place in their calendar on the 1st of
    October, and style him bishop of Damascus and martyr.
18. Conc. Labbe, t. xi. p. 274.

SS. JUVENTINUS AND MAXIMINUS, MARTYRS.

From the elegant panegyric of St. Chrysostom, t. 2, p. 578, ed. Montf.,
and from Theodoret, Hist. l. 3, c. 11.

A.D. 363.

THESE martyrs were two officers of distinction in the foot-guards of
Julian the Apostate.[1] When that tyrant was on his march against the
Persians, they let fall at table certain free reflections on his impious
laws against the Christians, wishing rather for death than to see the
profanation {220} of holy things. The emperor, being informed of this,
sent for them, and finding that they could not be prevailed upon by any
means to retract what they had said, nor to sacrifice to idols, he
confiscated their estates, caused them to be cruelly scourged, and, some
days after, to be beheaded in prison at Antioch, January the 25th, 363.
The Christians, with the hazard of their lives, stole away their bodies,
and after the death of Julian, who was slain in Persia on the 26th of
June following, erected for them a magnificent tomb. On their festival
St. Chrysostom pronounced their panegyric, in which he says of these
martyrs: "They support the church as pillars, defend it as towers, and
repel all assaults as rocks. Let us visit them frequently, let us touch
their shrine, and embrace their relics with confidence, that we may
obtain from thence some benediction. For as soldiers, showing to the
king the wounds which they have received in his battles, speak with
confidence, so they, by an humble representation of their past
sufferings for Christ, obtain whatever they ask of the King of
heaven."[2]

Footnotes:
1.  Julian, surnamed the Apostate, rebelled against Constantius, his
    cousin-german, in the spring, in 360, and by his death, in November,
    361, obtained the empire. He was one of the most infamous
    dissemblers that ever lived. Craft, levity, inconstancy, falsehood,
    want of judgment, and an excessive vanity, discovered themselves in
    all his actions, and appear in his writings, namely, his epistles,
    his satire called Misopogon, and his lives of the Cæsars. He wrote
    the last work to censure all the former emperors, that he might
    appear the only great prince: for a censorious turn is an effect of
    vanity and pride. He was most foolishly superstitious, and
    exceedingly fond of soothsayers and magicians. After the death of
    Constantius, he openly professed idolatry, and by besmearing himself
    with the blood of impious victims, pretended to efface the character
    of baptism. He was deceived in almost every step by ridiculous
    omens, oracles, and augurs, as may be seen in his heathen historian,
    Ammianus Marcellinus, (b. 22.) Maximus, the magician, and others of
    that character, were his chief confidants. He endeavored, by the
    black art, to rival the miracles of Christ, though he effected
    nothing. He disqualified Christians from bearing offices in the
    state; he forbade them to teach either rhetoric of philosophy, that
    he might deprive them of the advantages of human literature, a thing
    condemned by Ammianus himself. He commanded, by an edict, that they
    should be no longer called Christians, but Galileans, and though he
    pretended to toleration, he destroyed more souls by recompenses,
    caresses, and strategems, than he could have done by cruelties. He
    levied heavy fines and seized the estates of Christians, saying, in
    raillery, that he did it to oblige them to follow the gospel, which
    recommends poverty. He often put them to death, but secretly, and on
    other pretences, that he might deprive them of the honor of
    martyrdom: which artifice might have its influence on philosophers,
    the lovers of vanity; but not on the servants of God, who desired to
    be known to him alone, and to suffer, regardless of the applause of
    men, as St. Gregory Nazianzen observes. (Or. 3, in Julian.) That
    father, when he knew him a student at Athens, in 355, prognosticated
    (Or. 4, in Julian, p. 122) from his light carriage, wandering eye,
    haughty look, impertinent questions, and foolish answers, what a
    monster the Roman empire was fostering and breeding up. In his march
    to his Persian expedition, he was made a subject of mockery and
    ridicule at Antioch, on account of his low stature, gigantic gait,
    great goat's beard, and bloody sacrifices. In answer to which, he
    wrote his Misopogon, or Beardhater, a low and insipid satire. He
    everywhere threatened the Christians upon his return from the
    Persian war. The oracles of Delos, Delphos, Dodona, and others,
    promised him victories, as Theodoret, St. Gregory Nazianzen,
    Philostorgius, and Libanius himself, (Libanius, Or. 12,) a heath,
    and the chief favorite of Julian, testify: all the pagan deities
    wherever he passed, gave him the like assurances, as he himself
    writes (Julian, ep. 2.) But in Persia he rashly ventured into wilds
    and deserts, with an army of sixty-five thousand men, where he was
    defeated and slain in June, 363. Ammianus, who was then in the army,
    only says that he was mortally wounded in the battle, and died in
    his tent the same day, before noon. Theodoret, Sozomen, and the acts
    of St. Theodoret the martyr, say, that finding himself wounded, he
    threw up a handful of blood towards heaven, crying out: "Thou hast
    conquered, O Galilean, thou hast conquered." It was revealed to many
    holy hermits, that God cut him off to give peace to his church.
2.  Hom. in SS. Juv. et Max. t. 2, p. 583.

ST. PROJECTUS, BISHOP OF CLERMONT, M.

CALLED AT LYONS ST. PRIEST, AT SENS ST. PREST, IN SAINT-ONGE ST. PREILS,
AT PARIS AND IN PICARDY ST. PRIX.

THE episcopal see of Auvergne, which was founded by St. Austremonius, in
the middle of the third century, has been honored with many holy
bishops, of whom twenty-six are ranked among the saints. Of these the
most eminent are St. Alidius, called in French Allyre, the fourth
bishop, in 380, St. Sidonius Apollinaris in 482, St. Gallus in 656, St.
Prix in 674, and St. Bont in 710. About the year 1160, the title of
bishops of Auvergne was changed into that of Clermont, from the city of
this name. St. Prix was a native of Auvergne, and trained up in the
service of the church, under the care of St. Genesius, first archdeacon,
afterwards bishop of Auvergne, and was well skilled in plain song,
(which was esteemed in that age the first part of the science of a
clergyman,) and in holy scriptures and church history. The parish of
Issoire, and afterwards the nunnery, of Candedin, (now probably
Chantoen, a convent of barefooted Carms,) were the chief theatres of his
zeal, till about the year 666 he was called by the voice of the people,
seconded by Childeric II., king of Austrasia, to the episcopal dignity,
upon the death of Felix, bishop of Auvergne. Partly by his own ample
patrimony, and partly by the great liberalities of Genesius, the holy
count of Auvergne, he was enabled to found several monasteries,
churches, and hospitals; so that all distressed persons in his extensive
diocese were provided for, and a spirit of fervor in the exercises of
religion, and all Christian virtues, reigned in all parts. This was the
fruit of the unwearied and undaunted zeal, assiduous sermons and
exhortations, and the admirable example and sanctity of the holy
prelate; whose learning, eloquence, and piety, are exceedingly extolled
by the two historians of his life. The saint, on his road to the court
of king Childeric, whither he was going for the affairs of his diocese,
restored to health St. Damarin, or Amarin, a holy abbot of a monastery
in the mountains of Voge, who was afterwards martyred with him. This
king caused Hector, the patrician of Marseilles, whom the saint had
severely rebuked for having ravished a young lady of Auvergne, a rich
heiress, and having unjustly usurped considerable estates belonging to
his church, to be put to death for this rape and other crimes. One
Agritius, imputing his death to the complaints carried to the king by
St. Prix, in revenge {221} stirred up many persons against the holy
prelate, and with twenty armed men met the bishop as he returned from
court, at Volvic, two leagues from Clermont, and first slew the abbot
St. Damarin, whom the ruffians mistook for the bishop. St. Prix,
perceiving their design, courageously presented himself to them, and was
stabbed in the body by a Saxon named Radbert. The saint, receiving this
wound, said, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge, for they know not
what they do." Another of the assassins clove his head with a
back-sword, and scattered his brains. This happened in 674, on the 25th
of January. The veneration which the Gallican churches paid to the
memory of this martyr began from the time of his death. His name was
added to the calendar in the copies of the Sacramentary of St. Gregory,
which were transcribed in France, and churches were erected under his
invocation in almost every province of that kingdom. The principal part
of his relics remain in the abbey of Flavigny, whither they were carried
about the year 760. Some portions are kept in the abbey of St. Prix at
St. Quintin's, of the congregation of Cluni; another in the priory of
St. Prix near Bethune, and in certain other places. See the two lives of
St. Prix, the first written by one who was acquainted with him, the
other by one of the same age, both extant in Bollandus, pp. 628, 636,
and in Mabillon Act. Ben. t. 1, pp. 642, 650.

ST. POPPO, ABBOT OF STAVELO

ST. POPPO was born in Flanders in 978, and received a pious education,
under the care of a most virtuous mother, who died a nun at Verdun. In
his youth he served for some time in the army, but even while he lived
in the world, he found the spiritual food of heavenly meditation and
prayer, with which the affections of the soul are nourished,[St. Aug.
Tr. 26. in Joan.] to be incomparably sweeter than all the delights of
the senses, and to give himself up entirely to these holy exercises, he
renounced his profession and the world. In a visit which he made by a
penitential pilgrimage to the holy places at Jerusalem, he brought
thence many precious relics, with which he enriched the church of our
Lady at Deisne, now a marquisate between Ghent and Courtray. He made
also a pilgrimage to the shrines of the apostles at Rome, and, some time
after his return, took the monastic habit at St. Thierry's, near Rheims.
Richard, abbot of Verdun, becoming acquainted with his eminent virtue,
obtained with great difficulty his abbot's consent to remove him
thither; and being made abbot of St. Vedast's, at Arras, upon the
deposition of Folrad, who had filled that house with scandalous
disorders, he appointed Poppo procurator. In a journey which our saint
was obliged to make to the court of St. Henry, he prevailed with that
religious prince to abolish the combats of men and bears. St. Poppo was
chosen successively prior of St. Vedast's, provost of St. Vennes, and
abbot of Beaulieu, which last he rebuilt. He was afterwards chosen abbot
of St. Vedast's, and some time later of the two united abbeys of Stavelo
and Malmedy, about a league asunder, in the diocese of Liege; also, two
years after this, of St. Maximin's at Triers. Those of Arms and
Marchiennes were also committed to his care: in all which houses he
settled the most exact discipline. He died at Marchiennes, on the 25th
of January, in 1048, being seventy years of age. St. Poppo received
extreme unction at the hands of Everhelm, abbot of Hautmont, afterwards
of Blandinberg at Ghent, who afterwards wrote his life, in which he
gives a particular account of his great {222} virtues. The body of St.
Poppo was carried to Stavelo, and there interred: his remains were taken
up and enshrined in 1624, after Baronius had inserted his name in the
Roman Martyrology; for Molanus, in his Indiculus, and Miræus observe
that he was never canonized. Chatelain denies against Trithemius that
any commemoration was ever made of him in the public office in any of
the abbeys which he governed. But Martenne assures us that he was
honored among the saints at Stavelo, in the year 1624. See his life
written by the monk Onulf, and abridged by Everhelm, abbot of Hautmont,
in Bollandus, p. 673, and Martenne, Amplis. Collectio, t. 2, Præf. p.
17.

ST. APOLLO, ABBOT IN THEBAIS.

AFTER passing many years in a hermitage, he formed and governed a
community of five hundred monks, near Heliopolis. They all wore the same
coarse white habit, all received the holy communion every day, and the
holy abbot made them also a daily exhortation with admirable unction. He
entertained them often on the evils of melancholy and sadness, saying,
that spiritual joy and cheerfulness of heart are necessary amid our
tears of penance; as being the fruit of charity, and requisite to
support the fervor of the soul. He was known to strangers by the joy of
his countenance. By humility he ranked himself among the goats, unworthy
to be numbered among the sheep. He made it his constant and earnest
petition to God, that he might know himself, and be preserved from the
subtile snares and illusions of pride. It is said that the devil left a
possessed person at his command, crying out that he was not able to
withstand his humility. The saint received a visit from St. Petronius,
afterwards bishop of Bologna, in 393, being then near eighty years old,
which he did not long survive. See Sozom. l. 6, c. 29. Rufin. l. 2.
Tillem. t. 10, p. 35. The Greek menæa and Bollandus on this day.

ST. PUBLIUS, ABBOT

NEAR ZEUGMA, UPON THE EUPHRATES,

IS honored by the Greeks. He was the son of a senator in that city, and
sold his estate, plate, and furniture, for the benefit of the poor; and
lived first a hermit, afterwards governed a numerous community in the
fourth age. He allowed his monks no other food than herbs and pulse, and
very coarse bread; no drink but water: he forbade milk, cheese, grapes,
and even vinegar, also oil, except from Easter to Whitsuntide. To put
himself always in mind of advancing continually in fervor and charity,
he added every day something to his exercises of penance and devotion:
he was remarkably solicitous to avoid sloth, being sensible of the
inestimable value of time. Alas! what would not a damned soul, what
would not a suffering soul in purgatory give, for one of those moments
which we unthinkingly throw away. As far as the state of the blessed in
heaven can admit of regret, they eternally condemn their insensibility
as having lost every moment of their mortal life, which they did not
improve to the utmost advantage. Theodoret tells us that the holy abbot
Publius founded two congregations, the one of Greeks, the other of
Syrians, each using their own tongue in the divine office: for the Greek
and Chaldean were from the beginning {223} sacred languages, or
consecrated by the church in her public prayers. St. Publius flourished
about the year 369. See Theodoret, Philoth. c. 5. Rosweide, l. 6, c. 7.
Chatel. Mart. Univ. p. 886, among the Aemeres, or saints who are not
commemorated on any particular day.


JANUARY XXVI.

ST. POLYCARP, BISHOP OF SMYRNA, M.

From his acts, written by the church of Smyrna in an excellent circular
letter to the churches of Pontus, immediately after his martyrdom: a
piece abridged by Eusebius, b. 4, c. 14, highly esteemed by the
ancients. Joseph Scaliger, a supercilious critic, says that nothing in
the whole course of church history so strongly affected him, as the
perusal of these acts, and those relating to the martyrs of Lyons: that
he never read them but they gave him extraordinary emotions. Animad. in
Chron. Eusebii, n. 2183, &c. They are certainly most valuable pieces of
Christian antiquity. See Eusebius, St. Jerom, and St. Irenæus. Also
Tillemont, t. 2, p. 327. Dom Ceillier, t. 1. Dom Marechal, Concordance
des Peres Grecs et Latins, t. 1.

A.D. 166.

ST. POLYCARP was one of the most illustrious of the apostolic fathers,
who, being the immediate disciples of the apostles, received
instructions from their mouths, and inherited of them the spirit of
Christ, in a degree so much the more eminent, as they lived nearer the
fountain head. He embraced Christianity very young, about the year 80;
was a disciple of the apostles, in particular of St. John the
Evangelist, and was constituted by him bishop of Smyrna, probably before
his banishment to Patmos, in 96: so that he governed that important see
seventy years. He seems to have been the angel or bishop of Smyrna, who
was commended above all the bishops of Asia by Christ himself in the
Apocalypse,[1] and the only one without a reproach. Our Saviour
encouraged him under his poverty, tribulation, and persecutions,
especially the calumnies of the Jews, called him rich in grace, and
promised him the crown of life by martyrdom. This saint was respected by
the faithful to a degree of veneration. He formed many holy disciples,
among whom were St. Irenæus and Papias. When Florinus, who had often
visited St. Polycarp, had broached certain heresies, St. Irenæus wrote
to him as follows:[2] "These things were not taught you by the bishops
who preceded us. I could tell you the place where the blessed Polycarp
sat to preach the word of God. It is yet present to my mind with what
gravity he everywhere came in and went out: what was the sanctity of his
deportment, the majesty of his countenance and of his whole exterior,
and what were his holy exhortations to the people. I seem to hear him
now relate how he conversed with John and many others, who had seen
Jesus Christ; the words he had heard from their mouths. I can protest
before God, that if this holy bishop had heard of any error like yours,
he would have immediately stopped his ears, and cried out, according to
his custom: Good God! that I should be reserved to these times to hear
such things! That very instant he would have fled out of the place in
which he had heard such doctrine." St. Jerom[3] mentions, that St.
Polycarp met at Rome the heretic Marcion, in the streets, who resenting
that the holy bishop did not take that notice of him which he expected,
said to him: "Do not you {224} know me, Polycarp?" "Yes," answered the
saint, "I know you to be the first-born of Satan." He had learned this
abhorrence of the authors of heresy, who knowingly and willingly
adulterate the divine truths, from his master St. John, who fled out of
the bath in which he saw Cerinthus.[4] St. Polycarp kissed with respect
the chains of St. Ignatius, who passed by Smyrna on the road to his
martyrdom, and who recommended to our saint the care and comfort of his
distant church of Antioch; which he repeated to him in a letter from
Troas, desiring him to write in his name to those churches of Asia to
which he had not leisure to write himself.[5] St. Polycarp {225} wrote a
letter to the Philippians shortly after, which is highly commended by
St. Irenæus, St. Jerom, Eusebius, Photius, and others, and is still
extant. It is justly admired both for the excellent instructions it
contains, and for the simplicity and perspicuity of the style; and was
publicly read in the church in Asia, in St. Jerom's time. In it he calls
a heretic, as above, the eldest son of Satan. About the year 158, he
undertook a journey of charity to Rome, to confer with pope Anicetus
about certain points of discipline, especially about the time of keeping
Easter, for the Asiatic churches kept it on the fourteenth day of the
vernal equinoctial moon, as the Jews did, on whatever day of the week it
fell; whereas Rome, Egypt, and all the West, observed it on the Sunday
following. It was agreed that both might follow their custom without
breaking the bands of charity. St. Anicetus, to testify his respect,
yielded to him the honor of celebrating the Eucharist in his own
church.[6] We find no further particulars concerning our saint recorded
before the acts of his martyrdom.

In the sixth year of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, Statius Quadrates
being proconsul of Asia, a violent persecution broke out in that
country, in which the faithful gave heroic proofs of their courage and
love of God, to the astonishment of the infidels. When they were torn to
pieces with scourges till their very bowels were laid bare, amidst the
moans and tears of the spectators, who were moved with pity at the sight
of their torments, not one of them gave so much as a single groan: so
little regard had they for their own flesh in the cause of God. No kinds
of torture, no inventions of cruelty were forborne to force them to a
conformity to the pagan worship of the times. Germanicus, who had been
brought to Smyrna with eleven or twelve other Christians, signalized
himself above the rest, and animated the most timorous to suffer. The
proconsul in the amphitheatre called upon him with tenderness,
entreating him to have some regard for his youth, and to value at least
his life: but he, with a holy impatience, provoked the beasts to devour
him, to leave this wicked world. One Quintus, a Phrygian, who had
presented himself to the judge, yielded at the sight of the beast let
out upon him, and sacrificed. The authors of these acts justly condemn
the presumption of those who offered themselves to suffer,[7] and says
that the martyrdom of St. Polycarp was conformable to the gospel,
because he exposed not himself to the temptation, but waited till the
persecutors laid hands on him, as Christ our Lord taught us by his own
example. The same venerable authors observe, that the martyrs by their
patience and constancy demonstrated to all men, that, while their bodies
were tormented, they were in spirit estranged from the flesh, and
already in heaven; or rather that our Lord was present with them and
assisted them; for the fire of the barbarous executioners seemed as if
it had been a cooling refreshment to them.[8] The spectators, seeing the
courage of Germanicus and his companions, and being fond of their
impious bloody diversions, cried out: "Away with the impious; let
Polycarp be sought for." The holy man, though fearless, had been
prevailed upon by his friends to withdraw and conceal himself in a
neighboring village during the storm, spending most of his time in
prayer. Three days before his martyrdom, he in a vision saw his pillow
on fire; from which he understood by revelation, and {226} foretold his
companions, that he should be burnt alive. When the persecutors were in
quest of him he changed his retreat, but was betrayed by a boy, who was
threatened with the rack unless he discovered him. Herod, the Irenarch,
or keeper of the peace, whose office it was to prevent misdemeanors and
apprehend malefactors, sent horsemen by night to beset his lodgings. The
saint was above stairs in bed, but refused to make his escape, saying:
"God's will be done." He went down, met them at the door, ordered them a
handsome supper, and desired only some time for prayer before he went
with them. This granted, he began his prayer standing, which he
continued in that posture for two hours, recommending to God his own
flock and the whole church with so much earnestness and devotion, that
several of those that were come to seize him repented they had
undertaken the commission. They set him on an ass, and were conducting
him towards the city, when he was met on the road by Herod and his
father Nicetes, who took him into their chariot, and endeavored to
persuade him to a little compliance, saying: "What harm is there in
saying Lord Cæsar, or even in sacrificing, to escape death?" By the word
Lord was meant nothing less than a kind of deity or godhead. The bishop
at first was silent, in imitation of our Saviour: but being pressed, he
gave them this resolute answer: "I shall never do what you desire of
me." At these words, taking off the mask of friendship and compassion,
they treated him with scorn and reproaches, and thrust him out of the
chariot with such violence, that his leg was bruised by the fall. The
holy man went forward cheerfully to the place where the people were
assembled. Upon his entering it, a voice from heaven was heard by many:
"Polycarp, be courageous, and act manfully."[9] He was led directly to
the tribunal of the proconsul, who exhorted him to respect his own age,
to swear by the genius of Cæsar, and to say: "Take away the impious,"
meaning the Christians. The saint turning towards the people in the pit,
said, with a stern countenance: "Exterminate the wicked," meaning by
this expression either a wish that they might cease to be wicked by
their conversion to the faith of Christ: or this was a prediction of the
calamity which befell their city in 177, when Smyrna was overturned by
an earthquake, as we read in Dion[10] and Aristides.[11] The proconsul
repeated: "Swear by the genius of Cæsar, and I discharge you; blaspheme
Christ." Polycarp replied: "I have served him these fourscore and six
years, and he never did me any harm, but much good; and how can I
blaspheme my King and my Saviour? If you require of me to swear by the
genius of Cæsar, as you call it, hear my free confession: I am a
Christian; but if you desire to learn the Christian religion, appoint a
time, and hear me." The proconsul said: "Persuade the people." The
martyr replied: "I addressed my discourse to you; for we are taught to
give due honor to princes as far as is consistent with religion. But the
populace is an incompetent judge to justify myself before." Indeed, rage
rendered them incapable of hearing him.

The proconsul then assuming a tone of severity, said: "I have wild
beasts:" "Call for them," replied the saint: "for we are unalterably
resolved not to change from good to evil. It is only good to pass from
evil to good." The proconsul said: "If you contemn the beasts, I will
cause you to be burnt to ashes." Polycarp answered: "You threaten me
with a fire which burns for a short time, and then goes out; but are
yourself ignorant of the {227} judgment to come, and of the fire of
everlasting torments which is prepared for the wicked. Why do you delay?
Bring against me what you please." While he said thus and many other
things, he appeared in a transport of joy and confidence, and his
countenance shone with a certain heavenly grace, and pleasant
cheerfulness, insomuch that the proconsul himself was struck with
admiration. However, he ordered a crier to make public proclamation
three times it the middle of the Stadium, (as was the Roman custom in
capital cases:) "Polycarp hath confessed himself a Christian."[12] At
this proclamation the whole multitude of Jews and Gentiles gave a great
shout, the latter crying out: "This is the great teacher of Asia; the
father of the Christians; the destroyer of our gods, who preaches to men
not to sacrifice to or adore them." They applied to Philip the
Asiarch,[13] to let loose a lion upon Polycarp. He told them that it was
not in his power, because those shows had been closed. Then they
unanimously demanded that he should be burnt alive. Their request was no
sooner granted, but every one ran with all speed to fetch wood from the
baths and shops. The Jews were particularly active and busy on this
occasion. The pile being prepared, Polycarp put off his garments, untied
his girdle, and began to take off his shoes; an office he had not been
accustomed to, the Christians having always striven who should do these
things for him, regarding it as a happiness to be admitted to touch him.
The wood and other combustibles were heaped all round him. The
executioners would have nailed him to the stake; but he said to them:
"Suffer me to be as I am. He who gives me grace to undergo this fire,
will enable me to stand still without that precaution." They therefore
contented themselves with tying his hands behind his back, and in this
posture, looking up towards heaven, he prayed as follows: "O Almighty
Lord God, Father of thy beloved and blessed Son Jesus Christ, by whom we
have received the knowledge of thee, God of angels, powers, and every
creature, and of all the race of the just that live in thy presence! I
bless thee for having been pleased in thy goodness to bring me to this
hour, that I may receive a portion in the number of thy martyrs, and
partake of the chalice of thy Christ, for the resurrection to eternal
life, in the incorruptibleness of the holy Spirit. Amongst whom grant me
to be received this day as a pleasing sacrifice, such an one as thou
thyself hast prepared, that so thou mayest accomplish what thou, O true
and faithful God! hast foreshown. Wherefore, for all things I praise,
bless, and glorify thee, through the eternal high priest Jesus Christ
thy beloved Son, with whom, to Thee and the Holy Ghost be glory now and
for ever. Amen." He had scarce said Amen, when fire was set to the pile,
which increased to a mighty flame. But behold a wonder, say the authors
of these acts, seen by us, reserved to attest it to others; the flames
forming themselves into an arch, like the sails of a ship swelled with
the wind, gently encircled the body of the martyr, which stood in the
middle, resembling not roasted flesh, but purified gold or silver,
appearing bright through the flames; and his body sending forth such a
fragrancy, that we seemed to smell precious spices. The blind infidels
were only exasperated to see his body could not be consumed, and ordered
a spearman to pierce him through, which he did, and such a quantity of
blood issued out of his left side as to quench the fire.[14] The malice
of the devil ended not here: {228} he endeavored to obstruct the relics
of the martyr being carried off by the Christians; for many desired to
do it, to show their respect to his body. Therefore, by the suggestion
of Satan, Nicetes advised the proconsul not to bestow it on the
Christians, lest, said he, abandoning the crucified man, they should
adore Polycarp: the Jews suggested this, "Not knowing," say the authors
of the acts, "that we can never forsake Christ, nor adore any other,
though we love the martyrs, as his disciples and imitators, for the
great love they bore their king and master." The centurion, seeing a
contest raised by the Jews, placed the body in the middle, and burnt it
to ashes. "We afterwards took up the bones," say they, "more precious
than the richest jewels or gold, and deposited them decently in a place
at which may God grant us to assemble with joy, to celebrate the
birth-day of the martyr." Thus these disciples and eye-witnesses. It was
at two o'clock in the afternoon, which the authors of the acts call the
eighth hour, in the year 166, that St. Polycarp received his crown,
according to Tillemont; but, in 169, according to Basnage.[15] His tomb
is still shown with great veneration at Smyrna, in a small chapel. St.
Irenæus speaks of St. Polycarp as being of an uncommon age.

       *       *       *       *       *

The epistle of St. Polycarp to the Philippians, which is the only one
among those which he wrote that has been preserved, is, even in the dead
letter, a standing proof of the apostolic spirit with which he was
animated, and of that profound humility, perfect meekness, burning
charity, and holy zeal, of which his life was so admirable an example.
The beginning is an effusion of spiritual joy and charity with which he
was transported at the happiness of their conversion to God, and their
fervor in divine love. His extreme abhorrence of heresy makes him
immediately fall upon that of the Docætæ, against which he arms the
faithful, by clearly demonstrating that Christ was truly made man, died,
and rose again: in which his terms admirably express his most humble and
affectionate devotion to our divine Redeemer, under these great
mysteries of love. Besides walking in truth, he takes notice, that to be
raised with Christ in glory, we must also do his will, keep all his
commandments, and love whatever he loved; refraining from all fraud,
avarice, detraction, and rash judgment; repaying evil with good,
forgiving and showing mercy to others that we ourselves may find mercy.
"These things," says he, "I write to you on justice, because you incited
me; for neither I, nor any other like me, can attain to the wisdom of
the blessed and glorious Paul, into whose epistles if you look, you may
raise your spiritual fabric by strengthening faith, which is our mother,
hope following, and charity towards God, Christ, and our neighbor
preceding us. He who has charity is far from all sin." The saint gives
short instructions to every particular state, then adds; "Every one who
hath not confessed that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is
antichrist;[16] and who hath not confessed the suffering of the cross,
is of the devil; and who hath drawn the oracles of the Lord to his
passions, and hath said that there is no resurrection nor judgment, he
is the oldest son of Satan." He exhorts to watching always in prayer,
lest we be led into temptation; to be constant in fasting, persevering,
joyful in hope, and in the pledge of our justice, which is Christ {229}
Jesus, imitating his patience; for, by suffering for his name, we
glorify him. To encourage them to suffer, he reminds them of those who
had suffered before their eyes: Ignatius, Zozimus, and Rufus, and some
of their own congregation,[17] "who are now," says our saint, "in the
place which is due to them with the Lord, with whom they also suffered."

Footnotes:
1.  Ch. ii. v. 9.
2.  Eus. Hist. l. 5, c. 20, p. 188.
3.  Cat. vir. illustr. c. 17.
4.  See also 1 John ii. 18, 22, and 2 John 10.
5.  St. Ignatius begins his letter to the faithful at Smyrna, by
    glorifying God for their great spiritual wisdom, saying he knew them
    to be perfect in their unshaken faith, as men crucified with our
    Lord Jesus in flesh and in spirit, and deeply grounded in charity by
    the blood of Christ. He then solidly confutes the Docætæ, heretics
    who imagined that Christ was not incarnate, and died only in
    appearance; whom he calls demoniacs. He adds: "I give you this
    caution, knowing that you hold the true faith, but that you may
    stand upon your guard against these wild beasts in human shape, whom
    you ought not to receive under your roof, nor even meet if possible;
    and be content only to pray for them that they may be converted, if
    it be possible; for it is very difficult; though it is in the power
    of Jesus Christ, our true life. If Jesus Christ did all this in
    appearance only, then I am only chained in imagination; and why have
    I delivered myself up to death, to fire, to the sword, to beasts?
    but who is near the sword, is near God; he who is among beasts is
    with God. I suffer all things only in the name of Jesus Christ, that
    I may suffer with him, he giving me strength, who was made perfectly
    man. What does it avail me to be commended by any one, if he
    blasphemes our Lord, not confessing him to have flesh? The whole
    consists in faith and charity; nothing can take place before these.
    Now consider those who maintain a false opinion of the grace of
    Jesus Christ, how they also oppose charity; they take no care of the
    widow, or orphan, or him who is afflicted, or pining with hunger or
    thirst. _They abstain from the Eucharist and prayer, (says he,)
    because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our
    Saviour Jesus Christ, which was crucified for our sins, and which
    the Father, by his goodness, raised again._ It is advisable for you
    to separate yourselves from them, and neither to speak to them in
    public or in private. Shun schisms and all discord, as the source of
    evils. Follow your bishop as Christ his Father, and the college of
    priests as the apostles; respect the deacons as the precept of God.
    Let no one do any thing that belongs to the church without the
    bishop. Let that Eucharist be regarded as lawful which is celebrated
    by the bishop, or one commissioned by him. Wherever the bishop makes
    his appearance, there let the people be assembled, as wherever
    Christ Jesus is, there is the Catholic church. It is not lawful to
    baptize or celebrate the Agape without the bishop or his authority.
    What he approves of is acceptable to God. He who does any thing
    without the bishop's knowledge, serves the devil." The saint most
    affectionately thanks them for the kindness they had shown him and
    his followers; begs they will depute some person to his church in
    Syria, to congratulate with his flock for the peace which God had
    restored to them, adding that he was unworthy to be called a member
    of that church of which he was the last. He asks the succor of their
    prayers, that by them he might enjoy God. "Seeing," says he, "that
    you are perfect, entertain perfect sentiments of virtue: for God is
    ready to bestow on you who desire to do well." After the most tender
    salutations of many in particular, and of all in general, especially
    the virgins who were called widows, (_i.e._ the deaconesses, who
    were called widows, because they were often such, though these were
    virgins,) he closes his letter by praying for their advancement in
    all charity, grace, mercy, peace, and patience. St. Ign. ep. ad
    Smyrnæos, p. 872, ed. Cotel.

    The apostolic St. Ignatius writes as follows, in his letter to St.
    Polycarp. "Thy resolution in God, founded as it were upon an
    unshaken rock, I exceedingly commend, having been made worthy of thy
    holy face, which I pray I may enjoy in God. I conjure thee in the
    grace with which thou art enriched, to increase thy stock in thy
    course, and to exhort all that they may be saved. Have great care of
    unity and concord, than which nothing is better. Bear with all men,
    that God may bear with thee; bear all men by charity, as thou dost
    apply thyself to prayer without interruption. Ask more perfect
    understanding than thou hast. Watch, seeing that the spirit which
    sleepeth not, dwelleth within thee. Speak to every one according to
    the grace which God giveth thee. Bear the weaknesses and distemper
    of all as a stout champion. Where the labor is greater, the gain is
    exceeding great. If thou lovest the disciples that are good, thou
    deservest not thanks; strive rather to subdue the wicked by
    meekness. Every wound is not healed by the same plaster; assuage
    inflammations by lenitives. Be not intimidated by those who seem
    worthy of faith, yet teach things that are foreign. Stand firm, as
    an anvil which is beaten: it is the property of a true champion to
    be struck and to conquer. Let not the widows be neglected. Let
    religious assemblies be most frequent. Seek out every one in them by
    name. Despise not the slaves, neither suffer them to be puffed up;
    but to the glory of God let them serve with greater diligence, that
    they may obtain of God a better liberty. Let them not desire that
    their liberty be purchased or procured for them by the congregation,
    lest they fall under the slavery of their own passions. Fly evil
    artifices; let them not be so much as named. Engage my sisters to
    love the Lord, and never entertain a thought of any man but their
    husbands. In like manner enjoin my brethren, in the name of Jesus
    Christ, to love their wives as Christ loveth his church. If any one
    is able to remain in a state of continency, in honor of our Lord's
    flesh, let him be constantly humble: if he boasts, or is puffed up,
    he is lost. Let all marriages be made by the authority of the
    bishop, that they may be made in the Lord, not by the passions of
    men. Let all things be done to the honor of God." Then addressing
    himself to all the faithful at Smyrna, he writes: "Listen to your
    bishop, that God may also hearken to you. With joy I would lay down
    my life for those who are subject to the bishop, priests, and
    deacons. May my portion be with them in God. Let all things be in
    common among you: your labor, your warfare, your sufferings, your
    rest, and your watching, as becomes the dispensers, the assessors,
    and the servants of God. Please hi, in whose service you fight, and
    from whom you receive your salary. Let your baptism be always your
    weapons, faith your helmet, charity your spear, and patience your
    complete armor. Let your good works the the treasure which you lay
    up, that you may receive the fruit which is worthy. Bear with each
    other in all meekness, as God bears with you. I pray that I may
    always enjoy and rejoice in you. Because the church of Antioch by
    our prayers now enjoys peace, I am in mind secure in God; provided
    still that by suffering I may go to God, and be found in the
    resurrection your servant. You will do well, O Polycarp, most
    blessed in God, to hold an assembly, and choose a very dear person
    fit for dispatch in a journey, who may be styled the divine
    messenger; him honor with a commission to go to Antioch, and there
    bear witness of the fervor of your charity. A Christian lives not
    for himself alone, but belongs to God." The holy martyr concludes by
    desiring St. Polycarp to write for him to the other churches of
    Asia, he being at that moment called on board by his guards to sail
    from Troas to Naples.
6.  St. Iren. b. 3, c. 3. Euseb. b. 5, c. 24. S. Hieron. c. 17.
7.  N. 1, and 4.
8.  [Greek: To tur hên autois psuxron to tôn apathôn basanitzôn.]
    Frigidis ipsis videbatur immanium carnificum ignis. n. 2, p. 1020.
9.  Dr. Middleton pretends, that this voice was only heard by some few;
    but the acts in Ruinart say, by those who were present, [Greek: hoi
    parontes]: Eusebius says, [Greek: polloi]: Rufinus _plurimi_, very
    many. A voice from heaven must certainly be sensibly discerned to be
    more than human, and manifest itself sufficiently, to be perceived
    that it could not come from the crowd.
10. L. 71.
11. Or. 20, 21, 22, 41.
12. The great council of Asia seems to have been held at that time in
    Smyrna, instead of Ephesus, which the Arundelian marbles show
    sometimes to have been done.
13. Or president of the public games, chosen yearly by the
    common-council of Asia.
14. Dr. Middleton ridicules the mention of a dove issuing out of the
    wound of the side; but this is only found in some modern MSS. by the
    blunder of a transcriber: it is not in Eusebius, Rufinus,
    Nicephorus, or the Greek Menæa; though the last two would have
    magnified a prodigy if they had found the least authority for any.
    According to Le Moyen, (Proleg. ad varia sacra.) Ceillier, &c., the
    true reading is [Greek: ep apisera], on the left side; which some
    transcriber blundered into [Greek: perisera], a dove. As to the
    foregoing miracle, that a wind should naturally divest the fire of
    its property of burning, and form it into an arch about the body, is
    a much more wonderful supposition of the doctor's than any miracle.
15. St. Polycarp says himself, "That he had served Christ eighty-six
    years." Basnage thinks he had been bishop so long, and was a hundred
    and twenty years old when he suffered: but it is far more probable
    that this is the term he had been a Christian, having been converted
    in his youth, and dying about one hundred years old or upwards, as
    Tillemont understands it.
16. 1 John iv. 3.
17. Some of the Philippians had seen St. Ignatius in chains, and perhaps
    at Rome. The primitive martyrs, Zozimus and Rufus, are commemorated
    in the Martyrologies on the 18th of December.

ST. PAULA, WIDOW.

This illustrious pattern of widows surpassed all other Roman ladies in
riches, birth, and the endowments of mind. She was born on the 5th of
May, in 347. The blood of the Scipios, the Gracchi, and Paulus Æmilius,
was centred in her by her mother Blesilla. Her father derived his
pedigree from Agamemnon, and her husband Toxotius his from Iulus and
Æneas. By him she had a son called also Toxotius, and four daughters,
namely, Blesilla, Paulina, Eustochium, and Rufina. She shone a bright
pattern of virtue in the married state, and both she and her husband
edified Rome by their good example; but her virtue was not without its
alloy; a certain degree of the love of the world being almost
inseparable from honors and high life. She did not discern the secret
attachments of her heart, nor feel the weight of her own chains: she had
neither courage to break them, nor light whereby to take a clear and
distinct view of her spiritual poverty and misery. God, compassionating
her weakness, was pleased in his mercy to open her eyes by violence, and
sent her the greatest affliction that could befall her in the death of
her husband, when she was only thirty-two years of age. Her grief was
immoderate till such time as she was encouraged to devote herself
totally to God, by the exhortations of her friend St. Marcella, a holy
widow, who then edified Rome by her penitential life. Paula, thus
excited to set aside her sorrow, erected in her heart the standard of
the cross of Jesus Christ, and courageously resolved to walk after it.
From that time, she never sat at table with any man, not even with any
of the holy bishops and saints whom she entertained. She abstained from
all flesh meat, fish, eggs, honey, and wine; used oil only on holydays;
lay on a stone floor covered with sackcloth; renounced all visits and
worldly amusements, laid aside all costly garments, and gave every thing
to the poor which it was in her power to dispose of. She was careful in
inquiring after the necessitous, and deemed it a loss on her side if any
other hands than her own administered relief to them. It was usual with
her to say, that she could not make a better provision for her children,
than to secure for them by alms the blessings of heaven. Her occupation
was prayer, pious reading, and fasting. She could not bear the
distraction of company, which interrupted her commerce with God; and, if
ever she sought conversation, it was with the servants of God for her
own edification. She lodged St. Epiphanius and St. Paulinus of Antioch,
when they came to Rome; and St. Jerom was her director in the service of
God, during his stay in that city for two years and a half, under pope
Damasus. Her eldest daughter Blesilla, having, in a short time after
marriage, lost her husband, came to a resolution of forsaking the world,
but died before she could compass her pious design. The mother felt this
affliction too sensibly. St. Jerom, who at that time was newly arrived
at Bethlehem, in 384, wrote to her both to comfort and reprove her.[1]
He first condoles their common loss; but adds {230} that God is master,
that we are bound to rejoice in his will, always holy and just, to thank
and praise him for all things; and, above all, not to mourn for a death
at which the angels attend, and for one who by it departs to enjoy
Christ: and that it is only the continuation of our banishment which we
ought to lament. "Blesilla," says he, "has received her crown, dying in
the fervor of her resolution, in which she had purified her soul near
four months." He adds, that Christ seemed to reproach her grief in these
terms: "Art thou angry, O Paula! that thy daughter is made mine? Thou
art offended at my providence, and by thy rebellious tears, thou dost
offer an injury to me who possess her."[2] He pardons some tears in a
mother, occasioned by the involuntary sensibility of nature; but calls
her excess in them a scandal to religion, abounding with sacrilege and
infidelity: adding, that Blesilla herself mourned, as far as her happy
state would allow, to see her offend Christ, and cried out to her; "Envy
not my glory: commit not what may forever separate us. I am not alone.
Instead of you I have the mother of God, I have many companions whom I
never knew before. You mourn for me because I have left the world; and I
pity your prison and dangers in it." Paula afterwards, completing the
victory over herself, showed herself greatly superior to this weakness.
Her second daughter Paulina was married to St. Pammachius, and died in
397. Eustochium, the third, was her individual companion. Rufina died
young.

The greater progress Paula made in spiritual exercises, and in the
relish of heavenly things, the more insupportable to her was the
tumultuous life of the city. She sighed after the deserts, longed to be
disincumbered of attendants, and to live in a hermitage, where her heart
would have no other occupation than on God. The thirst after so great a
happiness made her ready to forget her house, family, riches, and
friends; yet never did mother love her children more tenderly.[3] At the
thought of leaving them her bowels yearned, and being in an agony of
grief, she seemed as if she had been torn from herself. But in this she
was the most wonderful of mothers, that while she felt in her soul the
greatest emotions of tenderness, she knew how to keep them within due
bounds. The strength of her faith gave her an ascendant over the
sentiments of nature, and she even desired this cruel separation,
bearing it with joy, out of a pure and heroic love of God. She had
indeed taken a previous care to have all her children brought up saints;
otherwise her design would have been unjustifiable. Being therefore
fixed in her resolution, and having settled her affairs, she went to the
water side, attended by her brother, relations, friends, and children,
who all strove by their tears to overcome her constancy. Even when the
vessel was ready to sail, her little son Toxotius, with uplifted hands
on the shore, and bitterly weeping, begged her not to leave him. The
rest, who were not able to speak with gushing tears, prayed her to defer
at least her voluntary banishment. But Paula, raising her dry eyes to
heaven, turned her face from the shore, lest she should discover what
she could not behold without feeling the most sensible pangs of sorrow.
She sailed first to Cyprus, where she was detained ten days by St.
Epiphanius; and from thence to Syria. Her long journeys by land she
performed on the backs of asses; she, who till then had been accustomed
to be carried about by eunuchs in litters. She visited with great
devotion all the principal places which we read to have been consecrated
by the mysteries of the life of our divine Redeemer, as also the
respective abodes of all the principal anchorets and holy solitaries of
Egypt and Syria. At Jerusalem the proconsul had prepared a stately
palace richly furnished for her reception; but excusing herself with
regard {231} to the proffered favor, she chose to lodge in an humble
cell. In this holy place her fervor was redoubled at the sight of each
sacred monument, as St. Jerom describes. She prostrated herself before
the holy cross, pouring forth her soul in love and adoration, as if she
had beheld our Saviour still bleeding upon it. On entering the
sepulchre, she kissed the stone which she angel removed on the occasion
of our Lord's resurrection, and imparted many kisses full of faith and
devotion to the place where the body of Christ had been laid. On her
arrival at Bethlehem, she entered the cave or stable in which the
Saviour of the world was born, and she saluted the crib with tears of
joy, crying out; "I, a miserable sinner, am made worthy to kiss the
manger, in which my Lord was pleased to be laid an infant babe weeping
for me! This is my dwelling-place, because it was the country chosen by
my Lord for himself."

After her journeys of devotion, in which she distributed immense alms,
she settled at Bethlehem with her daughter Eustochium, under the
direction of St. Jerom. The three first years she spent there in a poor
little house; but in the mean time she took care to have a hospital
built on the road to Jerusalem, as also a monastery for St. Jerom and
his monks, whom she maintained; besides three monasteries for women,
which properly made but one house, for all assembled in the same chapel
to perform together the divine service day and night; and on Sundays in
the church that was adjoining. At prime, tierce, sext, none, vespers,
complin, and the midnight office, they daily sung the whole psalter,
which every sister was obliged to know by heart. Their food was very
coarse and temperate, their fasts frequent and austere. All the sisters
worked with their hands, and made clothes for themselves and others. All
wore the same uniform poor habit, and used no linen except for the
wiping of their hands. No man was ever suffered to set a foot within
their doors. Paula governed them with a charity full of discretion,
animating them in the practice of every virtue by her own example and
instructions, being always the first, or among the first, in every duty;
sharing with her daughter Eustochium in all the drudgery and meanest
offices of the house, and appearing everywhere as the last of her
sisters. She severely reprimanded a studied neatness in dress, which she
called an uncleanness of the mind. If any one was found talkative, or
angry, she was separated from the rest, ordered to walk the last in
order, to pray at the outside of the door, and for some time to eat
alone. The holy abbess was so tender of the sick, that she sometimes
allowed them to eat flesh-meat, but would not admit of the same
indulgence in her own ailments, nor even allow herself a drop of wine in
the water she drank. She extended her love of poverty to her buildings
and churches, ordering them all to be built low, and without any thing
costly or magnificent; she said that money is better laid out on the
poor, who are the living members of Christ. She wept so bitterly for the
smallest faults, that others would have thought her guilty of grievous
crimes. Under an overflow of natural grief for the death of her
children, she made frequent signs of the cross on her mouth and breast
to overcome nature, and remained always perfectly resigned in her soul
to the will of God. Her son Toxotius married Læta, daughter to a priest
of the idols, but, as to herself, she was a most virtuous Christian.
Both were faithful imitators of the sanctity of our saint. Their
daughter, Paula the younger, was sent to Bethlehem. to be under the care
of her grandmother, whom she afterwards succeeded in the government of
that monastery. St. Jerom wrote to Læta some excellent lessons[4] for
the education of this girl, which parents can never read too often. Our
saint lived {232} fifty-six years and eight months, of which she had
spent in her widowhood five at Rome, and almost twenty at Bethlehem. In
her last illness, but especially in her agony, she repeated almost
without intermission certain verses of the psalms, which express an
ardent desire of the heavenly Jerusalem, and of being united to God.
When she was no longer able to speak, she formed the sign of the cross
on her lips, and expired in the most profound peace, on the 26th of
January, 404. Her corpse, carried by bishops, and attended with lighted
wax torches, was interred on the 28th of the same month, in the midst of
the church of the holy manger. Her tomb is still shown in the same
place, near that of St. Jerom, but empty: even the Latin epitaph which
St. Jerom composed in verse, and caused to be engraved on her tomb, is
erased or removed, though extant in the end of this letter which he
addressed to her daughter. Her relics are said to be in the possession
of the metropolitical church at Sens, and the feast of St. Paula is kept
a holiday of precept in that city on the 27th of January; on which day
her name is placed by Ado, Usuard, &c., because she died on the 26th,
after sunset, and the Jews in Palestine began the day from sunset: but
her name occurs on the 26th in the Roman Martyrology, &c. See her life
in St. Jerom's letter to her daughter, called her epitaph, ep. 86, &c.

Footnotes:
1.  Ep. 22, ol. 54.
2.  Rebellibus lachrymis injurian facis possidenti.
3.  Nulla sic amabat filios, &c. St. Heir {} epitaph. Paulæ.
4.  Ep. 57, ol. 7.

ST. CONON, BISHOP OF THE ISLE OF MAN.

IF we can give credit to some lives of St. Fiaker, and the old breviary
of Limoges, that saint was son of Eusenius, king of Scotland, and by his
father committed in his childhood, with his two brothers, to the care of
St. Conon, from which saintly education he received that ardent love and
perfect spirit of piety, by which he was distinguished during the whole
course of his life. Conon, by the purity and fervor in which he served
God, was a saint from his infancy. The Isle of Man, which was a famous
ancient seat of the Druids, is said to have received the seeds of the
Christian faith by the zeal of St. Patrick. St. Conon, passing thither
from Scotland, completed that great work, and is said to have been made
bishop of Man, or of Sodor, supposed by these authors to have been
anciently, a town in this island. This bishopric was soon after united
with that of the Hebrides or the Western islands, which see was fixed in
the isle of Hi, Iona or Y-colmkille. St. Conon died in the isle of Man,
about the year 648. His name continued, to the change of religion, in
great veneration throughout the Hebrides, or islands on the West of
Scotland.[1] On St. Conon, see Leslie, Hist. of Scotland, &c.

Footnotes:
1. In some few of these islands, the laird and all the inhabitants
remain still Catholics; as Banbecuis, under Ranal Mac Donald;
South-Vist, under Alan Mac Donald of Moydart, whose ancestors were once
kings of these islands; Barry under Mac Neil; Canny, and Egg, and some
others. In many others there are long since no Catholics, as in Lewis,
North-Vist, Harries, St. Kilda, &c. See the latest edition of the
Present State of England and bishop Leslie's nephew, in his MS. account,
&c.

{233}


JANUARY XXVII.

ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM,

ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE, AND DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH.

From Socrates, Theodoret, and other historians: as also from the saint's
works; and his life, written by way of dialogue, with great fidelity, by
his friend and strenuous advocate Palladius, a holy bishop, but a
distinct person from Palladius the bishop of Helenopolis and author of
the Lausiac history, who was then young, and is evidently distinguished
by this writer in many places, as Tillemont, Montfaucon, and Stilting
show against Baillet and others; though also Palladius, bishop of
Helenopolis, exerted himself in defence of St. Chrysostom. Palladius,
author of the Dialogue on the life of St. Chrysostom, was never accused
of Origenism except by those who, at least in the proofs alleged for
this charge, confounded him with the bishop of Helenopolis. F. Stilting
clears also the latter from the charge of Origenism, and answers the
arguments produced by Baronius against him. Comm. Hist. §1, p. 404. The
later Greek panegyrists, George, patriarch of Alexandria, in 620, the
emperor Leo the Wise, in 890, &c., deserve very little notice. See the
life of our saint compiled by Dom Montfaucon. Op. t. 13. And lastly, the
accurate commentary on his life given by F. Stilting the Bollandist, on
the 14th of September, from p. 401 to 709, t. 4.

A.D. 407.

THIS incomparable doctor, on account of the fluency and sweetness of his
eloquence, obtained soon after his death the surname of Chrysostom, or
Golden Mouth, which we find given him by St. Ephrem of Antioch,
Theodoret, and Cassiodorus. But his tender piety, and his undaunted
courage and zeal in the cause of virtue, are titles far more glorious,
by which he holds an eminent place among the greatest pastors and saints
of the church. About the year 344, according to F. Stilting, Antioch,
the capital city of the East, was ennobled by his illustrious birth. He
had one elder sister, and was the only son and heir of Secundus, master
of the horse, that is, chief commander of the imperial troops in Syria.
His mother, Anthusa, left a widow at twenty years of age, continued such
the remainder of her life, dividing her time between the care of her
family and the exercises of devotion. Her example in this respect made
such an impression on our saint's master, a celebrated pagan sophist,
that he could not forbear crying out, "What wonderful women have the
Christians!"[1] She managed the estate of her children with great
prudence and frugality, knowing this to be part of her duty to God, but
she was sensible that their spiritual instruction in virtue was of
infinitely greater importance. From their cradle she instilled into them
the most perfect maxims of piety, and contempt of the world. The ancient
Romans dreaded nothing more in the education of youth, than their being
ill taught the first principles of the sciences; it being more difficult
to unlearn the errors then imbibed, than to begin on a mere tabula rasa,
or blank paper. Wherefore Anthusa provided her son the ablest masters in
every branch of literature, which the empire at that time afforded.
Eloquence was esteemed the highest accomplishment, especially among the
nobility, and was the surest means of raising men to the first dignities
in the state. John studied that art under Libanius, the most famous
orator of that age; and such was his proficiency, that even in his youth
he excelled his masters. Libanius being asked by his pagan friends on
his death-bed, about the year 390, who should succeed him in his school:
"John," said he, "had not the Christians stolen him from us."[2] Our
saint was then priest. While he was only a scholar, that sophist one day
read to an assembly of orators a declamation composed by him, and it was
received with unusual tokens {234} of admiration and applause. Libanius
pronounced the young orator happy, "as were also the emperors," he said,
"who reigned at a time when the world was possessed of so great a
treasure."[3] The progress of the young scholar in philosophy, under
Andragatius, was no less rapid and surprising; his genius shone in every
disputation. All this time his principal care was to study Christ, and
to learn his spirit. He laid a solid foundation of virtue, by a perfect
humility, self-denial, and a complete victory over himself. Though
naturally hot and inclined to anger, he had extinguished all emotions of
passion in his breast.[4] His modesty, meekness, tender charity, and
singular discretion, rendered him the delight of all he conversed with.

The first dignities of the empire were open to John. But his principal
desire was to dedicate himself to God, without reserve, in holy
solitude. However, not being yet twenty years of age, he for some time
pleaded at the bar. In that employment he was drawn by company into the
diversions of the world, and sometimes assisted at the entertainments of
the stage. His virtue was in imminent danger of splitting against that
fatal rock, when God opened his eyes. He was struck with horror at the
sight of the precipice upon the brink of which he stood; and not content
to flee from it himself, he never ceased to bewail his blindness, and
took every occasion to caution the faithful against that lurking place
of hellish sirens, but more particularly in his vehement sermons against
the stage. Alarmed at the danger he had narrowly escaped, full of
gratitude to God his deliverer, and to prevent the like danger for the
time to come, he was determined to carry his resolution of renouncing
the world into immediate execution. He began by the change of his garb,
to rid himself the more easily of the importunities of friends: for a
penitential habit is not only a means for preserving a spirit of
mortification and humility, but is also a public sign and declaration to
the world, that a person has turned his back on its vanities, and is
engaged in an irreconcilable war against them. His clothing was a coarse
gray coat: he watched much, fasted every day, and spent the greater part
of his time in prayer and meditation on the holy scriptures: his bed was
no other than the hard floor. In subduing his passions, he found none of
so difficult a conquest as vain-glory;[5] this enemy he disarmed by
embracing every kind of public humiliation. The clamors of his old
friends and admirers, who were incensed at his leaving them, and pursued
him with their invectives and censures, were as arrows shot at random.
John took no manner of notice of them: he rejoiced in contempt, and
despised the frowns of a world whose flatteries he dreaded: Christ
crucified was the only object of his heart, and nothing could make him
look back after he had put his hand to the plough. And his progress in
virtue was answerable to his zealous endeavors.

St. Meletius, bishop of Antioch, called the young ascetic to the service
of the church, gave him suitable instructions, during three years, in
his own palace, and ordained him Reader. John had learned the art of
silence, in his retirement, with far greater application than he had
before studied that of speaking. This he discovered when he appeared
again in the world, though no man ever possessed a greater fluency of
speech, or a more ready and enchanting eloquence, joined with the most
solid judgment and a rich fund of knowledge and good sense; yet in
company he observed a modest silence, and regarded talkativeness as an
enemy to the interior recollection of the heart, as a source of many
sins and indiscretions, and as a mark of vanity and self-conceit. He
heard the words of the wise with the humble docility of a scholar, and
he bore the impertinence, trifles, and blunders of {235} fools in
discourse, not to interrupt the attention of his soul to God, or to make
an ostentatious show of his eloquence or science: yet with spiritual
persons he conversed freely on heavenly things, especially with a pious
friend named Basil, one of the same age and inclinations with himself,
who had been his most beloved school-fellow, and who forsook the world
to embrace a monastic life, a little before our saint. After three
years, he left the bishop's house to satisfy the importunities of his
mother, but continued the same manner of life in her house, during the
space of two years. He still saw frequently his friend Basil, and he
prevailed on two of his school-fellows under Libanius to embrace an
ascetic life; Theodorus, afterwards bishop of Mopsuestia, and Maximus,
bishop of Seleucia. The former returned in a short time to the bar, and
fell in love with a young lady called Hermione. John lamented his fall
with bitter tears before God, and brought him back to his holy institute
by two tender and pathetic exhortations to penance, "which breathe an
eloquence above the power of what seems merely human," says Sozomen. Not
long after, hearing that the bishops of the province were assembled at
Antioch, and deliberated to raise him and Basil to the episcopal
dignity, he privately withdrew, and lay hid till the vacant sees were
filled. Basil was made bishop of Raphanæa near Antioch; and had no other
resource in his grief for his promotion, but in tears and complaints
against his friend who had betrayed him into so perilous a charge. John,
being then twenty-six years old, wrote to him in his own justification
six incomparable books, Of the Priesthood.

Four years after, in 374, he retired into the mountains near Antioch,
among certain holy anchorets who peopled them, and whose manner of life
is thus described by our saint:[6] They devoted all the morning to
prayer, pious reading, and meditating on the holy scriptures. Their food
was bread with a little salt; some added oil, and those who were very
weak, a few herbs or pulse; no one ever ate before sunset. After the
refection it was allowed to converse with one another, but only on
heavenly things. They always closed their night-prayers with the
remembrance of the last judgment, to excite themselves to a constant
watchfulness and preparation; which practice St. Chrysostom earnestly
recommends to all Christians with the evening examination.[7] These
monks had no other bed than a mat spread on the bare ground. Their
garments were made of the rough hair of goats or camels, or of old
skins, and such as the poorest beggars would not wear, though some of
them were of the richest families, and had been tenderly brought up.
They wore no shoes; no one possessed any thing as his own; even their
poor necessaries were all in common. They inherited their estates only
to distribute them among the poor; and on them, and in hospitality to
strangers, they bestowed all the spare profits of their work. They all
used the same food, wore a uniform habit, and by charity were all one
heart. The cold words mine and thine, the baneful source of lawsuits and
animosities among men, were banished from their cells. They rose at the
first crowing of the cock, that is, at midnight, being called up by the
superior; and after the morning hymns and psalms, that is, matins and
lauds, all remained in their private cells, where they read the holy
scriptures, and some copied books. All met in the church at the
canonical hours of tierce, sext, none, and vespers, but returned to
their cells, none being allowed to speak, to jest, or to be one moment
idle. The time which others spend a table, or in diversions, they
employed in honoring God; even their meal took up very little time, and
after a short sleep, (according to the custom of hot countries,) {236}
they resumed their exercises, conversing not with men but with God, with
the prophets and apostles in their writings and pious meditation; and
spiritual things were the only subject of their entertainment. For
corporal exercise they employed themselves in some mean manual labor,
such as entertained them in humility, and could not inspire vanity or
pride: they made baskets, tilled and watered the earth, hewed wood,
attended the kitchen, washed the feet of all strangers, and waited on
them without distinction, whether they were rich or poor. The saint
adds, that anger, jealousy, envy, grief, and anxiety for worldly goods
and concerns, were unknown in these poor cells; and he assures us, that
the constant peace, joy, and pleasure which reigned in them, were as
different from the bitterness and tumultuous scenes of the most
brilliant worldly felicity, as the security and calmness of the most
agreeable harbor are, from the dangers and agitation of the most
tempestuous ocean. Such was the rule of these cenobites, or monks who
lived in community. There were also hermits on the same mountains who
lay on ashes, wore sackcloth, and shut themselves up in frightful
caverns, practising more extraordinary austerities. Our saint was at
first apprehensive that he should find it an insupportable difficulty to
live without fresh bread, use the same stinking oil for his food and for
his lamp, and inure his body to hard labor under so great
austerities.[8] But by courageously despising this apprehension, in
consequence of a resolution to spare nothing by which he might learn
perfectly to die to himself; he found the difficulty entirely to vanish
in the execution. Experience shows that in such undertakings, the
imagination is alarmed not so much by realities as phantoms, which
vanish before a courageous heart which can look them in the face with
contempt. Abbot Rancé, the reformer of la Trappe, found more difficulty
in the thought of rising without a fire in winter, in the beginning of
his conversion, than he did in the greatest severities which he
afterwards practised. St. Chrysostom passed four years under the conduct
of a veteran Syrian monk, and afterwards two years in a cave as a
hermit. The dampness of this abode brought on him a dangerous distemper,
and for the recovery of his health he was obliged to return into the
city. By this means he was restored to the service of the church in 381,
for the benefit of innumerable souls. He was ordained deacon by St.
Meletius that very year, and priest by Flavian in 386, who at the same
time constituted him his vicar and preacher, our saint being then in the
forty-third year of his age.[9] He discharged all the duties of that
arduous station during twelve {237} years, being the hand and the eye of
his bishop, and his mouth to his flock. The instruction and care of the
poor he regarded as his first obligation: this he always made his
favorite employment and his delight. He never ceased in his sermons to
recommend their cause and the precept of alms deeds to the people.
Antioch, he supposed, contained at that time one hundred thousand
Christian souls: all these he fed with the word of God, preaching
several days in the week, and frequently several times on the same day.
He confounded the Jews and Pagans, also the Anomæans, and other
heretics. He abolished the most inveterate abuses, repressed vice, and
changed the whole face of that great city. It seemed as if nothing could
withstand the united power of his eloquence, zeal, and piety.

Theodosius I., finding himself obliged to levy a new tax on his
subjects, on occasion of his war with Maximus, who had usurped the
Western empire in 387, the populace of Antioch, provoked at the demand,
mutinied, and discharged their rage on the emperor's statue, those of
his father, his two sons, and his late consort, Flavilla, dragged them
with ropes through the streets, and then broke them to pieces. The
magistrates durst not oppose the rabble in their excesses. But as soon
as their fury was over, and that they began to reflect on what they had
been guilty of, and the natural consequences of their extravagances,
they were all seized with such terror and consternation, that many
abandoned the city, others absconded, and scarce any durst appear
publicly in the streets. The magistrates in the mean time were filling
the prisons with citizens, in order to their trials, on account of their
respective share in the combustion. Their fears were heightened on the
arrival of two officers dispatched from Constantinople to execute the
emperor's orders with regard to the punishment of the rioters. The
reports which were spread abroad on this occasion imported, that the
emperor would cause the guilty to be burned alive, would confiscate
their estates, and level the city with the ground. The consternation
alone was a greater torment than the execution itself could have been.
Flavian, notwithstanding his very advanced age, and though his sister
was dying when he left her, set out without delay in a very severe
season of the year, to implore {238} the emperor's clemency in favor of
his flock. Being come to the palace, and admitted into the emperor's
presence, he no sooner perceived that prince but he stopped at a
distance, holding down his head, covering his face, and speaking only by
his tears, as though himself had been guilty. Thus he remained for some
time. The emperor seeing him in this condition, carrying, as it were,
the weight of the public guilt in his breast, instead of employing harsh
reproaches, as Flavian might naturally have expected, summed up the many
favors he had conferred on that city, and said at the conclusion of each
article: "Is this the acknowledgment I had reason to expect? Is this
their return for my love? What cause of complaint had they against me?
Had I ever injured them? But granting that I had, what can they allege
for extending their insolence even to the dead? Had they received any
wrong from them? Why were they to be insulted too? What tenderness have
I not shown on all occasions for their city? Is it not notorious that I
have given it the preference in my love and esteem to all others, even
to that which gave me birth? Did not I always express a longing desire
to see it, and that it gave the highest satisfaction to think I should
soon be in a condition of taking a journey for this purpose?"

Then the holy bishop, being unable to bear such stinging reproaches or
vindicate their conduct, made answer: "We acknowledge, Sir, that you
have on all occasions favored us with the greatest demonstrations of
your singular affection; and this it is that enhances both our crime and
our grief, that we should have carried our ingratitude to such a pitch
as to have offended our best friend and greatest benefactor: hence,
whatever punishment you may inflict upon us, it will still fall short of
what we deserve. But alas! the evil we have done ourselves is worse than
innumerable deaths: for what can be more afflicting than to live, in the
judgment of all mankind, guilty of the blackest ingratitude, and to see
ourselves deprived of your sweet and gracious protection, which was our
bulwark. We dare not look any man in the face; no, not the sun itself.
But as great as our misery is, it is not irremediable; for it is in your
power to remove it. Great affronts among private men have often been the
occasion of great charity. When the devil's envy had destroyed man,
God's mercy restored him. That wicked spirit, jealous of our city's
happiness, has plunged her into this abyss of evils, out of which you
alone can rescue her. It is your affection, I dare say it, which has
brought them upon us, by exciting the jealousy of the wicked spirits
against us. But, like God himself, you may draw infinite good out of the
evil which they intended us. If you spare us, you are revenged on them.

"Your clemency on this occasion will be more honorable to you than your
most celebrated victories. It will adorn your head with a far brighter
diadem than that which you wear, as it will be the fruit only of your
own virtue. Your statues have been thrown down: if you pardon this
insult, you will raise yourself others, not of marble or brass, which
time destroys, but such as will exist eternally in the hearts of all
those who will hear of this action. Your predecessor, Constantine the
Great, when importuned by his courtiers to exert his vengeance on some
seditious people that had disfigured his statues by throwing stones at
them, did nothing more than stroke his face with his hand, and told
them, smiling, that he did not feel himself hurt. This his saying is yet
in the mouths of all men, and a more illustrious trophy to his memory
than all the cities which he built, than all the barbarous nations which
he subdued. Remember your own memorable saying, when you ordered the
prisons to be opened, and the criminals to be pardoned at the feast of
Easter: 'Would to God I were able in the same manner to open the graves,
and restore the dead to life!' That time is now come. {239} Here is a
city whose inhabitants are already dead; and is, as it were, at the
gates of its sepulchre. Raise it then, as it is in your power to do,
without cost or labor. A word will suffice. Suffer it by your clemency
to be still named among the living cities. It will then owe more to you
than to its very founder. He built it small, you will raise it great and
populous. To have preserved it from being destroyed by barbarians would
not have been so great an exploit, as to spare it on such an occasion as
now offers.

"Neither is the preservation of an illustrious city the only thing to be
considered; your own glory, and, above all, the honor of the Christian
religion, are highly interested in this affair. The Jews and Pagans, all
barbarous nations, nay, the whole world, have their eyes fixed on you at
this critical juncture; all are waiting for the judgment you will
pronounce. If it be favorable, they will be filled with admiration, and
will agree to praise and worship that God, who checks the anger of those
who acknowledge no master upon earth, and who can transform men into
angels; they will embrace that religion which teaches such sublime
morality. Listen not to those who will object that your clemency on this
occasion may be attended with, and give encouragement to the like
disorders in other cities. That could only happen, if you spared for
want of a power to chastise: but whereas you do not divest yourself, by
such an act of clemency, of this power, and as by it you endear and
rivet yourself the more in the affections of your subjects, this,
instead of encouraging such insults and disorders, will rather the more
effectually prevent them. Neither immense sums of money, nor innumerable
armies, could ever have gained you so much the hearts of your subjects
and their prayers for your person and empire, as will this single
action. And if you stand fair for being such a gainer from men, what
rewards may you not reasonably expect from God? It is easy for a master
to punish, but rare and difficult to pardon.

"It will be extremely glorious to you to have granted this pardon at the
request of a minister of the Lord, and it will convince the world of
your piety, in that you overlooked the unworthiness of his person, and
respected only the power and authority of that Master who sent him. For
though deputed immediately by the inhabitants of Antioch to deprecate
your just displeasure on this occasion, it is not only in their name
that I appear in this place, for I am come from the sovereign Lord of
men and angels to declare to you in his name, that, if you pardon men
their faults, he will forgive you your sins. Call to mind then that
dreadful day on which we shall all be summoned to give in an account of
all our actions. Reflect on your having it now in your power, without
pain or labor, to efface your sins, and to find mercy at that terrible
tribunal. You are about to pronounce your own sentence. Other
ambassadors bring gold, silver, and other like presents, but as for me,
I offer nothing but the law of God, and entreat you to imitate his
example on the cross." He concluded his harangue by assuring the emperor
that if he refused to pardon the city, he would never more return to it,
nor look upon that city as his country, which a prince of his humane
disposition could not prevail upon himself to pardon.

This discourse had its desired effect on the emperor, who with much
difficulty suppressed his tears while the bishop spoke, whom he answered
in these few words: "If Jesus Christ, the Lord of all things, vouchsafed
to pardon and pray for those very men that crucified him, ought I to
hesitate to pardon them who have offended me? I, who am but a mortal man
like them, and a servant of the same Master." The patriarch, overjoyed
at his success, prostrated himself at the emperor's feet, wishing him a
reward for such an action suitable to its merit. And whereas the prelate
made an offer of passing the feast of Easter with the emperor at
Constantinople, he, to {240} testify how sincerely he was reconciled to
the city of Antioch, urged his immediate return, saying: "Go, Father,
delay not a moment the consolation your people will receive at your
return, by communicating to them the assurances of the pardon I grant
them; I know they must be in great affliction." The bishop set out
accordingly; but, to delay as little as possible the joy of the
citizens, he dispatched a courier before him with the emperor's letter
of pardon, which produced a comfortable change in the face of affairs.
The bishop himself arrived time enough before Easter to keep that
solemnity with his people. The joy and triumph of that city could not be
greater; it is elegantly described by St. Chrysostom, extolling above
all things the humility and modesty of Flavian, who attributed the whole
change of Theodosius's mind, and all the glory of the action, to God
alone. The discourse which Flavian addressed to the emperor, except the
introduction, had been composed by St. Chrysostom, who recited it to the
people to comfort them, and ceased not strongly to exhort them to
penance, and the fervent exercise of good works, during the whole time
of their bishop's absence.[10] After this storm our saint continued his
labors with unwearied zeal, and was the honor, the delight, and the
darling not of Antioch only but of all the East, and his reputation
spread itself over the whole empire.[11] But God was pleased to call him to
glorify his name on a new theatre, where he prepared for his virtue
other trials, and other crowns.

St. Chrysostom had been five years deacon, and twelve years priest, when
Nectarius, bishop of Constantinople, dying in 397, the emperor Arcadius,
at the suggestion of Eutropius the eunuch, his chamberlain, resolved to
procure the election of our saint to the patriarchate of that city. He
therefore dispatched a secret order to the count of the East, enjoining
him to send John to Constantinople, but by some stratagem; lest his
intended removal, if known at Antioch, should cause a sedition, and be
rendered impracticable. The count repaired to Antioch, and desiring the
saint to accompany him out of the city to the tombs of the martyrs, on
the pretence of devotion, he there delivered him into the hands of an
officer sent on purpose, who, taking him into his chariot, conveyed him
with all possible speed to the imperial city. Theophilus, patriarch of
Alexandria, a man of a proud and turbulent spirit, was come thither to
recommend a creature of his own to that dignity. He endeavored by
illegal practices secretly to traverse the canonical promotion of our
saint; but was detected, and threatened to be accused in a synod.
Whereupon he was glad to desist from his intrigues, and thus John was
consecrated by him on the 26th of February, in 398.[12] In regulating
his own conduct and his domestic concerns, he retrenched all the great
expenses which his predecessors had entailed on their dignity, which he
looked upon as superfluous, and an excessive prodigality, and these sums
he applied to the relief of the poor, especially of the sick. For this
purpose he erected and maintained several numerous hospitals, under the
government of holy and charitable priests, and was very careful that all
the servants and attendants were persons of great virtue, tenderness,
compassion, and prudence. His own family being settled in good order,
the next thing he took in hand after his promotion was the reformation
of his clergy. This he forwarded by zealous exhortations and proper
rules for their conduct, tending both to their sanctification and
exemplarity. And to give these his endeavors their due force, he lived
an exact model of what he inculcated to others: but his zeal exasperated
the tepid part of that order, and raised a storm against himself. The
immodesty {241} of women in their dress in that gay capital excited in
him sentiments of the most just abhorrence and indignation. Some young
ladies seemed to have forgot that clothing is the covering of the
ignominy of sin, and ought to be an instrument of penance, and a motive
of confusion and tears, not of vanity. But the exhortations of St.
Chrysostom moved many to despise and lay aside the use of purple, silks,
and jewels. It was a far more intolerable scandal that some neglected to
cover their necks, or used such thin veils as served only to invite the
eyes of others more boldly. Our saint represented to such persons that
they were in some respects worse than public prostitutes: for these hide
their baits at home only for the wicked: "but you," said he, "carry your
snare everywhere, and spread your nets publicly in all places. You
allege, that you never invited others to sin. You did not by your
tongue, but you have done it by your dress and deportment more
effectually than you could by your voice: when you have made another to
sin in his heart, how can you be innocent? You sharpened and drew the
sword: you gave the thrust by which the soul is wounded.[13] Tell me,
whom does the world condemn? whom do judges punish? Those who drink the
poison, or those who prepare and give the fatal draught? You have
mingled the execrable cup; you have administered the potion of death:
you are so much more criminal than poisoners, as the death which you
cause is the more terrible; for you murder not the body, but the soul.
Nor do you do this to enemies; nor compelled by necessity, nor provoked
by any injury; but out of a foolish vanity and pride. You sport
yourselves in the ruin of the souls of others, and make their spiritual
death your pastime." Hence he infers, how false and absurd their excuse
is in saying, they mean no harm. These and many other scandals he
abolished. He suppressed the wicked custom of swearing, first at
Antioch, then at Constantinople. By the invincible power of his
eloquence and zeal he tamed the fiercest sinners, and changed them into
meek lambs: he converted an incredible number of idolaters and
heretics.[14] His mildness towards sinners was censured by the
Novatians; he invited them to repentance with the compassion of the most
tender father, and was accustomed to cry out: "If you are fallen a
second time, or even a thousand times into sin, come to me and you shall
be healed."[15] But he was firm and severe in maintaining discipline,
though without harshness; to impenitent sinners he was inflexible. To
mention one instance of the success of his holy zeal out of the many
which his sermons furnish; in the year 399, the second of his
episcopacy, on Wednesday in Holy Week, so violent a rain fell as to
endanger the corn, and threaten the whole produce of the country.
Hereupon public processions were made to the church of the apostles by
the bishop and people, to avert the scourge by imploring the
intercession chiefly of St. Peter, St. Andrew, (who is regarded as the
founder of the church of Byzantium,) St. Paul, and St. Timothy.[16] The
rain ceased, but not their fears. Therefore they all crossed the
Bosphorus to the church of SS. Peter and Paul, on the opposite side of
the water. This danger was scarce over, when on the Friday following
many ran to see certain horse-races, and on Holy Saturday to games
exhibited at the theatre. The good bishop was pierced to the quick with
grief, and on the next day, Easter-Sunday, preached a most zealous and
eloquent sermon, Against the Games and Shows of the Theatre and Circus.
Indignation made him not so much as mention the paschal solemnity;{242}
but by an abrupt exordium he burst into the most vehement pathos, as
follows: "Are these things to be borne? Can they be tolerated? I appeal
to yourselves, be you your own judges. Thus did God expostulate with the
Jews."[17] This exclamation he often repeated to assuage his grief. He
put the people in mind of the sanctity of our faith; of the rigorous
account we must give to God of all our moments, and the obligation of
serving him incumbent on us from his benefits, who has made for us the
heaven and earth, the sun, light, rivers, &c. The saint grieved the
more, because, after all, they said they had done no harm, though they
had murdered not only their own souls, but also those of their children.
"And how will you," said he, "after this approach the holy place? How
will you touch the heavenly food? Even now do I see you overwhelmed with
grief, and covered with confusion. I see some striking their foreheads,
perhaps those who have not sinned, but are moved with compassion for
their brethren. On this account do I grieve and suffer, that the devil
should make such a havoc in such a flock. But if you join with me, we
will shut him out. By what means? If we seek out the wounded, and snatch
them out of his jaws. Do not tell me their number is but small: though
they are but ten, this is a great loss: though but five, but two, or
only one. The shepherd leaving ninety-nine, did not return till he had
completed his number by recovering that sheep which was lost. Do not
say, it is only one; but remember that it is a soul for which all things
visible were made; for which laws were given, miracles wrought, and
mysteries effected: for which God spared not his only Son. Think how
great a price hath been paid for this one sheep, and bring him back to
the fold. If he neither hears your persuasions nor my exhortations, I
will employ the authority with which God hath invested me." He proceeds
to declare such excommunicated. The consternation and penance of the
city made the holy pastor forbear any further censure, and to commend
their conversion. Palladius writes that he had the satisfaction to see
those who had been the most passionately fond of the entertainments of
the stage and circus, moved by his sermons on that subject, entirely
renounce those schools of the devil. God is more glorified by one
perfect soul than by many who serve him with tepidity. Therefore, though
every individual of his large flock was an object of his most tender
affection and pastoral concern, those were particularly so, who had
secluded themselves from the world by embracing a religious state of
life, the holy virgins and nuns. Describing their method of life, he
says:[18] Their clothing was sackcloth, and their beds only mats spread
on the floor; that they watched part of the night in prayer, walked
barefoot, never ate before evening, and never touched so much as bread,
using no other food than pulse and herbs, and that they were always
occupied in prayer, manual labor, or serving the sick of their own sex.
The spiritual mother, and the sun of this holy company, St. Nicareta, is
honored December the 27th. Among the holy widows who dedicated
themselves to God under the direction of this great master of saints,
the most illustrious were the truly noble ladies St. Olympias, Salvina,
Procula, and Pantadia. This last (who was the widow of Timasus, formerly
the first minister to the emperor) was constituted by him deaconess of
the church of Constantinople. Widows he considered as by their state
called to a life of penance, retirement, and devotion; and he spared no
exhortations or endeavors to engage them faithfully to correspond to the
divine grace, according to the advice which St. Paul gives them.[19] St.
Olympias claimed the privilege of furnishing the expenses of the saint's
{243} frugal table. He usually ate alone: few would have been willing to
dine so late, or so coarsely and sparingly as he did; and he chose this
to save both time and expenses: but he kept another table in a house
near his palace, for the entertainment of strangers, which he took care
should be decently supplied. He inveighed exceedingly against sumptuous
banquets. All his revenues he laid out on the poor; for whose relief he
sold the rich furniture which Nectarius had left; and once, in a great
dearth, he caused some of the sacred vessels to be melted down for that
purpose. This action was condemned by Theophilus, but is justly regarded
by St. Austin as a high commendation of our holy prelate. Besides the
public hospital near his cathedral, and several others which he founded
and maintained, he erected two for strangers. His own patrimony he had
given to the poor long before, at Antioch. His extraordinary charities
obtained him the name of John of alms-deeds.[20] The spiritual
necessities of his neighbor were objects of far greater compassion to
his tender charity. His diocese, nay, the whole world, he considered as
a great hospital of souls, spiritually blind, deaf, sick, and in danger
of perishing eternally; many standing on the brink, many daily falling
from the frightful precipice into the unquenchable lake. Not content
with tears and supplications to the Father of mercies for their
salvation, he was indefatigable in labors and in every endeavor to open
their eyes; feared no dangers, no not death itself in its most frightful
shapes, to succor them in their spiritual necessities, and prevent their
fall. Neither was this pastoral care confined to his own flock or
nation: he extended it to the remotest countries. He sent a bishop to
instruct the Nomades or wandering Scythians: another, an admirable man,
to the Goths. Palestine, Persia, and many other distant provinces felt
the most beneficent influence of his zeal. He was himself endued with an
eminent spirit of prayer: this he knew to be the great channel of
heavenly graces, the cleanser of the affections of the soul from earthly
dross, and the means which renders them spiritual and heavenly, and
makes men angels, even in their mortal body. He was therefore
particularly earnest in inculcating this duty, and in instructing others
in the manner of performing it. He warmly exhorted the laity to rise to
the midnight office of matins together with the clergy: "Many artisans,"
said he, "watch to labor, and soldiers watch as sentries; and cannot you
do as much to praise God?"[21] He observes, that the silence of the
night is peculiarly adapted to devout prayer, and the sighs of
compunction: which exercise we ought never to interrupt too long; and by
watching, prayer becomes more earnest and powerful. Women he will not
have to go easily abroad to church in the night-time; but advises that
even children rise in the night to say a short prayer, and as they
cannot watch long be put to bed again: for thus they will contract from
their infancy a habit of watching, and a Christian's whole house will be
converted into a church. The advantages and necessity of assiduous
prayer he often recommends with singular energy; but he expresses
himself on no subject with greater tenderness and force than on the
excess of the divine love, which is displayed in the holy Eucharist, and
in exhorting the faithful to the frequent use of that heavenly
sacrament. St. Proclus says,[22] that he abridged the liturgy of his
church. St. Nilus[23] assures us that he was often favored with visions
of angels in the church during the canonical hours, surrounding the
altars in troops during the celebration of the divine mysteries, and at
the communion of the people. The saint himself confidently avers {244}
that this happens at those times,[24] which he confirms by the visions
of several hermits.

The public concerns of the state often called on the saint to afford the
spiritual succors of his zeal and charity. Eutropius was then at the
head of affairs. He was a eunuch, and originally a slave, but had worked
himself into favor with the emperor Arcadius. In 395 he was instrumental
in cutting off Rufinus, the chief minister, who had broke out into an
open rebellion, and he succeeded the traitor in all his honors: golden
statues were erected to him in several parts of the city, and what
Claudian, Marcellinus in his chronicle, Suidas, and others, represent as
the most monstrous event that occurs in the Roman Fasti, was declared
consul, though a eunuch. Being placed on so high a pinnacle, a situation
but too apt to turn the strongest head, forgetful of himself and the
indispensable rules of decency and prudence, it was not long before he
surpassed his predecessor in insolence, ambition, and covetousness.
Wholesome advice, even from a Chrysostom, served only to exasperate a
heart devoted to the world, and open to flatterers, who added
continually new flames to its passions. In the mean time, the murmurs
and indignation of the whole empire at the pride and avarice of
Eutropius were a secret to him, till the pit was prepared for his fall.
Gainas, general of the auxiliary Goths in the imperial army, was stirred
up to revenge an affront which his cousin Trigibildus, a tribune, had
received from the haughty minister. At the same time the empress
Eudoxia, having been insulted by him, ran to the emperor, carrying her
two little babes in her arms, and cried out for justice against the
insolent servant. Arcadius, who was as weak in abandoning, as he was
imprudent in choosing favorites, gave orders that the minister should be
driven out of the court, and his estates confiscated. Eutropius found
himself in a moment forsaken by all the herds of his admirers and
flatterers, without one single friend, and fled for protection to the
church, and to those very altars whose immunities he had infringed and
violated. The whole city was in an uproar against him; the army called
aloud for his death, and a troop of soldiers surrounded the church with
naked swords in their hands, and fire in their eyes. St. Chrysostom went
to the emperor, and easily obtained of him that the unhappy criminal
might be allowed to enjoy the benefit of sanctuary; and the soldiers
were prevailed upon, by the tears of the emperor and the remonstrances
of the bishop, to withdraw. The next day the people flocked to behold a
man whose frown two days before made the whole world to tremble, now
laying hold of the altar, gnashing his teeth, trembling and shuddering,
having nothing before his eyes but drawn swords, dungeons, and
executioners. St. Chrysostom on this occasion made a pathetic discourse
on the vanity and treachery of human things, the emptiness and falsehood
of which he could not find a word emphatical enough to express. The poor
Eutropius could not relish such truths a few days ago, but now found his
very riches destructive. The saint entreated the people to forgive him
whom the emperor, the chief person injured, was desirous to forgive: he
asked them how they could beg of God the pardon of their own sins if
they did not pardon a man who then, by repentance, was perhaps a saint
in the eyes of God. At this discourse not a single person in the church
was able to refrain from tears, and all things seemed in a state of
tranquillity.[25] Some days after, Eutropius left the church, hoping to
escape privately out of the city, but was seized, and banished into
Cyprus.[26] He was recalled a few months after, and being impeached
{245} of high-treason was condemned and beheaded, chiefly at the
instigation of Gainas; in compliance with whose unjust demands the weak
emperor consented to the death of Aurelianus and Saturninus, two
principal lords of his court. But St. Chrysostom, by several journeys,
prevailed with the barbarian to content himself with their banishment,
which they underwent, but were soon after recalled. As unjust
concessions usually make rebels the more insolent, Gainas hereupon
obliged the emperor to declare him commander-in-chief of all his troops.
Yet even when his pride and power were at the highest, St. Chrysostom
refused him the use of any Catholic church in Constantinople for the
Arian worship. And when, some time after, he laid siege to that capital,
the saint went out to him, and by kind expostulations prevailed on him
to withhold his design and draw off his army. He was afterwards defeated
in passing the Hellespont; and fleeing through the country of the Huns,
was overthrown, and slain by them in 400.

This same year, 400, St. Chrysostom held a council of bishops in
Constantinople; one of whom had preferred a complaint against his
metropolitan Antoninus, the archbishop of Ephesus, which consisted of
several heads, but that chiefly insisted on was simony.[27] All our
saint's endeavors to discuss this affair being frustrated by the
distance of places, he found it necessary, at the solicitation of the
clergy and people of Ephesus, to go in person to that city, though the
severity of the winter season, and the ill state of health he was then
in, might be sufficient motives for retarding this journey. In this and
the neighboring cities several councils were held, in which the
archbishop of Ephesus and several other bishops in Asia, Lycia, and
Phrygia, were deposed for simony. Upon his return after Easter, in 401,
having been absent a hundred days, he preached the next morning,[28]
calling his people, in the transports of tender joy, his crown, his
glory, his paradise planted with flourishing trees; but if any bad
shrubs should be found in it, he promised that no pains should be spared
to change them into good. He bid them consider if they rejoiced so much
as they testified, to see him again who was only one, how great his joy
must be which was multiplied in every one of them: he calls himself
their bond-slave, chained to their service, but says, that slavery was
his delight, and that during his absence he ever had them present to his
mind, offering up his prayers for their temporal and spiritual welfare.

It remained that our saint should glorify God by his sufferings, as he
had already done by his labors: and if we contemplate the mystery of the
cross with the eyes of faith, we shall find him greater in the
persecutions he sustained than in all the other occurrences of his life.
At the same time we cannot sufficiently deplore the blindness of envy
and pride in his enemies, as in the Pharisees against Christ himself. We
ought to tremble for ourselves: if that passion does not make us
persecute a Chrysostom, it may often betray us into rash judgments,
aversions, and other sins, even under a cloak of virtue. The first open
adversary of our saint was Severianus, bishop of Gabala, in Syria, to
whom the saint had left the care of his church during his absence. This
mart had acquired the reputation of a preacher, was a favorite of the
empress Eudoxia, and had employed all his talents and dexterity to
establish himself in the good opinion of the court and people, to the
prejudice of the saint, against whom he had preached in his own city.
Severianus being obliged to leave Constantinople at the saint's return,
he made an excellent discourse to his flock on the peace Christ came to
establish on earth, and begged they would receive again Severianus, whom
they {246} had expelled the city. Another enemy of the saint was
Theophilus, patriarch of Alexandria, whom Sozomen, Socrates, Palladius,
St. Isidore of Pelusium, and Synesius, accuse of avarice and oppressions
to gratify his vanity in building stately churches; of pride, envy,
revenge, dissimulation, and an incontrollable love of power and rule, by
which he treated other bishops as his slaves, and made his will the rule
of justice. His three paschal letters, which have reached us, show that
he wrote without method, and that his reflections and reasonings were
neither just nor apposite: whence the loss of his other writings is not
much to be regretted. These spiritual vices sullied his zeal against the
Anthropomorphites, and his other virtues. He died in 412, wishing that
he had lived always in a desert, honoring the name of the holy
Chrysostom, whose picture he caused to be brought to his bedside, and by
reverencing it, showed his desire to make atonement for his past ill
conduct towards our saint.[29] This turbulent man had driven from their
retreat four abbots of Nitria, called the tall brothers, on a groundless
suspicion of Origenism, as appears from Palladius, though it was
believed by St. Jerom, which is maintained by Baronius. St. Chrysostom
admitted them to communion, but not till they had juridically cleared
themselves of it in an ample manner.[30] This however was grievously
resented by Theophilus: but the empress Eudoxia, who, after the disgrace
of Eutropius, governed her husband and the empire, was the main spring
which moved the whole conspiracy against the saint. Zozimus, a heathen
historian, says, that her flagrant avarice, her extortions and
injustices, knew no bounds, and that the court was filled with
informers, calumniators, and harpies, who, being always on the watch for
prey, found means to seize the estates of such as died rich, and to
disinherit their children or other heirs. No wonder that a saint should
displease such a court while he discharged his duty to God. He had
preached a sermon against the extravagance and vanity of women in dress
and pomp. This was pretended by some to have been levelled at the
empress; and Severianus was not wanting to blow the coals. Knowing
Theophilus was no friend to the saint, the empress, to be revenged of
the supposed affront, sent to desire his presence at Constantinople, in
order to depose him. He obeyed the summons with pleasure, and landed at
Constantinople in June, 403, with several Egyptian bishops his
creatures, refused to see or lodge with John, and got together a packed
cabal of thirty-six bishops, the saint's enemies, in a church at
Chalcedon, calling themselves the synod at the Oak, from a great tree
which gave name to that quarter of the town. The heads of the
impeachment drawn up against the holy bishop were: that he had deposed a
deacon for beating a servant; that he had called several of his clergy
base men; had deposed bishops out of his province; had ordained priests
in his domestic chapel, instead of the cathedral; had sold things
belonging to the church; that nobody knew what became of his revenues;
that he ate alone; and that he gave the holy communion to persons who
were not fasting: all which were false or frivolous. The saint held a
legal council of forty bishops in the city at the same time; and refused
to appear before that at the Oak, alleging most notorious infractions of
the canons in their pretended council. The cabal proceeded to a sentence
of deposition, which they sent to the city and to the emperor, to whom
they also accused him of treason, for having called the empress Jezabel,
a false assertion, as Palladius testifies. The emperor hereupon issued
out an order for his banishment, but the execution of it was opposed by
the people, who assembled about the great church to guard their pastor.
{247} He made them a farewell sermon,[31] in which he spoke as follows:
"Violent storms encompass me on all sides; yet I am without fear,
because I stand upon a rock. Though the sea roar, and the waves rise
high, they cannot sink the vessel of Jesus. I fear not death, which is
my gain: not banishment, for the whole earth is the Lord's: nor the loss
of goods; for I came naked into the world, and must leave it in the same
condition. I despise all the terrors of the world and trample upon its
smiles and favor. Nor do I desire to live unless for your service.
Christ is with me: whom shall I fear? Though waves rise against me:
though the sea, though the fury of princes threaten me, all these are to
me more contemptible than a spider's web. I always say: O Lord, may thy
will be done: not what this or that creature wills, but what it shall
please thee to appoint, that shall I do and suffer with joy. This is my
strong tower: this is my unshaken rock: this is my staff that can never
fail. If God be pleased that it be done, let it be so. Wheresoever his
will is that I be, I return him thanks." He declared that he was ready
to lay down a thousand lives for them, if at his disposal, and that he
suffered only because he had neglected nothing to save their souls. On
the third day after the unjust sentence given against him, having
received repeated orders from the emperor to go into banishment, and
taking all possible care to prevent a sedition, he surrendered himself,
unknown to the people, to the count, who conducted him to Prænetum in
Bithynia. After his departure his enemies entered the city with guards,
and Severianus mounted the pulpit, and began to preach, pretending to
show the deposition of the saint to have been legal and just. But the
people would not suffer him to proceed, and ran about as if distracted,
loudly demanding in a body the restoration of their holy pastor. The
next night the city was shook with an earthquake. This brought the
empress to reflect with remorse on what she had done against the holy
bishop. She applied immediately to the emperor, under the greatest
consternation, for his being recalled; crying out: "Unless John be
recalled, our empire is undone:" and with his consent she dispatched
letters the same night, inviting him home with tender expressions of
affection and esteem, and protesting her ignorance of his banishment.
Almost all the city went out to meet him, and great numbers of lighted
torches were carried before him. He stopped to the suburbs, refusing to
enter the city till he had been declared innocent by a more numerous
assembly of bishops. But the people would suffer no delay: the enemies
of the saint fled, and he resumed his functions, and preached to his
flock. He pressed the emperor to call Theophilus to a legal synod: but
that obstinate persecutor alleged that he could not return without
danger of his life. However, Sozomen relates that threescore bishops
ratified his return: but the fair weather did not last long. A silver
statue of the empress having been erected on a pillar before the great
church of St. Sophia, the dedication of it was celebrated with public
games, which, besides disturbing the divine service, engaged the
spectators in extravagances and superstition. St. Chrysostom had often
preached against licentious shows; and the very place rendered these the
more criminal. On this occasion, fearing lest his silence should be
construed as an approbation of the thing, he, with his usual freedom and
courage, spoke loudly against it. Though this could only affect the
Manichæan overseer of those games, the vanity of the empress made her
take the affront to herself, and her desires of revenge were
implacable.[32] His enemies were invited back: Theophilus {248} durst
not come, but sent three deputies. Though St. John had forty-two bishops
with him, this second cabal urged to the emperor certain canons of an
Arian council of Antioch, made only to exclude St. Athanasius, by which
it was ordained that no bishop who had been deposed by a synod, should
return to his see till he was restored by another synod. This false plea
overruled the justice of the saint's cause, and Arcadius sent him an
order to withdraw. He refused to forsake a church committed to him by
God, unless forcibly compelled to leave it. The emperor sent troops to
drive the people out of the churches on Holy-Saturday, and the holy
places were polluted with blood and all manner of outrages. The saint
wrote to pope Innocent, begging him to declare void all that had been
done; for no injustice could be more notorious.[33] He also wrote to beg
the concurrence of certain other holy bishops of the West. The pope
having received from Theophilus the acts of the false council at the
Oak, even by them saw the glaring injustice of its proceedings, and
wrote to him, exhorting him to appear in another council, where sentence
should be given according to the canons of Nice, meaning by those words
to condemn the Arian canons of Antioch. He also wrote to St. Chrysostom,
to his flock, and several of his friends: and endeavored to redress
these evils by a new council: as did also the emperor Honorius. But
Arcadius and Eudoxia found means to prevent its assembling, the very
dread of which made Theophilus, Severianus, and other ringleaders of the
faction to tremble.

St. Chrysostom was suffered to remain at Constantinople two months after
Easter. On Thursday, in Whitsun-week, the emperor sent him an order for
his banishment. The holy man, who received it in the church, said to
those about him, "Come, let us pray, and take leave of the angel of the
church." He took leave of the bishops, and, stepping into the
baptistery, also of St. Olympias and the other deaconesses, who were
overwhelmed with grief and bathed in tears. He then retired privately
out of the church, to prevent a sedition, and was conducted by Lucius, a
brutish captain, into Bithynia, and arrived at Nice on the 20th of June,
404. After his departure, a fire breaking out, burnt down the great
church and the senate-house, two buildings which were the glory of the
city: but the baptistery was spared by the flames, as it were to justify
the saint against his calumniators; for not one of the rich vessels was
found wanting. In this senate-house perished the incomparable statues of
the muses from Helicon, and other like ornaments, the most valuable then
known: so that Zozimus looks upon this conflagration as the greatest
misfortune that had ever befallen that city. Palladius ascribes the fire
to the anger of heaven. Many of the saint's friends were put to the most
exquisite tortures on this account, but no discovery could be made. The
Isaurians plundered Asia, and the Huns several other provinces. Eudoxia
ended her life and crimes in childbed on the 6th of October following,
five days after a furious hail-storm had made a dreadful havoc in the
city. The emperor wrote to St. Nilus, to recommend himself and his
empire to his prayers. The hermit answered him with a liberty of speech
which became one who neither hoped nor feared any thing from the world.
"How do you hope," said he, "to see Constantinople delivered from the
destroying angel of God, after such enormities authorized by laws? after
having banished the most blessed John, the pillar of the church, the
lamp of truth, the trumpet of Jesus Christ!"[34] And again: "You have
banished John, the greatest light of the earth:--At least, {249} do not
persevere in your crime."[35] His brother, the emperor Honorius, wrote
still in stronger terms,[36] and several others. But in vain; for
certain implacable court ladies and sycophants, hardened against all
admonitions and remorse, had much too powerful an ascendant over the
unhappy emperor, for these efforts of the saint's friends to meet with
success. Arsacius, his enemy and persecutor, though naturally a soft and
weak man, was by the emperor's authority intruded into his see. The
saint enjoyed himself comfortably at Nice: but Cucusus was pitched upon
by Eudoxia for the place of his banishment. He set out from Nice in
July, 404, and suffered incredible hardships from heats, fatigues,
severity of guards, almost perpetual watchings, and a fever which soon
seized him with pains in his breast. He was forced to travel almost all
night, deprived of every necessary of life, and was wonderfully
refreshed if he got a little clear water to drink, fresh bread to eat,
or a bed to take a little rest upon. All he lamented was the impenitence
of his enemies, for their own sake: calling impunity in sin, and honor
conferred by men on that account, the most dreadful of all
judgments.[37] About the end of August, after a seventy days' journey,
he arrived at Cucusus, a poor town in Armenia, in the deserts of Mount
Taurus. The good bishop of the place vied with his people in showing the
man of God the greatest marks of veneration and civility, and many
friends met him there, both from Constantinople and Antioch. In this
place, by sending missionaries and succors, he promoted the conversion
of many heathen countries, especially among the Goths, in Persia and
Phoenicia. He appointed Constantius, his friend, a priest of Antioch,
superior of the apostolic missions in Phoenicia and Arabia. The letters
of Constantius are added to those of St. Chrysostom. The seventeen
letters of our saint to St. Olympias might be styled treatises. He tells
her,[38] "I daily exult and am transported with joy in my heart under my
sufferings, in which I find a hidden treasure: and I beg that you
rejoice on the same account, and that you bless and praise God, by whose
mercy we obtain to such a degree the grace of suffering." He often
enlarges on the great evils and most pernicious consequences of sadness
and dejection of spirit, which he calls[39] "the worst of human evils, a
perpetual domestic rack, a darkness and tempest of the mind, an interior
war, a distemper which consumes the vigor of the soul, and impairs all
her faculties." He shows[40] that sickness is the greatest of trials, a
time not of inaction, but of the greatest merit, the school of all
virtues, and a true martyrdom. He advises her to use physic, and says it
would be a criminal impatience to wish for death to be freed from
sufferings. He laments the fall of Pelagius, whose heresies he abhorred.
He wrote to this lady his excellent treatise, That no one can hurt him
who does not hurt himself. Arsacius dying in 405, many ambitiously
aspired to that dignity, whose very seeking it was sufficient to prove
them unworthy. Atticus, one of this number, a violent enemy to St.
Chrysostom, was preferred by the court, and placed in his chair. The
pope refused to hold communion with Theophilus or any of the abettors of
the persecution of our saint.[41] He and the emperor Honorius sent five
bishops to Constantinople to insist on a council, and that, in the mean
time, St. Chrysostom should be restored to his see, his deposition
having been notoriously unjust.[42] But the deputies were cast into prison
in Thrace, because they refused to communicate with Atticus. The
persecutors saw that, if the council was held, they would be inevitably
condemned and deposed by it, therefore they stuck at nothing to prevent
its meeting. The incursions of the Isaurian plunderers obliged St.
Chrysostom to take shelter in the castle of Arabissus, on{250} Mount
Taurus. He enjoyed a tolerable state of health during the year 406 and
the winter following, though it was extremely cold in those mountains,
so that the Armenians were surprised to see how his thin, weak body was
able to support it. When the Isaurians had quitted the neighborhood, he
returned to Cucusus. But his impious enemies, seeing the whole Christian
world both honor and defend him, resolved to rid the world of him. With
this view they procured an order from the emperor that he should be
removed to Arabissus, and thence to Pytius, a town situated on the
Euxine sea, near Colchis, at the extremity of the empire, on the
frontiers of the Sarmatians, the most barbarous of the Scythians. Two
officers were ordered to convey him thither in a limited number of days,
through very rough roads, with a promise of promotion, if, by hard
usage, he should die in their hands. One of these was not altogether
destitute of humanity, but the other could not bear to hear a mild word
spoken to him. They often travelled amidst scorching heats, from which
his head, that was bald, suffered exceedingly. In the most violent rains
they forced him out of doors, obliging him to travel till the water ran
in streams down his back and bosom. When they arrived at Comana Pontica,
in Cappadocia, he was very sick; yet was hurried five or six miles to
the martyrium or chapel in which lay the relics of the martyr St.
Basiliscus.[43] The saint was lodged in the oratory of the priest. In
the night, that holy martyr appearing to him, said, "Be of good courage,
brother John; to-morrow we shall be together." The confessor was filled
with joy at this news, and begged that he might stay there till eleven
o'clock. This made the guards drag him out the more violently; but when
they had travelled four miles, perceiving him in a dying condition, they
brought him back to the oratory. He there changed all his clothes to his
very shoes, putting on his best attire, which was all white, as if he
meant it for his heavenly nuptials. He was yet fasting, and having
received the holy sacrament, poured forth his last prayer, which he
closed with his usual doxology: Glory be to God for all things. Having
said Amen, and signed himself with the sign of the cross, he sweetly
gave up his soul to God on the feast of the exaltation of the holy
cross, the 14th of September, as appears from the Menæa, in 407, having
been bishop nine years and almost seven months.[44]

His remains were interred by the body of St. Basiliscus, a great
concourse of holy virgins, monks, and persons of all ranks from a great
distance flocking to his funeral. The pope refused all communion with
those who would not allow his name a place in the Dyptics or registers
of Catholic bishops deceased. It was inserted at Constantinople by
Atticus, in 417, and at Alexandria, by St. Cyril, in 419: for Nestorius
tells him that he then venerated the ashes of John against his will.[45]
His body was translated to Constantinople in 434, by St. Proclus, with
the utmost pomp, the emperor Theodosius and his sister Pulcheria
accompanying St. Proclus in the procession, and begging pardon for the
sins of their parents, who had unadvisedly persecuted this servant of
God. The precious remains were laid in the church of the apostles, the
burying-place of the emperors and bishops, on the 27th of January, 438;
on which day he is honored by the Latins: {251} but the Greeks keep his
festival on the 13th of November.[46] His ashes were afterwards carried
to Rome, and rest under an altar which bears his name in the Vatican
church. The saint was low in stature; and his thin, mortified
countenance bespoke the severity of his life. The austerities of his
youth, his cold solitary abode in the mountains, and the fatigues of
continual preaching, had weakened his breast, which occasioned his
frequent distempers. But the hardships of his exile were such as must
have destroyed a person of the most robust constitution. Pope Celestine,
St. Austin, St. Nilus, St. Isidore of Pelusium, and others, call him the
illustrious doctor of churches, whose glory shines on every side, who
fills the earth with the light of his profound sacred learning, and who
instructs by his works the remotest corners of the world, preaching
everywhere, even where his voice could not reach. They style him the
wise interpreter of the secrets of God, the sun of the whole universe,
the lamp of virtue, and the most shining star of the earth. The
incomparable writings of this glorious saint, make his standing and most
authentic eulogium.

In the character which St. Chrysostom has in several places drawn of
divine and fraternal charity and holy zeal, we have a true portraiture
of his holy soul. He excellently shows, from the words of our Lord to
St. Peter,[47] that the primary and essential disposition of a pastor of
souls is a pure and most ardent love of God, whose love for these souls
is so great, that he has delivered his Son to death for them. Jesus
Christ shed his blood to save this flock, which he commits to the care
of St. Peter. Nothing can be stronger or more tender than the manner in
which this saint frequently expresses his charity and solicitude for his
spiritual children.[48] When he touches this topic, his words are all
fire and flame, and seem to breathe the fervor of St. Peter, the zeal of
St. Paul, and the charity of Moses. This favorite of God was not afraid,
for the salvation of his people, to desire to be separated from the
company of the saints, provided this could have been done without
falling from the love of God; though he knew that nothing would more
closely unite him forever to God, than this extraordinary effort of his
love. The apostle of nations desired to be an anathema for his brethren,
and for their salvation;[49] and the prince of the apostles gave the
strongest proof of the ardor of his love for Christ, by the floods of
tears which he shed for his flock. From the same furnace of divine love,
St. Chrysostom drew the like sentiments towards his flock, joined with a
sovereign contempt of all earthly things; another distinguishing
property of charity, which he describes in the following words:[50]
"Those who burn with a spiritual love, consider as nothing all that is
shining or precious on earth. We are not to be surprised if we
understand not this language, who have no experience of this sublime
virtue. For whoever should be inflamed with the fire of the perfect love
of Jesus Christ, would be in such dispositions with regard to the earth,
that he would be indifferent both to its honors and to its disgrace, and
would be no more concerned about its trifles than if he was alone in the
world. He would despise sufferings, scourges, and dungeons, as if they
were endured in another's body, not in his own; and would be as
insensible to the pleasures and enjoyments of the world; as we are to
the bodies of the dead, or as the dead are to their own bodies. He would
be as pure from the stain of any inordinate passions, as gold perfectly
refined is from all rust or spot. And as flies beware of falling into
the flames, and keep at a distance, so irregular passions dare not
approach him."

Footnotes:
1.  S. Chrys. ad Vid. jun. t. 1, p. 340.
2.  Sozom. l. 8, c. 22.
3.  Liban. ep. ad Joan. apud S. Isidor. Pelus. l. 2, ep. 42.
4.  L. 3, de Sacerd. c. 14, p. 390.
5.  L. 3, de Sacerd. c. 14.
6.  Hom. 72 (ol. 73) and 69 (ol. 69,) in Matt. Hom. 14, in 1 Tim. t. 11,
    pp. 628, 630, {}3, contra vitup. vita Mon. c. 14.
7. Lib. de Compunct. p. {1}32.
8. Lib. 1, de Compunct. &c.
9.  Flavian I. was a native of Antioch, of honorable extraction, and
    possessed of a plentiful estate, which he employed in the service of
    the church and relief of the poor. He was remarkably grave and
    serious, and began early to subdue his flesh by austerities and
    abstinence, in which he remitted nothing even in his old age. Thus
    was his heart prepared to receive and cherish the seeds of divine
    grace, the daily increase of which rendered him so conspicuous in
    the world, and of such advantage to the church. The Arians being at
    that time masters of the church of Antioch, Flavian and his
    associate Diodorus, afterwards bishop of Tarsus, equally
    distinguished by their birth, fortune, learning, and virtue, were
    the great supports of the flock St. Eustathius had been forced to
    abandon. In 348, they undertook the defence of the Catholic faith
    against Leontius, the Arian bishop, who made use of all his craft
    and authority to establish Arianism to that city; one of whose chief
    expedients was to promote none to holy orders but Arians. The
    scarcity of Catholic pastors, on this account called for all their
    zeal and charity in behalf of the abandoned flock. The Arians being
    in possession of the churches to the city, these two zealous laymen
    assembled them without the walls, at the tombs of the martyrs, for
    the exercise of religious duties. They introduced among them the
    manner of singing psalms alternately, and of concluding each psalm
    with _Glory be to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; as it was,_ &c.,
    which pious custom was soon after spread over all the eastern and
    western churches. Theodoret (l. 2, c. 19) says, that Flavian and
    Diodorus were the first who directed the psalms to be sung in this
    manner by two choirs: though Socrates (l. 6, c. 8) attributes its
    institution to St. Ignatius the martyr: who having, as he there
    relates, heard angels in a vision singing the divine praises
    alternately, instituted that manner of singing in the church of
    Antioch; but this might have been disused. Pliny's famous letter to
    Trajan shows, that singing was then in use among the Christians In
    Bithynia; and it appears from Philo, that the Therapeuts did the
    same before that time. Leontius stood so much in awe of Flavian and
    Diodorus while they were only laymen, that in compliance with their
    demands he deposed Aëtius that most impious and barefaced blasphemer
    of all the Arians, from the rank of deacon.

    St. Meletius, on his being promoted to the see of Antioch, about the
    year 361, raised these both to the priesthood, and they took care of
    that church, as his delegates, during his banishment by Constantius.
    Thus they continued together their zealous labors till Diodorus was
    made bishop of Tarsus. In 381, St. Meletius took Flavian with him to
    the general council which was assembled at Constantinople; but dying
    in that capital, Flavian was chosen to succeed him. His life was a
    perfect copy of the eminent episcopal virtues, and especially of the
    meekness, the candor, and affability of his worthy predecessor.

    Unhappily the schism, which for a long time had divided the church
    of Antioch, was not yet extinguished. The occasion was this: after
    the death of St. Eustathius, they could not agree in the choice of
    his successor; those who were most attached to this holy prelate,
    with St. Athanasius and the West, followed Paulinus: the
    Apollinarists declared for Vitalis: and the greatest body of the
    orthodox of Antioch, with Flavian, Diodorus, and all the East,
    adhered to St. Meletius, who, as we have seen already, was succeeded
    by Flavian. Paulinus, bishop of that part of the Catholics called
    Eustathians, from their attachment to that prelate, though long
    since dead, still disputed that see with Flavian; but dying in 383,
    the schism of Antioch must have ended, had not his abettors kept
    open the breach by choosing Evagrius in his room; though it does not
    appear that he had one bishop in communion with him, Egypt and the
    West being now neuter, and the East all holding communion with
    Flavian. Evagrius dying in 395, the Eustathians, though now without
    a pastor, still continued their separate meetings, and kept up the
    schism several years longer. St. Chrysostom being raised to the see
    of Constantinople, in 398, labored hourly to abolish this fatal
    schism, which was brought about soon after by commissioners
    constituted for this purpose by the West, Egypt, and all the other
    parties concerned, and the Eustathians received Flavian as their
    bishop. In the year 404, when St. Chrysostom was banished, Flavian
    testified his indignation against so unjust a proceeding, and wrote
    upon that subject to the clergy of Constantinople. But he did not
    live to be witness of all the sufferings his dear friend was to meet
    with, dying about three years before him, in 404. The general
    council of Chalcedon calls him blessed, (Conc. t. 4, p. 840,) and
    Theodoret (l. 5, c. 232) gives him the titles of the great, the
    admirable saint. St. Chrysostom is lavish in his praises of him.
    Flavian's sermons and other writings are all lost except his
    discourse to Theodosius, preserved by St. Chrysostom. No church or
    Martyrology, whether among the Greeks or Latins, ever placed Falvius
    I. of Antioch in the catalogue of the saints. Whence Chatelain, in
    his notes, speaking of St. Meletius, February the 12th, p. 630; and
    on St. Flavian of Constantinople, February the 17th, p. 685,
    expresses his surprise at the boldness of Baillet and some others,
    who, without regard to the decrees of Urban VIII., presumed to do it
    of their own private authority, and without any reason, have
    assigned for his feast the 21st of February. Chatelain, in his
    additions to his Universal Martyrology, p. 711, names him with the
    epithet of venerable only, on the 26th of September. He is only
    spoken of here, to answer our design of giving in the notes some
    account of the most eminent fathers of the church who have never
    been ranked among the saints. On St. Flavian II. of Antioch,
    banished by the emperor Anastasius with St. Elias of Jerusalem, for
    their zeal in defending the council of Chalcedon against the
    Eutychians, see July {} 4th, on which these two confessors are
    commemorated in the Roman Martyrology.
10. St. Chrys. Hom. 21, ad Pap. Antioch. seu de Statius. t. 2.
11. Sozom. l. 8, c. 2, &c.
12. Socrat. c. 2. See Stilting, §35, p. 511.
13. St. Chrys. l. Quod regulares foeminæ, t. 1, p. 250.
14. Stilting, §41, p. 526.
15. Phot. Cod. 59. Socr. l. 6, c. 21. Stilting, §40, p. 523.
16. [Greek: Kai sunêgores elambanomen]. Chrys. Serm. contra ludos et
    spect. t. 6, p. 272. Ed. Ben. [Greek: Andreas Paulon kai Timotheon].
17. Mich. vi. 3. Jer. ii. 5.
18. Hom. 13, in Ephes. t. 11, p. 95
19. Pallad in Vit. Chrysost. Item S. Chrysost. Hom. in 1 Tim. v. 5, l.
    3, de Sacerd. c. 8, and l. ad V{}oior. Stilting, §67, p. 603.
20. [Greek: Iôannês hu tês eleêmosunês]. Pallad. c. 12.
21. Hom. 2, & 25, in Acta. Hom. 14, in Hebr. Pallad. in Vit. S. Chrys.
22. S. Procl. Or. 22. p. 581.
23. L. 2, Ep. 294, p. 266.
24. L. 3, de Sacerd.
25. Stilting, §43, p. 530, et seq.
26. About this time the poet Claudian wrote his two books against
    Eutropius, as he had done before against Rufinus.
27. Pallad. Dial. {} 127. Stilting, §47, p. 542.
28. T. 3, p. 411.
29. S. Joan. Damasc. Orat. 3, de Imaginibus, p. 480, {} Billii. See F.
    Sollier in Hist. Chronol. Patriarch Alexand. in Theophilo, p. 52.
30. See Stilting, §54, 55, 5{}, p. 567.
31. T. 3, p. 415.
32. Socrates and Sozomen say that he preached another sermon against the
    empress, beginning with these words: Herodias is again became
    furious. But Montfaucon refutes this slander, trumped up by his
    enemies. The sermon extant under that title is a manifest forgery,
    t. {}n spuriis, p. 1. See Montfaucon, and Stilting, §63, p. 503.
33. {}p t. 3, p. 515. Pallad. Dial. Stilting, §58, p. 578.
34. S. Nilus, l. 2, ep. 265.
35. L. 3, ep. 279.
36. T. 3, p. 525.
37. Ep. 8.
38. Ep. 8, p. 589.
39. Ibid. 3, p. 552.
40. Ibid. 4, p. 570.
41. Pallad. Theodoret, l. 5, c. 34.
42. Pallad. Sozom. l. 8. c. 28.
43. The passage of Palladius, in which St. Basiliscus is called bishop
    of Comana, is evidently falsified by the mistake of copiers, as
    Stilting demonstrates; who shows this Basiliscus to have suffered
    not at Nicomedia, but near Comana, in the country where his relics
    remained; the same that is honored on the 2d of March. It is without
    grounds that Tillemont, Le Quien, &c., imagine there were two
    martyrs of the same name, the one a soldier, who suffered at Comana
    under Galerius Maximian; the other, bishop of that city. T. 5, in S.
    Basilisc. note 4. See Stilting, §83, p. 665.
44. Sir Harry Saville is of opinion that he was only fifty-two years
    old: but he must have been sixty-three, as born in 344.
45. Nestorius, Or. 12, apud Marium Mercat. par. 2, p. 86, ed. Gamier.
    Stilting, §88, p. 685.
46. Jos. Assemani. Comm. In Calend. Univ. t. 6. p. 105, and Stilting.
47. Joan. xxi. 17. St. Chrys. l. 2, de Sacred. c. 1.
48. Hom. 3 & 44, in Act. et alibi sæpe.
49. See St. Chrys. hom. 16, in Rom.
50. Hom. 52, in Acta.


{252}

ON THE WRITINGS

OF

ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM.

IN the Benedictine edition of his works given by Dom Montfaucon, we have
in the first tome his two Exhortations to Theodorus; three books against
the Adversaries of a Monastic Life; the Comparison between a King and a
Monk; two books on Compunction; three books to Stagirius the monk, on
Tribulation and Providence; against those Clergymen who harbor Women
under their roof to serve them; another treatise to prove that
Deaconesses, or other Regular Women, ought not to live under the same
roof with men; On Virginity; To a Young Widow; On the Priesthood; and a
considerable number of scattered homilies. Theodorus, after renouncing
the advantages which high birth, a plentiful estate, a polite education,
and an uncommon stock of learning offered him in the world, and having
solemnly consecrated himself to God in a monastic state, violated his
sacred engagement, returned into the world, took upon him the
administration of his estate, fell in love with a beautiful young woman
named Hermione, and desired to marry her. St. Chrysostom, who had
formerly been his school-fellow, under Libanius, and been afterwards
instrumental in inducing him to forsake the world, and some time his
companion in a religious state, grievously lamented his unhappy fall;
and by two most tender and pathetic exhortations to repentance, gained
him again to God. Every word is dictated by the most ardent zeal and
charity, and powerfully insinuates itself into the heart by the charm of
an unparalleled sweetness, which gives to the strength of the most
persuasive eloquence an irresistible force. Nothing of the kind extant
is more beautiful, or more tender, than these two pieces, especially the
former. The saint, in the beginning, borrows the most moving parts of
the lamentations of Jeremy, showing that he had far more reason to
abandon himself to bitter grief than that prophet; for he mourned not
for a material temple and city with the holy ark and the tables of the
law, but for an immortal soul, far more precious than the whole material
world. And if one soul which observes the divine law is greater and
better than ten thousand which transgress it, what reason had he to
deplore the loss of one which had been sanctified, and the holy living
temple of God, and shone with the grace of the Holy Ghost: one in which
the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost had dwelt; but was stripped of its glory
and fence, robbed of its beauty, enslaved by the devil, and fettered
with his bolts and chains. Therefore the saint invites all creatures to
mourn with him, and declares he will receive no comfort, nor listen to
those who offer him any, crying out with the prophet: _Depart from me: I
will weep bitterly: offer not to comfort me_. Isa. xxii. 4. His grief,
he says, was just, because he wept for a soul that was fallen from
heaven to hell, from grace into sin: it was reasonable, because by tears
she might yet be recovered; and he protests that he would never
interrupt them, till he should learn that she was risen again. To
fortify his unhappy friend against the temptation of despair, he shows
by the promises, examples, and parables of the Old and New Testaments,
that no one can doubt of the power or goodness of God, who is most ready
to pardon every sinner that sues for mercy. Observing that hell was not
created for man, but heaven, he conjures him not to defeat the design of
God in his creation, and destroy the work of his mercy by persevering in
sin. The difficulties which seemed to stand in his way, and dispirited
him, the saint shows would be all removed, and would even vanish of
themselves, if he undertook the work with courage and resolution: this
makes the conversion of a soul easy. He terrifies him by moving
reflections on death, and the divine judgments, by a dreadful
portraiture which he draws of the fire of hell, which resembles not our
fire, but burns souls, and is eternal; lastly, by the loss of heaven, on
the joys of which kingdom he speaks at large; on its immortality, the
company of the angels, the joy, liberty, beauty, and glory of the
blessed, adding, that such is this felicity, that in its loss consists
the most dreadful of all the torments of the damned. Penance averts
these evils, and restores to a soul all the titles and advantages which
she had forfeited by her fall: and its main difficulty and labor are
vanquished by a firm resolution, and serious beginning of the work. This
weakens and throws down the enemy: if he be thoroughly vanquished in
that part where he was the strongest, the soul will pursue, with ease
and cheerfulness, the delightful and beautiful course of virtue upon
which she has entered. He conjures Theodorus, by all that is dear, to
have compassion on himself; also to have pity on his mourning friends,
and not by grief send them to their graves: he exhorts him resolutely to
break his bonds at once, not to temporize only with his enemy, or
pretend to rise by degrees; and he entreats him to exert his whole
strength in laboring to {253} be of the happy number of those who, from
being the last, are raised by their fervor to the first rank in the
kingdom of God. To encourage him by examples, he mentions a young
nobleman of Phoenicia, the son of one Urbanus, who, having embraced with
fervor the monastic state, insensibly fell into lukewarmness, and at
length returned into the world, where he enjoyed large possessions,
lived in pomp, and abandoned himself to the pursuit of vanity and
pleasures; till, opening his eyes upon the remonstrances of certain
pious friends, he distributed his whole estate among the poor, and spent
the rest of his life in the desert with extraordinary fervor. Another
ascetic, falling by degrees, in an advanced age, committed the crime of
fornication; but immediately rising, attained to an eminent degree of
sanctity, and was honored with the gift of miracles. The disciple of St.
John, who had been a captain of a troop of robbers and murderers, became
an illustrious penitent. In like manner, our saint exhorts and conjures
this sinner to rise without delay, before he was overtaken by the divine
judgments, and to confess his sins with compunction of heart, abundant
bitter tears, and a perfect change of life, laboring to efface his
crimes by good works, to the least of which Christ has promised a
reward.

St. Chrysostom begins his second Exhortation to Theodorus, which is much
shorter than the first, by expressing his grief as follows: (t. 1, p.
35:) "If tears and groans could have been conveyed by letters, this
would have been filled. I grieve not that you have taken upon you the
administration of your affairs; but that you have trampled under your
feet the sacred engagement you had made of yourself to Christ. For this
I suffer excessive trouble and pain; for this I mourn; for this I am
seized with fear and trembling, having before my eyes the severe
damnation which so treacherous and base a perfidiousness deserves." He
tells him yet "that the case is not desperate for a person to have been
wounded, but for him to neglect the cure of his wounds. A merchant after
shipwreck labors to repair his losses; many wrestlers, after a fall,
have risen and fought so courageously as to have been crowned; and
soldiers, after a defeat, have rallied and conquered. You allege," says
he, "that marriage is lawful. This I readily acknowledge; but it is not
now in your power to embrace that state: for it is certain that one who,
by a solemn engagement, has given himself to God as his heavenly spouse,
if he violates this contract, he commits an adultery, though he should a
thousand times call it marriage. Nay, he is guilty of a crime so much
the more enormous as the majesty of God surpasses man. Had you been
free, no one would charge you with desertion; but since you are
contracted to so great a king, you are not at your own disposal." St.
Chrysostom pathetically shows him the danger, baseness, and crime of
deferring his repentance, sets before him hell, the emptiness of the
world, the uneasiness and troubles which usually attend a married life,
and the sweetness of the yoke of Christ. He closes this pressing
exhortation by mentioning the tears and prayers of his friends, which
they would never interrupt, till they had the comfort of seeing him
raised from his fall. St. Chrysostom wrote these two exhortations about
the year 369, which was the second that he spent in his mother's house
at Antioch when he led there an ascetic life. The fruit of his zeal and
charity was the conversion of Theodorus, who broke his engagements with
the world, and returned to his solitude. In 381 he was made bishop of
Mopsuestia. In opposing the Apollinarist heresy, he had the misfortune
to lay the seeds of Nestorianism in a book which he composed on the
Incarnation, and other writings. He became a declared protector of
Julian the Pelagian, when he took refuge in the East; wrote an express
treatise against original sin; and maintained the Pelagian errors in a
multitude of other works, which were all condemned after his death,
though only fragments of them have reached us, preserved chiefly in
Facundus, Photius, and several councils. He died in 428, before the
solemn condemnation of his errors, and in the communion of the Catholic
church. See Tillemont, t. 12.

During St. Chrysostom's retreat in the mountains, two devout servants of
God desired of him certain instructions on the means of attaining to the
virtue of compunction. Demetrius, the first of these, though he was
arrived at a high degree of perfection in an ascetic life, always ranked
himself among those who crawl on the earth, and said often to St.
Chrysostom, kissing his hand, and watering it with tears, "Assist me to
soften the hardness of my heart." St. Chrysostom addressed to him his
first book on Compunction, in which he tells him that he was not
unacquainted with this grace, of which he had a pledge in the
earnestness of his desire to obtain it, his love of retirement, his
watching whole nights, and his abundant tears, even those with which,
squeezing him by the hand, he lead begged the succor of his advice and
prayers, in order to soften his dry, stony heart into compunction. With
the utmost confusion for his own want of this virtue, he yielded to his
request, begging in return his earnest prayers for the conversion of his
own soul. Treating first on the necessities and motives of compunction,
he takes notice that Christ pronounces those blessed who mourn, and says
we ought never to cease weeping for our own sins, and those of the whole
world, which deserves and calls for our tears so much the more loudly,
as it is insensible of its own miseries. We should never cease weeping,
if we considered how much sin reigns among men. The saint considers the
sin of rash judgment as a general vice among men, from which he thinks
scarce any one will be found to have lived always free. He {254} says
the same of anger; then of detraction; and considering how universally
these crimes prevail among men, cries out: "What hopes of salvation
remain for the generality of mankind, who commit, without reflection,
some or other of these crimes, one of which is enough to damn a soul?"
He mentions also, as general sins, swearing, evil words, vain-glory, not
giving alms, want of confidence in divine providence, and of resignation
to his will, covetousness, and sloth in the practice of virtue. He
complains that whereas the narrow path only leads to heaven, almost all
men throw themselves into the broad way, walking with the multitude in
their employs and actions, seeking their pleasure, interest, or
convenience, not what is safest for their souls. Here what motives for
our tears! A life of mortification and penance he prescribes, as an
essential condition for maintaining a spirit of compunction; saying that
water and fire are not more contrary to each other, than a life of
softness and delights is to compunction; pleasure being the mother of
dissolute laughter and madness. A love of pleasure renders the soul
heavy and altogether earthly; but compunction gives her wings, by which
she raises herself above all created things. We see worldly men mourn
for the loss of friends and other temporal calamities. And are not we
excited to weep for our spiritual miseries? We can never cease if we
have always before our eyes our sins, our distance from heaven, the
pains of hell, God's judgments, and our danger of losing Him, which is
the most dreadful of all the torments of the damned.

In his second book On Compunction, which is addressed to Stelechius, he
expresses his surprise that he should desire instructions on compunction
of one so cold in the divine service as he was; but only one whose
breast is inflamed with divine love, and whose words are more
penetrating than fire, can speak of that virtue. He says that
compunction requires in the first place, solitude, not so much that of
the desert, as that which is interior, or of the mind. For seeing that a
multitude of objects disturbs the sight, the soul must restrain all the
senses, remain serene, and without tumult or noise within herself,
always intent on God, employed in his love, deaf to corporeal objects.
As men placed on a high mountain hear nothing of the noise of a city
situated below them, only a confused stir which they no way heed; so a
Christian soul, raised on the mountain of true wisdom, regards not the
hurry of the world; and though she is not destitute of senses, is not
molested by them, and applies herself and her whole attention to
heavenly things. Thus St. Paul was crucified and insensible to the
world, raised as far above its objects as living men differ from
carcasses. Not only St. Paul, amid a multiplicity of affairs, but also
David, living in the noise of a great city and court, enjoyed solitude
of mind, and the grace of perfect compunction, and poured forth tears
night and day, proceeding from an ardent love and desire of God and his
heavenly kingdom, the consideration of the divine judgments, and the
remembrance of his own sins. Persons that are lukewarm and slothful,
think of what they do or have done in penance to cancel their debts; but
David nourished perpetually in his breast a spirit of compunction, by
never thinking on the penance he had already done, but only on his debts
and miseries, and on what he had to do in order to blot out or deliver
himself from them. St. Chrysostom begs his friend's prayers that he
might be stirred up by the divine grace to weep perpetually under the
load of his spiritual evils, so as to escape everlasting torments.

The saint's three books, On Providence, are an exhortation to comfort,
patience, and resignation, addressed to Stagirius, a monk possessed by
an evil spirit. This Stagirius was a young nobleman, who had exasperated
his father by embracing a monastic state: but some time after fell into
lukewarmness, and was cruelly possessed by an evil spirit, and seized
with a dreadful melancholy, from which those who had received a power of
commanding evil spirits were not able to deliver him. St. Chrysostom
wrote these books soon after he was ordained deacon in 380. In the
first, he shows that all things are governed by divine providence, by
which even afflictions are always sent and directed for the good of the
elect. For any one to doubt of this is to turn infidel: and if we
believe it, what can we fear whatever tribulations befall us, and to
whatever height their waves ascend? Though the conduct of divine
providence, with regard to the just, be not uniform, it sends to none
any tribulations which are not for their good; when they are most heavy,
they are designed by God to prepare men for the greatest crowns.
Moreover, God is absolute master to dispose of us, as a potter of his
clay. What then have we to say? or how dare we presume to penetrate into
his holy counsels? The promise of God can never fail: this gives us an
absolute security of the highest advantages, mercy, and eternal glory,
which are designed us in our afflictions. St. Chrysostom represents to
Stagirius that his trials had cured his former vanity, anger, and sloth,
and it was owing to them that he now spent nights and days in fasting,
prayer, and reading. In the second book, he presses Stagirius
strenuously to reject all melancholy and gloomy thoughts, and not to be
uneasy either about his cure, or the grief his situation was likely to
give his father, but leaving the issue to God, with perfect resignation
to ask of him this mercy, resting in the entire confidence that whatever
God ordained would turn to his greatest advantage. In the third book, he
mentions to Stagirius several of his acquaintance, whose sufferings,
both in mind and body, were more grievous than those with which he was
afflicted. He bids him also pay a visit to the hospitals and prisons;
for he would there see that his cross was light in comparison of what
many others endured. {255} He tells him that sin ought to be to him the
only subject of grief; and that he ought to rejoice in sufferings as the
means by which his sins were to be expiated. A firm confidence in God, a
constant attention to his presence, and perpetual prayer, he calls the
strong ramparts against sadness.

When the Arian emperor Valens, in 375, commanded the monks to be turned
out of their deserts, and enrolled in the troops, and several Catholics
reviled them as bigots and madmen, St. Chrysostom took up his pen to
justify them, by three books, entitled, Against the Impugners of a
Monastic State. T. 1, p. 44, he expresses his surprise that any
Christians could speak ill of a state which consists in the most perfect
means of attaining to true virtue, and says they hurt themselves, not
the monks, whose merit they increase; as Nero's persecution of St. Paul,
because he had converted one of the tyrant's concubines, enhanced the
apostle's glory. A more dreadful judgment is reserved to these enemies
of the love of Christ. They said, they drew no one from his faith. The
saint retorts: What will faith avail without innocence and virtue? They
alleged that a Christian may be saved without retiring into the desert.
He answers: Would to God men lived so in the world that monasteries were
of no advantage! but seeing all disorders prevail in it, who can blame
those who seek to shelter themselves from the storm? He elegantly shows
that the number of those that are saved in the world is exceeding small,
and that the gate of life is narrow. The multitude perished in Noah's
flood, and only eight escaped in the ark. How foolish would it have been
to rely carelessly on safety in such danger! Yet here the case is far
more dreadful, everlasting fire being the portion of those that are
lost. Yet in the world how few resist the torrent, and are not carried
down with the crowd, sliding into anger, detraction, rash judgment,
covetousness, or some other sin. Almost all, as if it were by common
conspiracy, throw themselves into the gulf, where the multitude of
companions will be no comfort. Is it not, then, a part of wisdom to fly
from these dangers, in order to secure our only affair in the best
manner possible?

Whereas parents sometimes opposed the vocation of their children to a
monastic state, in his second book he addresses himself to a Pagan
father, who grieved to see his son and heir engaged in that profession.
He tells him he has the greatest reason to rejoice; proving from
Socrates, and other heathen philosophers, that his son is more happy in
voluntary poverty and contempt of the world, than he could have been in
the possession of empires: that he is richer than his father, whom the
loss of one bag of his treasures would afflict, whereas the monk, who
possessed only a single cloak, could see without concern even that
stolen, and would even rejoice though condemned to banishment or death.
He is greater than emperors, more happy than the world, out of the reach
of its malice or evil, whom no one could hurt if he desired it. A father
who loves his son ought more to rejoice at his so great happiness than
if he had seen him a thousand times king of the whole earth, and his
life and kingdom secured to him for ten thousand years. What treasures
would not have been well employed to purchase for him such a soul as his
was rendered by virtue, could this blessing have been procured for
money? He displays the falsehood of worldly pleasure; the inconstancy,
anxiety, trouble, grief, and bitterness of all its enjoyments, and says
that no king can give so sensible a joy as the very sight of a virtuous
man inspires. As he speaks to a Pagan, he makes a comparison between
Plato and Dionysius the tyrant; then mentions an acquaintance of his
own. This was a holy monk, whom his Pagan father, who was a rich
nobleman, incensed at his choice of that state, disinherited; but was at
length so overcome by the virtue of this son, that he preferred him to
all his other children, who were accomplished noblemen in the world,
often saying that none of them was worthy to be his slave; and he
honored and respected him as if he had been his own father. In the third
book, St. Chrysostom directs his discourse to a Christian father, whom
he threatens with the judgment of Hell, if he withdrew his children from
this state of perfection, in which they would have become suns in
heaven, whereas, if they were saved in the world, their glory would
probably be only that of stars. He inveighs against parents, who, by
their discourse and example, instil into their children a spirit of
vanity, and sow in their tender minds the seeds of covetousness, and all
those sins which overrun the world. He compares monks to angels, in
their uninterrupted joy and attention to God; and observes that men in
the world are bound to observe the same divine law with the monks, but
cannot so easily acquit themselves of this obligation, as he that is
hampered with cords cannot run so well as he that is loose and at
liberty. He exhorts parents to breed up their children for some years in
monasteries, and to omit nothing in forming them to perfect virtue. In
his elegant short treatise, entitled A Comparison between a King and a
Monk, t. 1, p. 116, he beautifully shows that a pious monk is
incomparably more honorable, more glorious, and more happy than the
greatest monarch, by enjoying the favor of heaven, and possessing God;
by the empire over himself and his own passions, by which he is king in
his own breast, exercising the most glorious command; by the sweetness
and riches of divine grace; by the kingdom of God established in his
soul; by prayer, by which all things are in his power; by his universal
benevolence and beneficence to others, procuring to every one all
spiritual advantages as far as lies in him; by the comfort which he
finds in death which is terrible {256} to kings, but by which he is
translated to an immortal crown, &c. This book is much esteemed by
Montfaucon and the devout Blosius.

St. Chrysostom, in his treatise on Virginity, t. 1, p. 268, says this
virtue is a privilege peculiar to the true church, not to be found, at
least pure, among heretics: he proves against the Manichees, that
marriage is good: yet says that virginity as far excels it as angels
men, but that all its excellency is derived from the consecration of a
soul to God, and her attention to please him, without which this state
avails nothing.

After he was ordained deacon at Antioch, he composed his book To a Young
Widow, (t. 1, p. 337,) a lady who had lost her husband Tarasius,
candidate for the prefectship of the city. He draws motives to comfort
her from the spiritual advantages of holy widowhood, and the happiness
to which her husband was called. His second book To the Widow, (t. 1, p.
349,) is a dissuasive from second marriages, when they are contracted
upon worldly motives.

His six incomparable books on the Priesthood, he composed to excuse
himself to his friend Basil, who complained that he had been betrayed by
him into the episcopal charge; for Chrysostom persuaded him they had
time yet to conceal themselves; yet secretly absconded himself and left
the other to be chosen. Basil, when he met him afterwards, was not able
to speak for some time but by a flood of tears; and at length broke
through them only to give vent to his grief in bitter complaints against
the treachery of his friend. This work is wrote in a dialogue between
the two friends. St. Chrysostom, in the first book, alleges (t. 1, p.
362) that he could not deprive the church of a pastor so well qualified
to serve it as Basil was; nor undertake himself a charge for which he
had not the essential talents, and in which he should involve others and
himself in ruin. In the second book he justifies his own action in not
hindering the promotion of his friend to the episcopacy, by observing
that to undertake the charge of souls is the greatest proof we can give
of our love for Christ, which He declared by putting the question thrice
to St. Peter whether he loved him, before he committed to him the care
of his flock. John xxi. 15. If we think it an argument of our love for a
friend to take care of his servants or cattle, much more will God
recompense faithful pastors, who feed those dear souls to save which God
died. The pastoral charge is certainly the first of all others in merit
and dignity. The saint therefore thinks he should have prevaricated if
he had deprived the church of a minister capable of serving it. But in
order to justify his own flight, he adds that the dangers and
difficulties of this state are proportioned to its pre-eminence and
advantages. For what can be more difficult and dangerous than the charge
of immortal souls, and of applying to them remedies, which, to take
effect, depend upon their own co-operation and consent, and must be
always proportioned to their dispositions and character, which must be
sounded, as well as to their wounds? Remissness leaves a wound half
cured: and a suitable penance often exasperates and makes it wider.
Herein the greatest sagacity and prudence are necessary: Nor is the
difficulty less in bringing back to the church members which are
separated from it. Basil replied to this discourse of St. Chrysostom:
"You then love not Christ, who fly from the charge of souls." St.
Chrysostom answered, that he loved him, and fled from this charge
because he loved him, fearing to offend him by taking upon him such an
office, for which he was every way unqualified. Basil retorts with
warmth, that his treachery towards himself was unpardonable, because he
was acquainted with his friend's incapacity. Chrysostom answers, that he
should never have betrayed him into that dignity, if he had not known
his charity and other qualifications. In order to show that he had
reason to shun that charge, he in his third book sets forth the
excellence and obligations of that dignity; for it is not earthly, but
altogether heavenly, and its ministry would do honor to the angels; and
a pastor ought to look upon himself as placed among the heavenly
spirits, and under an obligation of being no less pure and holy. This he
shows, first, from the tremendous sacrifice of the altar, which requires
in the offerer a purity truly becoming heaven, and even far surpassing
the sanctity which was required in so terrible a manner of priests in
the Old Law, a mere shadow of ours. "For," says he, "when you behold the
Lord himself lying the victim on the altar, and offered, and the priest
attending, and praying over the sacrifice, purpled with his precious
blood, do you seem to remain among men and on earth, or not rather to be
translated into heaven? O wonderful prodigy! O excess of the divine
mercy! He who is seated above at the right hand of the Father, is in
that hour held by all in their hands, and gives himself to be touched
and received. Figure to yourself Elias before the altar, praying alone,
the multitude standing around him in silence, and trembling, and the
fire falling from heaven and consuming the sacrifice. What is now done
is far more extraordinary, more awful, and more astonishing. The priest
is here standing, and calls down from heaven, not fire, but the Holy
Ghost: he prays a long time, not that a flame may be kindled, but that
grace may touch the sacrifice, and that the hearts of all who partake of
it may be purged by the same." c. 5, p. 385. (See the learned prelate
Giacomelli's Note on St. Chrysostom's doctrine on the real presence of
the body of Christ in the Eucharist, and on the sacrifice of the altar,
in hunc librum, c. 4, p. 340.) Secondly, he mentions the eminent
prerogative of binding and loosing, not bodies, but souls, with which
the priesthood of the New Law is {257} honored: a power reaching the
heavens, where God confirms the sentence pronounced by priests below: a
power never given to angels, yet granted to men. John xx. 22. All power
was given by the Father to the Son, who again transferred it on men. It
is esteemed a great authority if an emperor confers on a private person
power to imprison others or to set them at liberty. How great then is
the authority with which God honors the priesthood. The priests of the
Old Law declared lepers healed; those of the New really cleanse and heal
our souls. They are our spiritual parents, by whom we are reborn to
eternal life; they regenerate us by baptism, again remit our sins by
extreme unction, (James v. 14,) and by their prayers appease God whom we
have offended. From all which he infers that it is arrogance and
presumption to seek such a dignity, which made St. Paul himself tremble
(1 Cor. xi. 3, &c.) If the people in a mad phrensy should make an
ignorant cobble general of their army, every one would commend such a
wretch if he fled and hid himself that he might not be instrumental in
his own and his country's ruin. "If any one," says he, "should appoint
me pilot, and order me to steer a large vessel in the dangerous Egæn or
Tyrrhenian sea, I should be alarmed and struck with fear, and rather fly
than drown both myself and crew." The saint proceeds to mention the
principal temptations to which a pastor of souls is himself exposed, and
the storms by which he is assailed; as vain-glory, for instance, a more
dreadful monster than the sirens of the poets, which passengers, by
standing on their guard, could sail by and escape. "This rock," says he,
"is so troublesome to me even now, when no necessity drives me upon it,
that I do not quite escape being hurt by it. But if any one had placed
me on so high a pinnacle, it would have been as if, having tied my hands
behind my back, he had exposed me to wild beasts to be torn in pieces."
He adds the danger of human respect, fear of the great ones, contempt or
neglect of the poor; observing that none can encounter such dangers, but
such as are perfect in virtue, disinterested, watchful over themselves,
inured to mortification by great abstinence, resting on hard beds, and
assiduous labor: lastly, what is most rare, dead to themselves by
meekness, sweetness, and charity, which no injuries or reproaches, no
ingratitude, no perverseness, or malice, can ever weary or overcome: for
a perfect victory over anger is a most essential part of the character
of a good pastor, without which all his virtues will be tarnished, and
he will reap no fruit of his labors. He makes this dreadful remark, that
within the circle of his own acquaintance he had known many who in
solitude led lives pleasing to God, but being advanced to the
priesthood, lost both themselves and others. If no Christian can call to
mind, without trembling, the dreadful account which he is to give at the
tribunal of Christ for his own sins, how must he tremble at this
thought, who sees himself charged with the sins and souls of others?
Heb. xiii. 17. In the fourth book he proves that one unfit for the
pastoral charge is not excused because it is imposed on him by others,
as one unacquainted with the rules of architecture can by no means
undertake to build, nor one to practise medicine who is a stranger to
that profession. He speaks of the crime of those who choose unworthy
pastors, and of the learning necessary for this charge, especially in
applying suitable remedies to every spiritual disorder, in confuting
Pagans, Jews, and heretics, and in instructing the faithful. A talent
for preaching is an indispensable qualification. In the fifth book he
prescribes the manner in which a preacher ought to announce the word of
God, with what indefatigable pains, and with what purity of intention,
desiring only to please God and plant his love in all hearts, and
despising the applause of men, insensible both to their praise and
censures. His discourse must be set off by piety, natural eloquence,
plain simplicity, and dignity, that all may hear the divine word
willingly, and with respect and pleasure, so as to wish at the end of
the sermon that it were longer. The extreme danger of vain-glory so much
alarmed him, that in the close of this book he again speaks against that
vice, and says, that he who entirely subdued this furious wild beast,
and cut off its numberless heads, enjoys a great interior calm, with
infinite spiritual advantages; and that every one is bound to stand
always armed against its assaults. In the sixth book, he shows that
priests will be punished for the sins of others. It is no excuse for a
watchman to say, _I heard not the trumpet: I saw not the enemy
approach_, (Ezech. xxxiii. 3,) for he is appointed sentinel to watch and
announce the danger to others. If a single soul perishes through his
neglect, this will condemn him at the last day. In how great
watchfulness must he live not to be infected with the contagion of the
world, with which he is obliged to converse! With what zeal, vigilance,
and fervor is he bound to acquit himself of all his duties and
functions! For priests are ambassadors of heaven, sent not to one city,
but to the whole earth, with a strict charge never to cease scattering
the divine seed, preaching and exhorting with so great diligence, that
no secret sinner may be able to escape them. They are moreover appointed
by God mediators to intercede with him for the sins both of the living
and the dead; to offer the tremendous sacrifice, and hold the common
Lord of all things in their hands. With what purity, with what sanctity
ought he to be adorned, who exercises so sublime a function? In it
angels attend the priest, all the choir of heaven joins, and the holy
place near the altar is occupied by legions of blessed spirits, in honor
of Him who is laid upon it. This he confirms by a vision of a holy old
man, who saw a multitude of bright spirits surrounding the altar,
profoundly bowing their heads. "Another," says the {258} saint, "assured
me, that he had both seen himself, and heard from others, that the souls
of those who receive the holy mysteries before death, depart out of
their bodies attended by angels as troops of heavenly guards." Lastly,
he shows that sins are more easily committed, and are more grievous, in
the episcopal ministry than in holy retirement. Basil, at this
discourse, almost swooned away in the excess of grief and fear with
which he was seized, till after some time, recovering himself, he said
in the bitterness of his heart, What has the church of God committed to
have deserved so dreadful a calamity, that the pastoral charge should be
intrusted to the most unworthy of men? For he had before his eyes on one
side the glory, the sanctity, the spiritual beauty and wisdom of the
sacred spouse of Christ; and on the other, the sins and miseries of his
own soul; and this consideration drew from him a flood of tears.
Chrysostom said, that as to himself, upon the first news of his danger
he had swooned away, and only returned to himself to vent his grief by
abundance of tears; in which agony he passed all that time. He adds: "I
will now discover to you the deplorable state of my mind at that time,
that out of mere compassion you may forgive me what I have done; and I
wish I could show you my wretched heart itself.--But all my alarms are
now converted into joy." Basil replied: "But I am now plunged in bitter
sorrow and tears: and what protection can I seek? If you have still any
bowels of tenderness and compassion for my soul, any consolation in
Christ, I conjure you never to forsake me in the dangers in which you
have engaged me." St. Chrysostom answered, smiling, "In what can I serve
you in your exalted station? However, when a respite from your functions
affords you any leisure, I will wait upon you, and will never be wanting
in any thing in my power." Basil at this arose weeping. St. John,
embracing him and kissing his head, said, "Be of good courage, trusting
in Christ, who has called you to his holy ministry."

In the first tome of his works, p. 228, we have a book which he composed
when he was first made bishop of Constantinople, in 397, Against those
who have sub-introduced Women; that is, against such of the clergy as
kept deaconesses, or spiritual sisters, under the same roof to take care
of their household. Saint Chrysostom condemns this custom as criminal in
itself, both because dangerous, and because scandalous to others.
Whatever pretext such persons allege of imaginary necessities, and of
their security and precautions against the danger, he shows that there
is always danger of their finding a lurking pleasure in such company.
Though they perceive not any secret passion, he will not believe them
exempt; for men are often the greatest strangers to their own hearts. He
urges that this conduct is at least criminal, because it is an occasion
and incentive of evil. Job, so holy a man, so dead to himself by long
habits of mortification, durst not cast his eyes upon a virgin. St.
Paul, not content with his continual fatigues and sufferings, added
voluntary chastisements of his flesh to subdue it. What austerities do
anchorets practise to tame their bodies, by perpetual fasts, watching,
and sackcloth! yet never suffer even visits of persons of the other sex.
Ironically inveighing against the presumption of such as had not the
like saving apprehension of danger, he tells them; "I must indeed call
these strong men happy, who have nothing to fear from such a danger, and
I could wish myself to be endowed with equal strength," (t. 1, p. 231.)
But he tells them this is as impossible as for a man to carry fire in
his bosom without being burnt. "You bid me," says he, "believe that
though I see you converse with a virgin, this is a work of piety, not
passion. O wonderful man! this may be said of those who live not with
men, but among stones," (t. 1, p. 235.) Our zealous pastor shows that
the capital point in this warfare is, not to awake our domestic enemy,
but by watchfulness to shun whatever can rouse him: and he adds, that
though a man were invulnerable, he ought not to scandalize the weak, and
by his example, draw them into a like snare. The stronger a person is,
the more easy must it be to him not to give scandal. To the pretext of
necessity, he answers, that this is mere madness, for a clergyman ought
not to be so nice, either in his furniture or table. The saint addressed
a like book to women, under this title: That regular (or religious)
Women ought not to live in the same house with Men, (t. 1, p. 248.)
Besides condemning this abuse and scandal, he zealously inveighs against
the airy, light dress of many ladies, and pathetically invites all
servants of God to mingle floods of tears with his in the bitter anguish
of his soul, for a scandal by which snares are laid for others, souls
murdered, (though undesignedly,) and sin against the divine Majesty
propagated.

St. Chrysostom seems to have been only deacon when he compiled his book
On St. Babylas, against the Gentiles; in which he speaks of the miracles
wrought at his relics, as of facts to which he and his auditors had been
eye-witnesses, (t. 2, p. 530.) Montfaucon refers to the same time his
Synopsis of the Old Testament: in which he places in the canon the
deutero-canonical books of Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Esther, Toby, and
Judith: and out of the seven canonical epistles counts only three, viz:
that of St. James, one of St. Peter, and one of St. John, (no others
being received by the Syrians, as appears from Cosmas Indicopleustes,)
t. 6, p. 308.

St Chrysostom was ordained priest by the patriarch Flavian, in 386, and
appointed his ordinary preacher. On this occasion the saint made a
sermon, (t. 1, p. 436,) in which he expresses his dread and surprise at
his promotion, earnestly begs the prayers of the people, {259} and says
he desires to entertain them on the praises of God, but was deterred by
the checks of his conscience, and remorse for his sins: for the royal
prophet, who invites all creatures, even dragons and serpents, to sound
forth the praises of God, passes by sinners as unworthy to be allowed a
place in that sacred choir: they are ignominiously ejected, as a
musician cuts off a string that is not tunable with the rest.

The holy doctor, grieving for the spiritual blindness of many who were
seduced by heresy, and considering their dangers as most grievous, and
their miseries most pressing, preached five most eloquent sermons on the
Incomprehensible Nature of God, against the Anomæans. He had taken
notice that these heretics, who were very numerous in Syria, resorted
willingly to his sermons with the Catholics, which afforded him an
opportunity of more easily reclaiming them. The Anomæans were the
followers of Eunomius, who, to the errors of the rankest Arianism, added
a peculiar blasphemy, asserting that both the blessed in heaven, and
also men in this mortal life, not only know God, but also comprehend and
fathom the divine nature as clearly as we know our own, and even as
perfectly as God comprehends himself. This fanaticism and impiety St.
Chrysostom confutes in these five homilies, demonstrating, from the
infinitude of the divine attributes, and from holy scriptures, that God
is essentially incomprehensible to the highest angels. He strongly
recommends to Catholics a modest and mild behavior towards heretics; for
nothing so powerfully gains others as meekness and tender charity; this
heals all wounds, whereas harshness exasperates and alienates the mind.
(Hom. 2, p. 461.) His method is to close every discourse with some
pathetic moral exhortation. In his third homily, On the
Incomprehensible, he complains bitterly that many who heard his sermon
with patience, left the church when it was at an end, without attending
the celebration of the divine mysteries. He shows the efficacy of public
prayer to be far greater than that of private, and a far more glorious
homage to be paid by it to God: by this St. Peter was delivered from his
chains; to it the apostles ascribed the wonderful success of their
preaching. He mentions, that ten years ago, when a magistrate condemned
for high treason was led to execution with a halter about his neck, the
citizens ran in a body to the hippodrome to beg a reprieve; and the
emperor, who was not able to reject the request of the whole city,
readily granted the criminal a full pardon. Much more easily will the
Father of mercy suffer himself to be overcome by the concord of many in
prayer, and show mercy to sinners. Not only men join the tremendous
voice during the sacred mysteries, but the angels and archangels present
to the Father of all things the body of the Lord, entreating him to have
mercy on them for whom he shed his blood, and sacrificed this very body.
"By your acclamations you testify your approbation of what is said; but
by your compliance show that your applause is sincere. This is the only
applause that can give me pleasure or joy," &c., (p. 471.) In the
following sermon (Hom. 4, p. 477) he commends their compliance by all
assisting to the end of the public office, but severely finds fault that
some conversed together in the church, and in that awful hour when the
deacon cried out, "Let us stand attentive." He bids them call to mind
that they are then raised above created things, placed before the throne
of God, and associated with the seraphims and cherubims in sounding
forth his praises, (p. 477.) In the fifth homily he again makes fervent
and humble prayer, by which all things are obtained and effected, the
subject of his moral exhortation. Public prayer is a duty which he
frequently inculcates as a most essential obligation, a homage most
honorable to God, and a most powerful means of grace to ourselves and
all mankind. (See Hom. de Obscur. Prophet, t. 6, p. 187, &c.) We have
seen other homilies of this father against the Anomæans, in which he
proves the consubstantiality of God the Son; subjoining exhortations to
prayer, humility, good works, &c. His sermon Upon not Anathematizing,
(t. 1, p. 691,) was the fruit of his pious zeal to induce the Meletians
and Paulinians to concord, and prevent private persons from
anathematizing or branding others with the crime of heresy or schism;
censures being reserved to the chief pastors, who are very sparing in
using them. The spirit of Christ is meekness, and compassion and
tenderness the means to gain souls. By this discourse he healed the
sores left in the church of Antioch by the late schism. The Jews and the
Gentiles shared in the fruits of his zeal and charity. Eight sermons
which he preached against the Jews, whom he proves to have been cast off
by God, and their ceremonial rites abolished, have reached us, and many
others are lost. In his book Against the Jews and Gentiles, he
demonstrates the Christian religion from the propagation of the gospel,
the martyrs, prophecies, and the triumph of the cross: this ensign now
adorns the crowns of emperors, is carried by every one on his forehead,
and placed everywhere with honor, in houses, market-places, deserts,
highways, mountains, hills, woods, ships, beds, clothes, arms, vessels,
jewels, and pictures; on the bodies of beasts when sick, on energumens,
&c. We are all more adorned with it than with crowns and a thousand
precious stones; all eagerly visit the wood on which the sacred body was
crucified; men and women have small particles of it set in gold, which
they hang about their necks. On the 20th of December, 386, our saint
pronounced his discourse on St. Philogonius, the twenty-fast bishop of
Antioch. who had zealously opposed the rising heresy of Arius, and died
on this day in 322. St. Chrysostom left the subject of the panegyric to
his bishop Flavian, who {260} was to speak after him, and entertained
his people with an exhortation to the holy communion on Christmas-day,
five days after. He tells them the Magi had the happiness only of
adoring Christ, but that they who should approach him with a pure
conscience, would receive him and carry him with them; that he whose
life is holy and free from crimes, may communicate every day; but he who
is guilty in the sight of God, not even on the greatest festival.
Nevertheless, the sinner ought to prepare himself, by a sincere
conversion and by good works, during the interval of five days, and then
communicate. The Ninevites appeased the divine vengeance in three days
by the fervor of their penance.

In his homily On the Calends, or First Day of the Year, (t. 1, p. 697,)
he inveighs with great zeal against rioting and revels usual in that
season, and strongly exhorts all to spend that day in works of piety,
and in consecrating the year to God. As builders raise a wall by a ruler
or plummet, that no unevenness may spoil their work, so must we make the
sincere intention of the divine glory our rule in our prayers, fasts,
eating, drinking, buying, selling, silence, and discourse. This must be
our great staff, our arms, our rampart, our immense treasure: wherever
we are, and whatever we say or do, we must bear this motto always
written on our heart: "To the glory of God;" ever glorifying God, not
barely in words, but by all our actions in the sincere affections of our
hearts, that we may receive glory from him who says: "Those who glorify
me, I will crown with glory," (p. 697.)

In seven discourses, On Lazarus and the Rich Man, he shows that a life
of sensuality and pleasures is condemned by Christ; laments that any
Christian should abandon himself to debauchery, and declares he will
never cease to pursue sinners by his exhortations, as Christ did Judas,
to the last moment: if any remain obstinately incorrigible, he shall
esteem it a great happiness if he reclaim but one soul, or even prevent
but one sin; at least that he can never see God offended and remain
silent. (Hom. 1.) He sets off the advantages of afflictions, which are
occasions of all virtue, and even in the reprobate, at least abate the
number of their sins, and the torments of another life. In the seventh
homily, he severely condemns the diversions of the circus, and expresses
the most tender grief that any Christian should so far forget God as to
frequent them. He paternally exhorts all such to repentance; proves
afflictions and the cross to be the portion of the just in this life,
and says, "That they whom God does not visit with tribulations, ought at
least to afflict themselves by the labors of penance, the only path
which can conduct us with Lazarus to God," (p. 736.)

In the second tome, we have the holy doctor's twenty-one sermons to the
people of Antioch, or, On the Statues; the following discourses, to the
number of sixty, in the old editions not being genuine, but patched up
by modern Greeks, chiefly out of several works of this father. The great
sedition happened at Antioch on the 26th of February, 387, just after
the saint had preached the first of the sermons, in which he spoke
against drunkenness and blasphemy, pressing all persons to expel their
company any one who should blaspheme. After the sedition, he was silent,
in the general grief and consternation, for seven days: then made his
second sermon, in which he tells the people that their confusion and
remorse is itself a greater punishment than it was in the power of the
emperor to inflict; he exhorts them to alms-deeds, and to hope in the
mercy of Christ, who, leaving the earth, left us his own flesh, which
yet he carried with him to heaven, and that blood which he spilt for us,
he again imparted to us. After this, what will he refuse to do for our
salvation? The third sermon being made in the beginning of Lent, the
preacher inculcates the obligation of fasting: from his words it is
clear that Christians then abstained from wine and fish no less than
from fowls and all flesh. He insists chiefly on the moral fast of the
will from all sin, and of all the senses by self-denials in each of
them. Detraction he singles out as the most common sin, and exhorts us
to abhor, with the royal prophet, every one who secretly detracts
another; to say to such, "If you have any thing to say to the advantage
of another, I will hear you with pleasure; but if you have only ill to
tell me, this is what I cannot listen to." If detracters were thoroughly
persuaded that by their evil speeches they rendered themselves more
odious than those of whom they speak ill, they would be effectually
cured of this pestilential habit. The saint draws an inference from what
the people then saw before their eyes, and represented to them that if
emperors punish with extreme rigor those who injure their statues, with
what severity will God revenge the injury done by the detracter to his
living image, and that offered by the blasphemer to his own adorable
name. In the fourth homily, he speaks on the usefulness of afflictions,
which withdraw men from many dangers of sin, and make them earnestly
seek God. In the fifth, he continues the same subject, and shows that
they ought not to fear death, if they prepare themselves for it by
sincere penance. Their conversion he would have them begin by correcting
the habit of swearing, which had taken deep root among many of them.
This victory, he says, would be easy if every one who had contracted
such a habit would enjoin himself some penance for every oath which
should escape him, as the loss of a meal. "Hunger and thirst," says the
saint, "will put you in mind always to watch over yourself, and you will
stand in need of no other exhortation." In the sixth, he shows that
death is desirable to a Christian, who, by a penitential life, in
imitation of the holy anchorets, is dead to the world and himself. {261}
In the fourteenth, he describes the dreadful consternation with which
the whole city was filled at the sight of new troops, and of a tribunal
erected; and, to awake sinners to a sincere repentance, he sets before
their eyes the terrors of the last judgment. In the twentieth, he
exhorts them to redouble their fervor in preparing their souls for the
Paschal communion, the nearer that time approached; especially by
forgiving all injuries. In the twenty-first, which was spoken on
Easter-day, after the return of the patriarch, he recites great part of
Flavian's speech, and the emperor's gracious answer, whose clemency he
elegantly extols, with a pathetic exhortation to the people never to
forget the divine mercy. From the mention he makes of Flavian's speech,
(Hom. 3, p. 35,) it appears that our saint had concerted it with him. He
preached every day this Lent; but only these twenty-one have reached us:
and only two catechetical discourses, out of many others which he made
about Easter that year to the catechumens. In the first he censures
those who defer baptism, and explains the names and fruits of that great
sacrament; in the second, he exhorts them always to bear in mind, and to
repeat to themselves, on every occasion, those solemn words, "I renounce
thee, Satan;" and to make it the study of their whole lives to be ever
faithful to this most sacred engagement. He next puts them in mind, that
they ought to pray without intermission, and always to have God before
their eyes, at work, in the shop, abroad, sitting, or whatever else they
were doing.

About the year 392, Diodorus, bishop of Tarsus, formerly St.
Chrysostom's master, happened to preach at Antioch, and in his sermon
highly commended our saint, whom he called John the Baptist, the voice
of the church, and the rod of Moses. The people, by loud acclamations,
testified how agreeable these encomiums of their preacher were to them:
only St. Chrysostom heard them with grief and confusion, and ascribed
them to the fondness of a good master, and the charity of the people.
Afterwards, ascending the pulpit, he said that every word of the
discourse had struck him to the heart, and made him sigh within himself:
for praises sting the conscience no less than sins, when a soul is
conscious to herself how far she is from what is said of her: they only
set before her eyes the last day, in which, to her greater confusion,
all things will appear naked and as they are; for we shall not be judged
by the masks which are put on us by other men. T. 3, F. 747.

In three sermons On the Devil, he shows that the divine mercy has
restored us more by grace in our redemption, than the devil has robbed
us of by the sin of Adam; and that the punishment itself of that sin
served to set forth the excess of the divine mercy and goodness, (Hom.
1, de Diabolo, t. 2, p. 246;) that temptations and the devil's malice
are occasions of great advantage, if we make a good use of them: that
temporal calamities are sent by God: we fall into sin only by our own
malice: the devil has no power against us but by the divine permission,
and all his efforts are weak, unless by our sloth we give him power over
us. He draws a parallel between Adam sinning in paradise by his free
will, and Job victorious by patience on his dunghill under his
sufferings, of which he gives a lively description, showing them to have
been far more grievous than all the calamities under which we so easily
lose our patience and crown.

In nine homilies On Penance, he extols its efficacy, and invites all
sinners to repentance. Hom. 6, p. 316, he vehemently condemns stage
entertainments, which he calls the school of pleasure, the seat of
pestilence, and the furnace of Babylon. Hom. 3, he calls alms the queen
of virtues, and charity and compassion the key of the divine mercy. Hom.
9, p. 347, he presses all to assist assiduously at the divine mysteries,
but with attention, awe, and trembling.

In two homilies On the Treason of Judas, (p. 376,) he recommends
meekness towards persecutors, and the pardon of injuries, by which we
reap from them, without trouble of expense, the most precious of all
advantages, grace and the pardon of our sins. Speaking on the holy
eucharist, he says, that Christ gives us in it the same body which he
delivered to death for us, and that he refused not to present to Judas
the very blood which that traitor sold. (Hom. 1, de proditione Judæ, t.
2, p. 383.) He repeats the same thing, (Hom. 2, ib. p. 393.) He
observes, that as God, by his word, (Gen. i. 28,) propagates and
multiplies all things in nature to the end of the world, so it is not
the priest, but Christ, by the words pronounced by the priest, and by
virtue of those which he spoke at his last supper, saying, "This is my
body," who changes the offering (or bread and wine) in every church from
that to this time, and consummates the sacrifice till his coming. (Hom.
1, ib. p. 383.)

In two homilies, On the Cross, and on the Good Thief, preached on Good
Friday, he makes many excellent reflections on the conversion of the
latter, and on the precept of our forgiving injuries, by which we become
true imitators of Christ, and inherit the privileges of his disciples.
The cross he commends as the instrument of Christ's glorious triumph,
and of our happiness.

In a homily On the Resurrection of the Dead, he proves this article to
be the foundation, both of our faith, and of our morals. In that On the
Resurrection of our Lord, he tells his flock, that on that day (which
was the solemnity of Easter) they were no longer obliged to drink only
water, to abstain from the bath, to live on herbs and pulse, and to fast
as in Lent; but that they were bound to shun intemperance: he speaks
against drunkenness, {262} and says the poor have equal reason for joy
and thanksgiving with the rich on that solemnity, the advantages which
it brings consisting in spiritual graces, not in feasting or pomp. In
the first homily, On Whitsunday, he proves, that though the descent of
the Holy Ghost is no longer manifested by miracles, since the faith had
been sufficiently established by them, it was not less real, though made
in an invisible manner in our souls, by his grace and peace. In the
second, on the same feast, he calls Whitsunday the accomplishment of all
the mysteries of our faith; and teaches that the Holy Ghost delayed his
descent, that he might not come upon the apostles in vain, or without
having been long and earnestly desired; and that he manifested his
descent by the emblem of tongues of fire, to represent that he consumes
like fire the thorns of our souls, and that his principal gift is
charity. His seven homilies On St. Paul, are standing proofs of his
singular veneration for that great apostle, and admiration of his divine
virtues. In the third, speaking of that apostle's ardent love of God,
which made ignominies and torments for his sake a triumph, and a subject
of joy and pleasure, he seems to surpass himself, (p. 481.) In the
sixth, he speaks of miracles wrought at the relics of St. Babylas at
Daphne, and says, that the devil trembled at the name of Christ, and
fled whenever it was pronounced. In many other homilies he speaks in
raptures on the admirable virtues of St. Paul, whose spirit he had
imbibed and studied in his writings and example. The miracles of St.
Babylas are the subject of a panegyric, which St. Chrysostom has left us
on that holy martyr, (ib. p. 531.) We have his panegyrics or homilies on
St. Meletius, St. Lucian, SS. Juventinus and Maximin, St. Pelagia, St.
Ignatius, St. Eustathius, St. Romanus, the Maccabees, SS. Bernice,
Prosodoche, and Domnina, St. Drosis, St. Phocas, &c., in which he
frequently and strongly recommends the most devout veneration for their
relics. See that on St. Ignatius, p. 593, &c. In homily 1, On the
Martyrs, (p. 650,) he says that the very sight of their relics more
strongly moves to virtue than the most pathetic sermons, and that their
shrines are more precious than the richest earthly treasures, and that
the advantages which these relics afford, are not diminished by their
division, but multiplied. Some being surprised that in this discourse he
had compared the crime of an unworthy communion to that of the Jews, who
crucified Christ, he made another under this title, That we are not to
preach to please Men; in which he repeats and enforces the same
comparison; but adds a serious exhortation to frequent communion, after
a sincere repentance, and the distinct confession of every sin; "For it
is not enough to say, I am a sinner, but every kind of sin is to be
expressed," (p, 667.) Though some circumstances aggravate a sacrilegious
communion beyond the crime of Judas and that of the crucifiers of
Christ; the last was doubtless, as St. Thomas Aquinas shows, far more
enormous in itself; an injury offered to Christ in his own natural form
differing from an insult which he receives hid under sacramental veils,
though it is hard to imagine that any crime into which a Christian can
fall since the death of Christ, can be more enormous than an unworthy
communion. St. Chrysostom, in his second sermon On the Martyrs, (p.
668,) bids the faithful remain a long time in prayer at their tombs, and
devoutly kiss their shrines, which abound with blessings. In that On the
Martyrs of Egypt, (p. 699,) he calls their relics dispersed in different
places, "the ramparts of the cities," &c. In that On the Earthquake, he
expresses a deep and tender concern for the public calamity, but
rejoices at the spiritual advancement of the people, saying, that this
scourge had wrought such a change in them, that they seemed to be become
angels. Two books On Prayer, bear the name of St. Chrysostom: if they
are not mentioned by the ancients among his works, that most important
subject is treated in them in a manner not unworthy his pen. This book
is made use of in many pious schools as a Greek classic, with another On
the Education of Children, full of excellent maxims, ascribed to our
saint; but unjustly, for it is a compilation, made without much method,
out of several of his sermons and other works.

The first part of the third tome, in the Benedictin edition, presents us
thirty-four elegant sermons of this saint on divers texts of holy
scripture, and on various Christian virtues and duties. Those on
forgiving injuries, humility, alms, prayer, widowhood, and three on
marriage, particularly deserve attention. That On Alms he took occasion
to preach from the extreme miseries under which he saw the beggars
groan, lying abandoned in the streets as he passed through them coming
to the church; whence it is inferred by Tillemont and others, that it
was spoken extempore, or without preparation. He says, that water does
not so easily wash away the spots of our clothes, as alms blot out the
stains of our souls. On Marriage, he proves that state to be holy, and
will not have it dishonored by profane pomps, which no custom can
authorize; as by them God is offended. Christ is to be invited to give
the nuptial blessing in the persons of the priests, and what many throw
away on musicians, would be a grateful sacrifice to God if bestowed on
the poor. Every one ought to be ambitious to set the example of so
wholesome and holy a custom, which others would imitate. What
incomparable advantages does a wife bring to a house, when she enters it
loaded with the blessings of heaven? This is a fortune far beyond all
the riches of the world. In the third discourse, he speaks of the
inviolable precept of mutual tender love which the husband and wife are
bound constantly to bear each other, and of forgetting one another's
faults, as {263} a man in engaging in this state seeks a companion for
life, the saint observes that nothing is busier than for him to make it
an affair of traffic, or a money job. A wife with a moderate fortune
usually brings more complaisance and submission, and blesses a house
with peace, union, and friendship. How many rich men, by marrying great
fortunes, in seeking to increase their estates, have forfeited the
repose of their minds for the rest of their lives. A virtuous wife gives
every succor and comfort to a family, by the virtuous education of her
children, by possessing the heart of her husband, and by furnishing
supplies for every necessity, and comfort in every distress. Virtue was
the only quality and circumstance which Abraham was solicitous about in
the choice which he made of a wife for his son. Among the letters of the
saint, which, with certain scattered homilies, fill up the latter part
of this volume, the seventeen addressed to St. Olympias, both by the
subjects and style, deserve rather the title of treatises than of
epistles.

The fourth tome contains sixty-seven homilies on Genesis, which were
preached at Antioch during Lent, some year later than 386. Photius takes
notice, that in these his style is less correct than in any of his other
writings, and as far beneath his comments on the Acts of the Apostles,
as those fall short of his most eloquent discourses on Isaiah, or on the
epistles of St. Paul. His parentheses are sometimes so long, that he
forgets to wind up his discourse and return to his subject: for speaking
not only with little or no preparation, but without much attention to a
regular method, for the instruction of the peoples, he suffered himself
often to be carried sway with the ardor with which some new important
thought inspired him. Yet the purity of his language, the liveliness of
his images and similes, the perspicuity of his expression, and the
copiousness of his invention, never fall: his thoughts and words flow
everywhere in a beautiful stream, like an impetuous river. He
interweaves excellent moral instructions against vain-glory, detraction,
rash judgment, avarice, and the cold words mine and thine; on prayer,
&c. His encomiums of Abraham and other patriarchs, are set off by
delicate strokes. In the first thirty-two he often explains the
conditions of the Lent fast. In the year 386, during Lent, at which time
the church read the book of Genesis, he explained the beginning thereof
in eight elegant sermons, t. 4, p. 615. In the first, he congratulates
with the people for the great joy and holy eagerness for penance with
which they received the publication of the Lent fast, this being the
most favorable season for obtaining the pardon of sins, and reaping the
most abundant heavenly blessings and graces; a season in which the
heavens are in a particular manner open, through the joint prayers,
fasts, and alms of the whole church. These are usually called sermons on
Genesis, in order to be distinguished from the foregoing homilies, which
were posterior to them in time. Five sermons On Anna, the mother of
Samuel, (t. 4, p. 6{}9,) were preached at Antioch in 387, after the
emperor had granted his gracious pardon for the sedition. The saint
treats in them on fasting, the honor due to martyrs and their relics, on
purity, the education of children, the spiritual advantages of poverty,
and on perpetual earnest prayer, which he recommends to be joined with
every ordinary action, and practised at all times, by persons while they
spun, walked, sat, lay down, &c. Invectives against stage-entertainments
occur both in those, and in the following three discourses On David, in
which he says many excellent things also on patience, and on forgiving
injuries. (T. 4, p. 747.)

The fifth tome presents us with fifty-eight sermons on the Psalms. He
explained the whole Psalter; but the rest of the discourses are lost; a
misfortune much to be regretted, these being ranked among the most
elegant and beautiful of his works. In them notice is taken of several
differences in the Greek translations of Aquila, Symmachus, and
Theodotion; also in the Hebrew text, though written in Greek letters, as
in Origen s Hexapla. The critics find the like supply for restoring
parts of these ancient versions also in the spurious homilies in the
appendix of this volume, compiled by some other ancient Greek preacher.
In this admired work of St. Chrysostom the moral instructions are most
beautiful, on prayer, especially that of the morning, meekness,
compunction, careful self-examination every evening, fasting, humility,
alms, &c. In Pa. 43, p. 146, he thus apostrophizes the rich: "Hear this,
you all who are slack in giving alms: hear this, you who, by hoarding up
your treasures, lose them yourselves: hear me you, who, by perverting
the end of your riches, are no better by them than those who are rich
only in a dream; nay, your condition is fair worse," &c. He says that
the poor, though they seem so weak, have arms more powerful and more
terrible than the greatest magistrates and princes; for the sighs and
groans which they send forth in their distresses, pierce the heavens,
and draw down vengeance without thinking to demand it, upon the rich,
upon cities, upon whole nations. In Ps. 11, p. 120, he will have prayer
to be made effectual by the exercise of all virtues and good works,
especially by a pure love of God, hunger after his justice alone, and
disengagement of the heart from all love of earthly things. In P. 41, p.
190, this prayer by aspirations, which may be borrowed from the psalms,
he recommends to be practised in all places and times. Ib. He insists,
that with David we begin the day by prayer, doing nothing before this
duty to God be complied with: and that with him we consecrate part of
the night to compunction and prayer. In. Ps. 6, he says many excellent
things on the remedies we are bound to employ against concupiscence,
especially assiduous prayer, shunning {264} all occasions which can
prove incentives to this enemy or to our senses, and above all dangerous
company; assiduous meditation on death and hell, &c. Ib. God only
afflicts the just out of the excess of his love for them, and desire to
unite them closely to himself. In Ps. 114, p. 308, as the Jews obtained
not their return from their captivity to Jerusalem but by long and
earnestly desiring it, so only an ardent and pure desire of the heavenly
Jerusalem can raise us thither; and an attachment to earthly goods and
pleasures links us to our slavery, and chains us down too fast for us
ever to rise so high. In Ps. Graduales, p. 328, it was the custom at
Antioch for all the faithful to recite, every morning, the 140th psalm,
which he desires them carefully to understand, so as to penetrate the
riches of the excellent sentiments every word contains, in order to
repeat it with more dilated affections of the heart. In like manner he
mentions that the 62d psalm was recited by all every evening. From his
exposition of Ps. 41, p. 131, it appears that the people answered by
repeating the first verse of every psalm, after every verse, as it was
sung by the clergy.

In the sixth tome occur his excellent discourses on the seven first
chapters of Isaiah: then his four homilies on the fall of king Ozias,
(Isa. vi.,) in which he sets forth the danger of pride, and necessity of
perseverance and constant watchfulness. (T. 6, p. 94.) After several
homilies on certain texts of Jeremy, Daniel, &c., we have his two
elegant discourses On the Obscurity of the Prophets, in which he shows
that the wisdom of Providence is displayed; for too great perspicuity
would not have so well answered the various ends of the Old Law. The
advantages of public prayer are here strongly set forth; and in the
second the saint declaims against detraction, a vice which brings
neither profit nor pleasure, yet is most enormous even in those who only
listen to it. If he who scandalizes one brother is so grievously
punished, what will be the chastisement of him who scandalizes so many?
We are bound to cover, not to proclaim the faults of others; but it is
our duty to endeavor to reclaim and save sinners, according to the
precept of Christ. The very company of detracters ought to be shunned:
to correct, or at least set a mark upon such, he wishes, in order that
they may be known and avoided, they were publicly branded with the name
of flies, because, like these insects, they delight to dwell on filth
and corruption. In the homily On Perfect Charity, he draws a most
amiable portraiture of that virtue in society; and another, in striking
colors, of the day of judgment. It is uncertain by what accident the
imperfect work of St. Matthew was formerly taken by some for a
performance of St. Chrysostom. The mistake is notorious; for the author
declares himself an advocate for Arian ism, (Hom. 19, 22, 28, &c.,) and
for the re-baptization of heretics. (Hom. 13 and 15.) He seems to have
written about the beginning of the seventh century, and to have been a
Latin, (not a Greek,) for he follows closely the Latin text.

The commentary of St. Chrysostom on St. Matthew fills the seventh tome,
and consists of ninety homilies: the old Latin version, by dividing the
nineteenth into two, counts ninety-one. They were preached at Antioch,
probably in the year 390. This literal and most pious exposition of that
gospel contains the whole practical science of virtues and vices, and is
an inexhausted source of excellent morality, and a finished model of
preaching the word of God, and of expounding the oracles of eternal life
for the edification of souls. St. Thomas Aquinas was possessed only of a
bad Latin translation of this unparalleled work, yet said he would
rather be master of this single book than of the whole city of Paris.
The example of the saint shows that the most essential preparation for
the study of the holy scriptures consists in simplicity and purity of
heart, an eminent spirit of prayer, and habitual profound meditation on
the sacred oracles. Thus qualified, he, with admirable sagacity and
piety, penetrates and unfolds the unbounded spiritual riches of the
least tittle in the divine word; and explains its sacred truths with
incomparable ease, perspicuity, elegance, and energy of style. The moral
instructions are enforced by all the strength and ornaments of the most
sweet and persuasive eloquence. Inveighing against the stage, he calls
it the reign of vice and iniquity, and the ruin of cities: and commends
the saying of that ancient Roman, who, hearing an account of the usual
entertainments which were represented on the stage, and how eagerly the
citizens ran to them, cried out, "Have they then neither wives nor
children at home?" giving to understand, that men ought not to seek
diversion abroad which they would more rationally procure at home with
those whom they love. (Hom. 37, p. 414.) On the precept of self-denial
he takes notice, that by it Christ commands us, first, to be crucified
to our own flesh and will; secondly, to spare ourselves in nothing;
thirdly, not only to deny ourselves, but thoroughly to deny ourselves;
by this little particle _thoroughly_, adding great force to his precept.
He says further, _Let him take up his cross_; this is, bearing not only
all reproaches and injurious words, but also every kind of sufferings or
death. (Hom. 55, p. 556.) On Vain Glory, he calls it the most tyrannical
of all the diseases of the soul, (Hom. 19, p. 244,) and pathetically
laments the extreme misery of a soul that forsakes God, who would
commend and reward her, to court the empty esteem of the vainest of all
creatures, and those who will the more hate and despise her as she more
eagerly hunts after applause. He compares her to a king's daughter who
should abandon a most amiable and rich prince, to run night and day
through the streets after fugitives and slaves, that hate and fly from
her as the {265} basest of prostitutes. Those she seeks to have for
witnesses and applauders, or rather she herself, act the part of
robbers, and rifle treasures laid up even in heaven in a place of
safety. The devil sees them inaccessible to his arts, therefore employs
this worm to devour them. When you bestow an alms, shut your door; let
him alone to whom you give it be witness, nor even him if possible; of
others see you they will proclaim your vain-glory, and be published by
God himself. (Hom. 71.) Speaking on alms, (Hom. 66,) he says, that the
Church of Antioch was then possessed only of the revenue of one rich and
of one poor man, yet maintained three thousand virgins and widows,
besides hospitals &c. What then is not one rich man able to do? But they
have children. The saint replies, that the best fortune they can leave
is a treasure laid up in heaven. Every one is bound at least to count
the poor among his children, and allot to them one half, a third, or at
least a tenth part. He declares (Hom. 88.) that he will never cease
preaching on the obligation, efficacy, and advantages of alms. He
asserts, (Hom. 85,) that in the church of Antioch were contained one
hundred thousand souls; besides whom as many Jews and idolaters dwelt in
that city. (Hom. in St. Ignat. t. 2, p. 591.) He applauds the constancy
and virtue of a famous actress, (Hom. 67,) who being converted to God,
would not be compelled by the threats of the governor or any punishment,
to appear again upon the stage. In Hom. 68 and 69, he gives an amiable
and edifying account of the lives of the monks of Syria: and (Hom. 47,
80, 81, 90, &c.) commends a state of voluntary poverty, and preaches on
the contempt of the world. On visiting the tombs of martyrs, to obtain
health of body and every spiritual advantage, see Hom. 37, 424. On the
sign of the cross he says, (Hom. 54, p. 551,) "Let us carry about the
cross of Christ as a crown, and let no one blush at the ensign of
salvation. By it is every thing in religion done: the cross is employed
if a person is regenerated, or fed with the mystical food, or ordained;
whatever else is to be done, this ensign of victory is ever present;
therefore we have it in our houses, paint it on our walls and windows,
make it on our foreheads, and always carry it devoutly in our hearts. We
must not content ourselves with forming it with our fingers, but must do
it with great sentiments of faith and devotion. If you thus form it on
your face, no unclean spirit will be able to stand against you when he
beholds the instrument which has given him the mortal stab. If we
tremble at the sight of the place where criminals are executed, think
what the devils must suffer when they see that weapon by which Christ
stripped them of their power, and cut off the head of their leader. Be
not ashamed of so great a good which has been bestowed on you, lest
Christ should be ashamed of you when he shall appear in glory, and this
standard be borne before him brighter than the rays of the sun; for then
the cross shall appear speaking as it were with a loud voice. This sign,
both in the time of our forefathers and in our own, has opened gates,
deadened malignant poisons, and healed wounds made by the sting or bite
of venomous creatures. If it has broken down the gates of hell, unbolted
those of paradise, destroyed the empire and weakened the powers of the
devil, what wonder if it overcomes poisons and wild beasts?" On the
virtue of the sign of the cross, see also Hom. 8, ib. and Hom. 4, de St.
Paolo, t. 2, 9. 494, et de libello repudii, t. 3, p. 204, &c. On the
Holy Eucharist, he gives frequent and admirable instructions. Speaking
of the sick, who were cured by touching the hem of Christ's garments, he
adds, (Hom. 50, p. 517,) "What grace is not in our power to receive by
touching and receiving his holy body? What if you hear not his voice;
you see him laid. He has given us himself to eat, and has set himself in
the state of a victim sacrificed before us," &c. And Hom. 82, p. 787, he
writes: "How many now say, they wish to see his shape, his garments? You
desire to see his garments, but he gives himself to you not only to be
seen, but to be touched, to be eaten, to be received within you. Then
what beam of the sun ought not that hand to be more which divides this
flesh? that mouth which is filled with this spiritual fire? that tongue
which is purpled with this adorable blood? The angels beholding it
tremble, and dare not look thereupon through awe and fear, and on
account of the rays which dart from that wherewith we are nourished,
with which we are mingled, being made one body, one flesh with Christ.
What shepherd ever fed his sheep with his own limbs? nay, many mothers
give their children to other nurses; whereas he feeds us with his own
blood," &c. It is a familiar reflection of our saint, that by the
communion we become of one flesh and of one body with Christ, to express
the close union of our souls with him in this divine sacrament. In the
same Homily, 82, (olim 83,) on St. Matthew, p. 782, t. 7, he says, the
apostles were not affrighted when they heard Christ assure them, _This
is my body_; because he had before initiated them in most wonderful
mysteries, and made them witnesses to many prodigies and miracles, and
had already instructed them in this very sacrament, at which they had
been at first much struck, and some of them scandalized. John vi.
Moreover, that they might not fear, or say, Shall we then drink his
blood and eat his flesh? he set the example in taking the cup, and
drinking his own blood the first of all. The saint charges us (ib. p.
787) not to question or contradict the words of Christ, but to captivate
our reason and understanding in obeying him, and believing his word,
which cannot deceive us, whereas our senses often lead us into mistakes.
When, therefore, he tells us, _This is_ {266} _my body_, we must believe
him, and consider the mystery with spiritual eyes; for we learn from
him, that what he gives us is something spiritual, which falls not under
our senses. See this further on the same subject, Hom. 50, (olim 51,) in
Matt. pp. 516, 517, 518. Hom. de Baptismo Christi, t. 2, pp. 374, 375.
Hom. in Laudem Martyrum, t. 2, p. 654. Hom non esse ad gratiam
concionandum, ib. pp. 658, 659. Expos. in Ps. 46, t. 5, p. 189, and in
Pd. 133, p. 382. Hom. 5, in illud: Vidi Dominum, t. 6, p. 143. Hom. de
St. Philogonio, t. 1, p. 498, besides the passages quoted in this
abstract. In the same comments on St. Matthew, t. 7, Hom. 82, p. 788, he
vehemently exhorts the faithful to approach the holy table with a
burning thirst and earnest desire to suck in the spiritual milk, as it
were, from the divine breasts. As children throw themselves into the
bosom of their nurse or mother, and eagerly suck their breast, so ought
we with far greater ardor to run to the sacred mysteries, to draw into
our hearts, as the children of God, the grace of his Holy Spirit. To be
deprived of this heavenly food ought to be to us the most sensible, nay,
our only grief, (ib p. 788.) Nothing can be more tender than his
exhortations to frequent communion; he even recommends it daily, (Hom.
de St. Philogonio, t. 1, pp. 499, 500,) provided persons lead Christian
lives, and bring suitable dispositions. But no solemnity can be a reason
for those who are under the guilt of sin ever to approach in that state.
(Ib,) No terms can be stronger than those in which he speaks in many
places of the enormity of a sacrilegious communion, which he compares to
the crime of Judas who betrayed Christ, of the Jews who crucified him,
sud of Herod who sought to murder him in his cradle, (Hom. 7, in Matt.
p. 112, &c.,) and frequently explains the dispositions requisite to
approach worthily the holy table, insisting chiefly on great purity of
soul, fervent devotion, and a vehement hunger and thirst after this
divine banquet. (Hom. 17, in Heb. t. 12, p. 169. Hom. 24, in 1 Cor t.
10, p. 218, &c.) He denounces the most dreadful threats of divine
vengeance against unfaithful ministers who admit to it notorious
sinners. (Hom. 72, in Matt. t. 7, pp. 789, 790.) "Christ," says he,
"will demand of you an account of his blood, if you give it to those who
are unworthy. If any such person presents himself, though he were
general of the army, or emperor, drive him from the holy table. The
power with which you are invested is above that of an emperor. If you
dare not refuse to admit the unworthy, inform me. I will rather suffer
my blood to be spilt than offer this sacred blood to one who is
unworthy," &c. (Ib.) In this work of St. Chrysostom upon St. Matthew, we
meet with beautiful instructions on almost every Christian virtue. Read
Hom. 38, on humility, which he styles the queen of all virtues; Hom. 58,
where he calls it the beginning of a virtuous life; and Hom. 65, where
he shows that it exalts a man above the highest dignities. On the entire
contempt of the world as a nothing, Hom. 12, 33, &c. On the happiness of
him who serves God, whom the whole world cannot hurt, Hom. 24, 56, 90.
Against avarice, Hom. 28, 74, 63. Against drunkenness, Hom. 70. On
compunction, Hom. 41, where he proves it indispensable from the
continual necessity of penance for hidden sins, and for detraction,
vain-glory, avarice, &c. We ought also to weep continually for our
dangers. Speaking on the same virtue, Hom. 6, p. 94, he, teaches that
compunction is the daughter of divine love, which consumes in the heart
all affections for temporal things, so that a man is disposed with
pleasure to part with the whole world and life itself. A soul is by it
made light, and soaring above all things visible, despises them as
nothing. He who is penetrated with this spirit of love and compunction,
frequently breaks into floods of tears; but these tears afford him
incredible sweetness and pleasure. He lives in cities as if he were in a
wilderness; so little notice does he take of the things of this life. He
is never satiated with tears which he pours forth for his own sins and
those of others. Hence the saint takes occasion to launch forth into the
commendation of the gift of holy tears, pp. 96, 97. He inveighs against
stage entertainments, Hom. 6, 7, 17, 37, &c. See especially Hom. contra
ludos et theatra, t. 6, 274.

On Hell, he says (Hom. 23, in Matt.) that the loss of God is the
greatest of all the pains which the damned endure, nay, more grievous
than a thousand hells. Many tremble at the name of hell; but he much
more at the thought of losing God, which the state of damnation implies.
(Ib.) He distinguishes in hell the loss of God, and secondly, fire and
the other pains of sense. (Hom. 47.) He shows that company abates
nothing in its torments. (Hom. 43.) Some object that to meditate on
those torments is too frightful; to whom he answers, that this is most
agreeable, because by it we learn to shun them, the hope of which
inspires joy, and so great earnestness in the practice of penance, that
austerities themselves become agreeable. (Ib.) He often mentions grace
before and after meat; and, Hom. 55, p. 561, recites that which the
monks about Antioch used before their meals, as follows: "Blessed God,
who feedest me from my youth, who givest nourishment to all flesh, fill
our hearts with joy, that being supported by thy bounty we may abound in
every good work to Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom be all honor,
praise, and glory given with the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen.
Glory be to thee, O Lord; glory be to thee, O Holy; glory be to thee, O
King, because Thou hast given us food in joyfulness. Fill us with thy
Holy Spirit, that we may be found acceptable in thy sight, that we may
not be covered with confusion when Thou shalt render to every one
according to his works:" This whole prayer is {267} admirable, says the
saint, but especially the close, the remembrance of the last day being a
bridle and check to sensuality and concupiscence. (Ib.) The saint shows
(Horn. 86, p. 810) the malice and danger of small faults wilfully
committed, which many are apt to make slight of; but from such the most
dreadful falls take their rise. The old Latin translation of St.
Chrysostom's homilies on St. Matthew, is too full of words, and often
inaccurate. Anian, the author, seems to have been the Pelagian deacon of
that name, who assisted at the council of Diospolis in 415. The new
Latin translation is far more exact, but very unequal in elegance and
dignity of expression to the original.

The eighth tome is composed of the homilies of St. Chrysostom upon St.
John, which are eighty-eight in number, though in former Latin editions,
in imitation of Morellus, the first is called preface, and only
eighty-seven bear the title of homilies. They were preached at Antioch,
about the year 394, at break of day, long before the usual hour of the
sermon (Hom. 31.) We find here the same elevation of thought, the same
genius and lively imagination, and the same strength of reasoning which
we admire in those on St. Matthew; but the method is different. After a
short literal exposition of the text, the holy doctor frequently inserts
polemical discussions, in which he proves the Consubstantiality of the
Son against the Anomæans. Hence his moral reflections in the end are
short: in which, nevertheless, he is always admirable, especially when
he speaks of the love which God testifies for us in the mystery of the
Incarnation. (See Hom. 27, olim 26, p. 156.) He observes that Christ
miraculously multiplied five loaves, before he gave his solemn promise
of the Eucharist, which he calls "The miracle of mysteries," and this he
did, says our saint, "That being taught by that miracle, they might not
doubt in giving credit to his words--that not only by love, but in
reality, we are mingled with his flesh." (Hom. 46, olim 45, in Joan. t.
8, p. 272.) Christ by this institution thus invites us to his heavenly
banquet, says our saint. "I feed you with my flesh, I give you myself
for your banquet. I would become your brother: for your sake, I took
upon myself flesh and blood: Again, I give you the flesh and blood, by
which I have made myself of the same nature and kindred with you,
([Greek: suggenês], congener.) This blood by being poured forth has
cleansed the whole world. This blood has purified the sanctuaries and
the Holy of Holies. If its figure had so great efficacy in the temple of
the Hebrews, and sprinkled on the doors of Egypt, the truth will have
much greater." (Ib. p. 273.) He calls the holy Eucharist "the tremendous
mysteries, the dreadful altar," [Greek: frikta ontôs ta musêria, frikton
ontôs to fusiastêrion], (ib.,) and says, "When you approach the sacred
cup, come as if you were going to drink the blood flowing from his
side." (Hom. 85, olim 84, in Joan. p. 507.)

The fifty-five homilies _On the Acts of the Apostles_, he preached at
Constantinople in the third year of his episcopal dignity, of our Lord
401, as appears from Hom. 44, p. 335, t. 9. The famous censure of
Erasmus, who judged them absolutely unworthy of our saint, (ep. ad
Warham. archiepiscopum Cantuarens,) is well known: Billius, on the
contrary, thinks them very elegant. Both judgments show how far
prepossession is capable of misleading the most learned men. That this
work is undoubtedly genuine, is demonstrated by Sir Henry Saville.
Photius justly admires an admirable eloquence, rich veins of gold
scattered through it, and the moral instructions are so noble and
beautiful, that no other genius but that of a Chrysostom could have
formed them. The style indeed, in many parts of the comments, is not
regular or correct; which might be owing to some indisposition, or to an
extraordinary hurry of troublesome affairs, to a confusion of mind, and
to alarms, the city being then in imminent danger by the revolt and
blockade of Gainas, and in daily fears of being plundered by that
barbarian. In the first homily our saint speaks against those who
deferred to receive baptism, for fear of forfeiting the grace by
relapsing into sin: which delay he shows to imply a wilful and obstinate
contempt of God and his grace, with the guilt of a base and inexcusable
sloth, like one who should desire to enrol himself in the army when the
war was over, yet expect a share in the triumph; or a wrestler who
should enter the lists when the games are closed. He adds, that in
sickness, under alarms and pains, it is scarce to be hoped that a person
will be able to dispose himself for so great a sacrament. Prudent men
make their wills while in health, imagining that at best they will
retain their senses but by halves at the approaches of death; and can we
think dying men capable of duly making so solemn an engagement with God?
He assures his flock that he is notable to express the consternation,
grief, and agony, with which he is seized whenever he hears of any one
being dead without baptism or penance, (p. 13.) In Hom. 3, p. 30, he
exaggerates the grievousness of sin in a priest, and has these
remarkable words, "I do not believe that many priests are saved; but
that far the greater number are lost: for this dignity requires a great
soul and much courage." In Hom. 7, he draws a most amiable and beautiful
portraiture of the charity which reigned in the primitive church, when
all with joy cast away their money; setting no value but on the
inestimably greater treasures which they possessed in God; when all
lived without envy, jealousy, pride, contempt of any one, and without
any cunning or ill-will; and when the cold words mine and thine were
banished from among them, pp. 58,59. A passage often quoted by those who
write on the small number of the elect occurs Hom. 24, p. 198, "How
many," says he, "do you think there are in this city {268} who will be
saved? What I am going to say is frightful indeed; yet I will speak it.
Out of so many thousands not one hundred belongs to the number of the
elect: and even of these I doubt. How much vice among the youth! What
sloth in the old! No one takes due care of the education of his
children. If we see a man truly devout in his old age, he is imitated by
nobody. I see persons behave disrespectfully and without due attention
in the church, and even when the priest is giving his blessing. Can any
insolence be found equal to this? Amidst such scandals, what hopes can
we entertain of the salvation of many? At a ball every one dances in his
rank, every thing is regulated, and done without confusion. And here in
the company of angels, and singing the praises of God with the blessed
spirits, you talk and laugh. Should we be surprised if thunder fell from
heaven to punish such impiety?" The monks then lived without the walls,
and could not be included by him: nor probably the clergy, deaconesses,
or others particularly consecrated to a devout life; as appears from his
invective. Nor does he speak this with any certitude, but from his
private apprehension by comparing the lives of the generality of the
people with the severe maxims of the gospel. This is manifest from the
proof he draws from the manners of the people, and from a like invective
in Hom. 61, olim 62, on St. Matthew, (t. 7, p. 612,) spoken at Antioch
ten years before. See also l. 1, adv. Oppugnatores Vitæ Mon. n. 8, t. 1,
p. 55. Speaking on the general impiety of the world, (Hom. 10, in 1
Tim,) he says: "We have great reason to weep: scarce the least part of
the world is saved: almost all live in danger of eternal death." But he
shows that the multitude will only increase the torments of the wicked,
as if a man saw his wife and children to be burnt alive with him. St.
Chrysostom counts in Constantinople, at that time, one hundred thousand
Christians, (Hom. 11, in Acts,) and says that the poor in that city
amounted to fifty thousand, and the riches of the particulars to about
one million pounds of gold. Yet he reckons the assembly of the
Christians greater at Antioch than at Constantinople. (Hom. 1, adv.
Judæos. p. 592, t. 1.) If the estate of one rich and that of one poor
man maintained three thousand poor at Antioch, and the like estates of
ten rich men would have supported all the poor of that city, it is
inferred that there were in Antioch only thirty thousand poor, though it
might perhaps have more inhabitants than Constantinople. See Bandurius
on the site and extent of Constantinople under the emperors Arcadius and
Honorius; and Hasius de magnitudine urbium, p. 47.

St. Chrysostom teaches that grace is conferred by God at the imposition
of hands in the ordination of priests, Hom. 14, in Acta. p. 114, also
Hom. 3, de Resurrect. t. 2, p. 436, and Hom. 21, in Acta. p. 175, that
"Oblations (or masses) are not offered in vain for the dead." It is his
pious counsel (Hom. 17, in Acta.) that when we find ourselves provoked
to anger, we form on our breast the sign of the cross; and Hom. 26, he
exhorts all Christians, even the married, and both men and women, to
rise every midnight to pray in their own houses, and to awake little
children at that hour that they may say a short prayer in bed. He says
that saints and martyrs are commemorated in the holy mysteries, because
this is doing them great honor, (Hom. 21, in Acta. p. 276,) and by the
communion with them in their virtues, the rest of the faithful departed
reap much benefit. (Hom. 51, in 1 Corinth. t. 10, p. 393.)

For a specimen of the zeal and charity with which this great preacher
instructed his flock, two or three passages are here inserted. Hom. 3,
in Acta. p. 31, t. 9. "I wish," says he, "I could set before your eyes
the tender charity and love which I bear you: after this no one could
take it amiss or be angry if I ever seem to use too harsh words in
correcting disorders. Nothing is dearer to me than you; not even life or
light. I desire a thousand times over to lose my sight, if by this means
I could convert your souls to God; so much more sweet is your salvation
to me. If it happens that any of you fall into sin, you are present even
in my sleep: through grief I am like persons struck with a palsy, or
deprived of their senses. For what hope or comfort can I have left, if
you advance not in virtue? And if you do well, what can afflict me? I
seem to feel myself taking wing when I hear any good of you. _Make my
joy complete_. Phil. ii. 2. Your progress is my only desire. You are to
me all, father and mother, and brothers and children." Hom. 44, in Act.
p. 335, having appealed to his closet and secret retreats to bear
witness how many tears he shed without intermission for them, he says,
"What shall I do? I am quite spent daily crying out to you: Forsake the
stage. Yet many laugh at our words: Refrain from oaths and avarice, and
no one listens to us. For your sakes I have almost abandoned the care of
my own soul and salvation; and while I weep for you, I bewail also my
own spiritual miseries, to which, through solicitude for you, I am not
sufficiently attentive: so true it is that you are all things to me. If
I see you advance in virtue, through joy I feel not my own ills; and if
I perceive you make no progress, here again through grief I forget my
own miseries. Though I am sinking under them, on your account, I am
filled with joy: and whatever subject of joy I have in myself, I am
overwhelmed with grief if all is not well with you. For what comfort,
what life, what hope can a pastor have, if his flock be perishing? How
will he stand before God? What will he say? Though he should be innocent
of the blood of them all, still he will be pierced with bitter sorrow
which nothing will be able to assuage. For though parents were no way in
fault, they would suffer the most {269} cruel anguish for the ruin or
loss of their children. Whether I shall be demanded an account of year
souls or no, this will not remove my grief. I am not anxious that you
may attain to happiness by my labors, but that you be saved at any rate,
or by any means. You know not the impetuous tyranny of spiritual
travails, and how he who spiritually brings forth children to God
desires a thousand times over to be hewn to pieces rather than to see
one of his children fall or perish. Though we could say with assurance,
we have done all that lay in us, and are innocent of his blood, this
will not be enough to comfort us. Could my heart be laid open and
exposed to your view, you would see that you are every one there, and
much dilated, women, children, and men. So great is the power of charity
that it makes a soul wider than the heavens. St. Paul bore all Corinth
within his breast. 2 Cor. vii. 2. I can make you no reproaches for any
indifference towards me on your side. I am sensible of the love which
you reciprocally bear me. But what will be the advantage either of your
love for me or of mine for you, if the duties you owe to God are
neglected? It is only an occasion of rendering my grief more heavy. You
have never been wanting in any thing towards me. Were it possible, you
would have given me your very eyes: and on our side we were desirous to
give you with the gospel also our lives. Our love is reciprocal. But
this is not the point. We must in the first place love Christ. This
obligation both you and I have great need to study: not that we entirely
neglect it; but the pains we take are not adequate to this great end."

To abolish the sacrilegious custom of swearing at Constantinople, as he
had done at Antioch, he strained every sinew, and in several sermons he
exerted his zeal with uncommon energy, mingled with the most tender
charity. In Hom. 8, in Act t. 9, pp. 66, 67, he complains that some who
had begun to correct their criminal habit, after having fallen through
surprise, or by a sudden fit of passion, had lost courage. These he
animates to a firmer resolution and vigor, which would crown them with
victory. He tells them he suffers more by grief for them than if he
languished in a dungeon, or was condemned to the mines; and begs, by the
love which they bear him, they would give the only comfort which could
remove the weight of his sorrow by an entire conversion. It will not
justify him, he says, at the last day, to allege that he had reprimanded
those who swore. The judge will answer: "Why didst not thou check,
command, and by laws restrain those that disobeyed?" Heli reprimanded
his sons; but was condemned for not having done it, because he did not
use sufficient severity. 1 Kings xi. 24. "I every day cry aloud," says
the saint, "yet am not heard. Fearing to be myself condemned at the last
day for too great lenity and remissness, I raise my voice, and denounce
aloud to all, that if any swear, I forbid them the church. Only this
month is allowed for persons to correct their habit." His voice he calls
a trumpet, with which in different words he proclaims thrice this
sentence of excommunication against whosoever should persist refractory,
thought he were a prince, or he who wears the diadem. Hom. 9, p. 76, he
congratulates with his audience for the signs of compunction and
amendment which they had given since his last sermon, and tells the
greatest part of the difficulty is already mastered by them. To inspire
them with a holy dread and awe for the adorable name of God, he puts
them in mind that in the Old Law only the high priest was allowed ever
to pronounce it, and that the devils trembled at its sound. Hom. 10, he
charges them never to name God but in praising him or in imploring his
mercy. He takes notice that some among them still sometimes swore, but
only for want of attention, by the force of habit, just as they made the
sign of the cross by mere custom, without attention, when they entered
the baths, or lighted a candle. He tells them (Hom. 11, p. 95) that the
term of a month, which he had fixed, was almost elapsed, and most
affectionately conjures them to make their conversion entire. A sight of
one such conversion, he says, gave him more joy, than if a thousand
imperial diadems of the richest jewels had been placed upon his head.
Other specimens of the saint's ardent love for his people at
Constantinople, see Hom. 9, in Hebr. t. 12, p. 100; Hom. 23, in Hebr. p.
217; Hom. 9, in 1 Thes. t. 11, p. 494; Hom. 7, in 1 Coloss. Hom. 39, in
Act. p. 230, &c. For his people at Antioch, t. 3, p. 362, t. 2, p. 279,
t. 7, p. 374, &c. On his humility, t. 2, p. 455, t. 4, p. 339. On his
desire to suffer for Christ, t. 1, p. 453, t. 7, p. 243, t. 11, pp. 53,
55.

The inspired epistles of St. Paul were the favorite subject of this
saint's intense meditation, in which he studied the most sublime maxims,
and formed in himself the most perfect spirit of Christian virtue. The
epistle to the Romans is expounded by him in thirty-two homilies, (t. 9,
p. 429,) which he made at Antioch, as is clear from Hom. 8, p. 508, and
Hom. 30, p. 743. Nothing can go beyond the commendations which St
Isidore of Pelusium bestows on this excellent work, (l. 5, ep. 32,) to
which all succeeding ages have subscribed. The errors of Pelagius, which
were broached soon after in the West, are clearly guarded against by the
holy preacher, though he is more solicitous to confute the opposite
heresy of the Manichees, which then reigned in many parts of the East.
He also confounds frequently the Jews. But what we most admire is the
pious sagacity with which he unfolds the deep sense of the sacred text,
and its author, the true disciple of Christ, and the perspicuity and
eloquence with which he enforces his moral instructions. Whoever reads
anyone of these homilies, will hear testimony to this eulogium. See Hom.
24. (t. 9, p. 694,) {270} on the shortness of human life: Hom. 8, on
fraternal charity and forgiving injuries: Hom. 20, on our obligation of
offering to God a living sacrifice of our bodies by the exercise of all
virtues, and the sanctity of our affections: Hom. 22 and 27, on patience
in bearing all injuries, by which we convert them into our greatest
treasure: Hom. 5, on the fear of God's judgments, and on his love, to
which he pathetically says, it would be more grievous to offend God than
to suffer all the torments of hell, which every one incurs who is not in
this disposition, (p. 469,) though it is a well-known maxim that persons
ought not to propose to themselves in too lively a manner such
comparisons, or to become their own tempters: Hom. 7, against envy, and
on alms, he says this is putting out money at interest for one hundred
fold from God, who is himself our security, and who herein considers not
the sum, but the will, as he did in St. Peter, who left for him only a
broken net, a line, and a hook. The promise of a hundred fold made to
him, is no less made to us.

The commentary On the First Epistle to the Corinthians, (t. 10,) in
forty-four homilies, was likewise the fruit of his zeal at Antioch, and
is one of the most elaborate and finished of his works. The interpreter
seems animated with the spirit of the great apostle whose sacred oracle
he expounds, so admirably does he penetrate the pious energy of the
least tittle. If St. Paul uses the words _My God_, he observes, that out
of the vehement ardor and tenderness of his love he makes Him his own,
who is the common God of all men; and that he names Him with a sentiment
of burning affection and profound adoration, because he had banished all
created things from his heart, and all his affections were placed in
God. He extols the merit and advantages of holy virginity, (Hom. 19,)
and Hom. 26, speaks on the duties of a married state, especially that of
mutual love and meekness in bearing each other's faults: this he bids
them learn from Socrates, a pagan, who chose a very shrew for his wife,
and being asked how he could bear with her, said: "I have a school of
virtue at home, in order to learn meekness and patience by the daily
practice." The saint adds, it was a great grief to him to see Christians
fall short of the virtue of a heathen, whereas they ought to be
imitators of the angels, nay, of God himself. Recommending the most
profound respect for the holy eucharist, and a dread of profaning it, he
says, Hom. 24, pp. 217, 218, "No one dares touch the king's garments
with dirty hands. When you see Him (_i.e._ Christ) exposed before you,
say to yourself: This body was pierced with nails; this body which was
scourged, death did not destroy; this body was nailed to a cross, at
which spectacle the sun withdrew its rays; this body the Magi
venerated," &c. The saint inveighs against several superstitious
practices of that age, Hom. 12. His discourses are animated and strong
on the characters of fraternal charity, and against avarice, envy, &c.

The thirty homilies, On the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, (t. 10,
p. 417,) were also preached at Antioch: for he speaks of Constantinople
as at a distance, (Hom. 26,) which passage Sir Henry Saville has
mistaken, as Montfaucon clearly shows. This commentary is inferior to
the last, though not in elegance, yet in fire, the moral instructions
being shorter. The saint mentions several of the ceremonies used still
at mass, or in the public office of the church. Hom. 18, p. 568. Hom.
30, p. 6{5}0. On visiting the shrines of martyrs, he says, Hom. 26, p.
629, "The tombs of those who served the crucified Christ surpass in
splendor the courts of kings. Even he who wears purple visits and
devoutly kisses them, and standing suppliant, prays the saint to be a
protection to him before God." He adds that emperors sue for their
patronage, and count it an honor to be porters to them in their graves.
By this he alludes to the burial of Constantine the Great in the porch
of the church of the apostles. He proves, Hom. 3, p. 441, and Hom. 14,
p. 537, that the essence of repentance consists in a change of the
heart: that without an amendment of life, penance is only a mask and a
shadow, what fasts or other works soever attend it, and that it must be
founded not barely in the fear of hell, but in the love of so good and
loving a God. He teaches, Hom. 10, p. 505, that a Christian ought to
rejoice at the approaches of death. He speaks in many places on the
precept of alms-deeds with great vehemence. He says, Hom. 16, that to be
animated with a spirit of charity and compassion is something greater
than to raise the dead to life: our alms must be liberal, plentiful,
voluntary, and given with joy. He says, Hom. 19, that Christ stripped
himself of his immense glory and riches for love of us; yet men refuse
him a morsel of bread. They throw away on dogs, and what is superfluous
among servants, that which Christ wants in his members, to whom all
strictly belongs whatever we enjoy beyond what is necessary for life. He
enters into a severe and elegant detail of these superfluities, Hom. 19,
p. 570. The apostle, as he observes, (Hom. 20, p. 577,) justly calls
alms a seed, because it is not lost, but sown, and produces a most
plentiful harvest.

His commentary On the Epistle to the Galatians (t. 10) is an accurate
interpretation of the text, with frequent remarks against the Anomoeans,
Marcionites, and Manichees, but very sparing in moral exhortations:
these the saint probably added in the pulpit, and gave to the work the
form of discourses; for it appears to have been delivered in homilies to
the people, though it is not now divided into discourses. It was
certainly compiled at Antioch.

The twenty-four homilies On the Epistle to the Ephesians (t. 11) were
preached at Antioch; and though some passages might have received a
higher polish from a second touch of the saint's masterly file, are a
most useful and excellent work. From Hom. 3, p. 16, it {271} is clear
that his predecessor Nectarius had not abolished canonical public
penances, when he removed the public penitentiary; but that this office,
as before the institution of such a charge, was exercised altogether by
the bishop. For St. Chrysostom having taken notices that many assisted
at mass who did not communicate, tells them, that those who were guilty
of any grievous sin could not approach the holy table even on the
greatest solemnity; but that such persons ought to be in a course of
penance, and consequently not at mass with the rest of the faithful: and
he terrifies them by exaggerating the danger and crime of delaying to do
penance. Those who are not excluded by such an obstacle, he exhorts
strongly to frequent communion, seeming desirous that many would
communicate at every day's mass. "With a pure conscience," says he,
"approach always; without this disposition, never. In vain is the daily
sacrifice offered; to no purpose do we assist at the altar: no one
communicates. I say not this to induce any one to approach unworthily,
but to engage all to render yourselves worthy. The royal table is
prepared, the administering angels are present, the King himself is
there waiting for you: yet you stand with indifference," &c. (Hom. 3, in
Ephes. p. 23.) The virtues of St. Paul furnish the main subject of his
sixth and seventh homilies; in the eighth he speaks of that apostle's
sufferings for Christ, and declares, in a kind of rapturous exclamation,
that he prefers his chains to gold and diadems, and his company in
prison to heaven itself. He wishes he could make a pilgrimage to Rome,
to see and kiss those chains at which the devils tremble, and which the
angels reverence, while they venerate the hands which were bound with
them. For it is more desirable and more glorious to suffer with Christ,
than to be honored with him in glory: this is an honor above all others.
Christ himself left heaven to meet his cross: and St. Paul received more
glory from his chains, than by being rapt up to the third heaven, or by
curing the sick by the touch of his scarfs, &c. He desires to feast his
heart by dwelling still longer on the chains of this apostle, being
himself fettered with a chain from which he would not be separated: for
he declares himself to be closer and faster linked to St. Paul's chains
by desire, than that apostle was in prison. In the like strain he speaks
of the chains of St. Peter, and of St. John Baptist. In the next Homily,
(9,) he returns in equal raptures to St. Paul in chains for Christ; in
which state he calls him a spectacle of glory far beyond all the
triumphs of emperors and conquerors. Our saint gives excellent
instructions on the duties of married persons, Hom. 20; on the education
of children in the practice and spirit of obedience and piety, Hom. 21;
and on the duties of servants, Hom. 22.

The eighteen homilies On the First Epistle to Timothy, and ten On the
Second, seem also to have been preached at Antioch, (t. 11, p. 146.)
They are not equally polished, but contain excellent instructions
against covetousness, and the love of the world; on alms, on the duties
of bishops, and those of widows, &c.; on the education of children, Hom.
10, p. 596. The six, On the Epistle to Titus, are more elaborate: also
three On the Epistle to Philemon, which seem all to have been finished
at Antioch.

In the eleventh tome we have also eleven sermons, which St. Chrysostom
preached at Constantinople about the end of the year 398. Tile second
was spoken upon the following occasion, (ib. p. 332:) The empress
Eudoxia procured a solemn procession and translation of the relics of
certain martyrs, to be made from the great church in Constantinople to
the church of St. Thomas the apostle in Drypia, on the sea-shore, nine
miles out of town. The princes without any retinue, priests, monks,
nuns, ladies, and the people, attended the procession in such
multitudes, that from the light of the burning tapers which they carried
in their hands the sea seemed as it were on fire. The empress walked all
the way behind, touching the shrine and the veil which covered it. The
procession set out in the beginning of the night, passed through the
market-place, and arrived at Drypia about break of day. There St.
Chrysostom made an extemporary sermon, in which he described the pomp of
this ceremony, commended the piety of the empress, and proved that if
the clothes, handkerchiefs, and even shadow of saints on earth had
wrought many miracles, a blessing is certainly derived from their relics
upon those who devoutly touch them. The next day the emperor Arcadius,
attended by his court and guards, arrived, and the soldiers having laid
aside their arms, and the emperor his diadem, he paid his devotions
before the shrine. After his departure St. Chrysostom preached again,
(p. 336.)

St. Chrysostom was removed to Constantinople in 397. The fifteen (or, if
with some editors we include the prologue, sixteen) homilies On the
Epistle to the Philippians, (t. 11, p. 189,) were preached in that
capital of the empire. The moral instructions turn mostly on alms and
riches. The order which prudence prescribes in the distribution of alms,
he explains, (Hom. 1, t. 11, p. 201,) and condemns too anxious an
inquiry and suspicion of imposture in the poor, as contrary to Christian
simplicity and charity, affirming that none are so frequently imposed
upon by cheat as the most severe inquirers. Prudence and caution he
allows to be necessary ingredients of alms, in which those whose wants
are most pressing, or who are most deserving, ought to be first
considered. Hom. 3, p. 215, he lays it down as a principle, that
catechumens who die without baptism, and penitents without absolution,
"are excluded heaven with the damned;" which we are to understand,
unless they were purified by perfect contrition joined with a desire of
the sacrament, as St. Ambrose, St. {272} Austin, and all the fathers and
councils declare. St. Chrysostom adds, that it is a wholesome ordinance
of the apostles in favor of the faithful departed, to commemorate them
in the adorable mysteries: for how is it possible God should be deaf to
our prayers for them, at a time when all the people stand with stretched
forth hands with the priests, in presence of the most adorable
sacrifice? But the catechumens are deprived of this comfort, though not
of all succor, for alms may be given for them, from which they receive
some relief or mitigation of their pains. Though such not dying within
the exterior pale of the church cannot be commemorated in its public
suffrages and sacrifices; yet if by desire they were interiorly its
members, and by charity united to Christ its head, they may be benefited
by private suffrages which particulars may offer for them. This is the
meaning of this holy doctor. Exhorting the faithful to live in perpetual
fear of the dangers with which we are surrounded, (Hom. 8, in Ephes. t.
11,) he says, "A builder on the top of a house always apprehends the
danger of falling, and on this account is careful how he stands: so
ought we much more to fear, how much soever we may be advanced in
virtue. The principal means always to entertain in our souls this saving
fear, is to have God always before our eyes, who is everywhere present,
hears and sees all things, and penetrates the most secret foldings of
our hearts. Whether you eat, go to sleep, sit at dainty tables, are
inclined to anger, or any other passion, or whatever else you do,
remember always," says he, "that God is present, and you will never fall
into dissolute mirth, or be provoked to anger; but will watch over
yourselves in continual fear." With great elegance he shows (Hom. 10, p.
279,) that precious stones serve for no use, are not so good even as
common stones, and that all their value is imaginary, and consists
barely in the mad opinion of men; and he boldly censures the insatiable
rapaciousness and unbounded prodigality of the rich, in their sumptuous
palaces, marble pillars, and splendid clothes and equipages. Houses are
only intended to defend us from the weather, and raiment to cover our
nakedness. All vanities he shows to be contrary to the designs of
nature, which is ever content with little. In Hom. 12, we have an
excellent instruction on that important maxim in a spiritual life, That
we must never think how far we have run, but what remains of our course,
as in a race a man thinks only on what is before him. It will avail
nothing to have begun, unless we finish well our course. In Hom. 13, he
excellently explains the mystery of the cross, which we bear if we study
continually to crucify ourselves by self-denial. We must in all places
arm ourselves with the sign of the cross.

The Exposition of the epistle to the Colossians, in twelve homilies, (t.
11) was made at Constantinople in the year 399. In the second homily (p.
333) he says, that a most powerful means to maintain in ourselves a deep
sense of gratitude to God, and to increase the flame of his love in our
hearts, is to bear always in mind his numberless benefits to us, and the
infinite evils from which he has mercifully delivered us. In Hom. 8, p.
319, he teaches, that no disposition of our souls contributes more
effectually to our sanctification, than that of returning thanks to God
under the severest trials of adversity, a virtue little inferior to
martyrdom. A mother who, without entertaining the least sentiment of
complaint at the sickness and death of her dearest child, thanks God
with perfect submission to his will, will receive a recompense equal to
that of martyrs. After condemning the use of all superstitious practices
for the cure of distempers, he strongly exhorts mothers rather to suffer
their children to die, than ever to have recourse to such sacrilegious
methods; and contenting themselves with making the sign of the cross
upon their sick children to answer those who suggested any superstitious
remedy: "These are my only arms; I am utterly a stranger to other
methods of treating this distemper." The tenth homily (p. 395) contains
a strong invective against the excessive luxury and immodesty of ladies
in their dress, and their vanity, pride, and extravagance. The empress
Eudoxia, who was at the head of these scandalous customs, and the
mistress of court fashions and vices, could not but be highly offended
at this zealous discourse. The saint says, that many ladies used vessels
of silver for the very meanest uses, and that the king of Persia wore a
golden beard.

The eleven homilies On the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, were also
part of the fruit of his episcopal labors at Constantinople. (T. 11.) In
the second he shows the excellency of fraternal love and friendship, by
which every thing is, as it were, possessed in common, and those cold
words mine and thine, the seed of all discords, are banished as they
were from the primitive Christians. In the third, he doubts not but
perfect patience, under grievous sicknesses, may equal the merit of
martyrdom. In the fifth, he speaks incomparably on the virtue of purity,
and against occasions which may kindle in the heart the contrary
passion, which, with St. Paul, he will not have so much as earned,
especially against the stage, and all assemblies where women make their
appearance dressed out to please the eyes and wound the hearts of
others. In Hom. 6, he condemns excessive grief for the death of friends.
To indulge this sorrow for their sake, he calls want of faith: to grieve
for our own sake because we are deprived of a comfort and support in
them, he says, must proceed from a want of confidence in God; as if any
friend on earth could be our safeguard, but God alone. God took this
friend away, because he is jealous of our hearts and will have us love
him without a rival, (p. 479.) In Hom. 10, we are instructed, that {273}
the best revenge we can take of an enemy is to forgive him, and to bear
injuries patiently. In Hom. 11, p. 505, he gives an account, that a
certain lady being offended at a slave for a great crime, resolved to
sell him and his wife. The latter wept bitterly; and a mediator, whose
good offices with her mistress in her behalf she implored, conjured the
lady in these words: "May Christ appear to you at the last day in the
same manner in which you now receive our petition." Which words so
strongly affected her, that she forgave the offence. The night following
Christ appeared to her in a comfortable vision, as St. Chrysostom was
assured by herself. In Hom. 7, (ib.,) he shows the possibility of the
resurrection of the flesh, against infidels.

The five homilies On the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, were also
preached at Constantinople, (t. 11, p. 510.) In the second, he exhorts
all to make the torments of hell a frequent subject of their meditation,
that they may never sin; and to entertain little children often with
some discourse on them instead of idle stories, that sentiments of holy
fear and virtue may strike deep roots in their tender hearts. On
traditions received by the church from the apostles he writes as
follows: (Hom. 4, in 2 Thess. p. 532.) "Hence it is clear that they did
not deliver all things by their epistles, but communicated also many
things without writing: and these likewise deserve our assent or faith.
It is a tradition: make no further inquiry." In the same Hom. 4, p. 534,
he expresses how much he trembled at the thought of being, by the
obligation of his office, the mediator betwixt God and his people; and
declares, that he ceased not most earnestly to pour forth his prayers
for them both at home and abroad. Hom. 4, ib., he severely reprimands
those who reproach the poor in harsh words, adding to the weight of
their affliction and misery.

The thirty-four homilies On the Epistle to the Hebrews, (t. 12, p. 1,)
were compiled at Constantinople. In the seventh he shows, that the
evangelical precepts and counsels belong to all Christians, not only to
monks, if we except the vow of perpetual virginity: though also men
engaged in a married state are bound to be disentangled in spirit, and
to use the world as if they used it not. Hom. 17, ib. p. 169, he
explains that the sacrifice of the New Law is one, because the same body
of Christ is every day offered; not one day one sheep, another day a
second, &c. (On this sacrifice see also Hom. 5, in 1 Tim. t. 11, p. 577,
Hom. 3, contra Judæos. t. 1, p. 611. Hom. 7, contra Judæos. t. 1, p.
664. Hom. in St. Eustath. t. 2, p. 606. Hom. 24, in 1 Cor. t. 10, p.
213.) In Hom. 34, ad Hebr. p. 313, he expresses his extreme fears for
the rigorous account which a pastor is obliged to give for every soul
committed to his charge, and cries out, "I wonder that any superior of
others is saved."

A letter to a certain monk called Cæsarius, has passed under the name of
St. Chrysostom ever since Leontius and St. John Damascen; and not only
many Protestants, but also F. Hardouin, (Dissert. de ep. ad Cæsarium
Monachum) Tillemont, (t. 11, art. 130, p. 340,) and Tournely, (Tr. de
Euchar. t. 1, p. 282, and Tract. de Incarnat. p. 486,) are not unwilling
to look upon it as a genuine work of our holy doctor. But it is
demonstrated by F. Le Quien, (Diss. 3, in St. Joan. Damasc.) Dom
Montfaucon, (in Op. St. Chrys. t. 3, p. 737,) Ceillier, (t. 9, p. 249,)
F. Merlin in his learned dissertations on this epistle, (in Mémoires de
Trevoux an. 1737, pp. 252, 516, and 917,) and F. Stilting, the
Bollandist, (t. 4, Sept. Comment. in vitam St. Chrys. §82, p. 656,) that
it has been falsely ascribed to him, and is a patched work of some later
ignorant Greek writer, who has borrowed some things from the first
letter of St. Chrysostom to Olympias, as Stilting shows. Merlin thinks
the author discovers himself to have been a Nestorian heretic. At least
the style is so opposite to that of St. Chrysostom, both in the diction
and in the manner of reasoning, that the reader must find himself quite
in another world, as Montfaucon observes. The author's long acquaintance
with this Cæsarius seems not easily reconcilable with the known history
of St. Chrsysostom's life. This piece, moreover, is too direct a
confutation of the Eutychian error to have been written before its
birth: or if it had made its appearance, how could it have escaped all
the antagonists of that heresy? Whoever the author was, he is far from
opposing the mystery of the real presence, or that of
transubstantiation, in the blessed eucharist, for both which he is an
evident voucher in these words, not to mention others: "The nature of
bread and that of our Lord's body are not two bodies, but one body of
the Son," which he introduces to make a comparison with the unity of
Christ's Person in the Incarnation. It is true, indeed, that he says the
nature of bread remains in the sacrament: but it is easy to show that by
the nature of bread he means its external natural qualities or
accidents.

Among former Latin translations of St. Chrysostom's works, only those
made by the learned Jesuit Fronto-le-Duc are accurate. These are
retained by Montfaucon, who has given us a new version of those writings
which Le Duc had not translated. The edition of Montfaucon in twelve
volumes, an. 1718, is of all others the most complete. But it is much to
be wished that he had favored us with a more elegant Latin translation,
which might bear some degree of the beauty of the original. The Greek
edition, made by Sir Henry Saville at Eton, in nine volumes, in 1612, is
more correct and more beautiful than that of the learned Benedictin, and
usually preferred by those who stand in need of no translation.

{274}

As to the French translations, that of the homilies on the epistles to
the Romans, Ephesians, &c., by Nicholas Fontaine, the Port-Royalist, in
1693, was condemned by Harlay, archbishop of Paris; and recalled by the
author, who undesignedly established in it the Nestorian error. The
French translation of the homilies on St. John, was given us by Abbé le
Merre: of those on Genesis and the Acts, with eighty-eight chosen
discourses, by Abbé de Bellegarde, though for some time attributed to de
Marsilly, and by others to Sacy. That of the homilies on St. Matthew,
ascribed by many to de Marsilly, was the work of le Maitre and his
brother Sacy. That of the homilies to the People of Antioch, was given
to by Abbé de Maucroix in 1671. That of the saint's panegyrics on the
martyrs, is the work of F. Durauty de Bourecueil, an Oratorian, and made
its appearance in 1735.

St Chrysostom wrote comments on the whole scripture, as Cassiodorus and
Suidas testify; but of these many, with a great number of sermons, &c.,
are lost. Theophylactus, Æcumenius, and other Greek commentators, are
chiefly abridgers of St. Chrysostom. Even Theodoret is his disciple in
the excellent concise notes he composed on the sacred text. Nor can
preachers or theologians choose a more useful master or more perfect
model in interpreting the scripture; but ought to join with him some
judicious, concise, critical commentator. As in reading the classics,
grammatical niceties have some advantage in settling the genuine text;
yet if multiplied or spun out in notes, are extremely pernicious, by
deadening the student's genius and spirit, and burying them in rubbish,
while they ought to be attentive to what will help them to acquire true
taste, to be employed on the beauties, ease, and gentleness of the
style, and on the greatness, delicacy, and truth of the thoughts or
sentiments, and to be animated by the life, spirit, and fire of an
author; so much more in the study of the sacred writings, a competent
skill in resolving grammatical and historical scruples in the text is of
great use, and sometimes necessary in the church: in which, among the
fathers, Origen and St. Jerom are our models. Yet from the conduct of
divine providence over the church, and the example of the most holy and
most learned among the primitive fathers, it is clear, as the learned
doctor Hare, bishop of Chichester, observes, that assiduous, humble, and
devout meditation on the spirit and divine precepts of the sacred
oracles, is the true method of studying them, both for our own
advantage, and for that of the church. Herein St. Chrysostom's comments
are our most faithful assistant and best model: The divine majesty and
magnificence of those writings is above the reach, and beyond the power,
of all moral wit. None but the Spirit of God could express his glory,
and display either the mysteries of his grace, or the oracles of his
holy law. And none but they whose hearts are disengaged from objects of
sense, and animated with the most pure affections of every sublime
virtue, and whose minds are enlightened by the beams of heavenly truth,
can penetrate the spirit of these divine writings, and open it to us.
Hence was St. Chrysostom qualified to become the interpreter of the word
of God, to discover its hidden mysteries of love and mercy, the perfect
spirit of all virtues which it contains, and the sacred energy or each
word or least circumstance.

The most ingenious Mr. Blackwall, in his excellent Introduction to the
Classics, writes as follows on the style of St. Chrysostom, p. 139: "I
would fain beg room among the classics for three primitive writers of
the church--St. Chrysostom, Minutius Felix, and Lactantius. St.
Chrysostom is easy and pleasant to new beginners; and has written with a
purity and eloquence which have been the admiration of all ages. This
wondrous man in a great measure possesses all the excellences of the
most valuable Greek and Roman classics. He has the invention,
copiousness, and perspicuity of Cicero; and all the elegance and
accuracy of composition which is admired in Isocrates, with much greater
variety and freedom. According as his subject requires, he has the
easiness and sweetness of Xenophon, and the pathetic force and rapid
simplicity of Demosthenes. His judgment is exquisite, his images noble,
his morality sensible and beautiful. No man understands human nature to
greater perfection, nor has a happier power of persuasion. He is always
clear and intelligible upon the loftiest and greatest subjects, and
sublime and noble upon the least." All that has been said of St.
Chrysostom's works is to be understood only of those which are truly
his. The irregular patched compilations from different parts of his
writings, made by modern Greeks, may be compared to scraps of rich
velvet, brocade, and gold cloth, which are clumsily sewed together with
{}thread.

{275}

ST. JULIAN, FIRST BISHOP OF MANS, C.

TOWARDS THE END OF THE THIRD CENTURY.

HE was succeeded by St. Turibius. His head is shown in the cathedral of
Mans, but the most of his relics in the neighboring Benedictin abbey of
nuns called St. Julian's du Prè, famous for miracles; though the
greatest part of these relics was burnt, or scattered in the wind by the
Huguenots, who plundered the shrine of St. Julian, in 1562. He was much
honored in France, and many churches built during the Norman succession
in England, especially about the reign of Henry II., who was baptized in
the church of St. Julian, at Mans, bear his name: one in particular at
Norwich, which the people by mistake imagine to have been dedicated
under the title of the venerable Juliana, a Benedictin nun at Norwich,
who died in the odor of sanctity, but never was publicly invoked as a
saint. St. Julian of Mans had an office in the Sarum breviary. See
Tillem. t. 4, pp. 448, 729. Gal. Christ. Nov. &c.

ST. MARIUS, ABBOT.

DYNAMIUS, patrician of the Gauls who is mentioned by St. Gregory of
Tours, (l. 6, c. 11,) and who was for some time steward of the patrimony
of the Roman church in Gaul, in the time of St. Gregory the Great, as
appears by a letter of that pope to him, (in which he mentions that he
sent him in a reliquary some of the filings of the chains of St. Peter,
and of the gridiron of St. Laurence,) was the author of the lives of St.
Marius and of St. Maximus of Ries. From the fragments of the former in
Bollandus, we learn that he was born at Orleans, became a monk, and
after some time was chosen abbot at La-Val-Benois, in the diocese of
Sisteron, in the reign of Gondebald, king of Burgundy, who died in 509.
St. Marius made a pilgrimage to St. Martin's, at Tours, and another to
the tomb of St. Dionysius, near Paris, where, falling sick, he dreamed
that he was restored to health by an apparition of St. Dionysius, and
awaking, found himself perfectly recovered. St. Marius, according to a
custom received in many monasteries before the rule of St. Bennet, in
imitation of the retreat of our divine Redeemer, made it a rule to live
a recluse in a forest during the forty days of Lent. In one of these
retreats, he foresaw, in a vision, the desolation which barbarians would
soon after spread in Italy, and the destruction of his own monastery,
which he foretold before his death, in 555. The abbey of
La-Val-Benois[1] being demolished, the body of the saint was translated
to Forcalquier, where it is kept with honor in a famous collegiate
church which bears his name, and takes the title of Concathedral with
Sisteron. St. Marius is called in French St. May, or St. Mary, in Spain,
St. Mere, and St. Maire, and in some places, by mistake, St. Marrus. See
fragments of his life compiled by Dynamius, extant in Bollandus, with
ten preliminary observations.

Footnotes:
1.  In Latin Vallis Bodonensis. Baillet and many others call it at
    present Beuvons, or Beuvoux: but there is no such village. Bevons
    indeed is the name of a village in Provence, one league from
    Sisteron; but the ruins of the abbey La-Val-Benois are very
    remarkable, in a village called St. May, in Dauphiné, sixteen
    leagues from Sisteron, in which diocese it is. See many mistakes of
    martyrologists and geographers concerning this saint and abbey
    rectified by Chatelain, p. 424.

{276}


JANUARY XXVIII.

SAINT AGNES, V.M.

A SECOND commemoration of St. Agnes occurs on this day in the ancient
Sacramentaries of pope Gelasius and St. Gregory the Great; as also in
the true Martyrology of Bede. It was perhaps the day of her burial, or
of a translation of her relics, or of some remarkable favor obtained
through her intercession soon after her death.

ST. CYRIL,

PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA.

From Socrates, Marius Mercator, the councils, and his works. See
Tillemont, t. 14, p. 272. Ceillier, t. 13, p. 241.

A.D. 444.

ST. CYRIL was raised by God to defend the faith of the Incarnation of
his Son, "of which mystery he is styled the doctor, as St. Austin is of
that of grace," says Thomassin. He studied under his uncle Theophilus,
and testifies[1] that he made it his rule never to advance any doctrine
which he had not learned from the ancient Fathers. His books against
Julian the Apostate show that he had read the profane writers. He often
says himself that he neglected human eloquence: and it is to be wished
that he had written in a clearer style, and with greater purity of the
Greek tongue. Upon the death of Theophilus, in 412, he was raised by the
people to the patriarchal dignity. He began to exert his authority by
causing the churches of the Novatians in the city to be shut up, and
their sacred vessels and ornaments to be seized; an action censured by
Socrates, a favorer of those heretics; but we do not know the reasons
and authority upon which he proceeded. He next drove the Jews out of the
city, who were very numerous, and enjoyed great privileges there from
the time of Alexander the Great. Seditions, and several acts of violence
committed by them, excited him to this, which grievously offended
Orestes the governor, but was approved by the emperor Theodosius: and
the Jews never returned. St. Cyril sent to conjure the governor by the
holy gospels that he would consent to a reconciliation, and that he
would join in sincere friendship with him: but his offers were rejected.
This unhappy disagreement produced pernicious effects. Hypatia, a pagan
lady, kept a public school of philosophy in the city. Her reputation for
learning was so great, that disciples flocked to her from all parts.
Among these was the great Synesius, who afterwards submitted his works
to her censure. She was consulted by philosophers of the first rank on
the most intricate points of learning, and of the Platonic philosophy in
particular, in which she was remarkably well versed.[2] She was much
respected and consulted by the governor, and often visited him. The mob,
which was nowhere more unruly, or more fond of riots and tumults than in
that populous city, the second in the world for extent, upon a {277}
suspicion that she incensed the governor against their bishop,
seditiously rose, pulled her out of her chariot, cut and mangled her
flesh, and tore her body in pieces in the streets, in 415, to the great
grief and scandal of all good men, especially of the pious bishop.[3][4]
He had imbibed certain prejudices from his uncle against the great St.
Chrysostom: but was prevailed on by St. Isidore of Pelusium, and others,
to insert his name in the Dyptics of his church, in 419: after which,
pope Zozimus sent him letters of communion.[5]

Nestorius, a monk and priest of Antioch, was made bishop of
Constantinople in 428. The retiredness and severity of his life, joined
with a hypocritical exterior of virtue, a superficial learning, and a
fluency of words, gained him some reputation in the world. But being
full of self conceit, he neglected the study of the Fathers, was a man
of weak judgment, extremely vain, violent, and obstinate. This is the
character he bears in the history of those times, and which is given him
by Socrates, and also by Theodoret, whom he had formerly imposed upon by
his hypocrisy. Marius Mercator informs us, that he was no sooner placed
in the episcopal chair, but he began to persecute, with great fury, the
Arians, Macedonians, Manichees, and Quartodecimans, whom he banished out
of his diocese. But though he taught original sin, he is said to have
denied the necessity of grace; on which account he received to his
communion Celestius and Julian, who had been condemned by the popes
Innocent and Zozimus, and banished out of the West by the emperor
Honorius, for Pelagianism. Theodosius obliged them to leave
Constantinople, notwithstanding the protection of the bishop. Nestorius
and his mercenary priests broached also new errors from the pulpit,
teaching two distinct persons in Christ, that of God, and that of man,
only joined by a moral union, by which he said the Godhead dwelt in the
humanity merely as in its temple. Hence he denied the Incarnation, or
that God was made man: and said the Blessed Virgin ought not to be
styled the mother of God, but of the man who was Christ, whose humanity
was only the temple of the divinity, not a nature hypostatically assumed
by the divine Person; though at length convicted by the voice of
antiquity, he allowed her the empty title of mother of God, but
continued to deny the mystery. The people were shocked at these
novelties, and the priests, St. Proclus, Eusebius, afterwards bishop of
Dorylæum, and others, separated themselves from his communion, after
having attempted in vain to reclaim him by remonstrances. His homilies,
wherever they appeared, gave great offence, and excited everywhere
clamors against the errors and blasphemies they contained. St. Cyril
having read them, sent him a mild expostulation ob the subject, but was
answered with haughtiness and contempt. Pope Celestine, being applied to
by both parties, examined his doctrine in a council at Rome; condemned
it, and pronounced a sentence of excommunication and deposition against
the author, unless within ten days after notification of the sentence,
he publicly condemned and retracted it, appointing St. Cyril as his
vicegerent in this affair, to see that the sentence was put in
execution.[6] Our saint, together with his third and last summons, sent
Nestorius twelve propositions with anathemas, hence called
anathematisms, to be signed by him as a proof of his orthodoxy, but the
heresiarch appeared more {278} obstinate than ever. This occasioned the
calling of the third general council opened at Ephesus, in 431, by two
hundred bishops, with St. Cyril at their head, as pope Celestine's
legate and representative.[7] Nestorius, though in the town, and thrice
cited, refused to appear. His heretical sermons were read, and
depositions received against him, after which his doctrine was
condemned, and the sentence of excommunication and deposition was
pronounced against him and notified to the emperor.

Six days after, John, patriarch of Antioch, arrived at Ephesus with
forty-one oriental bishops; who secretly favoring the person but not the
errors of Nestorius, of which they deemed him innocent, had advanced but
slowly on their journey to the place. Instead of associating with the
council, they assembled by themselves, and presumed to excommunicate St.
Cyril and his adherents. Both sides had recourse to the emperor for
redress, by whose order, soon after, St. Cyril and Nestorius were both
arrested and confined, but our saint the worst treated of the two. Nay,
through his antagonist's greater interest at court, he was upon the
point of being banished, when three legates from pope
Celestine--Arcadius and Projectus, bishops, and Philip, a
priest--arrived at Ephesus, which gave a new turn to affairs in our
saint's favor. The three new legates having considered what had been
done under St. Cyril, the condemnation of Nestorius was confirmed, the
saint's conduct approved, and the sentence pronounced against him
declared null and invalid. Thus, matters being cleared up, he was
enlarged with honor. The Orientals, indeed, continued their schism till
433, when they made their peace with St. Cyril, condemned Nestorius, and
gave a clear and orthodox exposition of their faith. That heresiarch,
being banished from his see, retired to his monastery in Antioch. John,
though formerly his friend, yet finding him very perverse and obstinate
in his heresy, and attempting to pervert others, entreated the emperor
Theodosius to remove him. He was therefore banished to Oasis, in the
deserts of Upper Egypt, on the borders of Libya, in 431, and died
miserably and impenitent in his exile. His sect remains to this day very
numerous in the East.[8] St. Cyril triumphed over this heresiarch by his
meekness, intrepidity, and courage; thanking God for his sufferings, and
professing himself ready to spill his blood with joy for the gospel.[9]
He arrived at Alexandria on the 30th of October, 431, and spent the
remainder of his days in maintaining the faith of the church in its
purity, in promoting peace and union among the faithful, and the zealous
labors of his pastoral charge, till his glorious death in 444, on the
28th of June, that is, the 3d of the Egyptian month Epiphi, as the
Alexandrians, the Copts, and the Ethiopians unanimously affirm, who, by
abridging his name, call him Kerlos, and give him the title of Doctor of
the world. The Greeks keep the 18th of January in his honor; and have a
second commemoration of him again on the 9th of June.[10] The Roman
Martyrology mentions him on this day. Pope Celestine styles him, "The
generous defender of the church and faith, the Catholic doctor, and an
apostolical man."[11]

The extraordinary devotion of this holy doctor towards the holy
sacrament appears from the zeal with which he frequently inculcates the
glorious effects which it produces in the soul of him who worthily
receives it, especially in healing all his spiritual disorders,
strengthening him against temptations,{279} subduing the passions,
giving life, and making us one with Christ by the most sacred union, not
only in spirit, but also with his humanity. Hence this father says that
by the holy communion we are made concorporeal with Christ.[12] The
eminent dignity and privileges of the ever glorious Virgin Mary were
likewise a favorite subject on which he often dwells. In his tenth
homily,[13] after having often repeated her title of Mother of God, he
thus salutes her: "Hail, O Mary, mother of God, rich treasure of the
world,[14] inextinguishable lamp, crown of virginity, sceptre of the
true doctrine, temple which cannot fall, the residence of him whom no
place can contain, Mother and Virgin, by whom He is who cometh Blessed
in the name of the Lord. Hail, Mary, who in your virgin womb contained
Him who is immense and incomprehensible: You through whom the whole
blessed Trinity is glorified and adored, through whom the precious cross
is honored and venerated over the whole world, through whom heaven
exults, the angels and archangels rejoice, the devils are banished, the
tempter is disarmed, the creature that was fallen is restored to heaven,
and comes to the knowledge of the truth, through whom holy baptism is
instituted, through whom is given the oil of exultation, through whom
churches are founded over the whole earth, through whom nations are
brought to penance. And what need of more words? Through whom the only
begotten Son of God has shone the light to those who sat in darkness and
in the shade of death, &c.--What man can celebrate the most praiseworthy
Mary according to her dignity?"

Footnotes:
1.  Ep. 56, and 35 apud Lupum.
2.  Synesius, ep. 153.
3.  Vie d'Hypacie par l'abbé Goujet. Mémoires de Littérature, t. 5.
4.  It is very unjust in some moderns to charge him as conscious of so
    horrible a crime, which shocks human nature. Great persons are never
    to be condemned without proofs which amount to conviction. The
    silence of Orestes, and the historian Socrates, both his declared
    enemies, suffices to acquit him.
5.  We have nothing further of the life of this father, until the year
    428, when his zeal was first exerted in defence of the faith against
    Nestorianism: we shall introduce this period of his labors with some
    account of the author of this heresy.
6. Conc. t. 3, p. 343. Liberat. in Breviar. c. 4.
7. St. Leo, Ep. 72, c. 3. Conc. t. 3, p. 656, 980.
8.  They have a liturgy under the name of Nestorius, and two others
    which they pretend to be still more ancient. See Renaudot, liturg.
    orient. t. 2, and Le Brun, liturg. t. 3. The former contains a clear
    profession of transubstantiation and the sacrifice of the mass.
9.  Ep. ad Theopomp, t. 3. Conc. p. 771.
10. Smith on the present state of the Greek church, p. 13. Thomassin Tr.
    des Fêtes, l. 1, ch. 7.
11. Conc. t. 3, p. 1077.
12. {Footnote not found in text.} L. 4, contra Nestor, t. 6, parte 1, p.
    110. l. 7, de adoratione in spiritu et verit. t. 1, p. 231, c. 10,
    in Joan. t. 1, c. 13.
13. T. 5, parte 2, p. 380. Item Conc. t. 3, p. 583.
14. [Greek: Keimêlion tês oikomenês]. The rich furniture of the world.

APPENDIX

ON

THE WRITINGS OF ST. CYRIL

OF ALEXANDRIA.

The old Latin translations of the works of this father were extremely
faulty, before the edition of Paris, by John Aubert, in 1638, in six
tomes, folio, bound in seven, which yet might be improved. Baluze and
Lupus have published some letters of this holy doctor, which had escaped
Aubert and Labbe. If elegance, choice of thoughts, and beauty of style
be wanting in his writings, these defects are compensated by the
justness and precision with which he expresses the great truths of
religion, especially in clearing the terms concerning the mystery of the
Incarnation. Hence his controversial works are the most valuable part of
his writings. His books against Nestorius, those against Julian, and
that called The Treasure, are the most finished and important.

His treatise On Adoration in Spirit and Truth, with which he begins his
commentary on the Bible, contains, in seventeen books, an exposition of
several passages of the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses, (though not
in order,) in moral and allegorical interpretations.

In the thirteen books entitled Glaphyrs, _i.e._ profound or elegant, the
longer passages of the same books are explained allegorically of Christ
and his church.

In his commentaries on Isaiah, and the twelve lesser prophets, he gives
both the literal and allegorical sense.

On the Gospel of St. John, we have ten books entire, and fragments of
the seventh and eighth. In the old editions, the fifth, sixth, seventh,
and eighth books, which were entirely wanting, were patched up by
Clictou from the writings of other fathers: which, for want of reading
the preface, have been quoted by some as St. Cyril's. In this great work,
the {280} saint gives not only the literal and spiritual senses of the
sacred text, but likewise refutes the reigning heresies of that age,
especially those against the consubstantiality of the Son, as the
Eunomians. He also answers all the objections of the Manichees. He is
very clear in establishing in the holy sacrament of the altar the
reality of Christ's body contained in it and the holy sacrifice,
teaching that "the holy body of Christ gives life to us when received,
and preserves us in it, being the very body of life itself, according to
nature, and containing all the virtue of the Word united to it, and
being endued with all his efficacy by whom all things receive life, and
are preserved." (L. 4, in Joan. p. 324.) That we shall, by tasting it,
"have life in us, being united together with his body as it is with the
Word dwelling in it." (Ibid. p. 361.) That "as death had devoured all
human nature, he who is life, being in us by his flesh, might overcome
that tyrant." (Ibid. p. 272.) "Christ by his flesh, hides in us life and
a seed of immortality, which destroys in us all corruption," (Ibid. p.
363,) and "heals our diseases, assuaging the law of the flesh raging in
our members." (ibid. p. 365.) In the tenth look he is most diffusive and
clear on this sacrament, extolling its miraculous institution, the most
exalted of all God's mysteries, above our comprehension, and the
wonderful manner by which we are united and made one with him; not by
affection, but by natural participation; which he calls "a mixture, an
incorporation, a blending together; for as wax melted and mingled with
another piece of melted wax, makes one; so by partaking of his precious
body and blood, he is united in us, and we in him," &c. (L. 10, in Joan.
pp. 862, 863, item pp. 364, 365.) See the longer and clearer texts of
this doctrine in this book itself, and in the controversial writers upon
that subject. Also, in his works Against Nestorius, whom he confutes
from the blessed eucharist, proving Christ's humanity to be the humanity
of the divine Person. "This," says he, "I cannot but add in this place,
namely, that when we preach the death of the only begotten Son of God,
that is, of Jesus Christ, and his resurrection from the dead, and
confess his ascension into heaven, we celebrate the unbloody sacrifice
in the church, and do by this means approach the mystical benedictions,
and are sanctified, being made partakers of the sacred flesh and
precious blood of Christ, the Saviour of us all. And we do not receive
it as common flesh, ([Greek: mê genoito],) God forbid; nor as the flesh
of man who is sanctified and joined to the Word by a unity of dignity,
or as having a divine habitation; but we receive it, as it is truly, the
life-giving and proper flesh of the Word." (Ep. ad Nestorium, de
Excommun. p. 72, t. 5, par. 2, and in Declaratione undecimi
Anathematismi, t. 6, p. 156.) In this latter place he speaks of it also
as a true sacrifice: "We perform in the churches the holy and
life-giving and unbloody sacrifice, believing the body which is placed,
and the precious blood to be made the very body and blood of the Word,
which gives life to all things, &c. He proves that it is only to be
offered in Catholic churches, in the only one house of Christ" (L. adv.
Anthropomorph. t. 6, p. 380.) He heard that some imagined that the
mystical benediction is lost if the eucharist is kept to another day;
but says, "they are mad; for Christ is not altered, nor his body
changed." (T. 6, p. 365, ep. ad Calosyrium.) In his fourth book on St.
John, (t. 4, p. 358,) he as expressly confutes the Jewish doubt about
the possibility of the holy sacrament, as if he had the modern
Sacramentarians in view.

To refute the whole system of Arianism, he wrote the book which he
called The Treasure, which he divided into thirty-five titles or
sections. He answers in it all the objections of those heretics, and
establishes from scripture the divinity of the Son of God; and from
title thirty-three, that of the Holy Ghost.

His book On the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity, consists of seven
dialogues, and was composed at the request of Nemesm and Hermias. This
work was also written to prove the consubstantiality of Christ, but is
more obscure than the former. The holy doctor added two other Dialogues,
the eighth and ninth, On the Incarnation, against the errors of
Nestorius, then only known by report at Alexandria. He afterwards
subjoined Scholia, to answer certain objections; likewise a short book
On the Incarnation, in which he proves the holy Virgin to be, as she is
called, the Mother of God; as Jesus Christ is at the same time both the
Son of God, and the Son of man. By his skirmishes with the Arians he was
prepared to oppose and crush the extravagances of Nestorius, broached at
that time against the same adorable mystery of the Incarnation, of which
God raised our holy doctor the champion in his church; for by his
writings he both stifled the heresy of Nestorius in the cradle, and
furnished posterity with arms against that of Eutyches, says Basil of
Seleucia. (T. 4, Conc. p. 925.)

St. Cyril composed at Ephesus his three treatises On the Right Faith,
against Nestorius. The first is addressed to the Emperor Theodosius. It
contains an enumeration of the heresies against the Incarnation, namely,
of Cerinthus, Photinus, Apollinaris, and Nestorius, with a refutation of
each, especially the last. The second is inscribed to the princesses
Pulcheria, Arcadia, and Marina, the emperor's sisters, all virgins,
consecrated to God. This contains the proofs of the Catholic faith
against Nestorius. The third is a confutation of the heretics'
objections against it.

His five books against Nestorius, are the neatest and best penned of his
polemic writings. They contain a refutation of the blasphemous homilies
of that heresiarch, who yet is never {281} named in them; by which
circumstance they seem to have been written before his condemnation. St.
Cyril sent to Nestorius twelve Anathematisms against his errors. This
work was read in the council of Ephesus, and is entirely orthodox, yet
some censured it as favoring Apollinarism, or as denying the distinction
of two natures in Christ, the divine and human, after the Incarnation;
and the Eutychians afterwards strained them in favor of their heresy.
John, patriarch of Antioch, prepossessed against St. Cyril, pretended
for some time to discover that error in them; and persuaded Andrew,
bishop of Samosata, and the great Theodoret of Cyr, to write against
them. St. Cyril gave in his clear Explication of them to the council of
Ephesus, at its desire, extant, p. 145.

He also wrote, soon after that synod, two Apologies of the
Anathematisms; one against Andrew of Samosata, and other Oriental
prelates, who through mistake were offended at them; and the other,
against Theodoret of Cyr. And lastly, An Apologetic for them to the
emperor Theodosius, to remove some sinister suspicions which his enemies
had endeavored to give that prince against his sentiments in that work.

The Anthropomorphite heretics felt likewise the effects of St. Cyril's
zeal. These were certain ignorant monks of Egypt, who having been taught
by the elders, in order to help their gross minds in the continual
practice of the presence of God, to represent him to themselves under a
corporeal human figure, by which they at length really believed him to
be not a pure spirit, but corporeal, like a man; because man was created
to his image. Theophilus immediately condemned, and the whole church
exploded, this monstrous absurdity. St. Cyril wrote a letter to confute
it to Calosyrius, bishop of Arsinoe, showing that man is framed
according to the Divine image, not in his body, for God being the most
pure Spirit, can have no sensible figure, but in being endued with
reason, and capable of virtue. In the same letter he rejects a second
error of other ignorant monks, who imagined that the blessed Eucharist
lost its consecration if kept to the following day. He reprehends other
anchorets, who, upon a pretence of continual prayer, did not work at
certain hours of the day, making it a cloak of gluttony and laziness.
The saint has left us another book against the Anthropomorphites, in
which he proves that man is made to God's image, by bearing the
resemblance of his sanctity, by grace and virtue. So he says the angels
are likewise made to his likeness. He answers in this book twenty-seven
dogmatical questions put to him by the same monks.

He wrote, in the years 437 and 438, two Dogmatical Letters (pp. 51 and
52) against certain propositions of Theodorus of Mopsuestia, the
forerunner of Nestorius, though he had died in the communion of the
church.

The book on the Trinity cannot be St. Cyril's; for it refutes the
Monothelite heresy, not known before the year 620.

Julian the Apostate, while he was preparing for the Persian war, had,
with the assistance of Maximus and his other impious philosophers,
published three books against the holy gospels, which were very
prejudicial to weak minds; though nothing was advanced in them that had
not been said by Celsus, and fully answered by Origen in his books
against that philosopher, and by Eusebius in his Evangelical
Preparation. St. Cyril, out of zeal, composed ten books against Julian,
which he dedicated to the emperor Theodosius; and also sent to John of
Antioch to show the sincerity of his reconciliation. In this work he has
preserved us Julian's words, omitting only his frequent repetitions and
puerilities. Nor have we any thing else of that work of the Apostate,
but what is preserved here by St. Cyril. He begins by warning the
emperor against bad company, by which Julian fell into such extravagant
impieties. In the first book he justifies Moses's history of the world,
and proves with great erudition from profane history that its events are
posterior, and the heathen sages and historians younger than that divine
lawgiver, from whom they all borrowed many things. In the second, he
compares the sacred history of the creation, which Julian had pretended
to ridicule, with the puerilities and absurdities of Pythagoras, Thales,
Plato, &c., of whom Julian was an admirer to a degree of folly. In the
third, he vindicates the history of the Serpent, and of Adam's fall; and
retorts the ridiculous Theogony of Hesiod, &c. In the fourth, he shows
that God governs all things by himself, not by inferior deities, as
Julian pretended, the absurdity of which he sets forth: demonstrating,
likewise, that things are ruled by a wise free providence; not by
destiny or necessity, which even Porphyry and the wiser heathens had
justly exploded, though the Apostate adopted that monstrous doctrine. He
justifies against his cavils the history of the Tower of Babel: and in
his fifth book, the Ten Commandments; showing in the same, that God is
not subject to jealousy, anger, or other passions, though he has an
infinite horror of sin. Julian objected that we also adore God the Son,
consequently have two gods. St. Cyril answers that he is the same God
with the Father. In the sixth book he reports the shameful vices of
Socrates, Plato, and their other heroes of paganism, in opposition to
the true virtues of the prophets and saints. Julian reproached Christ
that he did not appear great in the world, and only cured the pool, and
delivered demoniacs in villages; he reprehended Christians for refusing
to adore the noble ensign, the gift of Jupiter or Mars; yet, says he,
you adore the wood of {282} the cross, make its sign on your forehead,
and engrave it on the porches of your houses ([Greek: To toutu saurou
proskuneite tzolon, eikonas autou skiagrafountes en tô metôpô, kai pro
tôn opennatôs eggrafontes.] L. 6, adv. Jul. t. 6, p. 194.) To which St.
Cyril answers, (p. 195:) We glory in this sign of the precious cross,
since Christ triumphed on it; and it is to us the admonition of all
virtue. This father says in another place, (in Isaiam, t. 4, p. 294:)
"The faithful arm and intrench themselves with the sign of the cross,
overthrowing and breaking by it the power, and every assault of the
devils: for the cross is to us an impregnable rampart." In this sixth
book he produces the open acknowledgment of Julian that the heathenish
oracles had all ceased; but this he ascribed to old age and length of
time. St. Cyril shows the extravagance of this supposition, and that the
true reason was, because the power of the devil had been restrained by
the coming of Christ. He mentions the same in his Commentary on Isaiah,
(t. 2, p. 596.) In the seventh book, he proves that the great men in the
true religion far surpassed in virtue all the heroes of paganism. In the
eighth and ninth, that Christ was foretold by the ancient prophets, and
that the Old and New Law are in substance the same. In the tenth he
proves, that not only St. John, but all the Evangelists, teach Christ to
be truly God. Julian objects, (pp. 333, 335, 339, and 350,) that we also
adore the martyrs and their sepulchres: "Why do you prostrate yourselves
at the sepulchres?--which it is to be believed your Apostles did after
the death of their Master, and taught you this art magic," (p. 339.) The
saint answers, We make an infinite difference between God and the
martyrs: which he had before told him, (l. 6, pp. 201 and 203,) where he
writes, "We neither call the martyrs gods, nor adore them with divine
worship; but with affection and honor reverence them: we pay them the
highest honors, because they contemned their life for the truth," &c.

We have in the second part of the fifth tome several Homilies and
Letters of this saint. It was ordained by the council of Nice that the
bishop of Alexandria, in which city chiefly flourished the sciences of
mathematics and astronomy, should at the end of every year examine
carefully on what day the next Easter was to be kept. They, by custom,
acquainted by a circular letter other bishops near them, and in
particular the bishop of Rome, that he might notify it to all the
prelates of the West. St. Cyril was very exact in this duty. Possevin
says he saw his paschal discourses in the Vatican library, for every
year of hie episcopacy, namely thirty-one, from the year 414. We have
but twenty-nine printed: those for 443 and 444 being wanting. He spoke
them to his own flock, as well as sent them to other bishops; and marks
in each the beginning of Lent, the Monday and Saturday in Holy Week, and
Easter-day, counting Lent exactly of forty days. In these paschal
homilies he exceedingly recommends the advantages of fasting; which he
shows (Hom. 1.) to be the "source of all virtues, the image of an
angelical life, the extinction of lust, and the preparation of a soul to
heavenly communications." He says, "If it seems at first bitter and
laborious, its fruits and reward infinitely compensate the pains; for
more should seem nothing for the purchase of virtue: even in temporal
things, nothing valuable can be obtained without labor and cost. If we
are afraid of fasting here, we shall fall into eternal flames hereafter;
an evil infinitely worse, and quite intolerable." In the following
homilies he extols the absolute necessity of this mortification, to
crucify in us the old man, and punish past irregularities; but shows it
must be accompanied with alms and other good works. In his latter
paschal discourses, and others extant, he explains the mystery of the
Incarnation against Nestorianism and other heresies. The ninth homily is
On the Mystical Supper, or Holy Banquet of the Communion and Sacrifice,
in which "the tremendous mystery is performed, and the Lamb of God
sacrificed, (p. 271;) in which (p. 272) the Eternal Wisdom distributes
his body as bread, and his saving blood as wine: the Maker gives himself
to the work of his own hands. Life bestows itself to be eat and drunk by
men," &c. At this divine table he cries out, (p. 376,) "I am filled with
dread when I behold it. I am transported cut of myself with astonishment
when I consider it," &c. He proves, against Nestorianism, (p. 318,) that
there is but one Person in Christ, because in this holy sacrament is
received his true body and blood: not the Divinity alone, which nobody
could receive, nor a pure man's body, which could not give life; but a
man made the Word of God--who is Christ, the Son of the living God, one
of the adorable Trinity. He remains the priest and the victim: he who
offers, and he who is offered. ([Greek: Oti autos menei hiereus kai
lusia, autos ho prosferôn kai ho prosferomenos.] p. 378.) In the tenth
homily he pronounces an encomium of the blessed Mary, mother of God.
This was delivered at Ephesus, in an assembly of bishops, during the
council; for he apostrophizes that city, and St. John the Evangelist,
its protector. In it he calls the pope "the most holy Celestine, the
father and archbishop of the whole world, and the patriarch of the great
city Rome." (Ib. Encom. in St. Mariam. part 2, p. 384.) He more clearly
extols the supreme prerogative of the church of Rome, founded on the
faith of Peter; which church is perpetual, impregnable to hell, and
confirmed beyond the danger of falling. (Dial. 4, de Trinit. pp. 507,
508.) His eleventh homily is On the Presentation, or, as the Greeks call
it, [Greek: apantêsis]. The meeting of the Lord in the Temple, and The
Purification of our Lady, in which he speaks of the lamp or candles used
on that festival. He has a pathetic Sermon on the Pains of {283} Hell:
he paints the terrors of the last Judgment in a manner which cannot fail
to make a strong impression upon all who read it. (Or. de Exitu animi,
et de secundo Adventu.)

The epistles which we have from his pen all relate to the public affairs
of the church, and principally those of Nestorius. His second letter to
that heresiarch, and his letter to the Orientals, were adopted by the
general councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon, and are a rule of the
Catholic faith. His sixteenth letter is placed among the canons of the
Greek church. In it be recommends to the bishops of Libya and
Pentapolis, the strictest scrutiny of the capacity and manners of those
who are admitted to holy Orders; and the greatest solicitude and
watchfulness that no one die without baptism, if only a catechumen, and
the Holy Eucharist or Viaticum. See Beveridge.

SS. THYRSUS, LEUCIUS, AND CALLINICUS, MM.

THEIR Greek and Latin Acts agree that, after suffering many torments,
they were put to death, on three different days, at Apollonia, in
Phrygia, in the persecution of Decius. Sozomen tells us that Cæsarius,
who had been prefect and consul, built at Constantinople a magnificent
church under the invocation of St. Thyrsus, with a portion of whose
relics it was enriched. Another church within the city bore his name, as
appears from the Menæa, on the 14th of December. In the cathedral of our
Lady at Sisteron, in a church at Limoges, &c., St. Thymus is one of the
patrons. Many churches in Spain bear his name. Silon, King of Oviedo and
Asturia, in a letter to Cyxilas, archbishop of Toledo in 777, says that
the queen had sent presents to the church of St. Thyrsus, which the
archbishop had built, viz. a silver chalice and paten, a basin to wash
the hands in, with a pipe and a diadem on the cover, to be used when the
blood of our Lord was distributed to the people.

Footnotes:
1.  Cum suo naso. Du Cange, not understanding this word, substitutes
    vaso. But nasus here signifies a silver pipe or quill to suck up the
    blood of Christ at the communion, such as the pope sometimes uses.
    Such a one is kept at St. Denys's, near Paris. The ancient Ordo
    Romanus calls that _pugillar_ which is here called nasus, because it
    sucks up as a nose draws up air. In the reign of Philip II., in
    1595, in certain ruins near the cathedral of Toledo, this cover of
    the chalice was discovered with the diadem. Chatelain, p. 440.

ST. JOHN OF REOMAY, A.

NOW CALLED MOUTIER-SAINT-JEAN, IN BURGUNDY

HE was a native of the diocese of Langres, and took the monastic habit
at Lerins. He was called into his own country by the bishop of Langres
to found the abbey from which he received his surname. He settled it
under the rule of St. Macarius, governed it many years with great
reputation of sanctity, and was rendered famous by miracles. He went to
God about the year 540, being almost one hundred and twenty years old,
and was one of the holy institutors of the monastic state in France. St.
Gregory of Tours gives an account of him in the eighty-seventh chapter
of his book, On the Glory of Confessors. His life was also compiled by
Jonas, the disciple of Columban, extant in Bollandus. See P. Rover,
Hist. Monast. S. Joan. Reom. Paris, 1637.

{284}

B. MARGARET, PRINCESS OF HUNGARY, V.

SHE was daughter to Bala IV., the pious king of Hungary. Her parents
consecrated her to God by a vow before her birth, and when but three
years and a half old she was placed in the monastery of Dominican nuns
at Vesprin, and at ten removed to a new nunnery of that order, founded
by her father in an isle of the Danube, near Buda, called from her the
isle of St. Margaret. She was professed at twelve.[1] In her tender age
she outstripped the most advanced in devotion, and was favored with
extraordinary communications from heaven. It was her delight to serve
everybody, and to practise every kind of humiliation: she never spoke of
herself, as if she was beneath all notice: never loved to see her royal
parents, or to speak of them, saying it was her misfortune that she was
not of poor parentage. Her mortifications were excessive. She endeavored
to conceal her sicknesses for fear of being dispensed with or shown any
indulgence in the rule. From her infancy she conceived the most ardent
devotion towards her crucified Redeemer, and kissed very often, both by
day and night, a little cross made of the wood of our Saviour's cross,
which she always carried about her. She commonly chose to pray before
the altar of the cross. Her affection for the name of Jesus made her
have it very frequently in her mouth, which she repeated with incredible
inward feeling and sweetness. Her devotion to Christ in the blessed
sacrament was most remarkable: she often wept abundantly, or appeared in
ecstasies during the mass, and much more when she herself received the
divine spouse of her soul: on the eve she took nothing but bread and
water, and watched the night in prayer. On the day itself she remained
in prayer and fasting till evening, and then took a small refection. She
showed a sensible joy in her countenance when she heard any festival of
our Lady announced, through devotion to the mother of God; she performed
on them, and during the octaves, one thousand salutations each day,
prostrating herself on the ground at each, besides saying the office of
our blessed Lady every day. If any one seemed offended at her, she fell
at their feet and begged their pardon. She was always the first in
obedience, and was afraid to be excepted if others were enjoined penance
for a breach of silence or any other fault. Her bed was a coarse skin,
laid on the bare floor, with a stone for her pillow. She was favored
with the gift of miracles and prophecy. She gave up her pure soul to
God, after a short illness, on the 18th of January, in the year 1271,
and of her age the twenty-eighth. Her body is preserved at Presbourg.
See her life by Guerinus, a Dominican, by order of his general, in 1340:
and an abridgment of the same by Ranzano. She was never canonized, but
is honored with an office in all the churches in Hungary, especially
those of the Dominicans in that kingdom, by virtue of a decree of Pope
Pius II, as Touron assures us.[2]

Footnotes:
1.  Touron, Vies des Hommes Illustres de l'Ordre de St. Dominique, in
    Humbert des Romains, fifth general of the Dominicans, t. 1, p. 325.
2.  Touron, ib. in Innocent V. t. 1, p. 384.

ST. PAULINUS, PATRIARCH OF AQUILEIA, C.

ONE of the most illustrious and most holy prelates of the eighth and
ninth centuries was Paulinus, patriarch of Aquileia, who seems to have
been born {285} about the year 728, in a country farm, not far from
Friuli. His family could boast of no advantages of fortune, and his
parents having no other revenue than what arose from the tillage of
their farm, he spent part of his youth in agriculture. Yet he found
leisure for his studios, and in process of time became so eminent a
grammarian and professor, that Charlemagne honored him with a rescript,
in which he styles him Master of Grammar, and Very Venerable. This
epithet seems to imply that he was then priest. The same prince, in
recompense of his extraordinary merit, bestowed on him an estate in his
own country. It seems to have been about the year 776, that Paulinus was
promoted, against his will, to the patriarchate of Aquileia, which
dignity had not then been long annexed to that see, after the extinction
of the schism of Istria. From the zeal, abilities, and piety of St.
Paulinus, this church derived its greatest lustre. Such was his
reputation, that Charlemagne always expressed a particular desire that
he should be present at all the great councils which were assembled in
his time, though in the remotest part of his dominions. He assisted at
those of Aix-la-Chapelle in 789, of Ratisbon in 792, and of Frankfort in
794; and held himself one at Friuli, in 791, or 796, against the errors
which some had begun to spread in that age concerning the Procession of
the Holy Ghost, and the mystery of the Incarnation.

Felix, bishop of Urgel in Catalonia, in a letter to Elipandus, bishop of
Toledo, who had consulted him on that subject, before the year 783,
pretended to prove that Christ as man is not the natural, but only the
adoptive Son of God: which error he had already advanced in his public
discourses.[1] The rising error was vigorously opposed by Beatus, a
priest and abbot, and his disciple Etherius, who was afterwards bishop
of Osma. Soon after it was condemned by a council at Narbonne, in
788,[2] and by another at Ratisbon, in 792, while Charlemagne kept his
court in that city. Felix revoked his error first in this council at
Ratisbon, and afterwards before pope Leo III. at Rome.[3] Yet after his
return into Spain he continued both by letters and discourses to spread
his heresy; which was therefore again condemned in the great council of
Frankfort, in 794, in which a work of our saint, entitled
Sacro-Syllabus, against the same, was approved, and ordered to be sent
into Spain, to serve for all antidote against the spreading poison.[4]
From this book of St. Paulinus it is clear that Elipandus also returned
to the vomit. Alcuin returning from England, where he had stayed three
years, in 793, wrote a tender moving letter to Felix, exhorting him
sincerely to renounce his error. But the unhappy man, in a long answer,
endeavored to establish his heresy so roundly as to fall into downright
Nestorianism, which indeed is a consequence of his erroneous principle.
For Christ as man cannot be called the adoptive Son of God, unless his
human nature subsist by a distinct person from the divine.[5] By an
order of Charlemagne, Alcuin and St. Paulinus solidly confuted the
writings of these two heresiarchs, the former in seven, our saint in
three books. Alcuin wrote four other books against the pestilential
writings of Elipandus, in which he testifies that Felix was then at
Rome, and converted to the Catholic faith. Elipandus, who was not a
subject of Charlemagne, could not be compelled to appear before the
councils held in his dominions, Toledo being at that time subject to the
Moors. Felix, after his relapse, returned to the faith with his
principal followers in the council of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 797.[6] From
that time he concealed his heresy, but continued in secret to defend it,
and at his {286} death, in 815, left a written profession of his
heresy.[7] Elipandus died in 809.[8]

The zeal of St. Paulinus was not less successful in the conversion of
infidels than in the extinction of this heresy. Burning with zeal for
the salvation of souls, and a vehement desire of laying down his life
for Christ, he preached the gospel to the idolaters, who had remained to
that time obstinately attached to their superstition among the Carantani
in Carinthia and Stiria; in which provinces also St. Severinus the
abbot, who died in 481, and afterwards St. Virgilius, bishop of
Saltzburg, who died in 785, planted several numerous churches. Whence a
contest arising between Arno, St. Virgilius's successor, and Ursus, the
successor of Paulinus, to which see Carinthia ought to be annexed, it
was settled in 811, that the churches which are situated on the south of
the Drave should be subject of the patriarchate of Aquileia, and those
on the north to the archbishopric of Saltzburg.[9] The Avares, a
barbarous nation of Huns, who were settled in part of Pannonia, and were
twice subdued by Charlemagne, received the faith by the preaching of St.
Paulinus, and of certain missionaries sent by the archbishops of
Saltzburg.[10] Henry, a virtuous nobleman, being appointed by
Charlemagne Duke of Friuli, and governor of that country which he had
lately conquered, St. Paulinus wrote for his use an excellent book Of
Exhortation, in which he strongly invites him to aspire with his whole
heart after Christian perfection, and lays down the most important rules
on the practice of compunction and penance: on the remedies against
different vices, especially pride, without which he shows that no sin
ever was, or will be committed, this being the beginning, end, and cause
of all sin:[11] on an earnest desire and study to please God with all
our strength in all our actions:[12] on assiduous prayer and its
essential dispositions: on the holy communion, of the preparation to
which after sin he shows confession and penance to be an essential
part:[13] on shunning bad company, &c. He closes the book with a most
useful prayer; and in the beginning promises his prayers for the
salvation of the good duke. By tears and prayers he ceased not to draw
down the blessings of the divine mercy on the souls committed to his
charge. Alcuin earnestly besought him as often as bathed in tears he
offered the spotless victim to the divine Majesty, to implore the divine
mercy in his behalf.[14] In 802, St. Paulinus assembled a council at
Altino, a city near the Adriatic sea, which had been destroyed by
Attila, and was at that time only a shadow of what it had been, though
famous for a monastery, in which this synod was probably held.[15] It is
long since entirely decayed. St. Paulinus closed a holy life by a happy
death on the 11th of January, in 804, as Madrisius proves.[16] His
festival occurs on this day in the old missal of Aquileia, and in
several German Martyrologies: but it is at present kept at Aquileia,
Friuli, and in some other places, on the 28th of January.[17] See the
life of St. Paulinus of Aquileia, compiled by Nicoletti, {287} with the
notes of Madrisius; and far more accurately by Madrisius himself an
Oratorian of U{}na, who in 1737 published at Venice the works of this
father in folio, illustrated with long notes and dissertations on every
circumstance relating to the history or writings of our saint. See also
Ceillier t. 18, p. 262, and Bollandus ad 11 Januarii.

Footnotes:
1.  See Madrisius, Dissert. 4, p. 214.
2.  On this council see Baluse, additam. ad. e. 25, l. 6, Petri de
    Marca, de Concord. Sacerd. et. Imp.
3.  Leo III. in Conc. Rom. 799. Act. 2, et Eginard in Annal. &c.
4.  See Madrisius, dissert. 4, p. 219.
5.  See Natal. Alex. Sæc. 8. diss. 5.
6.  Alcuin, l. 1, contra Elipand.
7.  Agobard, l. 1, adv. Felicem. n. 1 & 5.
8.  From certain false chronicles, Iamayo and Ceillier (in St. Beatus.
    t. 18, p. 364,) relate that Ellpandus revoked his error in a council
    which he held at Toledo, and died penitent. Madrisius shows this
    circumstance to be uncertain, (Diss. 4, in op. S. Paulini, p. 225,)
    and Nicolas Antony of Seville, in his Bibl. Hisp. l. 6, c. 2, n. 42,
    has proved the monuments upon which it is founded to be of no
    authority. Claudius, bishop of Turin, a disciple of Felix of Urgel,
    renewed this heresy in Italy, and denied the veneration due to holy
    images, and was refuted by Jonas, bishop of Orleans, and others.
9.  Sconleben, Annal. Austr. and Madrisius, Vit. S. Paulini, c. 8.
10. Alcuin. ep. 112. F. Inchofer, in Annal. Hungar. Eccl. ad an. 795.
    Madrisius, in Vit. St. Paulini, c. 8, p. 31.
11. St. Paulin. l, Exhort. ad Henr. ducem. c. 19, p. 29.
12. C. 24, p. 34.
13. C. 33, p. 29. See 1 Corinth. xi. 28, St. Cypr. ep. 9, 10, 11, and
    Tract. de Lapsis.
14. Alcuin, ep. 113, and Poem. 214.
15. See Madrisius, Dissert. 6.
16. Mardis. in Vitâ St. Paulini, c. 13, p. 37.
17. Besides the polemical and spiritual works of St. Paulinus of
    Aquileia, mentioned above, we have several poems of his composition:
    the first contains a rule of faith against the Arians, Nestorians,
    and Eutychians: the rest are hymns or rhythms on the Chair of St.
    Peter, and on several other festivals and saints. Among his letters
    the second is most remarkable, in which he complains severely to
    Charlemagne that several bishops attending the court neglected to
    reside in their dioceses. Against this abuse he quotes the council
    of Sardica, which forbade any bishop to be absent from his see above
    three weeks. Madrisius, p. 188.

B. CHARLEMAGNE, EMPEROR.

CHARLEMAGNE, or Charles the Great, son of king Pepin, was born in 742,
and crowned king of France in 768; but his youngest brother Carloman
reigned in Austrasia till his death, in 771. Charlemagne vanquished
Hunauld, duke of Aquitaine, and conquered the French Gothia or
Languedoc; subdued Lombardy; conferred on pope Adrian the exarchate of
Ravenna, the duchy of Spoletto, and many other dominions; took Pavia,
(which had been honored with the residence of twenty kings,) and was
crowned king of Lombardy in 774. The emir Abderamene in Spain, having
shaken off the yoke of the caliph of the Saracens, in 736, and
established his kingdom at Cordova, and other emirs in Spain setting up
independency, Charlemagne, in 778, marched as far as the Ebro and
Saragossa, conquered Barcelona, Gironne, and many other places, and
returned triumphant. His cousin Roland, who followed him with the rear
of his army, in his return was set upon in the Pyrenean mountains by a
troop of Gascon robbers, and slain; and is the famous hero of numberless
old French romances and songs. The Saxons having in the king's absence
plundered his dominions upon the Rhine, he flew to the Weser, and
compelled them to make satisfaction. Thence he went to Rome, and had his
infant sons crowned kings, Pepin of Lombardy, and Lewis of Aquitaine.
The great revolt of the Saxons, in 782, called him again on that side.
When they were vanquished, and sued for pardon, he declared he would no
more take their oaths which they had so often broken, unless they became
Christians. Witikind embraced the condition, was baptized with his chief
followers in 785, and being created duke of part of Saxony, remained
ever after faithful in his religion and allegiance. From him are
descended, either directly or by intermarriages, many dukes of Bavaria,
and the, present houses of Saxony, Brandenburg, &c., as may be seen in
the German genealogists. Some other Saxons afterwards revolted, and were
vanquished and punished in 794, 798, &c., so that, through their
repeated treachery and rebellions, this Saxon war continued at intervals
for the space of thirty-three years. Thassillon, duke of Bavaria, for
treasonable practices, was attacked by Charlemagne in 788, vanquished,
and obliged to put on a monk's cowl to save his life: from which time
Bavaria was annexed to Charlemagne's dominions. To punish the Abares for
their inroads, he crossed the Inns into their territories, sacked
Vienna, and marched to the mouth of the Raab, upon the Danube. In 794,
he assisted at the great council of Frankfort, held in his royal palace
there. He restored Leo III. at Rome, quelled the seditions there, and
was crowned by him on Christmas-day, in 800, emperor of Rome and of the
West: in which quality he was afterwards solemnly acknowledged by
Nicephorus, emperor of Constantinople. Thus was the western empire
restored, which had been extinct in Momylus Agustulus in the fifth
century. In 805, Charlemagne quelled and conquered the Sclavonians. The
Danube, {288} the Teisse, and the Oder on the East, and the Ebro and the
ocean on the West, were the boundaries of his vast dominions. France,
Germany, Dacia, Dalmatia, Istria, Italy, and part of Pannonia and Spain,
obeyed his laws. It was then customary for kings not to reside in great
cities, but to pass the summer often in progresses or campaigns, and the
winter at some country palace. King Pepin resided at Herstal, now Jopin,
in the territory of Liege, and sometimes at Quiercy on the Oise:
Charlemagne often at Frankfort or Aix-la-Chapelle, which were country
seats; for those towns were then inconsiderable places: though the
latter had been founded by Serenas Granus in 124, under Adrian. It owes
its greatness to the church built there by Charlemagne.

This prince was not less worthy of our admiration in the quality of a
legislator than in that of a conqueror; and in the midst of his marches
and victories, he gave the utmost attention to the wise government of
his dominions, and to every thing that could promote the happiness of
his people, the exaltation of the church, and the advancement of piety
and every branch of sacred and useful learning.[1] What pains he took
for the reformation of monasteries, and for the sake of uniformity
introducing in them the rule of St. Bennet, appears from his
transactions, and several ecclesiastical assemblies in 789. His zeal for
the devout observance of the rites of the church is expressed in his
book to Alcuin on that subject, and in his encyclical epistle on the
rites of baptism,[2] and in various works which he commissioned Alcuin
and others to compile. For the reformation of manners, especially of the
clergy, he procured many synods to be held, in which decrees were
framed, which are called his Capitula.[3] His Capitulars, divided into
many chapters, are of the same nature. The best edition of these
Capitulars is given by Baluzius, with dissertations, in 1677, two vols.
folio. The Carolin Books are a theological work, (adopted by this
prince, who speaks in the first person,) compiled in four books, against
a falsified copy of the second council of Nice, sent by certain
Iconoclasts from Constantinople, on which see F. Daniel[4] and
Ceillier.[5]

There never was a truly great man, who was not a lover and encourager of
learning, as of the highest improvement of the human mind. Charlemagne,
by most munificent largesses, invited learned men over from foreign
parts, as Alcuin, Peter of Pisa, Paul the deacon, &c., found no greater
pleasure than in conversing with them, instituted an academy in his own
palace, and great schools at Paris, Tours, &c., assisted at literary
disputations, was an excellent historian, and had St. Austin's book, On
the City of God, laid every night under his pillow to read if he awaked.
Yet Eginhard assures us that whatever pains he took, he could never
learn to write, because he was old when he first applied himself to it.
He was skilled in astronomy, arithmetic, music, and every branch of the
mathematics; understood the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Syriac, also the
Sclavonian, and several other living languages, so as never to want an
interpreter to converse with ambassadors of neighboring nations. He
meditated assiduously on the scriptures, assisted at the divine office,
even that of midnight, if possible; had good books read to him at table,
and took but one meal a day, which he was obliged to anticipate before
the hour of evening on fasting days, that all his officers and servants
might dine before midnight. He was very abstemious, had a paternal care
of the poor in all his dominions, and honored good men, especially among
the clergy. Charlemagne died January the 28th, in 814, seventy-two years
old, and was buried at Aix-la-Chapelle. The incontinence into {289}
which he fell in his youth, he expiated by sincere repentance, so that
several churches in Germany and France honor him among the saints. In
the university of Paris, the most constant nation of the Germans, (which
was originally called the English nation, in 1250, when the distinction
of nations n the faculty of arts was there established,) take
Charlemagne for their patron, but only keep his festival since the year
1480, which is now common to the other three nations of French, Picards,
and Normans, since 1661.[6]

Footnotes:
1.  See Hardion, Hist. Universelle, t. 10.
2.  Apud Mabill. Analect. t. 1, p. 21.
3.  Conc. t. 6 & 7, ed. Labbe.
4.  Hist. de France in Charlem. French edit. in fol.
5.  Ceillier, pp. 376 & 400.
6.  Pagi (in Breviario Rom. Pontif. t. 3, in Alex. III. p. 82) proves
    that suffrages for the soul of Charlemagne were continued at
    Aix-la-Chapelle, till the antipope Pascal, at the desire of Frederic
    Barbarossa, enshrined his remains in that city, and published a
    decree for his canonization. From the time of this enshrining of his
    remains, he is honored among the saints in many churches in Germany
    and the Low Countries, as Goujet (De Festis propriis Sanctor. l. 1,
    c. 5, quæst. 9) and Bollandus (ad 28 Jan. and t. 2, Febr. Schemate
    19) show. The tacit approbation of the popes is to be looked upon as
    equivalent to a beatification, as Benedict XIV. proves (De Canoniz.
    l. 1, c. 9, n. 5, p. 72.) Molanus, (in Natal. SS. Belg.,) Natalis
    Alexander. (Hist. Sæc. 9 and 10., cap. 7, a. 1,) and many others,
    have made the same observation.

ST. GLASTIAN, B.C. IN SCOTLAND.

HE was a native of the county of Fife, and discharged in the same,
during many years, the duties of the episcopal character with which he
was honored. Amidst the desolation which was spread over the whole
country, in the last bloody civil war between the Scots and Picts, in
which the latter were entirely subdued, St. Glastian was the comforter,
spiritual father, and most charitable protector of many thousands of
both nations. He died in 830, at Kinglace in Fifeshire, and was
particularly honored in that country, and in Kyntire. According to the
ancient custom of that country, his name is frequently written
Mac-Glastian, the word Mac signifying son. See the Breviary of Aberdeen;
King in his Calendar, &c.


JANUARY XXIX.

SAINT FRANCIS OF SALES,

BISHOP AND CONFESSOR.

From his writings and authentic lives, chiefly that written by his
nephew, Charles Augustus de Sales: also that by F. Goulu, general of the
Feuillans: that by Henry de Maupas du Tour, bishop of Puy, afterwards of
Evreux: and that by Madame de Bussi-Rabutin, nun of the Visitation See
his life, collected by M. Marsoillier, and done into English by the late
Mr. Crathorne. See also the bull of his canonization, and an excellent
collection of his maxims and private actions, compiled by his intimate
friend and real admirer, M. Peter Caums, bishop of Bellay, in his book,
entitled, L'Espirit de St. François de Sales, and in his scarce and
incomparable work under the title. Quel est le meilleur Gouvernement, le
rigoureux ou le dour, printed at Paris without the name of the author,
1636. Though I find not this book in any catalogue of bishop Camus's
works, the conformity of style, and in several places the repetition of
the same expressions which occur in the last-mentioned work, seem to
prove this to be also the production of his pen. See also the excellent
new edition of the letters of St. Francis of Sales, in six volumes,
12mo. 1758.

A.D. 1622.

THE parents of this saint were Francis, count of Sales, and Frances of
Sionas. The countess being with child, offered her fruit to God with the
most fervent prayers, begging he would preserve it from the corruption
of the world, and rather deprive her of the comfort of seeing herself a
mother, than suffer her to give birth to a child who should ever become
his enemy by sin. The saint was born at Sales, three leagues from
Annecy, the seat of that noble family; and his mother was delivered of
him when she was {290} but seven months advanced in her pregnancy.[1]
Hence he was reared with difficulty, and was so weak, that his life,
during his infancy, was often despaired of by physicians. However, he
escaped the danger, and grew robust: he was very beautiful, and the
sweetness of his countenance won the affections of all who saw him: but
the meekness of his temper, the pregnancy of his wit, his modesty,
tractableness, and obedience, were far more valuable qualifications. The
countess could scarce suffer the child out of her sight, lest any
tincture of vice might infect his soul. Her first care was to inspire
him with the most profound respect for the church, and all holy things;
and she had the comfort to observe in him a recollection and devotion at
his prayers far above his age. She read to him the lives of the saints,
adding recollections suited to his capacity; and she took care to have
him with her when she visited the poor, making him the distributer of
her alms, and to do such little offices for them as he was able. He
would set by his own meat for their relief, and when he had nothing left
to bestow on them, would beg for them of all his relations. His horror
of a lie, even in his infancy, made him prefer any disgrace or
chastisement to the telling of the least wilful untruth.

His mother's inclination for a domestic preceptor, to prevent his being
corrupted by wicked youth in colleges, was overruled by her husband's
persuasion of the usefulness of emulation for advancing children in
their studies; hoping his son's virtue and modesty would, under God, be
a sufficient guard of his innocency. He was accordingly sent to
Rocheville, at six years of age, and some time after to Annecy. An
excellent memory, a solid judgment, and a good application, could not
fail of great progress. The young count spent as much of his time as
possible in private studies and lectures of piety, especially that of
the lives of saints; and by his diligence always doubled or trebled his
school tasks. He showed an early inclination for the ecclesiastical
state, and obtained his father's consent, though not without some
reluctance, for his receiving tonsure in the year 1578, and the eleventh
of his age. He was sent afterwards, under the care of a virtuous priest,
his preceptor, to pursue his studies in Paris; his mother having first
instilled into him steady principles of virtue, a love of prayer, and a
dread of sin and its occasions. She often repeated to him those words of
queen Blanche to her son St. Louis, king of France: "I had rather see
you dead, than hear you had committed one mortal sin." On his arrival at
Paris, he entered the Jesuits' schools, and went through his rhetoric
and philosophy with great applause. In pure obedience to his father's
orders, he learned in the academy to ride, dance, and fence, whence he
acquired that easy behavior which he retained ever after. But these
exercises, as matters of amusement, did not hinder his close application
to the study of the Greek and Hebrew languages, and of positive
divinity, for six years, under the famous Genebrard and Maldonatus. But
his principal concern all this time was a regular course of piety, by
which he labored to sanctify himself and all his actions. Pious
meditation, and the study of the holy scripture, were his beloved
entertainments: and he never failed to carry about him that excellent
book, called the Spiritual Combat. He sought the conversation of the
virtuous, particularly of F. Angelus Joyeuse, who, from a duke and
marshal of France, was become a Capuchin friar. The frequent discourses
of this good man on the necessity of mortification, induced the count to
add, to his usual austerities, the wearing of a hair shirt three days in
the week. His chief resort during his stay at Paris, was to some
churches, that especially of Saint Stephen des Grez, as being one of the
most retired. Here, he made {291} a vow of perpetual chastity, putting
himself under the special patronage of the Blessed Virgin. God, to
purify his heart, permitted a thick darkness insensibly to overspread
his mind, and a spiritual dryness and melancholy to overwhelm him. He
seemed, from a perfect tranquillity and peace of mind, to be almost
brought to the brink of despair. Seized with the greatest terrors, he
passed nights and days in tears and lamentations, and suffered more than
can be conceived by those who have not felt the severity of such
interior conflicts. The bitterness of his grief threw him into a deep
jaundice; he could neither eat, drink, nor sleep. His preceptor labored,
but all in vain, to discover the cause of this disorder, and find out a
remedy. At last, Francis, being at prayer in the same church of St.
Stephen, cast his eyes on a picture of our Lady: this awaking his
confidence in her intercession, he prostrated himself on the ground,
and, as unworthy to address the Father of all consolation, begged that
she would be his advocate, and procure him the grace to love God with
his whole heart. That very moment he found himself eased of his grief as
of a heavy weight taken off his heart, and his former peace and
tranquillity restored, which he ever after enjoyed. He was now eighteen
years old, when his father recalled him from Paris, and sent him to
Padua, to study the law, where his master was the celebrated Guy
Pancirola; this was in the year 1554. He chose the learned and pious
Jesuit, Antony Possevin, for his spiritual director; who at the same
time explained to him St. Thomas's Sum, and they read together
Bellarmin's controversies. His nephew, Augustus, gives us his written
rule of life, which he made at Padua: it chiefly shows his perpetual
attention to the presence of God, his care to offer up every action to
him, and implore his aid at the beginning of each. Falling sick, he was
despaired of by the physicians, and he himself expected with joy his
last moment. His preceptor, Deage, who had ever attended him, asked him
with tears, what he had to order about his funeral and other matters.
"Nothing," answered he, cheerfully, "unless it be, that my body be given
to the anatomy theatre to be dissected; for it will be a comfort to me
if I can be of any advantage when dead, having been of none while alive.
Thus I may also prevent some of the disorders and quarrels which happen
between the young physicians and the friends of the dead, whose bodies
they often dig up." However, he recovered; and by his father's orders,
being twenty years of age, commenced doctor in laws, with great applause
and pomp, in presence of forty-eight doctors. After which he travelled
through Italy to see the antiquities, and visit the holy places there.
He went to Rome by Ferrara, and returned by Loretto and Venice. To any
insult offered him on the road he returned only meekness; for which he
met with remarkable blessings from heaven. The sight of the pompous
remains of ancient Rome gave him a feeling contempt of worldly grandeur:
but the tombs of the martyrs drew everywhere tears of devotion from his
eyes. Upon his return his father received him with great joy, at his
castle of Tuille, where he had prepared for him a good library of books.

All persons were charmed with the young count, but none so much as the
great Antony Favre, afterwards first president of the parliament of
Chamberry, and Claudius Cranier, the learned and truly apostolic bishop
of Geneva, who already consulted him as an oracle. His father had a very
good match in view for him, and obtained in his behalf, from the duke of
Savoy, patents creating him counsellor of the parliament of Chamberry.
Francis modestly, but very firmly, refused both; yet durst not propose
to his parents his design of receiving holy orders; for the tonsure was
not all absolute renouncing of the world. At last, he discovered it to
his pious preceptor, Deage, and begged of him to mention it to his
father: but this he {292} declined, and used his utmost endeavors to
dissuade the young count from such a resolution, as he was the eldest
son, and destined by the order of nature for another state. Francis
answered all his reasonings, but could not prevail on him to charge
himself with the commission. He had then recourse to a cousin, Lewis of
Sales, a priest and canon of Geneva, who obtained the consent of his
parents, but not without the greatest difficulty. His cousin also
obtained for him from the pope, without his knowledge, the provostship
of the church of Geneva, then vacant: but the young clergyman held out a
long time before he would accept of it. At last he yielded, and took
possession of that dignity, and was in a short time after promoted to
holy orders by his diocesan, who, as soon as he was deacon, employed him
in preaching. His first sermons gained him an extraordinary reputation,
and were accompanied with incredible success. He delivered the word of
God with a mixture of majesty and modesty; had a strong, sweet voice,
and an animated manner of gesture, far from any affectation or vanity:
but what chiefly affected the hearts of his hearers was the humility and
unction with which he spoke from the abundance of his own heart. Before
he preached, he always renewed the fervor of his heart before God, by
secret sighs and prayer. He studied as much at the foot of the crucifix
as in books, being persuaded that the essential quality of a preacher is
to be a man of prayer. He received the holy order of priesthood with
extraordinary preparation and devotion, and seemed filled by it with an
apostolic spirit. He every day began his functions by celebrating the
holy mysteries early in the morning, in which, by his eyes and
countenance of fire, the inward flames of his soul appeared. He then
heard the confessions of all sorts of people, and preached. He was
observed to decline with the utmost care whatever might gain him the
applause of men, seeking only to please God, and to advance his glory.
He chiefly resorted to cottages, and country villages, instructing an
infinity of poor people. His piety, his charity to the poor, his
disinterestedness, his care of the sick and those in prison, endeared
him to all: but nothing was so moving as his meekness, which no
provocation was ever capable of disturbing. He conversed among all as
their father, with a fellow-feeling of all their wants, being all to
all. He was indeed naturally of a hasty and passionate temper, as he
himself confesses; and we find in his writings a certain fire and
impetuosity which renders it unquestionable. On this account from his
youth he made meekness his favorite virtue, and by studying in the
school of a God who was meek and humble of heart, he learned that
important lesson to such perfection, as to convert his predominant
passion into his characteristical virtue. The Calvinists ascribed
principally to his meekness the wonderful conversions he made among
them. They were certainly the most obstinate of people at that time,
near Geneva; yet St. Francis converted no less than seventy-two thousand
of them.

Before the end of this first year of his ministry, in 1591, he erected
at Annecy a confraternity of the Holy Cross, the associates of which
were obliged to instruct the ignorant, to comfort and exhort the sick
and prisoners, and to beware of all lawsuits, which seldom fail to
shipwreck Christian charity. A Calvinistical minister took occasion from
this institution to write against the honor paid by Catholics to the
cross. Francis answered him by his book entitled, The Standard of the
Cross. At this time, fresh matter presented itself for the exercise of
the saint's zeal. The bishop of Geneva was formerly lord of that city,
paying an acknowledgment to the duke of Savoy. While these two were
disputing about the sovereignty, the Genevans expelled them both, and
formed themselves into a republic in alliance with the Switzers; and
their city became the centre of Calvinism. {293} Soon after, the
Protestant canton of Bern seized the country of Vaux, and the republic
of Geneva, the dutchy of Chablais, with the bailiwicks of Gex, Terni,
and Gaillard; and there by violence established their heresy, which from
that time had kept quiet possession for sixty years. The duke Charles
Emmanuel had recovered these territories, and resolving to restore the
Catholic religion, wrote in 1594 to the bishop of Geneva, to recommend
that work to him. The wise ones, according to this world, regarded the
undertaking as impracticable; and the most resolute, whether
ecclesiastics or religious, were terrified at its difficulties and
dangers. Francis was the only one that offered himself for the work, and
was joined by none but his cousin-german Lewis de Sales. The tears and
remonstrances of his parents and friends to dissuade him from the
undertaking, made no impression on his courageous soul. He set out with
his cousin on the 9th of September, in 1594. Being arrived on the
frontiers of Chablais, they sent back their horses, the more perfectly
to imitate the apostles. On his arrival at Thonon, the capital of
Chablais, situate on the lake of Geneva, he found in it only seven
Catholics. After having commended the souls to God, and earnestly
implored his mercy through the intercession of the guardian angels, and
tutelar saints of the country, he was obliged to take up his quarters in
the castle of Allinges, where the governor and garrison were Catholics,
two leagues from Thonon, whither he went every day, visiting also the
neighboring country. The Calvinists for a long time shunned him, and
some even attempted his life. Two assassins, hired by others, having
missed him at Thonon, lay in wait to murder him on his return; but a
guard of soldiers had been sent to escort him safe, the conspiracy
having taken wind. The saint obtained their pardon, and, overcome by his
lenity and formed by his holy instructions, they both became very
virtuous converts. All our saint's relations, and many friends, whom he
particularly respected for their great virtue and prudence, solicited
him by the most pressing letters to abandon such a dangerous and
fruitless enterprise. His father, to the most tender entreaties, added
his positive commands to him to return home, telling him that all
prudent persons called his resolution to continue his mission a foolish
obstinacy and madness; that he had already done more than was needful,
and that his mother was dying of grief for his long absence, the fear of
losing him entirely, and the hardships, atrocious slanders, and
continual alarms and dangers in which he lived. To compel him to abandon
this undertaking, the father forbade his friends to write any more to
him, or to send him necessary supplies. Nevertheless, St. Francis
persevered, and at length his patience, zeal, and eminent virtue,
wrought upon the most obdurate, and insensibly wore away their
prejudices. His first converts were among the soldiers, whom he brought
over, not only to the faith, but also to an entire change of manners and
strict virtue, from habits of swearing, duelling, and drunkenness. He
was near four years, however, without any great fruit among the
inhabitants, till the year 1597, when God was pleased to touch several
of them with his grace. The harvest daily increased both in the town and
country so plentifully, that a supply of new laborers from Annecy was
necessary, and the bishop sent some Jesuits and Capuchins to carry on
the good work with Francis and under his direction. In 1598 the public
exercise of the Catholic religion was restored, and Calvinism banished
by the duke's orders over all Chablais, and the two bailiwicks of Terni
and Gaillard. Though the plague raged violently at Thonon, this did not
hinder Francis either by day or night from assisting the sick in their
last moments; and God preserved him from the contagion, which seized and
swept off several of his fellow-laborers. It is incredible what fatigues
and hardships he underwent in the course of his mission; with what
devotion {294} and tears he daily recommended the work of God: with what
invincible courage he braved the greatest dangers: with what meekness
and patience he bore all manner of affronts and calumnies. Baron
D'Avuli, a man of quality, and of great worth and learning, highly
esteemed among the Calvinists, and at Geneva, being converted by him,
induced him to go thither, to have a conference with the famous minister
La Faye. The minister, during the whole conference, was ever shifting
the matter in debate, as he found himself embarrassed and pressed by his
antagonist. His disadvantage being so evident that be himself could read
it in the countenance of every one present, he broke off the conference
by throwing out a whole torrent of injurious language on Francis, who
bore it with so much meekness as not to return the least sharp answer.
During the whole course of his ministry in these parts, the violent
measures, base cowardice in declining all dispute, and the shameful
conduct of the ministers in other respects, set the saint's behavior and
his holy cause still in a more shining light. In 1597 he was
commissioned by pope Clement VIII. to confer with Theodore Beza at
Geneva, the most famous minister of the Calvinist party, in order to win
him back to the Catholic church. He accordingly paid him four visits in
that city, gained a high place in that heresiarch's esteem, and made him
often hesitate in deep silence and with distracted looks, whether he
should return to the Roman Catholic church or not, wherein he owned from
the beginning that salvation was attainable. St. Francis had great hopes
of bringing him over in a fifth visit, but his private conferences had
alarmed the Genevans so much that they guarded Beza too close for him to
find admittance to him again, and Beza died soon after. 'Tis said, that
a little before death he lamented very much he could not see Francis.[2]
It is certain, from his first conference with him, he had ever felt a
violent conflict within himself, between truth and duty on one hand, and
on the other, the pride of being head of a party, the shame of
recanting, inveterate habits, and certain secret engagements in vice, to
which he continued enslaved to the last. The invincible firmness and
constancy of the saint appeared in the recovery of the revenues of the
curacies and other benefices which had been given to the Orders of St.
Lazarus and St. Maurice; the restoration of which, after many
difficulties, he effected by the joint authority of the pope and the
duke of Savoy. In 1596 he celebrated mass on Christmas-day in the church
of St. Hippolytus at Thonon, and had then made seven or eight hundred
converts. From this time he charged himself with the parish of the town,
and established two other Catholic parishes in the country. In the
beginning of the year 1599 he had settled zealous clergymen in all the
parishes of the whole territory.

The honors the saint received from the pope, the duke of Savoy, the
cardinal of Medicis, and all the church, and the high reputation which
his virtues had acquired him, never made the least impression on his
humble mind, dead to all motions of pride and vanity. His delight was
with the poor: the most honorable functions he left to others, and chose
for himself the meanest and most laborious. Every one desired to have
him for their director, wherever he went: and his extraordinary
sweetness, in conjunction with his eminent piety, reclaimed as many
vicious Catholics as it converted heretics. In 1599, he went to Annecy
to visit his diocesan, Granier, who had procured him to be made his
coadjutor. The fear of resisting God, in refusing this charge, when
pressed upon him by the pope, in conjunction with his bishop and the
duke of Savoy, at last extorted his consent; but the apprehension of the
obligations annexed to the episcopacy was so strong that it threw him
into an illness which had like to have cost him his life. {295} On his
recovery he set out for Rome to receive his bulls, and to confer with
his Holiness on matters relating to the missions of Savoy. He was highly
honored by all the great men at Rome, and received of the pope the bulls
for being consecrated bishop of Nicopolis; and coadjutor of Geneva. On
this occasion he made a visit of devotion to Loretto, and returned to
Annecy before the end of the year 1599. Here he preached the Lent the
year following, and assisted his father during his last sickness, heard
his general confession, and administered to him the rites of the church.
An illness he was seized with at Annecy made him defer his consecration.

On his recovery he was obliged to go to Paris, on affairs of his
diocese, and was received there by all sorts of persons with all the
regard due to his extraordinary merit. The king was then at
Fontainebleau; but the saint was desired to preach the Lent to the court
in the chapel of the Louvre. This he did in a manner that charmed every
one, and wrought innumerable wonderful conversions. The duchesses of
Morcoeur and Longueville sent him thereupon a purse of gold: he admired
the embroidery, but gave it back, with thanks to them for honoring his
discourses with their presence and good example. He preached a sermon
against the pretended reformation, to prove it destitute of a lawful
mission; it being begun at Meaux, by Peter Clark, a wool-carder; at
Paris, by Masson Riviere, a young man called to the ministry by a
company of laymen; and elsewhere after the like manner. This sermon
converted many Calvinists; among others the countess of Perdrieuville,
who was one of the most obstinate learned ladies of the sect: she
consulted her ministers, and repaired often to Francis's conferences,
till she had openly renounced Calvinism with all her numerous family.
The whole illustrious house of Raconis followed her example, and so many
others, even of the most inveterate of the sect, that it made cardinal
Perron, a man famous for controversy, say: "I can confute the
Calvinists; but, to persuade and convert them, you must carry them to
the coadjutor of Geneva." Henry IV. was charmed with his preaching, and
consulted him several times in matters relating to the direction of his
conscience. There was no project of piety going forward about which he
was not advised with. He promoted the establishment of the Carmelite
nuns in France, and the introduction of F. Berulle's congregation of the
oratory. The king himself earnestly endeavored to detain him in France,
by promises of 20,000 livres pension, and the first vacant bishopric:
but Francis said, God had called him against his will to the bishopric
of Geneva, and he thought it his obligation to keep it till his death;
that the small revenue he had sufficed for his maintenance, and more
would only be an incumbrance. The king was astonished at his
disinterestedness, when he understood that the bishopric of Geneva,
since the revolt of that city, did not yield the incumbent above four or
five thousand livres, that is, not two hundred and fifty-nine pounds,
a-year.

Some envious courtiers endeavored to give the king a suspicion of his
being a spy. The saint heard this accusation just as he was going into
the pulpit; yet he preached as usual without the least concern; and that
prince was too well convinced of the calumny, by his sanctity and
candor. After a nine months' stay in Paris, he set out with the king's
letters,[3] and heard on the road, that Granier, bishop of Geneva, was
dead. He hastened to Sales-Castle, and as soon as clear of the first
visits, made a twenty days' retreat to prepare himself for his
consecration. He made a general confession, and {296} laid down a plan
of life, which he ever punctually observed. This was, never to wear any
silk or camlets, or any clothes but woollen, as before; to have no
paintings in his house but of devotions: no magnificence in furniture:
never to use coach or litter, but to make his visits on foot: his family
to consist of two priests, one for his chaplain, the other to take care
of his temporalities and servants: nothing but common meats to be served
to his table: to be always present at all feasts of devotion, kept in
any church in town: his regulation with respect to alms was incredible,
for his revenues: to go to the poor and sick in person: to rise every
day at four, make an hour's meditation, say lauds and prime, then
morning prayers with his family: to read the scripture till seven, then
say mass, which he did every day, afterwards to apply to affairs till
dinner, which being over, he allowed an hour for conversation; the rest
of the afternoon he allotted to business and prayer. After supper he
read a pious book to his family for an hour, then night prayers; after
which he said matins. He fasted all Fridays and Saturdays, and our
Lady's eves: be privately wore a hair shirt, and used the discipline,
but avoided all ostentatious austerities. But his exact regularity and
uniformity of life, with a continued practice of internal self-denials,
was the best mortification. He redoubled his fasts, austerities, and
prayers, as the time of his consecration drew nearer. This was performed
on the 3d of December, 1602. He immediately applied himself to preaching
and the other functions of his charge. He was exceedingly cautious in
conferring holy orders. He ordained but few, neither was it without the
strictest scrutiny passed upon all their qualifications for the
priesthood. He was very zealous, both by word and example, in promoting
the instruction of the ignorant by explanations of the catechism, on
Sundays and holidays; and his example had a great influence over the
parish-priests in this particular, as also over the laity, both young
and old. He inculcated to all the making, every hour when the clock
struck, the sign of the cross, with a fervent aspiration on the passion
of Christ. He severely forbade the custom of Valentines or giving boys,
in writing, the names of girls to be admired and attended on by them;
and, to abolish it, he changed it into giving billets with the names of
certain saints for them to honor and imitate in a particular manner. He
performed the visitation of his diocese as soon as possible, published a
new ritual, set on foot ecclesiastical conferences, and regulated all
things; choosing St. Charles Borromeo for his model.

Above all things he hated lawsuits, and strictly commanded all
ecclesiastics to avoid them, and refer all disputes to arbitration. He
said they were such occasions of sins against charity, that, if any one
during the course of a lawsuit had escaped them, that alone would
suffice for his canonization. Towards the close of the visitation of his
diocese, he reformed several monasteries. That of Six appealed to the
parliament of Chamberry: but our saint was supported there, and carried
his point. While Francis was at Six, he heard that a valley, three
leagues off, was in the utmost desolation, by the tops of two mountains
that had fallen, and buried several villages, with the inhabitants and
cattle. He crawled over impassable ways to comfort and relieve these
poor people, who had neither clothes to cover, nor cottages to shelter
them, nor bread to stay their hunger; he mingled his tears with theirs,
relieved them, and obtained from the duke a remission of their taxes.
The city of Dijon having procured leave from the duke of Savoy, the
saint preached the Lent there in 1604, with wonderful fruit; but refused
the present offered him by the city on that occasion. Being solicited by
Henry IV. to accept of a considerable abbey, the saint refused it;
alleging, that he dreaded riches as much as others could desire them;
and that, the less he had of them the less he would have to answer for.
That king {297} offered to name him to the dignity of cardinal at the
next promotion; but the saint made answer, that though he did not
despise the offered dignity, he was persuaded that great titles would
not sit well upon him, and might raise fresh obstacles to his salvation.
He was also thought of at Rome as a very fit person to be promoted to
that dignity, but was himself the only one who everywhere opposed and
crossed the design. Being desired on another occasion by the same king
to accept of a pension; the saint begged his majesty to suffer it to
remain in the hands of his comptroller till he should call for it; which
handsome refusal much astonished that great prince, who could not
forbear saying: "That the bishop of Geneva, by the happy independence in
which his virtue had placed him, was as far above him, as he by his
royal dignity was above his subjects." The saint preached the next Lent
at Chamberry, at the request of the parliament, which notwithstanding at
that very time seized his temporalities for refusing to publish a
monitory at its request; the saint alleging, that it was too trifling an
affair, and that the censures of the church were to be used more
reservedly. To the notification of the seizure he only answered
obligingly, that he thanked God for teaching him by it, that a bishop is
to be altogether spiritual. He neither desisted from preaching, nor
complained to the duke, but heaped most favors on such as most insulted
him, till the parliament, being ashamed, granted him of their own accord
a replevy. But the great prelate found more delight in preaching in
small villages than amidst such applause, though he everywhere met with
the like fruit; and he looked on the poor as the object of his
particular care. He took a poor dumb and deaf man into his family,
taught him by signs, and by them received his confession. His steward
often found it difficult to provide for his family by reason of his
great alms, and used to threaten to leave him. The saint would answer:
"You say right; I am an incorrigible creature, and what is worse, I look
as if I should long continue so." Or at other times, pointing to the
crucifix; "How can we deny any thing to a God who reduced himself to
this condition for the love of us!"

Pope Paul V. ordered our saint to be consulted about the school dispute
between the Dominicans and Jesuits on the grace of God, or de auxiliis.
His opinion appears from his book On the Love of God: but he answered
his Holiness in favor of neutrality, which he ever observed in school
opinions; complaining often in how many they occasioned the breach of
charity, and spent too much of their precious time, which, by being
otherwise employed, might be rendered more conducive to God's honor. In
1609 he went to Bellay, and consecrated bishop John Peter Camus, one of
the most illustrious prelates of the church of France, and linked to our
saint by the strictest bands of holy friendship. He wrote the book
entitled, The Spirit of St. Francis of Sales, consisting of many of his
ordinary sayings and actions, in which his spirit shines with great
advantage, discovering a perpetual recollection always absorbed in God,
and a constant overflowing of sweetness and divine love. His writings to
this day breathe the same; every word distils that love and meekness
with which his heart was filled. It is this which makes his epistles,
which we have to the number of five hundred and twenty-nine, in seven
books, to be an inestimable treasure of moving instructions, suitable to
all sorts of persons and circumstances.

His incomparable book, the Introduction to a Devout Life, was originally
letters to a lady in the world, which, at the pressing instances of many
friends, he formed into a book and finished, to show that devotion
suited Christians in a secular life, no less than in cloisters. Villars,
the archbishop of Vienna, wrote to him upon it: "Your book charms,
inflames, and puts me in raptures, as often as I open any part of it."
The author received {298} the like applause and commendations from all
parts, and it was immediately translated into all the languages of
Europe. Henry IV. of France was extremely pleased with it; his queen,
Mary of Medicis, sent it richly bound and adorned with jewels to James
I. of England, who was wonderfully taken with it, and asked his bishops
why none of them could write with such feeling and unction.[4] There
was, however, one religious Order in which this book was much censured,
as if it had allowed of gallantry and scurrilous jests, and approved of
balls and comedies, which was very far from the saint's doctrine. A
preacher of that Order had the rashness and presumption to declaim
bitterly against the book in a public sermon, to cut it in pieces, and
bum it in the very pulpit. The saint bore this outrage without the least
resentment; so perfectly was he dead to self-love. This appears more
wonderful to those who know how jealous authors are of their works, as
the offspring of their reason and judgment, of which men are of all
things the fondest. His book of the Love of God cost him much more
reading, study, and meditation. In it he paints his own soul. He
describes the feeling sentiments of divine love, its state of fervor, of
dryness, of trials, sufferings, and darkness: in explaining which he
calls in philosophy to his assistance. He writes on this sublime subject
what he had learned by his own experience. Some parts of this book are
only to be understood by those souls who have gone through these states:
yet the author has been ever justly admired for the performance. The
general of the Carthusians had written to him upon his Introduction,
advising him to write no more, because nothing else could equal that
book. But seeing this, he bade him never cease writing, because his
latter works always surpassed the former; and James 1. was so delighted
with the book, that he expressed a great desire to see the author. This
being told the saint, he cried out: "Ah! who will give me the wings of a
dove, and I will fly to the king, into that great island, formerly the
country of saints; but now overwhelmed with the darkness of error. If
the duke will permit me, I will arise, and go to that great Ninive: I
will speak to the king, and will announce to him, with the hazard of my
life, the word of the Lord." In effect, he solicited the duke of Savoy's
consent, but could never obtain it.[5] That jealous sovereign feared
lest he should be drawn in to serve another state, or sell to some other
his right to Geneva; on which account he often refused him leave to go
to preach in France, when invited by many cities. His other works are
sermons which are not finished as they were preached, except, perhaps,
that on the Invention of the Cross. We have also his Preparation for
Mass: his Instructions for Confessors: a collection of his Maxims, pious
Breathings and Sayings, written by the bishop of Bellay; some Fragments,
and his Entertainments to his nuns of the Visitation, in which he
recommends to them the most perfect interior self-denial, a
disengagement of affections from all things temporal, and obedience. The
institution of that Order may be read in the life of B. Frances Chantal.
Saint Francis designing his new Order to be such, that all, even the
sickly and weak, might be admitted into it, he chose for it the rule of
St. Austin, as commanding few extraordinary bodily austerities, and
would have it possess funds and settlements in common, to prevent being
carried off from the interior life by anxious cares about necessaries.
But then he requires from each person so strict a practice of poverty,
as to allow no one the property or even the long use of any thing; and
orders them every year to change chambers, beds, crosses, beads, and
books. He will have no manner of account to be made of birth, wit, or
talents; but only of humility; {299} he obliges them only to the little
office of our Lady, which all might easily learn to understand;
meditations, spiritual reading, recollection, and retreats, abundantly
compensating the defect. All his regulations tend to instil a spirit of
piety, charity, meekness, and simplicity. He subjects his Order to the
bishop of each place, without any general. Pope Paul V. approved it, and
erected the congregation of the Visitation into a religious Order.

St. Francis, finding his health decline, and his affairs to multiply,
after having consulted cardinal Frederic Borromeo, archbishop of Milan,
chose for his coadjutor in the bishopric of Geneva, his brother John
Francis of Sales, who was consecrated bishop of Chalcedon at Turin, in
1618. But the saint still applied himself to his functions as much as
ever. He preached the Lent at Grenoble, in 1617, and again in 1618, with
his usual conquests of souls; converting many Calvinists, and among
these the duke of Lesdiguieres. In 1619, he accompanied to Paris the
cardinal of Savoy, to demand the sister of king Louis XIII., Christina
of France, in marriage for the prince of Piedmont. He preached the Lent
in St. Andre-des-Arcs, and had always such a numerous audience, that
cardinals, bishops, and princes could scarce find room. His sermons and
conferences, and still more the example of his holy life, and the
engaging sweetness of his conversation, most powerfully moved not only
the devout, but also heretics, libertines, and atheists; while his
eloquence and learning convinced their understandings. The bishop of
Bellay tells us, that he entreated the saint at Paris not to preach
twice every day, morning and evening, for the sake of his health. St.
Francis answered him with a smile: "That it cost him much less to preach
a sermon than to find an excuse for himself when invited to perform that
function." He added: "God has appointed me a pastor and a preacher: and
is not every one to follow his profession? But I am surprised that the
people in this great city flock so eagerly to my sermons: for my tongue
is slow and heavy, my conceptions low, and my discourses flat, as you
yourself are witness." "Do you imagine," said the other, "that eloquence
is what they seek in your discourses? It is enough for them to see you
in the pulpit. Your heart speaks to them by your countenance, and by
your eyes, were you only to say the Our Father with them. The most
common words in your mouth, burning with the fire of charity, pierce and
melt all hearts. There is I know not what so extraordinary in what you
say, that every word is of weight, every word strikes deep into the
heart. You have said every thing even when you seem to have said
nothing. You are possessed of a kind of eloquence which is of heaven:
the power of this is astonishing." St. Francis, smiling, turned off the
discourse.[6] The match being concluded, the princess Christina chose
Francis for her chief almoner, desiring to live always under his
direction: but all her entreaties could neither prevail on him to leave
his diocese, though he had a coadjutor, nor to accept of a pension: and
it was only on these two conditions he undertook the charge, always
urging that nothing could dispense with him from residence. The princess
made him a present of a rich diamond, by way of an investiture, desiring
him to keep it for her sake. "I will," said he, "unless the poor stand
in need of it." She answered, she would then redeem it. He said, "This
will happen so often, that I shall abuse your bounty." Finding it given
to the poor afterwards at Turin, she gave him another, richer, charging
him to keep that at least. He said. "Madam, I cannot promise you: I am
very unfit to keep things of value." Inquiring after it one day, she was
told it was always in pawn for the poor, and that {300} the diamond
belonged not to the bishop, but to all the beggars of Geneva. He had
indeed a heart which was not able to refuse any thing to those in want.
He often gave to beggars the waistcoat off his own back, and sometimes
the cruets of his chapel. The pious cardinal, Henry de Gondi, bishop of
Paris, used all manner of arguments to obtain his consent to be his
coadjutor in the see of Paris; but he was resolved never to quit the
church which God had first committed to his charge.

Upon his return to Annecy he would not touch a farthing of his revenue
for the eighteen months he was absent; but gave it to his cathedral,
saying, it could not be his, for he had not earned it. He applied
himself to preaching, instructing, and hearing confessions with greater
zeal than ever. In a plague which raged there, he daily exposed his own
life to assist his flock. The saint often met with injurious treatment,
and very reviling words, which he ever repaid with such meekness and
beneficence as never failed to gain his very enemies. A lewd wretch,
exasperated against him for his zeal against a wicked harlot, forged a
letter of intrigue in the holy prelate's name, which made him pass for a
profligate and a hypocrite with the duke of Nemours and many others: the
calumny reflected also on the nuns of the Visitation. Two years after,
the author of it, lying on his death-bed, called in witnesses, publicly
justified the saint, and made an open confession of the slander and
forgery. The saint had ever an entire confidence in the divine
providence, was ever full of joy, and resigned to all the appointments
of heaven, to which he committed all events. He had a sovereign contempt
of all earthly things, whether riches, honors, dangers, or sufferings.
He considered only God and his honor in all things: his soul perpetually
breathed nothing but his love and praises; nor could he contain this
fire within his breast, for it discovered itself in his countenance;
which, especially while he said mass, or distributed the blessed
eucharist, appeared shining, as it were, with rays of glory, and
breathing holy fervor. Often he could not contain himself in his
conversation, and would thus express himself to his intimate friends:
"Did you but know how God treats my heart, you would thank his goodness,
and beg for me the strength to execute the inspirations which he
communicates to me. My heart is filled with an inexpressible desire to
be forever sacrificed to the pure and holy love of my Saviour. Oh! it is
good to live, to labor, to rejoice only in God. By his grace I will
forevermore be nothing to any creature; nor shall any creature be
anything to me but in him and for him." At another time, he cried out to
a devout friend: "Oh! if I knew but one string of my heart which was not
all God's, I would instantly tear it out. Yes; if I knew that there was
one thread in my heart which was not marked with the crucifix, I would
not keep it one moment."

In the year 1622, he received an order from the duke of Savoy to go to
Avignon to wait on Louis XIII., who had just finished the civil wars in
Languedoc. Finding himself indisposed, he took his last leave of his
friends, saying, he should see them no more; which drew from them floods
of tears. At Avignon he was at his prayers during the king's triumphant
entry, and never went to the window to see any part of that great pomp.
He was obliged to attend the king and the cardinal of Savoy to Lyons,
where he refused all the grand apartments offered him by the intendant
of he province and others, to lodge to the poor chamber of the gardener
to the monastery of the Visitation: as he was never better pleased than
when he could most imitate the poverty of his Saviour. He received from
the king and queen-mother, and from all the princes, the greatest marks
of honor and esteem: and though indisposed, continued to preach and
perform all his {301} functions, especially on Christmas-day, and St.
John's in the morning. After dinner he began to fall gradually into an
apoplexy, was put to bed by his servant, and received extreme unction;
but as he had said mass that day and his vomiting continued, it was
thought proper not to give him the viaticum. He repeated with great
fervor: "My heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God; I will sing
the mercies of the Lord to all eternity. When shall I appear before his
face? Show me, my beloved, where thou feedest, where thou restest at
noonday. O my God, my desire is before thee, and my sighs are not hidden
from thee. My God and my all! my desire is that of the hills eternal."
While the physicians applied blistering plasters, and hot irons behind
his neck, and a caustic to the crown of his head, which burned him to
the bone, he shed abundance of tears under excess of pain, repeating:
"_Wash me, O Lord, from my iniquities, and cleanse me from my sin. Still
cleanse me more and more_. What do I here, my God, distant from thee,
separated from thee?" And to those about him: "Weep not, my children;
must not the will of God be done?" One suggesting to him the prayer of
St. Martin, "If I am still necessary for thy people, I refuse not to
labor:" he seemed troubled at being compared to so great a saint, and
said, he was an unprofitable servant, whom neither God nor his people
needed. His apoplexy increasing, though slowly, he seemed at last to
lose his senses, and happily expired on the feast of Holy Innocents, the
28th of December, at eight o'clock at night, in the year 1622, the
fifty-sixth of his age, and the twentieth of his episcopacy. His corpse
was embalmed, and carried with the greatest pomp to Annecy, where he had
directed by will it should be interred. It was laid in a magnificent
tomb near the high altar in the church of the first monastery of the
Visitation. After his beatification by Alexander VII., in 1661, it was
placed upon the altar in a rich silver shrine. He was canonized in 1665
by the same pope, and his feast fixed to the 29th of January, on which
day his body was conveyed to Annecy. His heart was kept in a leaden
case, in the church of the Visitation at Lyons: it was afterwards
exposed in a silver one, and lastly in one of gold, given by king Louis
XIII. Many miracles, as the raising to life two persons who were
drowned, the curing of the blind, paralytic, and others, were
authentically attested to have been wrought by his relics and
intercession; not to mention those he had performed in his lifetime,
especially during his missions. Pope Alexander VII., then cardinal
Chigi, and plenipotentiary in Germany, Louis XIII., XIV., and others,
attributed their cures in sickness to this saint's patronage.

Among his ordinary remarkable sayings, we read that he often repeated to
bishop Camus, "That truth must be always charitable; for bitter zeal
does harm instead of good. Reprehensions are a food of hard digestion,
and ought to be dressed on a fire of burning charity so well, that all
harshness be taken off; otherwise, like unripe fruit, they will only
produce gripings. Charity seeks not itself nor its own interests, but
purely the honor and interest of God: pride, vanity, and passion cause
bitterness and harshness: a remedy injudiciously applied may be a
poison. A judicious silence is always better than a truth spoken without
charity." St. Francis, seeing a scandalous priest thrown into prison,
fell at his feet, and with tears conjured him to have compassion on him,
his pastor, on his religion, which he scandalized, and on his own soul;
which sweetness converted the other, so that he became an example of
virtue. By his patience and meekness under all injuries, he overcame the
most obstinate, and ever after treated them with singular affection,
calling them dearer friends, because regained. A great prelate observes,
from his example, that the meek are kings of other hearts, which they
powerfully attract, and can turn as they please; and in {302} an express
and excellent treatise, proposes him as an accomplished model of all the
qualifications requisite in a superior to govern well.

       *       *       *       *       *

Meekness was the favorite virtue of St. Francis de Sales. He once was
heard to say, that he had employed three years in studying it in the
school of Jesus Christ, and that his heart was still far from being
satisfied with the progress he had made. If he, who was meekness itself,
imagined, nevertheless, that he had possessed so little of it; what
shall we say of those, who, upon every trifling occasion, betray the
bitterness of their hearts in angry words and actions of impatience and
outrage? Our saint was often tried in the practice of this virtue,
especially when the hurry of business and the crowds that thronged on
him for relief in their various necessities, scarce allowed him a moment
to breathe. He has left us his thoughts upon this situation, which his
extreme affability rendered very frequent to him. "God," says he, "makes
use of this occasion to try whether our hearts are sufficiently
strengthened to bear every attack. I have myself been sometimes in this
situation: but I have made a covenant with my heart and with my tongue,
in order to confine them within the bounds of duty. I considered those
persons who crowd in one upon the other, as children who run into the
embraces of their father: as the hen refuseth not protection to her
little ones when they gather around her, but, on the contrary, extendeth
her wings so as to cover them all; my heart, I thought, was in like
manner expanded, in proportion as the numbers of these poor people
increased. The most powerful remedy against sudden starts of impatience
is a sweet and amiable silence; however little one speaks, self-love
will have a share in it, and some word will escape that may sour the
heart, and disturb its peace for a considerable time. When nothing is
said, and cheerfulness preserved, the storm subsides, anger and
indiscretion are put to flight, and nothing remains but a joy, pure and
lasting. The person who possesses Christian meekness, is affectionate
and tender towards every one; he is disposed to forgive and excuse the
frailties of others; the goodness of his heart appears in a sweet
affability that influences his words and actions, and presents every
object to his view in the most charitable and pleasing light; he never
admits in his discourse any harsh expression, much less any term that is
haughty or rude. An amiable serenity is always painted on his
countenance, which remarkably distinguishes him from those violent
characters, who, with looks full of fury, know only how to refuse; or
who, when they grant, do it with so bad a grace, that they lose all the
merit of the favor they bestow."

Some persons thinking him too indulgent towards sinners, expressed their
thoughts one day with freedom to him on this head. He immediately
replied: "If there was any thing more excellent than meekness, God would
have certainly taught it us; and yet there is nothing to which he so
earnestly exhorts us, as to be _meek and humble of heart_. Why would you
hinder me to obey the command of my Lord, and follow him in the exercise
of that virtue which he so eminently practised and so highly esteems?
Are we then better informed in these matters than God himself?" But his
tenderness was particularly displayed in the reception of apostates and
other abandoned sinners; when these prodigals returned to him, he said,
with all the sensibility of a father: "Come, my dear children, come, let
me embrace you; ah, let me hide you in the bottom of my heart! God and I
will assist you: all I require of you is not to despair: I shall take on
myself the labor of the rest." Looks full of compassion and love
expressed the sincerity of his feelings: his affectionate and charitable
care of them extended even to their bodily wants and his purse was open
to them as well as his heart; {303} he justified this proceeding to
some, who, disedified at his extreme indulgence, told him it served only
to encourage the sinner, and harden him still more in his crimes, by
observing, "Are they not a part of my flock? Has not our blessed Lord
given them his blood, and shall I refuse them my tears? These wolves
will be changed into lambs: a day will come when, cleansed from their
sins, they will be more precious in the sight of God than we are: if
Saul had been cast off, we would never have had a St. Paul."

Footnotes:
1.  It is a problem in nature, discussed without success by several
    great physicians, why children born in their seventh month more
    frequently live than those that are brought forth in their eighth
    month.
2.  Aug. Sales de Vit. l. {} p. 123.
3.  The saint being on his return to Savoy, was informed that a convent
    of religious women, of the order of Fontevrault, received
    superfluous pensions. He wrote about it to those religious, and
    after giving testimony to their virtue, in order to gain their
    confidence, he conjured them, in the strongest and most pathetic
    terms, to banish such an abuse from their monastery; persuaded that
    such pensions were not exempt from sin, were an obstacle to monastic
    perfection, and opposite to their essential vow of poverty;
    lamenting that after doing so much they should, for the sake of one
    small reserve, destroy the merit of their whole sacrifice. This
    letter is extremely useful and beautiful. L. 1, ep. 41, t. 1, p.
    136.
4.  Aug. Sales in Vit.
5.  Aug. Sales in Vit.
6.  Quel est le meilleur Gouvernment, &c. ch. 8, p. 298.

SAINT SULPICIUS SEVERUS[1]

DISCIPLE OF ST. MARTIN.

HE was born in Aquitaine, not at Agen, as Scaliger, Vossius, Baillet,
&c., have falsely inferred from a passage of his history,[2] but near
Toulouse. That he was of a very rich and illustrious Roman family, we
are assured by the two Paulinus's, and Gennadius.[3] His youth he spent
in studying the best Roman authors of the Augustan age, upon whom he
formed his style, not upon the writers of his own time: he also applied
himself to the study of the laws, and surpassed all his contemporaries
in eloquence at the bar. His wife was a lady of a consular family, whom
he lost soon after their marriage, but he continued to enjoy a very
great estate which he had inherited by her. His mother-in-law, Bassula,
loved him constantly, as if he had been her own son: they continued to
live several years in the same house, and had in all things the same
mind.[4] The death of his beloved consort contributed to wean his heart
from the world: in which resolution he seems to have been confirmed by
the example and exhortations of his pious mother-in-law. His conversion
from the world happened in the same year with that of St. Paulinus of
Nola,[5] though probably somewhat later: and St. Paulinus mentions that
Sulpicius was younger than himself, and at that time (that is, about the
year 392) in the flower of his age. De Prato imagines Sulpicius to have
been ten years younger than St. Paulinus, consequently that he was
converted in the thirty-second year of his age. Whereas St. Paulinus
distributed his whole fortune among the poor at once; Sulpicius reserved
his estates to himself and his heirs, employing the yearly revenue on
the poor, and in other pious uses, so that he was no more than a servant
of the church and the poor, to keep accounts for them.[6] But he sold so
much of them as was necessary to discharge him of all obligations to
others. Gennadius tells us that he was promoted to the priesthood; but
from the silence of St. Paulinus, St. Jerom, and others, Tillemont and
De Prato doubt of this circumstance. Sulpicius suffered much from the
censures of friends, who condemned his retreat, having chosen for his
solitude a cottage at Primuliacus, a village now utterly unknown in
Aquitaine, probably in Languedoc. In his kitchen nothing was ever
dressed but pulse and herbs, boiled without any seasoning, except a
little vinegar: he ate also coarse bread. He and his few disciples had
no other beds but straw of sackcloth spread on the ground. He set at
liberty several of his slaves, and admitted them, and some of his old
servants, to familiar intercourse and {304} conversation. About the year
394, not long after his retreat, he made a visit to St. Martin at Tours,
and was so much taken with his saintly comportment, and edified by his
pious discourses and counsels, that he became from that time his
greatest admirer, and regulated his conduct by his direction. Ever after
he visited that great saint once or twice almost every summer as long as
he lived, and passed some time with him, that he might study more
perfectly to imitate his virtues. He built and adorned several churches.
For two which he founded at Primuliacus, he begged some relics of St.
Paulinus, who sent him a piece of the cross on which our Saviour was
crucified, with the history of its miraculous discovery by St.
Helena.[7] This account Sulpicius inserted in his ecclesiastical
history. These two saints sent frequent presents to each other, of poor
garments or the like things, suitable to a penitential life, upon which
they make in their letters beautiful pious reflections, that show how
much they were accustomed to raise their thoughts to God from every
object.[8] Our saint recommending to St. Paulinus a cook, facetiously
tells him that he was utterly a stranger to the art of making sauces,
and to the use of pepper, or any such incentives of gluttony, his skill
consisting only in gathering and boiling herbs in such a manner that
monks, who only eat after having fasted long, would find delicious. He
prays his friend to treat him as he would his own son, and wishes he
could himself have served him and his family in that quality.[9] In the
year 399 St. Paulinus wrote to our saint that he hoped to have met him
at Rome, whither he went to keep the feast of the prince of the
apostles, and where he had stayed ten days, but without seeing any thing
but the tombs of the apostles, before which he passed the mornings, and
the evenings were taken up by friends who called to see him.[10]
Sulpicius answered, that an indisposition had hindered him from
undertaking that journey. Of the several letters mentioned by Gennadius,
which Sulpicius Severus wrote to the devout virgin Claudia, his sister,
two are published by Baluze.[11] Both are strong exhortations to fervor
and perseverance. In the first, our saint assures her that he shed tears
of joy in reading her letter, by which he was assured of her sincere
desire of serving God. In a letter to Aurelius the deacon, he relates
that one night in a dream he saw St. Martin ascend to heaven in great
glory, and attended by the holy priest Clarus, his disciple, who was
lately dead: soon after, two monks arriving from Tours, brought news of
the death of St. Martin. He adds, that his greatest comfort in the loss
of so good a master, was a confidence that he should obtain the divine
blessings by the prayers of St. Martin in heaven. St. Paulinus mentions
this vision in an inscription in verse, which he made and sent to be
engraved on the marble altar of the church of Primuliacus.[12] St.
Sulpicius wrote the life of the incomparable St. Martin, according to
Tillemont and most others, before the death of that saint: but De Prato
thinks, that though it was begun before, it was neither finished nor
published till after his death. The style of this piece is plainer and
more simple than that of his other writings. An account of the death of
St. Martin, which is placed by De Prato in the year 400, is accurately
given by St. Sulpicius in a letter to Bassula, his mother-ill-law, who
then lived at Triers. The three dialogues of our saint are the most
florid of all his writings. In the first Posthumian, a friend who had
spent three years in the deserts of Egypt and the East, and was then
returned, relates to him and Gallus, a disciple of St. Martin, (with
whom our saint then lived under the same roof,) the wonderful examples
of virtue he had seen abroad. In the second dialogue, Gallus recounts
{305} many circumstances of the life of St. Martin, which St. Sulpicius
had omitted in his history of that saint. In the third, under the name
of the same Gallus, several miracles wrought by St. Martin are proved by
authentic testimonies.[13] The most important work of our saint is his
abridgment of sacred history from the beginning of the world down to his
own time, in the year 400. The elegance, conciseness, and perspicuity
with which this work is compiled, have procured the author the name of
the Christian Sallust; some even prefer it to the histories of the Roman
Sallust, and look upon it as the most finished model extant of
abridgments.[14] His style is the most pure of any of the Latin fathers,
though also Lactantius, Minutius Felix, we may almost add St. Jerom, and
Salvian of Marseilles, deserve to be read among the Latin classics. The
heroic sanctity of Sulpicius Severus is highly extolled by St. Paulinus
of Nola, Paulinus of Perigueux, about the year 460.[15] Venantius
Fortunatus, and many others, down to the present {306} age. Gennadius
tells us, that he was particularly remarkable for his extraordinary love
of poverty and humility. After the death of St. Martin, in 400, St.
Sulpicius Severus passed five years in that illustrious saint's cell at
Marmoutier. F. Jerom de Prato thinks that he at length retired to a
monastery at Marseilles, or in that neighborhood; because in a very
ancient manuscript copy of his works, transcribed in the seventh
century, kept in the library of the chapter of Verona, he is twice
called a monk of Marseilles. From the testimony of this manuscript, the
Benedictin authors of the new treatise On the Diplomatique,[16] and the
continuators of the Literary History of France,[17] regard it as
undoubted that Sulpicius Severus was a monk at Marseilles before his
death. While the Alans, Sueves, and Vandals from Germany and other
barbarous nations, laid waste most provinces in Gaul in 406, Marseilles
enjoyed a secure peace under the government of Constantine, who, having
assumed the purple, fixed the seat of his empire at Arles from the year
407 to 410. After the death of St. Chrysostom in 407, Cassian came from
Constantinople to Marseilles, and founded there two monasteries, one for
men, the other for women. Most place the death of St. Sulpicius Severus
about the year 420, Baronius after the year 432; but F. Jerom de Prato
about 410, when he supposes him to have been near fifty years old,
saying that Gennadius, who tells us that he lived to a very great age,
is inconsistent with himself. Neither St. Paulinus nor any other writer
mentions him as living later than the year 407, which seems to prove
that he did not survive that epoch very many years. Guibert, abbot of
Gemblours, who died in 1208, in his Apology for Sulpicius Severus,[18]
testifies that his festival was kept at Marmoutier with great solemnity
on the 29th of January. Several editors of the Roman Martyrology, who
took Sulpicius Severus, who is named in the calendars on this day, to
have been this saint, added in his eulogium, Disciple of St. Martin,
famous for his learning and merits. Many have proved that this addition
was made by the mistake of private editors, and that the saint
originally meant here in the Roman Martyrology was Sulpicius Severus,
bishop of Bourges;[19] and Benedict XIV. proves and declares[20] that
Sulpicius Severus, the disciple of St. Martin, is not commemorated in
the Roman Martyrology. Nevertheless, he has been ranked among the saints
at Tours from time immemorial, and is honored with a particular office
on this day in the new breviary used in all that diocese. See his works
correctly printed, with various readings, notes, dissertations, and the
life of this saint, at Verona in 1741, in two volumes folio, by F. Jerom
de Prato, an Italian Oratorian of Verona: also Gallia Christiana tum
Vetus tum Nova: Tillemont, t. 12. Ceillier, t. 10, p. 635. Rivet, Hist.
Littér. de la France, t. 2, p. 95.

Footnotes:
1.  Severus was his own proper name, Sulpicius that of his family, as is
    testified by Gennadius and all antiquity. Vossius, Dupin, and some
    others, on this account, will have him called Severus Sulpicius,
    with Eugippius and St. Gregory of Tours. But other learned men
    agree, that after the close of the republic of Rome, under the
    emperors, the family name was usually placed first, though still
    called Cognomen, and the other Prænomen, because the proper name
    went anciently before the other. Thus we say Cæcilius Cyprianus,
    Eusebius Hieronymus, Aurelius Agustinus, &c. See Sirmond, Ep.
    præfixe Op. Serva. Lapi, and Hier. De Prato in vita Sulpicii Severi,
    p. 56, &c.
2.  Sulp. Sev. Hist. l. 2, c. 44.
3.  {Footnote not in text} Ib. c. 48, and Ep. ad Bassulam. de Prato, p.
    57.
4.  S. Paulinus, Ep. 5 & 35.
5.  Ib. Ep. 11, n. 6.
6.  S. Paulinus, Ep. 1 & 24.
7.  Ib. Ep. 52.
8.  Sulpic. Sev. Ep. ad Paulin. ed à D'Achery in Spicileg. t. 52, p.
    532, et inter opera S. Paulini, p. 119.
9.  Ibid.
10. S. Paulin. Ep. ad Sulpic. Sev. p. 96.
11. Baluze, t. 1, Miscellan. p. 329.
12. S. Paulinus, Ep. 32, p. 204.
13. Many, upon the authority of St. Jerom, rank Sulpicius Severus among
    the Millenarians, though all allow that he never defended any error
    so as to be out of the communion of the church. But that he could
    not be properly a Millenarian, seems clear from several parts of his
    writings. For, Ep. 2 and 3, he affirms, that the souls of St. Martin
    and St. Clarus passed from this world to the immediate beatific
    vision of God. He establishes the same principles, Ep. 1, ad
    Claudiam Soror., c. 5. And in his Sacred History, l. 2, c. 3,
    explaining the dream of Nabachodonosor, he teaches that the
    destruction of the kingdoms of this world will be immediately
    succeeded by the eternal reign of Christ with his saints in heaven.
    In the passage, Dial. 2, c. 14, upon which the charge is founded,
    Sulpicius relates, in the discourse of Gallus, that St. Martin, on a
    certain occasion, said, that the reign of Nero in the West, and his
    persecution, were immediate forerunners of the last day: as is the
    reign of Antichrist in the East, who will rebuild Jerusalem and its
    temple, reside in the same, restore circumcision, kill Nero, and
    subject the whole world to his empire. Where he advances certain
    false conjectures about the reign of Nero, and the near approach of
    the last judgment at that time: likewise the restoration of
    Jerusalem by Antichrist; though this last is maintained probable by
    cardinal Bellarmin, l. 3, de Rom. Pontif. c. 13. But the Millenarian
    error is not so much as insinuated. Nor could it have been inserted
    by the author in that passage and omitted by copiers, as De Prato
    proves, against that conjecture of Tillemont. St. Jerom, indeed, l.
    11, in Ezech. c. 36, represents certain Christian writers who
    imitated some later Jews in their Deuteroseis in a carnal manner of
    expounding certain scripture prophecies, expecting a second
    Jerusalem of gold and precious stones, a restoration of bloody
    sacrifices, circumcision, and a Sabbath. Among these he names
    Tertullian, in his book De Spe Fidelium, (now lost,) Lactantius,
    Victorious Petabionensis, and Severus, (Sulpicius,) in his dialogue
    entitled, Gallus, then just published: and among the Greeks, Irenæus
    and Apollinarius. De Prato thinks he only speaks of Sulpicius
    Severus by hearsay, because he mentions only one dialogue called
    Gallus, whereas two bear that title. At least St. Jerom never meant
    to ascribe all these errors to each of those he names; for none of
    them maintained them all except Apollinarius. His intention was only
    to ascribe one point or other of such carnal interpretations to
    each, and to Sulpicius the opinion that Jerusalem, with the temple
    and sacrifices, will be restored by Antichrist, &c., which cannot be
    called erroneous; though St. Jerom justly rejects that
    interpretation, because the desolation foretold by Daniel is to
    endure to the end. In the decree of Gelasius this dialogue of Gallus
    is called Apocryphal, but in the same sense in which it was rejected
    by St. Jerom. Nor is this exposition advanced otherwise than as a
    quotation from St. Martin's answer on that subject. See the
    justification of Sulpicius Severus, in a dissertation printed at
    Venice in 1738, in Racolta di Opuscoli Scientifici, t. 18, and more
    amply by F. Jerom de Prato, Disser. 5, in Opera Sulpicii Severi, t.
    1, p. 259, commended in the Acta Eruditor. Lipsiæ, ad an. 1760.
    Gennadius, who wrote about the year 494, tells us, (Cat. n. 19.)
    that Sulpicius was deceived in his old age by the Pelagians, but
    soon opening his eyes, condemned himself to five years' rigorous
    silence to expiate this fault. From the silence of other authors,
    and the great commendations which the warmest enemies of the
    Pelagians bestow on our saint, especially Paulinus of Milan, in his
    life of St. Ambrose, (written at latest in 423,) and St. Paulinus of
    Nola, and Paulinus of Perigueux, (who in 461 wrote in verse the life
    of St. Martin,) l. 5, v, 193, &c., some look upon this circumstance
    as a slander, which depends wholly on the testimony of so inaccurate
    a writer, who is inconsistent with himself in other matters relating
    to Sulpicius Severus, whose five years' silence might have other
    motives. If the fact be true, it can only be understood of the
    semi-Pelagian error, which had then many advocates at Marseilles,
    and was not distinguished in its name from Pelagianism till some
    years after our saint's death, nor condemned by the church before
    the second council of Orange in 529. Pelagius was condemned by the
    councils of Carthage and Milevis in 416, and by pope Innocent I. in
    412. If Sulpicius Severus fell into any error, especially before it
    had been clearly anathematized by the church, at least he cannot be
    charged with obstinacy, having so soon renounced it. We must add,
    that even wilful offences are blotted out by sincere repentance. See
    F. Jerom de Pram in vita Sulp. Sev., §12, pp. 69 and 74, t. 1, Op.
    Veronæ, 1741.
14. The sacred history of Sulpicius Severus is a most useful classic for
    Christian schools; but not to be studied in the chosen fragments
    mangled by Chompré, and prescribed for the schools in Portugal. True
    improvement of the mind is impossible without the beauties of method
    and the advantages of taste, which are nowhere met with but by
    seeing good compositions entire, and by considering the art with
    which the whole is wound up. A small edition of Sulpicius's history,
    made from that correctly published by De Prato, would be of great
    service. Nevertheless, Sulpicius, though he has so well imitated the
    style of the purest ages, declares that he neglects elegance; and he
    takes the liberty to use certain terms and phrases which are not of
    the Augustan standard, sometimes because they were so familiar in
    his time that he otherwise would not have seemed to write with ease,
    and sometimes because they are necessary to express the mysteries of
    our faith. How shocking is the delicacy of Bembo; who, for fear of
    not being Ciceronian, conjures the Venetians, _per Deos immortales_,
    and uses the words _Dea Lauretana!_ or that of Justus Lipsius, who
    used _Fatum_ or destiny, for Providence, because this latter word is
    not in Cicero, who with the Pagans, usually speaks according to the
    notion of an overruling destiny in events which they by believed
    ordained by heaven. For this term some of Lipsius's works were
    censured, and by him recalled.
15. Vit. St. Martin, versu expressa, l. 5, v. 193, &c.
16. Tr. de Diplomatique, t. 3.
17. Hist. Litter. t. 11, Advertissement preliminaire, p. 5.
18. Published by Bollandus ad 29 Jan. p. 968.
19. See Annalus, Theolog. positivæ, l. 4, c. 26, and Dominic Georgi in
    Notis ad Martyrol. Adonis, ad {} Jan.
20. Benedict. XIV. in litteris apost. præfixis novæ suæ editioni Romani
    Martyrologii, (Romæ, 1749,), §47, p. 34.

ST. GILDAS THE WISE, OR BADONICUS, ABBOT.

HE was son to a British lord, who, to procure him a virtuous education,
placed him in his infancy in the monastery of St. Iltutus in
Glamorganshire. The surname of Badonicus was given him, because, as we
learn from his writings, he was born in the year in which the Britons
under Aurelius Ambrosius, or, according to others, under king Arthur,
gained the famous victory over the Saxons at Mount Badon, now
Bannesdown, near Bath, in Somersetshire. This Bede places in the
forty-fourth year after the first {307} coming of the Saxons into
Britain, which was in 451. Our saint, therefore, seems to have been born
in 494; he was consequently younger than St. Paul, St. Samson, and his
other illustrious school-fellows in Wales: but by his prudence and
seriousness in his youth he seemed to have attained to the maturity of
judgment and gravity of an advanced age. The author of the life of St.
Paul of Leon, calls him the brightest genius of the school of St. Iltut.
His application to sacred studies was uninterrupted, and if he arrived
not at greater perfection in polite literature, this was owing to the
want of masters of that branch in the confusion of those times. As to
improve himself in the knowledge of God and himself was the end of all
his studies, and all his reading was reduced to the study of the science
of the saints, the greater progress he made in learning, the more
perfect he became in all virtues. Studies which are to many a source of
dissipation, made him more and more recollected, because in all books he
found and relished only God, whom alone he sought. Hence sprang that
love for holy solitude, which, to his death, was the constant ruling
inclination of his heart. Some time after his monastic profession, with
the consent, and perhaps by the order of his abbot, St. Iltut, he passed
over into Ireland, there to receive the lessons of the admirable masters
of a religious life, who had been instructed in the most sublime maxims
of an interior life, and formed to the practice of perfect virtue, by
the great St. Patrick. The author of his Acts compares this excursion,
which he made in the spring of his life, to that of the bees in the
season of flowers, to gather the juices which they convert into honey.
In like manner St. Gildas learned, from the instructions and examples of
the most eminent servants of God, to copy in his own life whatever
seemed most perfect. So severe were his continual fasts, that the motto
of St. John Baptist might in some degree be applied to him, that he
scarce seemed to eat or drink at all. A rough hair-cloth, concealed
under a coarse cloak, was his garment, and the bare floor his bed, with
a stone for his bolster. By the constant mortification of his natural
appetites, and crucifixion of his flesh, his life was a prolongation of
his martyrdom, or a perpetual sacrifice which he made of himself to God
in union with that which he daily offered to him on his altars. If it be
true that he preached in Ireland in the reign of king Ammeric, he must
have made a visit to that island from Armorica, that prince only
beginning to reign in 560: this cannot be ascribed to St. Gildas the
Albanian, who died before that time. It was about the year 527, in the
thirty-fourth of his age, that St. Gildas sailed to Armorica, or
Brittany, in France:[1] for he wrote his invective ten years {308} after
his arrival there, and in the forty-fourth year of his age, as is
gathered from his life and writings. Here he chose for the place of his
retirement the little isle of Houac, or Houat, between the coast of
Rhuis and the island of Bellisle, four leagues from the latter. Houat
exceeds not a league in length; the isle of Hoedre is still smaller, not
far distant: both are so barren as to yield nothing but a small quantity
of corn. Such a solitude, which appeared hideous to others, offered the
greatest charms to the saint, who desired to fly, as much as this mortal
state would permit, whatever could interrupt his commerce with God. Here
he often wanted the common necessaries and conveniences of life; but the
greater the privation of earthly comforts was in which he lived, the
more abundant were those of the Holy Ghost which he enjoyed, in
proportion as the purity of his affections and his love of heavenly
things were more perfect. The saint promised himself that he should live
here always unknown to men: but it was in vain for him to endeavor to
hide the light of divine grace under a bushel, which shone forth to the
world, notwithstanding all the precautions which his humility took to
conceal it. Certain fishermen who discovered him were charmed with his
heavenly deportment and conversation, and made known on the continent
the treasure they had found. The inhabitants flocked from the coast to
hear the lessons of divine wisdom which the holy anchoret gave with a
heavenly unction which penetrated their hearts. To satisfy their
importunities, St. Gildas at length consented to live among them on the
continent, and built a monastery at Rhuis, in a peninsula of that name,
which Guerech, the first lord of the Britons about Vannes, is said to
have bestowed upon him. This monastery was soon filled with excellent
disciples and holy monks. St. Gildas settled them in good order; then,
sighing after closer solitude, he withdrew, and passing beyond the gulf
of Vannes, and the promontory of Quiberon, chose for his habitation a
grot in a rock, upon the bank of the river Blavet, where he found a
cavern formed by nature extended from the east to the west, which on
that account he converted into a chapel. However, he often visited this
abbey of Rhuis, and by his counsels directed many in the paths of true
virtue. Among these was St. Trifina, daughter of Guerech, first British
count of Vannes. She was married to count Conomor, lieutenant of king
Childebert, a brutish and impious man, who afterwards murdered her, and
the young son which he had by her, who at his baptism received the name
of Gildas, and was godson to our saint: but he is usually known by the
surname of Treuchmeur, or Tremeur, in Latin Trichmorus. SS. Trifina and
Treuchmeur are invoked in the English Litany of the seventh century, in
Mabillon. The great collegiate church of Carhaix bears the name of St.
Treuchmeur: the church of Quimper keeps his feast on the 8th of
November, on which day he is commemorated in several churches in
Brittany, and at St. Magloire's at Paris. A church situated between
Corlai and the abbey of Coetmaloen in Brittany, is dedicated to God
tinder the invocation of St. Trifina.[2]

St. Gildas wrote eight canons of discipline, and a severe invective
against the crimes of the Britons, called De Excidio Britanniæ, that he
might confound {309} those whom he was not able to convert, and whom God
in punishment delivered first to the plunders of the Picts and Scots,
and afterwards to the perfidious Saxons, the fiercest of all nations. He
reproaches their kings, Constantine, (king of the Danmonians, in
Devonshire and Cornwall,) Vortipor, (of the Dimetians, in South Wales,)
Conon, Cuneglas, and Maglocune, princes in other parts of Britain, with
horrible crimes: but Constantine was soon after sincerely converted, as
Gale informs us from an ancient Welsh chronicle.[3] According to John
Fordun[4] he resigned his crown, became a monk, preached the faith to
the Scots and Picts, and died a martyr in Kintyre: but the apostle of
the Scots seems to have been a little more ancient than the former.[5]
Our saint also wrote an invective against the British clergy, whom he
accuses of sloth, of seldom sacrificing at the altar, &c. In his
retirement he ceased not with tears to recommend to God his own cause,
or that of his honor and glory, and the souls of blind sinners, and died
in his beloved solitude in the island of Horac, (in Latin Horata,)
according to Usher, in 570, but according to Ralph of Disse, in 581.[6]
St. Gildas is patron of the city of Vannes. The abbey which bears his
name in the peninsula of Rhuis, between three and four leagues from
Vannes, is of the reformed congregation of St. Maur since the year 1649.
The relics of St. Gildas were carried thence for fear of the Normans
into Berry, about the year 919, and an abbey was erected there on the
banks of the river Indre, which was secularized and united to the
collegiate church of Chateauroux in 1623. St. Gildas is commemorated in
the Roman Martyrology on the 29th of January. A second commemoration of
him is made in some places on the 11th of May, on account of the
translation of his relics. His life, compiled from the ancient archives
of Rhuis by a monk of that house, in the eleventh century, is the best
account we have of him, though the author confounds him sometimes with
St. Gildas the Albanian. It is published in the library of Fleury, in
Bollandus, p. 954, and most correctly in Mabillon, Act. SS. Ord. Saint
Belled. t. 1, p. 138. See also Dom Lobineau, Vies des Saints de
Bretagne, (fol. an. 1725,) p. 72, and Hist. de la {310} Bretagne, (2
vol. fol. an. 1707,) and the most accurate Dom Morice, Mémoires Sur
l'Histoire de Bretagne, 3 vol. fol. in 1745, and Hist. de la Bretagne, 2
vol. fol. an. 1750.

Footnotes:
1.  Armorica, which word in the old Celtic language signified a maritime
    country, comprised that part of Celtic Gaul which is now divided
    into Brittany, Lower Normandy, Anjou, Maine, and Touraine. Tours was
    the capital, and still maintains the metropolitical dignity. By St.
    Gatian, about the middle of the third century, the faith was first
    planted in those parts: but the entire extirpation of idolatry was
    reserved to the zeal of British monks. Dom Morice distinguishes
    three principal transmigrations of inhabitants from Great Britain
    into Armorica: the first, when many fled from the arms of Carausius
    and Allectus, who successively assumed the purple in Great Britain:
    Constance made these fugitives welcome in Gaul, and allowed them to
    settle on the coast of Armorica about the year 293. A second and
    much larger colony of Britons was planted here under Conan, a
    British prince by Maximus, whom all the British youth followed into
    Gaul in 383. After the defeat of Maximus, these Armorican Britons
    chose this Conan, surnamed Meriedec, king, formed themselves into an
    independent state, and maintained their liberty against several
    Roman generals in the decline of that empire, and against the Alans,
    Vandals, Goths, and other barbarians. Des Fontaines, (Diss. p. 118,)
    and after him Dom Morice. demonstrates that Brittany was an
    independent state before the year 421. The third transmigration of
    Britons hither was completed at several intervals while the Saxons
    invaded and conquered Britain, where Hengist first landed in 470.
    Brittany was subjected to the Romans during four centuries: an
    independent state successively under the title of a kingdom, county,
    and duchy, for the space of about eleven hundred and fifty years,
    and has been united to the kingdom of France ever since the year
    1532, by virtue of the marriage of king Charles VIII. with Anne,
    sole heiress of Brittany, daughter of duke Francis, celebrated in
    1491. This province was subdued by Clovis I., who seems to have
    treacherously slain Budic, king of Brittany. This prince left six
    sons, Howel I., Ismael, bishop of Menevia, St. Tifel, honored as a
    martyr at Pennalun, St. Oudecee, bishop of Landaff, Urbian or
    Concur, and Dinot, father of St. Kineda. Brittany remained subject
    to the sons of Clovis, and it was by the authority of Childobert
    that St. Paul was made bishop of Leon in 512. But Howel, returning
    from the court of king Arthur in 513, recovered the greater part of
    these dominions. See Dom Morice, Hist. t. 1, p. 14. Howel I., often
    called Rioval, that is, king Rowel, was a valiant prince, and
    liberal to churches and monasteries. Among many sons whom he left
    behind him, Howel II. succeeded him, and two are honored among the
    saints, viz. St. Leonor or Lunaire, and St. Tudgual or Pabutual,
    first Bishop of Treguier. See Morice. t. 1, pp. 14. and 729. Howel
    III., alias Juthael, recovered all Brittany. King Pepin again
    conquered this country, and Charlemagne and Louis le Débonnaire
    quelled it when it thrice rebelled. The latter established the
    Benedictin rule at Llandevenec. which probably was soon imitated in
    others: for the monastic rule which first prevailed here was that of
    the Britons in Wales, borrowed from the Orientals. After the
    straggles made by this province for its liberty, Charles the Bald
    yielded it up in 858, and some time after treated Solomon III. as
    king of Brittany. See Morice, Des Fontaines, &c.
2.  In this churchyard stands an ancient pyramid, on which are engraved
    letters of an unknown alphabet, supposed to be that of the Britons
    and Gauls before the Roman alphabet was introduced among them.
    Letters of the same alphabet are found upon some other monuments of
    Brittany. See Lobineau, Vies des Saints de la Bretagne. in St.
    Treuchmeur, p. 8. Dom Morice endeavors to prove that the Welsh, the
    old British, and the Celtic, are the same language. (Hist. t. 1, p.
    867.) That they are so in part is unquestionable.
3.  Mr. Vaughan, in his British Antiquities revived, printed at Oxford
    in 1662, shows that there were at this time many princes or
    chieftains among the Britons in North Wales, but that they all held
    their lands of one sovereign, though each in his own district was
    often honored with the title of king. The chief prince at this time
    was Maelgun Gwynedth, the lineal heir and eldest descendant of
    Cuneda, who flourished in the end of the fourth, or beginning of the
    fifth century, and from one or other of whose eight sons all the
    princes of North Wales, also those of Cardigan, Dimetia, Glamorgan,
    and others in South Wales, derived their descent. The ancient
    author, published at the end of Nenbius, says Maelgun began his
    reign one hundred and forty-six years after Cuaedha, who was his
    Atavus, or great-grandfather's grandfather. Maelgun was prince only
    of Venedotia for twenty-five years before he was acknowledged in
    564, after the death of Arthur, chief king of the Britons in Wales,
    while St. David was primate, Arthur king of the Britons in general,
    Gurthmyll king, and St. Kentigern bishop of the Cumbrian Britons.
    "He had received a good education under the elegant instructor of
    almost all Britain," says Gildas, pointing out probably St. Iltutus.
    Yet he fell into enormous vices. Touched with remorse, he retired
    into a monastery in 552; but being soon tired of that state,
    reassumed his crown, and relapsed into his former impieties. He died
    in 565. Gildas, who wrote his epistle De Excidio Britanniæ, between
    the years 564 and 570, that of his death, hints that Veralam was
    then fallen into the hands of the Saxons: which is certain of
    London, &c. The other princes reprehended by Gildas were lesser
    toparchs, as Aurelius Canon, Vortipor, Cuneglas, and Constantine.
    These were chieftains, Vortipor in Pembrokeshire, the rest in some
    quarter or other of Britain, all living when Gildas wrote.
    Constantine, whom Gildas represents as a native of Cornwall, and as
    he is commonly understood, also as prince of that country, did
    penance. The chief crime imputed to him is the murder of two royal
    youths in a church, and of two noblemen who had the charge of their
    education. Those Carte imagines to have been the sons of Caradoc
    Ureich Uras, who was chief prince of the Cornish Britons in the
    latter end of king Arthur's reign, as is attested by the author of
    the Triades. The prelates whom Gildas reproves, were such as Maelgun
    had promoted: for the sees of South-Wales were at that time filled
    with excellent prelates, whose virtues Gildas desired to copy.
    Carte, t. 1, p. 214.
4.  Scoti-chron. c. 26.
5.  Gildas's epistle, De Excidio Britanniæ, was published extremely
    incorrect and incomplete, till the learned Thomas Gale gave us a far
    more accurate and complete edition, t. 3, Scriptor. Britan., which
    is reprinted with notes by Bertrame in Germany, Hanniæ imp. an.
    1757, together with Nennius's history of the Britons, and Richard
    Corin, of Westminster, De Situ Britanniæ. Gildas's Castigatio Cleri
    is extant in the library of the fathers, ed. Colon. t. 5, part 3, p.
    682.
6.  Dom Morice shows that about one hundred and twenty years were an
    ordinary term of human life among the ancient Britons, and that
    their usual liquor, called Kwrw, made of barley and water, was a
    kind of beer, a drink most suitable to the climate and constitutions
    of the inhabitants. See Dom Morice, Mémoires sur l'Histoire de
    Bretange, t. 1, preface; and Lamery, Diss. sur les Boissons.

ST. GILDAS THE ALBANIAN, OR THE SCOT, C.[1]

HIS father, who was called Caunus, and was king of certain southern
provinces in North Britain, was slain in war by king Arthur. St. Gildas
improved temporal afflictions into the greatest spiritual advantages,
and, despising a false and treacherous world, aspired with his whole
heart to a heavenly kingdom. Having engaged himself in a monastic state,
he retired with St. Cado, abbot of Llan-carvan, into certain desert
islands, whence they were driven by pirates from the Orcades. Two
islands, called Ronech and Ecni, afforded him for some time a happy
retreat, which he forsook to preach to sinners the obligation of doing
penance, and to invite all men to the happy state of divine love. After
discharging this apostolical function for several years, he retired to
the southwest part of Britain into the abbey of Glastenbury, where he
died and was buried in 512. William of Malmesbury[2] and John Fordun[3]
mention his prophecies and miracles. See F. Alford, an. 512. Dom
Lobineau, Saints de Bret. p. 72. Dom Morice, Hist. de Bret. t. 1, in the
notes.

Footnotes:
1.  Mr. Gale has cleared up the dispute about the two Gildases, and
    demonstrates this to have been a distinct person from the former,
    which is also proved by Dom Lobineau and Dom Morice.
2.  Gul. Malmesb. de Antiq. Glast.
3.  Scoti-chron. c. 22.

On this day is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology, ST. SABINIANUS of
TROYES in CHAMPAGNE, a martyr of the third century. His festival is kept
at Troyes on the 24th. See Bollan. 29th Jan. p. 937. Tillem. Hist. des
Emp, t. 3, p. 541.

Also, ST. SULPICIUS, surnamed SEVERUS, Bishop of Bourges in 591. See
Greg. Tour. Hist. Franc. l. 6, c. 39. Gall. Christ. and Ben. XIV. Pref.
in Mart. Rom.


JANUARY XXX.

ST. BATHILDES, QUEEN OF FRANCE.

From her life written by a contemporary author, and a second life, which
is the same with the former, except certain additions of a later date,
in Bollandus and Mabillon, sec. 4, Ben. p. 447, and Act. Sanct. Ben. t.
2. See also Dubois, Hist. Eccl. Paris, p. 198, and Chatelain. Notes on
the Martyr. 30 Jan. p. 462. See Historia St. Bathildis et Fundationem
ejus, among the MS. lives of saints in the abbey of Jumieges, t. 2. Also
her MS. life at Bec, &c.

A.D. 680.

ST. BATHILDES, or BALDECHILDE, in French Bauteur, was an English-woman,
who was carried over very young into France, and there sold for a slave,
at a very low price, to Erkenwald, otherwise called Erchinoald, and,
Archimbald, mayor of the palace under King Clovis II. When she grew up
he was so much taken with her prudence and virtue, that he committed to
her the care of his household. She was no ways puffed up, but seemed
{311} the more modest, more submissive to her fellow-slaves, and always
ready to serve the meanest of them in the lowest offices. King Clovis
II. in 649 took her for his royal consort, with the applause of his
princes and whole kingdom: such was the renown of her extraordinary
endowments. This unexpected elevation, which would have turned the
strongest head of a person addicted to pride, produced no alteration in
a heart perfectly grounded to humility and other virtues. She seemed
even to become more humble than before, and more tender of the poor. Her
present station furnished her with the means of being truly their
mother, which she was before in the inclination and disposition of her
heart. All other virtues appeared more conspicuous in her, but above the
rest an ardent zeal for religion. The king gave her the sanction of his
royal authority for the protection of the church, the care of the poor,
and the furtherance of all religions undertakings. She bore him three
sons, who all successively wore the crown, Clotaire III., Childeric II.,
and Thierry I. He dying in 655, when the eldest was only five years old,
left her regent of the kingdom. She seconded the zeal of St. Owen, St.
Eligius, and other holy bishops, and with great pains banished simony
out of France, forbade Christians to be made slaves,[1] did all in her
power to promote piety, and filled France with hospitals and pious
foundations. She restored the monasteries of St. Martin, St. Denys, St.
Medard, &c., founded the great abbey of Corbie for a seminary of virtue
and sacred learning, and the truly royal nunnery of Chelles,[2] on the
Marne, which had been begun by St. Clotildis. As soon as her son
Clotaire was of an age to govern, she with great joy shut herself up in
this monastery of Chelles, in 665, a happiness which she had long
earnestly desired, though it was with great difficulty that she obtained
the consent of the princes. She had no sooner taken the veil but she
seemed to have forgotten entirely her former dignity, and was only to be
distinguished from the rest by her extreme humility, serving them in the
lowest offices, and obeying the holy abbess St. Bertilla as the last
among the sisters. She prolonged her devotions every day with many
tears, and made it her greatest delight {312} to visit and attend the
sick, whom she comforted and served with wonderful charity. St. Owen, in
his life of St. Eligius, mentions many instances of the great veneration
which St. Bathildes bore that holy prelate, and relates that St.
Eligius, after his death, in a vision by night, ordered a certain
courtier to reprove the queen for wearing jewels and costly apparel in
her widowhood, which she did not out of pride, but because she thought
it due to her state while she was regent of the kingdom. Upon this
admonition, she laid them aside, distributed a great part to the poor,
and with the richest of her jewels made a most beautiful and sumptuous
cross, which she placed at the head of the tomb of St. Eligius. She was
afflicted with long and severe colics and other pains, which she
suffered with an admirable resignation and joy. In her agony she
recommended to her sisters charity, care of the poor, fervor, and
perseverance, and gave up her soul in devout prayer, on the 30th of
January, in 680, on which day she is honored in France, but is named on
the 26th in the Roman Martyrology.

       *       *       *       *       *

A Christian, who seriously considers that he is to live here but a
moment, and will live eternally in the world to come, must confess that
it is a part of wisdom to refer all his actions and views to prepare
himself for that everlasting dwelling, which is his true country. Our
only and necessary affair is to live for God, to do his will, and to
sanctify and save our souls. If we are employed in a multiplicity of
exterior business, we must imitate St. Bathildes, when she bore the
whole weight of the state. In all we do God and his holy will must be
always before our eyes, and to please him must be our only aim and
desire. Shunning the anxiety of Martha, and reducing all our desires to
this one of doing what God requires of us, we must with her call in Mary
to our assistance. In the midst of action, while our hands are at work,
our mind and heart ought to be interiorly employed on God, at least
virtually, that all our employments may be animated with the spirit of
piety: and hours of repose must always be contrived to pass at the feet
of Jesus, where in the silence of all creatures we may listen to his
sweet voice, refresh in him our wearied souls, and renew our fervor.
While we converse with the world, we must tremble at the sight of its
snares, and be upon our guard that we never be seduced so far as to be
in love with it, or to learn its spirit. To love the world, is to follow
its passions; to be proud, covetous, and sensual, as the world is. The
height of its miseries and dangers, is that blindness by which none who
are infected with its spirit, see their misfortune, or are sensible of
their disease. Happy are they who can imitate this holy queen in
entirely separating themselves from it!

Footnotes:
1.  The Franks, when they established themselves in Gaul, allowed the
    Roman Gauls to live according to their own laws and customs, and
    tolerated their use of slaves, but gradually mitigated their
    servitude. Queen Bathildes alleviated the heaviest conditions, gave
    great numbers their liberty, and declared all capable of property.
    The Franks still retained slaves with this condition, attached to
    certain manors or farms, and bound to certain particular kinds of
    servitude. The kings of the second race often set great numbers
    free, and were imitated by other lords. Queen Blanche and Saint
    Lewis contributed more than any others to ease the condition of
    vassals, and Louis Hutin abolished slavery in France, declaring all
    men free who live in that kingdom according to the spirit of
    Christianity, which teaches us to treat all men as our brethren. See
    the life of St. Bathildes, and Gratigny, [OE]vres posthumes, an. 1757.
    Disc. sur la Servitude et son Abolition en France.
2.  In the village of Chelles, in Latin Cala, four leagues from Paris,
    the kings of the first race had a palace. St. Clotildis founded near
    it a small church under the invocation of St. George, with a small
    number of cells adjoining for nuns. St. Bathildes so much enlarged
    this monastery as to be looked upon as the principal foundress. The
    old church of St. George falling to decay, Saint Bathildes built
    there the magnificent church of the Holy Cross, in which she was
    buried. Gisela, sister to the emperor Charlemagne, abbess of this
    house, rebuilt the great church, which some pretend to be the same
    that is now standing. At present here are three churches together;
    the first, which is small, the oldest, and only a choir, is called
    the church of the Holy Cross, and is used by six monks who assist
    the nuns; the lowest church is called St. George's, and is a
    parochial church for the seculars who live within the jurisdiction
    of the monastery: the great church which serves the nuns is
    dedicated under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin, and is said to
    be the same that was built by the abbess Gisela, and much enlarged
    and enriched by Hegilvich, abbess of this monastery, mother to the
    empress Judith, whose husband, Louis le Débonnaire, caused the
    remains of our saint to be translated into this new church, in 833,
    and from this treasure it is more frequently called the church of
    St. Bathlides, than our Lady's. Two rich silver shrines are placed
    over the iron rails of the chancel, in one of which rest the sacred
    remains of St. Bathildes, in the other those of St. Bertilla, first
    abbess of Chelles: these rails, which are of admirable workmanship,
    were the present of an illustrious princess of the house of Bourbon,
    Mary Adelaide of Orleans, abbess of this house in 1725, who not
    thinking her sacrifice complete by having renounced the world, after
    some years abdicated her abbacy, and died in the condition of humble
    obedience, and of a private religious woman, near the shrines of SS.
    Bathildes and Bertilla, and those of St. Genesius of Lyons, St.
    Eligius and Radegondes of Chelles, called also little St. Bathildes.
    The last-mentioned princess was god-daughter to our saint, and died
    in her childhood, in this monastery, two or three days before her.
    See Piganiol's Descr. de Paris, t. 1 and S. Chatelain's notes in
    martyr. p. 464, and especially Le Boeuf, Hist. du Diocese de Paris,
    t. 6, p. 32. This author gives (p. 43) the full relation of a
    miracle approved by John Francis Gondy, archbishop of Paris,
    mentioned in a few words by Mabillon and Baillet. Six nuns were
    cured of inveterate distempers, attended with frequent fits of
    convulsions, by touching the relics of Saint Bathildes, when her
    shrine was opened on the 13th of July, in 1631.

ST. MARTINA, V.M.

SHE was a noble Roman virgin, who glorified God, suffering many torments
and a cruel death for his faith, in the capital city of the world, in
the third century. There stood a chapel consecrated to her memory in
Rome, which was frequented with great devotion in the time of St.
Gregory the Great. Her relics were discovered in a vault, in the ruins
of her old church, and translated with great pomp in the year 1634,
under the pope Urban VIII., who built a new church in her honor, and
composed himself the hymns used in her office in the Roman Breviary. The
city of Rome ranks her among its particular patrons. She is mentioned in
the Martyrologies of Ado, Usuard, &c. The history of the discovery of
her relics was published by Honoratus of Viterbo, an Oratorian. See
Bollandus.

{313}

ST. ALDEGONDES, V. ABBESS.

SHE was daughter of Walbert, of the royal blood of France, and born in
Hainault about the year 630. She consecrated herself to God by a vow of
virginity, when very young, and resisted all solicitations to marriage,
serving God in the house of her holy parents, till, in 638, she took the
religious veil, and founded and governed a great house of holy virgins
at Maubeuge.[1] She was favored with an eminent gift of prayer, and many
revelations; but was often tried by violent slanders and persecutions,
which she looked upon as the highest favors of the divine mercy, begging
of God that she might be found worthy to suffer still more for his sake.
His divine providence sent her a lingering and most painful cancer in
her breast. The saint bore the torture of her distemper, also the
caustics and incisions of the surgeons, not only with patience, but even
with joy, and expired in raptures of sweet love, on the 30th of January,
in 660, according to Bollandus. Her relics are enshrined in the great
church of Maubeuge, where her monastery is now a college of noble
virgins canonesses. Her name occurs on this day in the ancient breviary
of Autun, and in the martyrologies of Rabanus, Usuard, and Notker: also
in the Roman. At St. Omer, where a parish church bears her name, she is
called Saint Orgonne. See her life written some time after her death: a
second a century later, and a third by Hucbald, a learned monk of St.
Armand's, in 900, with the remarks of Mabillon, (Act. Bened. t. 2, p.
937,) and the Bollandists. Consult also Miræus's Fasti Belgici, and La
Vie de St. Aldegonde, par P. Binet, Jesuite, in 12mo. Paris, 1625.

Footnotes:
1.  The act of this foundation, published by Miræus, is spurious, as
    mention is made therein of persons who were not living at that time:
    neither could it have been made in the twentieth year of Dagobert,
    as it contains facts which cannot be reconciled with the history of
    that prince. See the note of Bollandus, t. 2, p. 1039, and
    Chatelain, p 461.


ST. BARSIMÆUS, B.M.

CALLED BY THE SYRIANS BARSAUMAS.

HE was the third bishop of Edessa from St. Thaddæus, one of the
seventy-two disciples. St. Barsaumas was crowned with martyrdom, being
condemned to die for his zeal in converting great multitudes to the
faith, by the president Lysias, in the reign of Trajan, when that
prince, having passed the Euphrates, made the conquest of Mesopotamia in
114. St. Barsimæus is mentioned on the 30th of January in the Roman
Martyrology, and in the Greek Mænology.

{314}


JANUARY XXXI.

SAINT PETER NOLASCO, C.

FOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF OUR LADY FOR THE REDEMPTION OF CAPTIVES.

From Chronica Sacri et Militaris Ordinis B.M. de Mercede, per Bern. de
Vargas, ej. Ord. 2 vol. in fol. Panormi, 1622, and by John de Latomis in
12mo. in 1621, and especially the Spanish history of the same by Alonso
Roman, 2 vol. fol. at Madrid, in 1618, and the life of the saint
compiled in Italian by F. Francis Olihano, in 4to. 1668. See also
Baillet, and Hist. des Ordres Relig. par Helyot, and Hist de l'Ordre de
Notre Dame de la Merci, par les RR. Pères de la Merci, de la
Congrégation de Paris, fol. printed at Amiens, in 1685.

A.D. 1258.

PETER, of the noble family of Nolasco, in Languedoc, was born in the
diocese of St. Papoul, about the year 1189. His parents were very rich,
but far more illustrious for their virtue. Peter, while an infant, cried
at the sight of a poor man, till something was given him to bestow on
the object of his compassion. In his childhood he gave to the poor
whatever he received for his own use. He was exceeding comely and
beautiful; but innocence and virtue were his greatest ornaments. It was
his pious custom to give a very large alms to the first poor man he met
every morning, without being asked. He rose at midnight, and assisted at
matins in the church, as then the more devout part of the laity used to
do, together with all the clergy. At the age of fifteen he lost his
father, who left him heir to a great estate: and he remained at home
under the government of his pious mother, who brought him up in
extraordinary sentiments and practices of virtue. Being solicited to
marry, he betook himself to the serious consideration of the vanity of
all earthly things; and rising one night full of those thoughts,
prostrated himself in fervent prayer, which he continued till morning,
most ardently devoting himself to God in the state of celibacy, and
dedicating his whole patrimony to the promoting of his divine honor. He
followed Simon of Montfort, general of the holy war against the
Albigenses, an heretical sect, which had filled Languedoc with great
cruelties, and over spread it with universal desolation. That count
vanquished them, and in the battle of Muret defeated and killed Peter,
king of Aragon, and took his son James prisoner, a child of six years
old. The conqueror having the most tender regard and compassion for the
prince his prisoner, appointed Peter Nolasco, then twenty-five years
old, his tutor, and sent them both together into Spain. Peter, in the
midst of the court of the king at Barcelona,[1] where the kings of
Aragon resided, led the life of a recluse, practising the austerities of
a cloister. He gave no part of his time to amusements, but spent all the
moments which the instruction of his pupil left free, in holy prayer,
meditation, and pious reading. The Moors at that time were possessed of
a considerable part of Spain, and great numbers of Christians groaned
under their tyranny in a miserable slavery both there and in Africa.
Compassion for the poor had always been the distinguishing virtue of
Peter. The sight of so many moving objects in captivity, and the
consideration of the spiritual dangers to which their faith and virtue
stood exposed under their Mahometan masters, touched his heart to the
quick, and he soon spent his whole estate in redeeming as many as he
could. Whenever he saw {315} any poor Christian slaves, he used to say:
"Behold eternal treasures which never fail." By his discourses he moved
others to contribute large alms towards this charity, and at last formed
a project for instituting a religious order for a constant supply of men
and means whereby to carry on so charitable an undertaking. This design
met with great obstacles in the execution, but the Blessed Virgin, the
true mother of mercy, appearing to St. Peter, the king, and St. Raymund
of Pennafort, in distinct visions the same night, encouraged them to
prosecute the holy scheme under the assurance of her patronage and
protection. St. Raymund was the spiritual director both of St. Peter and
of the king, and a zealous promoter of this charitable work. The king
declared himself the protector of the Order, and assigned them a large
quarter of his own palace for their abode. All things being settled for
laying the foundation of it, on the feast of St. Laurence, in the year
1223, the king and St. Raymund conducted St. Peter to the church and
presented him to Berengarius, the bishop of Barcelona, who received his
three solemn religious vows, to which the saint added a fourth, to
devote his whole substance and his very liberty, if necessary, to the
ransoming of slaves; the like vow he required of all his followers. St.
Raymund made an edifying discourse on the occasion, and declared from
the pulpit, in the presence of this august assembly, that it had pleased
Almighty God to reveal to the king, to Peter Nolasco, and to himself,
his will for the institution of an Order for the redemption of the
faithful, detained in bondage among the infidels. This was received by
the people with the greatest acclamations of joy, happy presages of the
future success of the holy institute.[2] After this discourse, St. Peter
received the new habit (as Mariana and pope Clement VIII. in his bull
say) from St. Raymund, who established him first general of this new
Order, and drew up for it certain rules and constitutions. Two other
gentlemen were professed at the same time with St. Peter. When St.
Raymund went to Rome, he obtained from pope Gregory IX., in the year
1225, the confirmation of this Order, and of the rule and constitutions
he had drawn up. He wrote an account of this from Rome to St. Peter,
informing him how well pleased his Holiness was with the wisdom and
piety of the institute. The religious chose a white habit, to put them
continually in mind of innocence: they wear a scapular, which is
likewise white: but the king would oblige them, for his sake, to bear
the royal arms of Aragon, which are interwoven on their habit upon the
breast. Their numbers increasing very fast, the saint petitioned the
king for another house; who, on this occasion, built for them, in 1232,
a magnificent convent at Barcelona.[3]

King James having conquered the kingdom of Valencia, founded in it
several rich convents; one was in the city of Valencia, which was taken
by the aid of the prayers of St. Peter, when the soldiers had despaired
of {316} success, tired out by the obstinacy of the besieged and
strength of the place. In thanksgiving for this victory, the king built
the rich monastery in the royal palace of Uneza, near the same city, on
a spot where an image of our Lady was dug up, which is still preserved
in the church of this convent end is famous for pilgrimages. It is
called the monastery of our Lady of mercy del Puche.[4] That prince
attributed to the prayers of Saint Peter thirty great victories which he
obtained over the infidels, and the entire conquest of the two kingdoms
of Valencia and Murcia. St. Peter, after his religious profession,
renounced all his business at court, and no entreaties of the king could
ever after prevail with him to appear there but once, and this was upon
a motive of charity to reconcile two powerful noblemen, who by their
dissension had divided the whole kingdom, and kindled a civil war. The
saint ordained that two members of the Order should be sent together
among the infidels, to treat about the ransom of Christian slaves, and
they are hence called Ransomers. One of the two first employed in this
pious work was our saint; and the kingdom of Valencia was the first
place that was blessed with his labors; the second was that of Granada.
He not only comforted and ransomed a great number of captives, but by
his charity and other rare virtues, was the happy instrument of inducing
many of the Mahometans to embrace the faith of Christ. He made several
other journeys to the coasts of Spain, besides a voyage to Algiers,
where, among other sufferings, he underwent imprisonment for the faith.
But the most terrifying dangers could never make him desist from his
pious endeavors for the conversion of the infidels, burning with a holy
desire of martyrdom. He begged earnestly of his Order to be released
from the burden of his generalship: but by his tears could only obtain
the grant of a vicar to assist him in the discharge of it. He employed
himself in the meanest offices of his convent, and coveted above all
things to have the distribution of the daily alms at the gate of the
monastery: he at the same time instructed the poor in the knowledge of
God and in virtue. St. Louis IX. of France wrote frequently to him, and
desired much to see him. The saint waited on him in Languedoc, in the
year 1243, and the king, who tenderly embraced him, requested him to
accompany him in his expedition to recover the Holy Land. St. Peter
earnestly desired it, but was hindered by sickness, with which he was
continually afflicted during the last years of his life, the effect of
his fatigues and austerities, and he bore it with incomparable patience.
In 1249, he resigned the offices of Ransomer and General, which was six
or seven years before his death. This happened on Christmas-day, in
1256. In his agony, he tenderly exhorted his religious to perseverance,
and concluded with those words of the psalmist: _Our Lord hath sent
redemption to his people; he hath commanded his covenant forever_.[5] He
then recommended his soul to God by that charity with which Christ came
from heaven to redeem us from the captivity of the devil, and melting
into tears of compunction and divine love, he expired, being in the
sixty-seventh year of his age. His relics are honored by many miracles.
He was canonized by pope Urban VIII. His festival was appointed by
Clement VIII. to be kept on the 31st of January.

       *       *       *       *       *

Charity towards all mankind was a distinguishing feature in the
character of the saints. This benevolent virtue so entirely possessed
their hearts, that they were constantly disposed to sacrifice even their
lives to the relief and assistance of others. Zealously employed in
removing their temporal necessities, they labored with redoubled vigor
to succor their spiritual wants, {317} by rooting out from their souls
the dominion of sin, and substituting in its room the kingdom of God's
grace. Ingratitude and ill-treatment, which was the return they
frequently met with for their charitable endeavors, were not able to
allay their ardent zeal: they considered men on these occasions as
patients under the pressure of diseases, more properly the object of
compassion than of resentment. They recommended them to God in their
private devotions, and earnestly besought his mercy in their favor. This
conduct of the saints, extraordinary as it is, ceases to appear
surprising when we recollect the powerful arguments our Blessed Saviour
made use of to excite us to the love of our neighbor. But how shall we
justify our unfeeling hard-heartedness, that seeks every trifling
pretence to exempt us from the duty of succoring the unfortunate? Have
we forgot that Jesus Christ our Redeemer, who alone hath bestowed on us
whatever we possess, hath made charity towards our fellow-creature, but
especially towards the needy, an indispensable precept? Do we not know
that he bids us consider the suffering poor as members of the same head,
heirs of the same promises, as our brethren and his children who
represent him on earth? He declares, that whatever we bestow upon them
he will esteem it as given to himself; and pledges his sacred word that
he will reward our alms with an eternity of bliss. Such motives, says
St. Chrysostom, would be sufficient to touch a heart of stone: but there
is something still more cogent, continues the same holy father, which
is, that the same Jesus Christ, whom we refuse to nourish in the persons
of the poor, feeds our souls with his precious body and blood. If such
considerations move not our hearts to commiserate and assist the
indigent, what share of mercy and relief can we hope for in the hour of
need? Oh, incomprehensible blindness! we perhaps prepare for ourselves
an eternal abyss, by those very means which, properly applied, would
secure as the conquest of a kingdom which will never have an end.[6]

Footnotes:
1.  A century before, the counts of Barcelona were become kings of
    Aragon by a female title, and had joined Catalonia to Aragon, making
    Barcelona their chief residence and capital.
2.  F. Tonron, in the life of St. Raymund, p. 20, quotes an original
    letter of St. Raymund, which mentions this revelation. The
    authenticity of this letter cannot be called in question, being
    proved by F. Bremond, Bullar. Ord. Præd. t. 1, not. in Constit. 36,
    Greg. X. The same revelation is inserted in the bull of the saint's
    canonization, in the Histories of Zumel, Vargas, Penia, &c. Benedict
    XIV. also mentions it, Canoniz. SS. l. 1, c. 41, and proves that it
    cannot reasonably be contested.
3.  This Order consisted at first of some knights, who were dressed like
    seculars, wearing only a scarf or scapular; and of friars who were
    in holy orders, and attended the choir. The knights were to guard
    the coast against the Saracens, but were obliged to choir when not
    on duty. St. Peter himself was never ordained priest; and the first
    seven generals or commanders were chosen out of the knights, though
    the friars were always more numerous. Raymond Albert, in 1317. was
    the first priest who was raised to that dignity; and the popes
    Clement V., and John XXII., ordered that the general should be
    always a priest after which, the knight were incorporated into other
    military Orders, or were rarely renewed. It is styled, "The royal
    military religious Order of our Lady of Mercy for the redemption of
    Captives." It is divided into commanderies, which in Spain are very
    rich. It has eight provinces in America, three in Spain, and one,
    the poorest, in the southern part of France, called the province of
    Guienne. Whereas this Order is not bound to many extraordinary
    domestic austerities, a reformation, obliging the members to go
    barefoot, was established among them in the sixteenth century, and
    approved by pope Clement VIII. It observes the strictest poverty,
    recollection, solitude, and abstinence, and has two provinces in
    Spain, and one in Sicily, besides several nunneries. It was erected
    by F. John Baptist Gonzales, or of the holy sacrament, who died in
    the year 1{}18, and is said to have been honored with miracles.
4.  Podoniensis.
5.  Ps. cx. 9.
6.  S. Chrys. Hom. in illud: Vidua eligatur, &c. t. 3, p. 397. Ed. Ben.

ST. SERAPION, M.

HE was a zealous Englishman, whom St. Peter Nolasco received into his
Order at Barcelona. He made two journeys among the Moors for the ransom
of captives, in 1240. The first was to Murcia, in which he purchased the
liberty of ninety-eight slaves: the second to Algiers, in which he
redeemed eighty-seven, but remained himself a hostage for the full
payment of the money. He boldly preached Christ to the Mahometans, and
baptized several: for which he was cruelly tortured, scourged, cut and
mangled, at length fastened to a cross, and was thereon stabbed and
quartered alive in the same year, 1240. Pope Benedict XIII. declared him
a martyr, and proved his immemorial veneration in his Order, by a decree
in 1728, as Benedict XIV. relates. L. 2, de Canoniz. c. 24, p. 296.

SS. CYRUS AND JOHN, MM.

CYRUS, a physician of Alexandria, who by the opportunities which his
profession gave him, had converted many sick persons to the faith; and
John, an Arabian, hearing that a lady called Athanasia, and her three
daughters, of which the eldest was only fifteen years of age, suffered
torments for the name of Christ at Canope in Egypt, went thither to
encourage them. They were apprehended themselves, and cruelly beaten:
their sides {318} were burnt with torches, and salt and vinegar poured
into their wounds in the presence of Athanasia and her daughters, who
were also tortured after them. At length the four ladies, and a few days
after, Cyrus and John, were beheaded, the two latter on this day. The
Syrians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Latins, honor their memory. See their
acts[1] by St. Sophronius commended in the seventh general council, and
published with remarks by Bollandus.

Footnotes:
1.  St. Cyrus is the same as Abba-Cher, mentioned in the Coptic calendar
    on this day, which is the 8th of their month Mechir. He is called
    Abbacyrus in the life of St. John the Almoner, written by Leontius,
    in many ancient Martyrologies, and other monuments of antiquity.
    Abbacyrus is a Chaldaic word, signifying the Father Cyr. As this
    saint was an Egyptian, it is probable he was originally called
    Pa-Cher, or Pa-Cyrus, the Egyptians having been accustomed to prefix
    the article Pa to the names of men, as we see in Pa-chomis,
    Pa-phantis, Pa-phantis, &c.

    It is said in the acts of our two martyrs, that they were buried at
    Canopus, twelve furlongs from Alexandria, and that their relics were
    afterwards translated to Manutha, a village near Canopus, which was
    celebrated for a great number of miracles wrought there. These
    relies are now in a church at Rome called Sant' Apassara: this word
    being corrupted by the Italians from Abbacyrus. Formerly there were
    many churches in that city dedicated under the invocation of these
    two holy martyrs. See Chatelain, notes on the Rom. Mart, p. 469, et
    seq.

ST. MARCELLA, WIDOW.

SHE IS styled by St. Jerom the glory of the Roman ladies. Having lost
her husband in the seventh month of her marriage, she rejected the suit
of Cerealis the consul, uncle of Gallus Cæsar, and resolved to imitate
the lives of the ascetics of the East. She abstained from wine and
flesh, employed all her time in pious reading, prayer, and visiting the
churches of the apostles and martyrs, and never spoke with any man
alone. Her example was followed by many virgins of the first quality,
who put themselves under her direction, and Rome was in a short time
filled with monasteries. We have eleven letters of St. Jerom to her in
answer to her religious queries. The Goths under Alaric plundered Rome
in 410. St. Marcella was scourged by them for the treasures which she
had long before distributed among the poor. All that time she trembled
only for her dear spiritual pupil, Principia (not her daughter, as some
have reputed her by mistake,) and falling at the feet of the cruel
soldiers, she begged, with many tears, that they would offer her no
insult. God moved them to compassion. They conducted them both to the
church of St. Paul, to which Alaric had granted the right of sanctuary
with that of St. Peter. St. Marcella, who survived this but a short
time, which she spent in tears, prayers, and thanksgiving, closed her
eyes by a happy death, in the arms of St. Principia, about the end of
August, in 410, but her name occurs in the Roman Martyrology on the 31st
of January. See St. Jerom, Ep. 96, ol. 16, ad Principiam, t. 4, p. 778.
Ed. Ben. Baronius ad ann. 410, and Bollandus, t. 2, p. 1105.

ST. MAIDOC, OR MAODHOG,

CALLED ALSO AIDAN AND MOGUE, BISHOP OF FERNS, IN IRELAND.

HE was born in Connaught, a province of Ireland, and seemed from his
infancy to be deeply impressed with the fear of God. He passed in his
early days into Wales, where he lived for a considerable time under the
direction of the holy abbot David. He returned afterwards to his own
country, accompanied with several monks of eminent piety, founded a
great number of churches and monasteries, and was made bishop of Ferns.
He {319} died in 632, according to Usher. His name is celebrated among
the Irish saints. It appears from Cambrensis that his festival was
observed in Wales in the twelfth century. He was also honored in
Scotland.[1] See Colgan, Jan. 31, pp. 208, 223. Chatelain, notes, p.
481.

Footnotes:
1.  There is found in the chronicle of Scone, and in the Breviary of
    Aberdeen, an ancient collect, in which the Divine mercy is implored
    through his intercession. Chatelain tells us that in Lower Brittany
    he is called St. De, (contracted from the Latin word Aideus, or
    Aidanus,) and that the village and church which bear his name,
    celebrate his festival on the 18th of March, the day perhaps on
    which they received some portion of his relics.

{320 blank page}
{321}

_Only Complete and Unabridged Edition with nearly 100 pages of
Chronological and General Index, Alphabetical and Centenary Table, etc._

THE
LIVES
OF
THE FATHERS, MARTYRS,
AND OTHER
PRINCIPAL SAINTS;
COMPILED FROM
ORIGINAL MONUMENTS, AND OTHER AUTHENTIC RECORDS;
ILLUSTRATED WITH THE
REMARKS OF JUDICIOUS MODERN CRITICS AND HISTORIANS,
BY THE REV. ALBAN BUTLER.
_With the approbation of
MOST REV. M. A. CORRIGAN, D.D.,
Archbishop of New York._

VOL. II.

NEW YORK:
P.J. KENEDY,
PUBLISHER TO THE HOLY SEE,
EXCELSIOR CATHOLIC PUBLISHING HOUSE,
5 BARCLAY STREET.
1903.

{322 blank page}
{323}
/*
CONTENTS.
FEBRUARY.

1.                                             PAGE
St. IGNATIUS, Bishop of Antioch, Martyr........ 325
St. Pionius, Priest and Martyr................. 333
St. Bridget, Virgin and Abbess, Patroness of
  Ireland...................................... 334
St Kinnia, Virgin, of Ireland.................. 334
St. Sigebert, King of Austrasia, Confessor..... 337

2.
The Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary.... 337
St. Laurence, Archbishop of Canterbury......... 342

3.
St Blaze, Bishop and Martyr.................... 343
St. Anscharius, Archbishop of Hamburgh and
  Bremen, Confessor............................ 344
St. Wereburge, Virgin and Abbess, in England,
  Patroness of Chester......................... 345
St. Margaret, Virgin in England................ 348

4.
St. Andrew Corsini, Bishop and Confessor....... 349
St. Phileas and Philoromus, Bishop of Thmuis,
  Martyrs...................................... 351
St. Gilbert, Abbot, Founder of the Gilbertins.. 353
St. Jean, or Joan, of Valois, Queen of France.. 353
St. Isidore of Pelusium, Priest................ 354
St Rembert, Archbishop of Bremen, Confessor.... 355
St. Modan, Abbot in Scotland, Confessor........ 355
St. Joseph of Leonissa, Confessor.............. 356

5.
St. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr.................. 357
The Martyrs of Japan........................... 359
Appendix to the Martyrs of China............... 362
SS. Martyrs of Pontus, under Dioclesian........ 366
St. Avitus, Archbishop of Vienne, Confessor.... 366
St. Alice, or Adelaide, Virgin and Abbess...... 366
St. Abraamius, Bishop of Arbela, Martyr........ 367

6.
St. Dorothy, Virgin and Martyr................. 367
St. Vedast, Bishop of Arras, Confessor......... 368
St. Amandus, Bishop and Confessor.............. 369
St. Barsanuphius, Anchoret..................... 370

7.
St. Romuald, Abbot and Confessor, Founder of
  the Order of Camaldoli....................... 370
St. Richard, King in England, and Confessor.... 377
St. Theodorus, of Heraclea, Martyr............. 377
St. Tresain, or Tresanus, Priest and Confessor. 378
St. Augulus, Bishop in England, and Martyr..... 379

8.
St. John of Matha, Confessor, Founder of the
  Order of Trinitarians........................ 379
St. Stephen of Grandmont, Abbot................ 382
Appendix to the Life of St. Stephen............ 384
St. Paul, Bishop of Verdun, Confessor.......... 384
St. Cuthman, in England, Confessor............. 385

9.
St. Apollonia, Virgin and Martyr............... 388
St. Nicephorus, Martyr......................... 388
St. Theliau, Bishop in England, and Confessor.. 489
St. Ansbert, Archbishop of Rouen in 695,
  Confessor.................................... 390
St. Attracta, or Tarahata, Virgin, in Ireland.. 390
St. Erhard, Abbot and Confessor, native of
  Scotland..................................... 390

10.
St. Scholastica, Virgin........................ 391
St. Soteris, Virgin and Martyr................. 393
St. William of Maleval, Hermit, and Institutor
  of the Order of Gulielmites.................. 393
St. Erlulph, Bishop and Martyr, native of
  Scotland..................................... 305

11.
SS. Saturninus, Dativus, and others, Martyrs of
  Africa....................................... 395
St. Severinus, Abbot of Agaunum................ 397
St. Theodora, Empress.......................... 398

12.
St. Benedict of Anian, Abbot................... 398
St. Meletius, Patriarch of Antioch, Confessor.. 401
St. Eulalia, Virgin, of Barcelona, Martyr...... 405
St. Antony Cauleas, Patriarch of
  Constantinople, Confessor.................... 405

13.
St. Catharine de Ricci, Virgin................. 406
St. Licinius, Bishop of Angers, Confessor...... 408
St. Polyeuctus, Martyr......................... 409
St. Gregory II., Pope and Confessor............ 410
St. Martinianus, Hermit at Athens.............. 412
St. Modomnoc, or Dominick, of Ossory, Bishop
  and Confessor................................ 413
St. Stephen, Abbot............................. 413
B. Roger, Abbot and Confessor.................. 413

14.
St. Valentine, Priest and Martyr............... 413
St. Maro, Abbot................................ 414
St. Abraames, Bishop of Carres................. 415
St. Auxentius, Hermit.......................... 415
St. Conran, Bishop of Orkney, Confessor........ 416

15.
SS. Faustinus and Jovita, Martyrs.............. 416
St. Sigefride, or Sigfrid, Bishop. Apostle of
  Sweden....................................... 417

16.
St. Onesimus, Disciple of St. Paul............. 418
SS. Elias, Jeremy, Isaias, Samuel, Daniel, and
  other Holy Martyrs at Cæsarea, in Palestine. 419
St. Juliana, Virgin and Martyr................. 420
St. Gregory X., Pope and Confessor............. 420
St. Tanco, or Tatta, Bishop and Martyr, native
  of Scotland.................................. 422

{324}

17.
St. Flavian, Archbishop of Constantinople,
  Martyr....................................... 422
SS. Theodulus and Julian, Martyrs.............. 425
St. Silvin of Auchy, Bishop and Confessor...... 426
St. Loman, or Luman, Bishop in Ireland,
  Confessor.................................... 426
St. Fintan, Abbot of Cluian-Ednech, in Ireland. 427

18.
St. Simeon, Bishop of Jerusalem, Martyr........ 427
SS. Leo and Paregorius, Martyrs................ 429

19.
St. Barbatus, or Barbas, Bishop of Benevento,
  Confessor.................................... 431

20.
SS. Tyrannio, Bishop of Tyre, Zenobius, and
  other Martyrs in Phoenicia................... 433
St. Sadoth, Bishop of Seleucia and Ctesiphon,
  with 128 Companions, Martyrs................. 434
St. Eleutherius, Bishop of Tourney, Martyr..... 436
St. Mildred, Virgin and Abbess................. 436
St. Eucherius, Bishop of Orleans, Confessor.... 437
St. Ulrick, Recluse in England................. 438

21.
St. Severianus, Bishop of Scythopolis, Martyr.. 439
SS. German, Abbot of Granfel, and Randaut,
  Martyrs...................................... 440
SS. Daniel, Priest, and Verde, Virgin, Martyrs. 441
B. Pepin of Landen, Mayor of the Palace........ 441

22.
The Chair of St. Peter, at Antioch............. 442
St. Margaret of Cortona, Penitent.............. 443
SS. Thalassius and Limneus, Confessors......... 444
St. Baradat, Confessor......................... 444

23.
St. Serenas, a Gardener, Martyr................ 445
St. Milburge, Virgin in England................ 447
St. Dositheus, Monk............................ 447
B. Peter Damian, Cardinal, Bishop of Ostia..... 448
St. Boisil, Prior of Melross, Confessor........ 431

24.
St. Matthias, Apostle.......................... 453
SS. Montanus, Lucius, Flavian, Julian,
  Victoricus, Primolus, Rhenus, and Donatian,
  Martyrs at Carthage.......................... 453
St. Lethard, Bishop of Senlis, Confessor....... 459
B. Robert, of Arbrissel, Priest................ 459
St. Pretextatus, or Prix, Archbishop of Rouen,
  Martyr....................................... 460
St. Ethelbert, Confessor, First Christian King
  among the English............................ 462

25.
St. Tarasius, Patriarch of Constantinople,
  Confessor.................................... 463
St. Victorinus, and Six Companions, Martyrs.... 468
St. Walburge, Abbess in England................ 469
St. Cæsarius, Physician, Confessor............. 470
St. Alexander, Patriarch of Alexandria,
  Confessor.................................... 470
St. Porphyrius, Bishop of Gaza, Confessor...... 473
St. Victor, or Vittre, of Arcis in Champagne,
  Anchoret and Confessor....................... 477

26.
St. Leander, Bishop of Seville, Confessor...... 478
SS. Julian, Chronion, and Besas, Martyrs ...... 480
St. Thalilæus, a Cilician, Recluse in Syria.... 481
St. Galmier, of Lyons.......................... 481
St. Nestor, Bishop and Martyr.................. 481
St. Alnoth, Anchoret and Martyr................ 482

28.
Martyrs who died in the Great Pestilence in
  Alexandria................................... 482
St. Proterius, Patriarch of Alexandria, Martyr. 482
SS. Romanus and Lupicinus, Abbots.............. 484

29.
St. Oswald, Bishop of Worcester, and
  Archbishop of York........................... 484
*/
{325}


FEBRUARY I.

ST. IGNATIUS, BISHOP OF ANTIOCH, M.

From his genuine epistles; also from the acts of his martyrdom, St.
Chrys. Hom. In St. Ignat. M. t. 3, p. {}{9}2. Ed. Nov. Eusebius. See
Tillemont, t. 2, p. 191. Cave, t. 1, p. 100. Dom Ceillier. Dom Marechal
Concordance des Pères Grecs et Latins, t. 1, p. 58.

A.D. 107.

ST. IGNATIUS, surnamed Theophorus,[1] a word implying a divine or
heavenly person, was a zealous convert and an intimate disciple of St.
John the Evangelist, as his acts assure us; also the apostles SS. Peter
and Paul, who united their labors in planting the faith at Antioch.[2]
It was by their direction that he succeeded Evodius in the government of
that important see, as we are told by St. Chrysostom,[3] who represents
him as a perfect model of virtue in that station, in which he continued
upwards of forty years. During the persecution of Domitian, St. Ignatius
defended his flock by prayer, fasting, and daily preaching the word of
God. He rejoiced to see peace restored to the church on the death of
that emperor, so far as this calm might be beneficial to those committed
to his charge: but was apprehensive that he had not attained to the
perfect love of Christ, nor the dignity of a true disciple, because he
had not as yet been called to seal the truth of his religion with his
blood, an honor he somewhat impatiently longed for. The peaceable reign
of Nerva lasted only fifteen months. The governors of several provinces
renewed the persecution under Trajan his successor: and it appears from
Trajan's letter to Pliny the younger, governor of Bithynia, that the
Christians were ordered to be put to death, if accused; but it was
forbid to make any inquiry after them. That emperor sullied his clemency
and bounty, and his other pagan virtues, by incest with his sister, by
an excessive vanity, which procured him the surname of Parietmus, (or
dauber of every wall with the inscriptions of his name and actions,) and
by blind superstition, which rendered him a persecutor of the true
followers of virtue, out of a notion of gratitude to his imaginary
deities, especially after his victories over the Daci and Scythians in
101 and 105. In the year 106, which was the ninth of his reign, he set
out for the East on an expedition {326} against the Parthians, and made
his entry into Antioch on the 7th of January, 107, with the pomp of a
triumph. His first concern was about the affair of religion and worship
of the gods, and for this reason he resolved to compel the Christians
either to acknowledge their divinity and sacrifice to them, or suffer
death in case of refusal.

Ignatius, as a courageous soldier, being concerned only for his flock,
willingly suffered himself to be taken, and carried before Trajan, who
thus accosted him: "Who art thou, wicked demon, that durst transgress my
commands, and persuade others to perish?" The saint answered: "No one
calls Theophorus a wicked demon." Trajan said: "Who is Theophorus?"
Ignatius answered: "He who carrieth Christ in his breast." Trajan
replied: "And do not we seem to thee to bear the gods in our breasts,
whom we have assisting us against our enemies?" Ignatius said: "You err
in calling those gods who are no better than devils: for there is only
one God, who made heaven and earth, and all things that are in them: and
one Jesus Christ his only Son, into whose kingdom I earnestly desire to
be admitted." Trajan said: "Do not you mean him that was crucified under
Pontius Pilate?" Ignatius answered: "The very same, who by his death
has crucified with sin its author, who overcame the malice of the
devils, and has enabled those, who bear him in their heart, to trample
on them." Trajan said: "Dost thou carry about Christ within thee?"
Ignatius replied, "Yes; for it is written: _I will dwell and walk in
them_."[4] Then Trajan dictated the following sentence: "It is our will
that Ignatius, who saith that he carrieth the crucified man within
himself, be bound and conducted to Rome, to be devoured there by wild
beasts, for the entertainment of the people." The holy martyr, hearing
this sentence, cried out with joy: "I thank thee, O Lord, for
vouchsafing to honor me with this token of perfect love for thee, and to
be bound with chains of iron, in imitation of thy apostle Paul, for thy
sake." Having said this, and prayed for the church, and recommended it
with tears to God, he joyfully put on the chains, and was hurried away
by a savage troop of soldiers to be conveyed to Rome. His inflamed
desire of laying down his life for Christ, made him embrace his
sufferings with great joy.

On his arrival at Seleucia, a sea-port, about sixteen miles from
Antioch, he was put on board a ship which was to coast the southern and
western parts of Asia Minor. Why this route was pitched upon, consisting
of so many windings, preferably to a more direct passage from Seleucia
to Rome, is not known; probably to render the terror of his punishment
the more extensive, and of the greater force, to deter men from
embracing and persevering in the faith: but providence seems to have
ordained it for the comfort and edification of many churches. Several
Christians of Antioch, taking a shorter way, got to Rome before him,
where they waited his arrival. He was accompanied thither from Syria by
Reus, Philo, a deacon, and Agathopodus, who seem to have written these
acts of his martyrdom. He was guarded night and day, both by sea and
land, by ten soldiers, whom he calls ten leopards, on account of their
inhumanity and merciless usage who, the kinder he was to them, were the
more fierce and cruel to him. This voyage, however, gave him the
opportunity of confirming in faith and piety the several churches he saw
on his route; giving them the strictest caution against heresies and
schism, and recommending to them an inviolable attachment to the
tradition of the apostles. St. Chrysostom adds, that he taught them
admirably to despise the present life, to love only the good things to
come, and never to fear any temporal evils whatever. The faithful {327}
flocked from the several churches he came near, to see him, and to
render him all the service in their power, hoping to receive benefit
from the plenitude of his benediction. The cities of Asia, besides
deputing to him their bishops and priests, to express their veneration
for him, sent also deputies in their name to bear him company the
remainder of his journey; so that he says he had many churches with him.
So great was his fervor and desire of suffering, that by the fatigues
and length of the voyage, which was a very bad one, he appeared the
stronger and more courageous. On their reaching Smyrna, he was suffered
to go ashore, which he did with great joy, to salute St. Polycarp, who
had been his fellow-disciple under St. John the Evangelist. Their
conversation was upon topics suitable to their character, and St.
Polycarp felicitated him on his chains and sufferings in so good a
cause. At Smyrna he was met by deputies of several churches, who were
sent to salute him. Those from Ephesus were Onesimus, the bishop;
Burrhus, the deacon; Crocus, Euplus, and Fronto. From Magnesia in Lydia,
Damas the bishop, Bassus and Apollo, priests, and Sotio, deacon. From
Tralles, also in Lydia, Polybius the bishop. From Smyrna, St. Ignatius
wrote four letters: in that to the church of Ephesus, he commends the
bishop Onesimus, and the piety and concord of the people, and their zeal
against all heresies, and exhorts them to glorify God all manner of
ways: to be subject, in unanimity, to their bishop and priests; to
assemble, as often as possible, with them in public prayer, by which the
power of Satan is weakened: to oppose only meekness to anger, humility
to boasting, prayers to curses and reproaches, and to suffer all
injuries without murmuring. He says, that because they are spiritual,
and perform all they do in a spiritual manner, that all, even their
ordinary actions, are spiritualized, because they do all in Jesus
Christ. That he ought to have been admonished by them, but his charity
would not suffer him to be silent: wherefore he prevents them, by
admonishing first, that both might meet in the will of God. He bids them
not be solicitous to speak, but to live well, and to edify others by
their actions; and recommends himself and his widow-church of Antioch to
their prayers. Himself he calls their outcast, yet declares that he is
ready to be immolated for their sake, and says they were persons who had
found mercy, but he a condemned man: they were strengthening in grace,
but he struggling in the midst of dangers. He calls them
fellow-travellers in the road to God, which is charity, and says they
bore God and Christ in their breasts, and were his temples, embellished
with all virtues, and that he exulted exceedingly for the honor of being
made worthy to write to them, and rejoice in God with them: for setting
a true value on the life to come, they loved nothing but God alone.
Speaking of heretics, he says, that he who corrupts the faith for which
Christ died, will go into unquenchable fire, and also he who heareth
him. It is observed by him, that God concealed from the devil three
mysteries: the virginity of Mary, her bringing forth, and the death of
the Lord: and he calls the Eucharist the medicine of immortality, the
antidote against death, by which we always live in Christ. "Remember me,
as I pray that Jesus Christ be mindful of you. Pray for the church of
Syria, from whence I am carried in chains to Rome, being the last of the
faithful who are there. Farewell in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ,
our common hope." The like instructions he repeats with a new and most
moving turn of thought, in his letters to the churches of Magnesia, and
of the Trallians; inculcates the greatest abhorrence of schism and
heresy, and begs their prayers for himself and his church in Syria, of
which he is not worthy to be called a member, being the last of them.[5]
His {328} fourth letter was written to the Christians of Rome. The saint
knew the all-powerful efficacy of the prayers of the saints, and feared
lest they should obtain of God his deliverance from death. He therefore
besought St. Polycarp and others at Smyrna, to join their prayers with
his, that the cruelty of the wild beasts might quickly rid the world of
him, that he might be presented before Jesus Christ. With this view he
wrote to the faithful at Rome, to beg that they would not endeavor to
obtain of God that the beasts might spare him, as they had several other
martyrs; which might induce the people to release him, and so disappoint
him of his crown.

The ardor of divine love which the saint breathes throughout this
letter, is as inflamed as the subject is extraordinary. In it he writes:
"I fear your charity, lest it prejudice me: for it is easy for you to do
what you please; but it will be difficult for me to attain unto God if
you spare me. I shall never have such an opportunity of enjoying God:
nor can you, if ye shall now be silent, ever be entitled to the honor of
a better work. For if ye be silent in my behalf, I shall be made
partaker of God; but if ye love my body, I shall have my course to run
again. Therefore, a greater kindness you cannot do me, than to suffer me
to be sacrificed unto God, while the altar is now ready; that so
becoming a choir in love, in your hymns ye may give thanks to the Father
by Jesus Christ, that God has vouchsafed to bring me, the bishop of
Syria, from the East unto the West, to pass out of the world unto God,
that I may rise again unto him. Ye have never envied any one. Ye have
taught others. I desire, therefore, that you will firmly observe that
which in your instructions you have prescribed to others. Only pray for
me, that God would give me both inward and outward strength, that I may
not only say, but do: that I may not only be called a Christian, {329}
but be found one: for if I shall be found a Christian, I may then
deservedly be called one; and be thought faithful, when I shall no
longer appear to the world. Nothing is good that is seen. A Christian is
not a work of opinion, but of greatness, when he is hated by the world.
I write to the churches, and signify to them all, that I am willing to
die for God, unless you hinder me. I beseech you that you show not an
unseasonable good-will towards me. Suffer me to be the food of wild
beasts, whereby I may attain unto God: I am the wheat of God, and I am
to be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found the
pure bread of Christ. Rather entice the beasts to my sepulchre, that
they may leave nothing of my body, that, being dead, I may not be
troublesome to any. Then shall I be a true disciple of Jesus Christ,
when the world shall not see so much as my body. Pray to Christ for me,
that in this I may become a sacrifice to God. I do not, as Peter and
Paul, command you; they were apostles, I am an inconsiderable person:
they were free, I am even yet a slave. But if I suffer, I shall then
become the freeman of Jesus Christ, and shall arise a freeman in him.
Now I am in bonds for him, I learn to have no worldly or vain desires.
From Syria even unto Rome, I fight with wild beasts, both by sea and
land, both night and day, bound to ten leopards, that is, to a band of
soldiers; who are the worse for kind treatment. But I am the more
instructed by their injuries; yet am I not thereby justified.[6] I
earnestly wish for the wild beasts that are prepared for me, which I
heartily desire may soon dispatch me; whom I will entice to devour me
entirely and suddenly, and not serve me as they have done some whom they
have been afraid to touch; but if they are unwilling to meddle with me,
I will even compel them to it.[7] Pardon me this matter, I know what is
good for me. Now I begin to be a disciple. So that I have no desire
after any thing visible or invisible, that I may attain to Jesus Christ.
Let fire, or the cross, or the concourse of wild beasts, let cutting or
tearing of the flesh, let breaking of bones and cutting off limbs, let
the shattering in pieces of my whole body, and all the wicked torments
of the devil come upon me, so I may but attain to Jesus Christ. All the
compass of the earth, and the kingdoms of this world, will profit me
nothing. It is better for me to die for the sake of Jesus Christ, than
to rule unto the ends of the earth. Him I seek who died for us: Him I
desire who rose again for us. He is my gain at hand. Pardon me,
brethren: be not my hinderance in attaining to life, for Jesus Christ is
the life of the faithful; while I desire to belong to God, do not ye
yield me back to the world. Suffer me to partake of the pure light. When
I shall be there, I shall be a man of God. Permit me to imitate the
passion of Christ my God. If any one has him within himself, let him
consider what I desire, and let him have compassion on me, as knowing
how I am straitened. The prince of this world endeavors to snatch me
away, and to change the desire with which I burn of being united to God.
Let none of you who are present attempt to succor me. Be rather on my
side, that is, on God's. Entertain no desires of the world, having Jesus
Christ in your mouths. Let no envy find place in your breasts. Even were
I myself to entreat you when present, do not obey me; but rather believe
what I now signify to you by letter. Though I am alive at the writing of
this, yet my desire is to die. My love is crucified. The fire that is
within me does not crave any water; but being alive and springing
within, says: Come to the Father. I take no pleasure in the food of
corruption, nor in the pleasure of this life. I desire {330} the bread
of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, and for drink, his blood,
which is incorruptible charity. I desire to live no longer according to
men; and this will be, if you are willing. Be, then, willing, that you
may be accepted by God. Pray for me that I may possess God. If I shall
suffer, ye have loved me: if I shall be rejected, ye have hated me.
Remember in your prayers the church of Syria, which now enjoys God for
its shepherd instead of me. I am ashamed to be called of their number,
for I am not worthy, being the last of them, and an abortive: but
through mercy I have obtained that I shall be something, if I enjoy
God." The martyr gloried in his sufferings as in the highest honor, and
regarded his chains as most precious jewels. His soul was raised above
either the love or fear of any thing on earth; and, as St. Chrysostom
says, he could lay down his life with as much ease and willingness as
another man could put off his clothes. He even wished, every step of his
journey, to meet with the wild beasts; and though that death was most
shocking and barbarous, and presented the most frightful ideas,
sufficient to startle the firmest resolution; yet it was incapable of
making the least impression upon his courageous soul. The perfect
mortification of his affections appears from his heavenly meekness; and
he expressed how perfectly he was dead to himself and the world, living
only to God in his heart, by that admirable sentence: "My love is
crucified."[8] To signify, as he explains himself afterwards, that his
appetites and desires were crucified to the world, and to all the lusts
and pleasures of it.

The guards pressed the saint to leave Smyrna, that they might arrive at
Rome before the shows were over. He rejoiced exceedingly at their hurry,
desiring impatiently to enjoy God by martyrdom. They sailed to Troas,
where he was informed that God had restored peace to his church at
Antioch: which freed him from the anxiety he had been under, fearing
lest there should be some weak ones in his flock. At Troas he wrote
three other letters, one to the church of Philadelphia, and a second to
the Smyrnæans, in which he calls the heretics who denied Christ to have
assumed true flesh, and the Eucharist to be his flesh, wild beasts in
human shape; and forbids all communication with them, only allowing them
to be prayed for, that they may be brought to repentance, which is very
difficult. His last letter is addressed to St. Polycarp, whom he exhorts
to labor for Christ without sparing himself; for the measure of his
labor will be that of his reward.[9] The style of the martyr everywhere
follows the impulses of a burning charity, rather than the rules of
grammar, and his pen is never able to express the sublimity of his
thoughts. In every word there is a fire and a beauty not to be
paralleled: every thing is full of a deep sense. He everywhere breathes
the most profound humility and contempt of himself as an abortive, and
the last of men; a great zeal for the church, and abhorrence of schisms:
the most ardent love of God and his neighbor, and tenderness for his own
flock: begging the prayers of all the churches in its behalf to whom he
wrote, and entreating of several that they would send an embassy to his
church at Antioch, to comfort and exhort them. The {331} seven epistles
of this apostolic father, the same which were quoted by St. Irenæus,
Origen, Eusebius, St. Athanasius, St. Chrysostom, Theodoret, Gildas,
&c., are published genuine by Usher, Vossius, Cotelier, &c., and in
English by archbishop Wake, in 1710.

St. Ignatius, not being allowed time to write to the other churches of
Asia, commissioned St. Polycarp to do it for him. From Troas they sailed
to Neapolis in Macedonia, and went thence to Philippi, from which place
they crossed Macedonia and Epirus on foot; but took shipping again at
Epidamnum in Dalmatia, and sailing by Rhegium and Puteoli, were carried
by a strong gale into the Roman port, the great station of the navy near
Ostia, at the mouth of the Tiber, sixteen miles from Rome. He would
gladly have landed at Puteoli, to have traced St. Paul's steps, by going
on foot from that place to Rome, but the wind rendered it impracticable.
On landing, the authors of these acts, who were his companions, say they
were seized with great grief, seeing they were soon to be separated from
their dear master; but he rejoiced to find himself so near the end of
his race. The soldiers hastened him on, because the public shows were
drawing to an end. The faithful of Rome came out to meet him, rejoicing
at the sight of him, but grieving that they were so soon to lose him by
a barbarous death. They earnestly wished that he might be released at
the request of the people. The martyr knew in spirit their thoughts, and
said much more to them than he had done in his letter on the subject of
true charity, conjuring them not to obstruct his going to the Lord. Then
kneeling with all the brethren, he prayed to the Son of God for the
Church, for the ceasing of the persecution, and for perpetual charity
and unanimity among the faithful. He arrived at Rome the 20th of
December, the last day of the public entertainments, and was presented
to the prefect of the city, to whom the emperor's letter was delivered
at the same time. He was then hurried by the soldiers into the
amphitheatre. The saint hearing the lions roar, cried out: "I am the
wheat of the Lord; I must be ground by the teeth of these beasts to be
made the pure bread of Christ." Two fierce lions being let out upon him,
they instantly devoured him, leaving nothing of his body but the larger
bones: thus his prayer was heard. "After having been present at this
sorrowful spectacle," say our authors, "which made us shed many tears,
we spent the following night in our house in watching and prayer,
begging of God to afford us some comfort by certifying us of his glory."
They relate, that their prayer was heard, and that several of them in
their slumber saw him in great bliss. They are exact in setting down the
day of his death, that they might assemble yearly thereon to honor his
martyrdom.[10] They add, that his bones were taken up and carried to
Antioch, and there laid in a chest as an inestimable treasure. St.
Chrysostom says his relics were carried in triumph on the shoulders of
all the cities from Rome to Antioch. They were first laid in the
cemetery without the Daphnitic gate, but in the reign of Theodosius the
younger were translated thence with great pomp to a church in the city,
which had been a temple of Fortune, but from this time bore his name, as
Evagrius {332} relates.[11] St. Chrysostom exhorts all people to visit
them, assuring them they would receive thereby many advantages,
spiritual and corporal, which he proves at length.[12] They are now at
Rome, in the church of St. Clement, pope, whither they were brought
about the time when Antioch fell into the hands of the Saracens in the
reign of Heraclius, in 637.[13] The regular canons at Arouaise near
Bapaume in Artois, the Benedictin monks at Liesse in Haynault, and some
other churches, have obtained each some bone of this glorious
martyr.[14] The Greeks keep his feast a holyday on the day of his death,
the 20th of December. His martyrdom happened in 107.

       *       *       *       *       *

The perfect spirit of humility, meekness, patience, charity, and all
other Christian virtues, which the seven epistles of St. Ignatius
breathe in every part, cannot fail deeply to affect all who attentively
read them. Critics confess that they find in them a sublimity, an energy
and beauty of thought and expression, which they cannot sufficiently
admire. But the Christian is far more astonished at the saint's perfect
disengagement of heart from the world, the ardor of his love for God,
and the earnestness of his desire of martyrdom. Every period in them is
full of profound sense, which must be attentively meditated on before we
can discover the divine sentiments of all virtues which are here
expressed. Nor can we consider them without being inspired by some
degree of the same, and being covered with confusion to find ourselves
fall so far short of the humility and fervor of the primitive saints.
Let us listen to the instructions which this true disciple of Christ
gives in his letter to the Philadelphians, an abstract of his other six
epistles being given above. He begins it by a strenuous recommendation
of union with their bishop, priests, and deacons; and gives to their
bishop (whom he does not name) great praises, especially for his
humility and meekness, insomuch that he says his silence was more
powerful than the vain discourses of others, and that conversing with an
unchangeable serenity of mind, and in the sweetness of the living God,
he was utterly a stranger to anger. He charges them to refrain from the
pernicious weeds of heresy and schism, which are not planted by the
Father, nor kept by Christ. "Whoever belong to God and Jesus Christ,
these are with the bishop. If any one follows him who maketh a schism,
he obtains not the inheritance of the kingdom of God. He who walks in
the simplicity of obedience is not enslaved to his passion. Use one
eucharist: for the flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ is one, and the cup is
one in the unity of his blood. There is one altar, as there is one
bishop, with the college of the priesthood and the deacons, my
fellow-servants, that you may do all things according to God. My
brethren, my heart is exceedingly dilated in the tender love which I
bear you, and exulting beyond bounds, I render you secure and cautious;
not I indeed, but Jesus Christ, in whom being bound I fear the more for
myself, being yet imperfect. But your prayer with God will make me
perfect, that I may obtain the portion which his mercy assigns me."
Having cautioned them against adopting Jewish ceremonies, and against
divisions and schisms, he mentions one that had lately happened among
them, and speaks of a revelation which he had received of it as follows:
"When I was among you, I cried out with a loud voice, with the voice of
God, saying: Hearken to your bishop, and the priesthood, and the
deacons. Some suspected that I said this from a foresight of the
division which some afterwards {333} made. But He for whom I am in
chains is my witness, that I knew it not from man, but the Spirit
declared it, saying: Do ye nothing without your bishop. Keep your body
holy as the temple of God. Be lovers of unity; shun all divisions. Be ye
imitators of Jesus Christ, as he is of the Father. I therefore did what
lay in me, as one framed to maintain union. Where disagreement or anger
is found, there God never dwells. But God forgives all penitents." He
charges them to send some person of honor from their church to
congratulate with his church in Syria upon peace being restored to it,
and calls him blessed who should be honored with this commission.

Footnotes:
1.  The accent placed on the penultima of [Greek: Theophoros], as the
    word is written in the saint's acts, denotes it of an active
    signification, _one that carrieth God_; but of the passive, _carried
    of God_, if placed on the antepenultima.
2.  St. Gregory tells us, (l. 4, ep. 37,) that he was a disciple of St.
    Peter. The apostolic constitutions add, also of St. Paul, (l. 7, c.
    46.) We are assured by St. Chrysostom (Hom. in St. Ignat.) and
    Theodoret, (Dial. 1, p. 33,) that he was made bishop by the
    direction of the apostles, and by the imposition of their hands. St.
    Chrysostom says, that St. Peter appointed him bishop to govern the
    see of Antioch, when he quitted it himself; which seems also to be
    affirmed by Origen, (in Luc. Hom. 6,) St. Athanasius, (de Syn. p.
    922,) F{}dus, &c. Baronius thinks he was left by St. Peter, bishop
    of the Jewish converts, and became bishop also of the Gentiles in
    68: for Eusebius (Hist. l. 3, c. 22, 36.) says, that St. Evodius
    succeeded St. Peter at Antioch; he adds in his chronicle, in the
    year 43, that he died in 68, and was succeeded by St. Ignatius. Some
    think there is a mistake in the chronicle of Eusebius, as to the
    year of the death of Evodius, and that this happened before the
    martyrdom of St. Peter, who appointed St. Ignatius his successor.
    See Cotelier, not. p. 299. Tillem. not. t. 2. p. 619. The Greek
    Menæa mentions Evodius on the 7th of September.
3.  Hom. in St. Ignat. t. 2, p. 592. See also Theodoret. Dial. 1, p. 33.
4.  2 Cor. v. 16.
5.  In his letter to the Magnesians, after saluting them, he says, he
    rejoices exceedingly in their charity and faith, and adds: "Having
    the honor to bear a name of divine dignity, on account to the chains
    which I carry, I sing the glow of the churches, and wish them the
    union of the flesh and spirit of Jesus Christ our perpetual life, of
    faith, and of charity, than which nothing is more excellent; and
    what is chiefest, of Jesus and the Father, in whom, bearing with
    patience the whole power of the prince of this world, and escaping
    him, we shall possess God." The saint much commends their bishop
    Damas, and exhorts them to yield him perfect obedience,
    notwithstanding his youth. Setting death before their eyes as near
    at hand to every one, he puts them in mind that we must bear the
    mark of Jesus Christ, (which is charity,) not that of the world. "If
    we are not ready to die, in imitation of his sufferings, his life is
    not in us," says he. "I recommend to you that you do all things in
    the concord of God, the bishop presiding for God, the priests in the
    place of the college of the apostles, and my dearest deacons, to
    whom is the ministry of Jesus Christ, who was with the Father before
    all ages, and has appeared in the end. Therefore, following all the
    same conduct, respect one another, and let no one consider his
    neighbor according to the flesh, but ever love each other in Jesus
    Christ. As the Lord did nothing without the Father, so neither do
    you say thing without the priests. Meeting together, have one
    prayer, one mind, one hope in charity, in holy joy. All of you meet
    as in one church of God, as to one altar, as to one Jesus Christ,
    who proceeds from one Father, exists in one, and returns to him in
    Unity." He cautions them against admitting the Jewish ceremonies,
    and against the errors of the Docetes. Then adds: "I shall enjoy you
    in all things if I am worthy. For though I am in chains, I am not to
    be compared to any one of you who enjoy your liberty. I know there
    is in you no pride; for you have Jesus Christ within you. And when I
    commend you, I know that you are more confounded, as it is written:
    _The just man is his own accuser_." Prov. xviii. 18. He again
    tenderly exhorts them to concord, and to obedience to their bishop,
    and commends himself, that he may attain to God and his church, of
    which he is not worthy to be called one, to their prayers, adding:
    "I stand much in need of your united prayer and charity in God, that
    the church in Syria may deserve to be watered by your church."

    The epistle to the Trallians he begins thus: "I know that your
    sentiments are pure, your hearts inseperable in patience and
    meekness, which is not passing, but as it were natural; as I learn
    from your bishop Polybius who congratulated with me in my chains in
    Christ Jesus, in such manner that in him I beheld your whole
    multitude. Receiving through him your good-will in God, I gloried,
    finding you to be, as I knew, imitators of God. As you are subject
    to the bishop as to Christ, you seem not to live according to men,
    but according to Jesus Christ." He bids them respect the deacons
    (whom be calls the ministers of the mysteries of Jesus Christ) as
    the precept of Christ; the priests as the senate of God, and the
    bishop as representing God. "Without these the very name of a church
    is not given," says he--"I know many things in God, but I measure
    myself, lest by glorying I perish. Now I have reason more to fear:
    nor must I listen to those who speak kindly to me; for they who
    speak to commend me, scourge me. I desire indeed to suffer: but I
    know not whether I am worthy. Though I am in chains, and understand
    heavenly things, the ranks of angels and principalities, things
    visible and invisible; am I on this account a disciple? for many
    things are wanting to us that we be not separated from God. I
    conjure you, not I, but the charity of Jesus Christ, to use
    Christian food, and to refrain from foreign weed, which is heresy.
    Heretics join Jesus Christ with what is defiled, giving a deadly
    poison in a mixture of wine and honey which they who take, drink
    with pleasure their own death without knowing it. Refrain from such,
    which you will do if you remain united to God, Jesus Christ, and the
    bishop, and the precepts of the apostles. He who is within the altar
    is clean, but he who is without it, that is, without the bishop,
    priests, and deacons, is not clean." He adds his usual exhortations
    to union, and begs their prayers for himself and his church, of
    which he is not worthy to be called one, being the last of them, and
    yet fighting is danger. "May my spirit sanctify you, not only now,
    but also when I shall enjoy God."
6.  1 Cor. iv. 4.
7.  Not that he would really incite the beasts to dispatch him, without
    a special inspiration, because that would have been self-murder; but
    this expresses the courage and desire of his soul.
8.  [Greek: Ho hemos erôs estanrôtai.]
9.  See an account of these two last in the life of St. Polycarp. Orsi
    draws a proof in favor of the supremacy of the see of Rome, from the
    title which St. Ignatius gives it at the head of his epistle. In
    directing his other letters, and saluting other churches, he only
    writes: "To the blessed church which is at Ephesus:" [Greek: Tê esê
    en Ephesô] "at Magnesia near the Mæander: at Tralles: at
    Philadelphia: at Smyrna:" but in that to the Romans he changes his
    style, and addresses his letter: "To the beloved church which is
    enlightened, (by the will of Him who ordaineth all things which are
    according to the charity of Jesus Christ our God,) which presides in
    the country of the Romans, [Greek: êtis prokathêtai en topô chores
    Rômaiôn], worthy of God, most adorned, justly happy, most commended,
    fitly regulated and governed, most chaste, and presiding in charity,
    &c."
10. According to the common opinion, St. Ignatius was crowned with
    martyrdom in the year 107. The Greek copies of a homily of the sixth
    age, On the False Prophets, among the works of St. Chrysostom, say
    on the 20th; but Bede, in his Martyrology, on the 17th of December.
    Antoni Pagi, convinced by the letter of Dr. Loyde, bishop of St.
    Asaph's, places his martyrdom about the end of the year 116: for
    John Malalas of Antioch tells us the great earthquake, in which Dion
    Cassias mentions that Trajan narrowly escaped at Antioch, happened
    in that journey of Trajan in which he condemned St. Ignatius. Now
    Trajan marching to the Parthian war, arrived at Antioch on the 8th
    of January, in 113, the sixteenth year of his reign: and in his
    return from the East, above two years later, passed again through
    Antioch in 116, when this earthquake happened. St. Ignatius suffered
    at Rome towards the end of that year. Le Quien prefers this date,
    because it best agrees with the chronology of his successors to
    Theophilus. Orien. Christ. t. 2, p. 700.
11. Evagr. Hist. Eccl. l. 1, c. 16, Ed. Vales.
12. Or. in S. Ignat. t. 2, p. 600. Ed. Nov.
13. See Baron. Annal. ad an. 637, and Not. ad Martyr. Rom. ad 17 Dec.
14. See Henschenius, Feb. t. 1, p. 35.

ST. PIONIUS, M.

HE was priest of Smyrna, a true heir of the spirit of St. Polycarp, an
apostolic man, who converted multitudes to the faith. He excelled in
eloquence, and in the science of our holy religion. The paleness of his
countenance bespoke the austerity of his life. In the persecution of
Decius, in 250, on the 23d of February, he was apprehended with Sabina
and Asclepiades, while they were celebrating the anniversary festival of
St. Polycarp's martyrdom. Pionius, after having fasted the eve with his
companions, was forewarned thereof by a vision. On the morning after
their solemn prayer, taking the holy bread (probably the eucharist) and
water, they were surprised and seized by Polemon, the chief priest, and
the guardian of the temple. In prolix interrogatories before him, they
resisted all solicitations to sacrifice; professed they were ready to
suffer the worst of torments and deaths rather than consent to his
impious proposals, and declaring that they worshipped one only God, and
that they were of the Catholic church. Asclepiades being asked what God
he adored, made answer: "Jesus Christ." At which Polemon said: "Is that
another God?" Asclepiades replied: "No; he is the same they have just
now confessed." A clear confession of the consubstantiality of God the
Son, before the council of Nice. Being all threatened to be burnt alive,
Sabina smiled. The pagans said: "Dost thou laugh? thou shalt then be led
to the public stews." She answered: "God will be my protector on that
occasion." They were cast into prison, and preferred a lower dungeon,
that they might be more at liberty to pray when alone. They were carried
by force into the temple, and all manner of violence was used to compel
them to sacrifice. Pionius tore the impious garlands which were put upon
his head, and they resisted with all their might. Their constancy
repaired the scandal given by Eudæmon, the bishop of Smyrna, there
present, who had impiously apostatized and offered sacrifice. In the
answers of St. Pionius to the judges, and in all the circumstances of
his martyrdom, we admire the ardent piety and courage of one who had
entirely devoted himself to God, and employed his whole life in his
service. When Quintilian the proconsul arrived at Smyrna, he caused
Pionius to be hung on the rack, and his body to be torn with iron hooks,
and afterwards condemned him to be burned alive; he was accordingly
nailed to a trunk or post, and a pile heaped round him and set on fire.
Metrodorus, a Marcionite priest, underwent the same punishment with him.
His acts were written by eye-witnesses, quoted by Eusebius, l. 4, c. 15,
and are extant genuine in Ruinart, p. 12. See Tillemont t. 3, p. 397;
Bollandus, Feb. t. 1, p. 37.

{334}

ST. BRIDGIT, OR BRIDGET, V.

AND BY CONTRACTION, BRIDE, ABBESS, AND PATRONESS OF IRELAND.

SHE was born at Fochard, in Ulster, soon after Ireland had been blessed
with the light of faith. She received the religious veil in her youth,
from the hands of St. Mel, nephew and disciple of St. Patrick. She built
herself a cell under a large oak, thence called Kill-dara, or cell of
the oak; living, as her name implies, the bright shining light of that
country by her virtues. Being joined soon after by several of her own
sex, they formed themselves into a religious community, which branched
out into several other nunneries throughout Ireland; all which
acknowledged her for their mother and foundress, as in effect she was of
all in that kingdom. But a full account of her virtues has not been
transmitted down to us, together with the veneration of her name. Her
five modern lives mention little else but wonderful miracles. She
flourished in the beginning of the sixth century, and is named in the
Martyrology of Bede, and in all others since that age. Several churches
in England and Scotland are dedicated to God under her name, as, among
others, that of St. Bride in Fleet-street; several also in Germany, and
some in France. Her name occurs in most copies of the Martyrology which
bears the name of St. Jerom, especially in those of Esternach and
Corbie, which are most ancient. She is commemorated in the divine office
in most churches of Germany, and in that of Paris, till the year 1607,
and in many others in France. One of the Hebrides, or western islands
which belong to Scotland, near that of Ila, was called, from a famous
monastery built there in her honor, Brigidiani. A church of St. Brigit,
in the province of Athol, was reputed famous for miracles, and a portion
of her relics was kept with great veneration in a monastery of regular
canons at Aburnethi, once capital of the kingdom of the Picts, and a
bishopric, as Major mentions.[1] Her body was found with those of SS.
Patrick and Columba, in a triple vault in Down-Patrick, in 1185, as
Giraldus Cambrensis informs us:[2] they were all three translated to the
cathedral of the same city;[3] but their monument was destroyed in the
reign of king Henry VIII. The head of St. Bride is now kept in the
church of the Jesuits at Lisbon.[4] See Bollandus, Feb. t. 1, p. 99.

Footnotes:
1.  Major de Gestis Scotor. l. 2, c. 14.
2.  Topogr. Hibern. dist. 3, c. 18. Camden, &c.
3.  {Footnote not in text} Camden.
4.  Bolland. p. 112 and p. 941, t. 1, Februarii.

ST. KINNIA. V.

HER memory was long sacred in Ireland, and her relics were in veneration
at Lowth, in the southern part of Ulster; but we have no other authentic
account of her actions, than that she was baptized by St. Patrick, and
received the religious veil at his hand. See Jocelin's life of St.
Patrick, Colgan, and Bollandus, ad 1 Feb. p. 96.

ST. SIGEBERT II., FRENCH KING OF AUSTRASIA, C.

DAGOBERT I., king of France, led for some time a very dissolute life,
but was touched by an extraordinary grace upon the birth of his son
Sigebert {335} and from that time entirely converted to God. Bagnetrude,
our saint's mother, is only styled the concubine of Dagobert, though he
was publicly married to her. The father desiring to have his son
baptized by the most holy prelate of his dominions, recalled St. Amand,
bishop of Masstricht, whom he had banished for his zeal in reproving his
vices, fell at his feet at Clichi, near Paris, to ask his pardon,
promised amendment, and by the advice of St. Owen and St. Eligius, then
laymen in his court, engaged him to initiate his son in the sacrament of
regeneration. The ceremony was performed with great pomp at Orleans,
Charibert, king of part of Aquitaine, and brother to Dagobert, being
god-father. The young prince's education was intrusted by the father to
the blessed Pepin of Landen, mayor of his palace, who being forced by
the envy of the nobility to withdraw for some time, carried Sigebert
into the dominions of Charibert in Aquitaine, where he enjoyed a
considerable estate, the paternal patrimony of his wife, the blessed
Itta. Pepin remained there about three years; after which term he was
recalled to the court of Dagobert, who declared his son Sigebert, though
only three years old, in 633, king of Austrasia, and gave him for his
ministers, St. Cunibert, archbishop of Cologne, and duke Adelgise, and
committed the administration of the whole kingdom to Pepin, whom he
always kept near his own person. Dagobert's second son, Clovis II., was
born in the following year, 634, and to him the father allotted for his
inheritance all the western part of France, containing all Neustria and
part of Burgundy.[1] Austrasia, or Eastern France, (in which sense
Austria retains a like name in Germany,) at that time comprised Provence
and Switzerland, (dismembered from the ancient kingdom of Burgundy,) the
Albigeois, Auvergne, Quercy, the Cevennes, Champagne, Lorraine, Upper
Picardy, the archbishopric of Triers, and other states, reaching to the
borders of Friesland; Alsace, the Palatinate, Thuringia, Franconia,
Bavaria, Suabia, and the country which lay betwixt the Lower Rhine and
Old Saxony. Dagobert died in 638, and was buried at the abbey of St.
Denys, of which he was the munificent founder. According to the
settlement which he had made, he was succeeded in Austrasia by St.
Sigebert, and in the rest of France by his youngest son Clovis II. Pepin
of Landen, who had been mayor of the palace to the father, discharged
the same office to his death under St. Sigebert, and not content to
approve himself a faithful minister, and true father to the prince, he
formed him from the cradle to all heroic Christian virtues. By his
prudence, virtue, and valor, St. Sigebert in his youth was beloved and
respected by his subjects, and feared by all his enemies. Pepin dying in
640, the virtuous king appointed his son Grimoald mayor of his palace.
He reigned in perfect intelligence with his brother, of which we have
few examples among the Merovingian kings whenever the French monarchy
was divided. The Thuringians revolting, he reduced them to their duty;
and this is the only war in which he was engaged. The love of peace
disposed his heart to be a fit temple of the Holy Ghost, whom he invited
into his soul by assiduous prayer, and the exercise of all Christian
virtues. His patrimony he employed in relieving the necessitous, and in
building or endowing monasteries, churches, and hospitals. He founded
twelve monasteries, the four principal of which were Cougnon, now a
priory, not far from Bouillon; Stavelo and Malmedi, two miles from each
other, and St. Martin's, near Metz. St. Remaclus brought from Solignac
the rule of St. Columban, which king Sigebert {336} in his charter to
Cougnon calls the rule of the ancient fathers. This that holy abbot
established first at Cougnon, and afterwards at Malmedi and Stavelo. A
life filled with good works, and devoted all to God, can never be called
short. God was pleased to call this good king from the miseries of this
world to the recompense of his labors on the 1st of February, in the
year 656, the eighteenth of his reign, and the twenty-fifth of his
age.[2] He was interred in the abbey of St. Martin's, near Metz, which
he had built. His body was found incorrupt in 1063, and placed in a
monument on the side of the high altar: and in 1170 it was enshrined in
a silver case. The monastery of St. Martin's, and all others in the
suburbs, were demolished by Francis of Lorraine, duke of Guise, in 1552,
when Charles V. laid siege to Metz. The relics of St. Sigebert are now
deposited in the collegiate church of our Lady at Nancy. He is honored
among the saints in great part of the dominions which he governed, and
in the monasteries and churches which he founded. See Fredegarius and
his continuator, Sigebert of Gemblours, in his life of this saint, with
the learned remarks of Henschenius, p. 40. Also Calmet, Hist. de
Lorraine, t. 1, p. 419. Schoëpflin, Alsatia Illustrata, Colmariæ, an.
1751. Sect. 2, p. 742.

Footnotes:
1.  Charibert, though he took the title of king, and resided at
    Toulouse, held his estates of his brother Dagobert, and by his gift.
    After Charibert's death, Chilperic, his eldest son, was put to death
    by Dagobert; but his second son, Boggis, left a numerous posterity,
    which was only extinguished in Louis d'Armagnac, duke of Nemours,
    slain at the battle of Cerignole, where he commanded for Louis XII.
    against Gonzales de Cordova, surnamed The Great Captain, for the
    Catholic king Ferdinand in 1503, by which the French lost the
    kingdom of Naples. So long did the family of Clovis II. subsist. See
    Vaisette, Hist de Languedoc, Henault, Abr. de l'Hist. de France, t.
    1, pp. 26, and 818.
2.  St. Sigebert left his son Dagobert, about seven years old, under the
    care of Grimoald, mayor of his palace, who treacherously sent him
    into Ireland, and placed his own son Childebert on the throne. This
    usurper reigned seven months, as Schoëpflin proves from the express
    testimony of Chronicon Brevissimum, and from circumstances mentioned
    by Fredegarius, against the mistake of the authors, l'Art de
    vérifier les Dates, p. 481, who say he only reigned seven days. By
    an insurrection of the people, Grimoald and his son were deposed,
    and both perished in prison: but Dagobert not being found, Clovis
    II. united Austrasia to his other dominions. Dagobert II., by the
    assistance of St. Wilfrid, afterwards archbishop of York, returned
    into France eighteen years after the death of his father, and
    recovered Alsace and some other provinces by the cession either of
    Childeric II., son of Clovis II., (then monarch of all France,) or
    of his brother Theodoric III., who succeeded him before the month of
    April, in 674: for the reign of Dagobert II must be dated from the
    latter end of 673, with Henault, or from 674, with Schoëpflin. The
    spirit of religion and piety, which he had learned in the school of
    afflictions, and under the great masters of a spiritual life, who
    then flourished among the Scots and Irish, was eminently the
    distinguishing part of his character. As he resided chiefly in
    Alsace, he filled that country, in the first place, with monuments
    of his devotion, being so liberal in founding and endowing
    monasteries and churches, that though his reign was only of six
    years, Schoëpflin assures us that the French church is not more
    indebted to any reign than to this, at least in those parts, (p.
    740.) St. Wilfrid, bishop of York, had exceedingly promoted his
    return into France; and when that prelate was compelled to leave
    England Dagobert entertained him with the most cordial affection,
    and, upon the death of St. Arbogastus, earnestly pressed him to
    accept of that see. St. Wilfrid declined that dignity, promising,
    however, to call upon this good king in his return from Rome, where
    he obtained a sentence of pope Agatho in his favor. But coming but
    into France, he found his royal friend cut off by a violent death.
    It is the general persuasion of the French historians, that the
    impious Ebroin, mayor of the palace to Theodoric III., king of
    Burgundy and Noustria, was the author of his death, with a view to
    seize his dominions. Dagobert was murdered by assassins at Stenay
    upon the Meuse, now the best town in the duchy of Bar in Lorraine.
    The people, however, chose Pepin and Martin dukes or governors of
    Austrasia, who defended their liberty against Ebroin. Martin was
    afterwards assassinated by the contrivance of Ebroin, and Ebroin by
    Ermenfrid; but Pepin, in 687, defeated Theodoric III. at Testry,
    took Paris, and the king himself; from which time, under the title
    of mayor, he enjoyed the supreme power in the French monarchy. The
    death of St. Dagobert happened in 679, on the 23d of December, on
    which day he is commemorated in the Martyrology of Ado and others,
    and honored as a martyr at Stenay, in the diocese of Verdun, ever
    since the eighth century. The church of Strasburg was much enriched
    by this prince, as maybe seen in Schoëpflin's Alsatia Illustrata.
    The same author gives an account of some of the monasteries which
    were founded by this prince in those parts, (c. 11, §254, p. 736,)
    and shows from his charters that the palace where he chiefly resided
    was at Isenburg in Alsace. (Sect. 1, c. 10, §146, p. 693.) The year
    of the death of Dagobert II. is learned from the life of St.
    Wilfrid, who returned from Rome when St. Agatho sat in St. Peter's
    chair. See on this holy king the lives of St. Wilfrid and St.
    Salaberga; also his charters; and, among the moderns, Dan.
    Schoëpflin, professor of history and eloquence at Strasburg, in his
    Alsatia Illustrata, anno 1751. Sect. 2, c. 1, §3, pp. 740, 743, and
    §1, c. 10, §146, p. 693, c. 11, §254, p. 736. Also Calmet, Hist. de
    Lorraine, t. 1, l. 10, n. 16, p. 432. The first edition of this work
    was given in 1728, in three volumes folio, but the second edition is
    so much enlarged as to fill six volumes folio. The reign of Dagobert
    II. escaped most of the French historians; which omission, and a
    false epoch of the beginning of the reign of Dagobert I., brought
    incredible confusion into the chronology and history of most of the
    Merovingian kings, which Adrian Valois, Henschenius, Le Cointe,
    Pagi, Louguerue and others have taken great pains to clear up.

{337}

FEBRUARY II.

THE PURIFICATION,

COMMONLY CALLED CANDLEMAS-DAY.

THE law of God, given by Moses to the Jews, to insinuate both to us and
to them, that by the sin of Adam man is conceived and born in sin, and
obnoxious to his wrath, ordained that a woman, after childbirth, should
continue for a certain time in a state which that law calls unclean;
during which she was not to appear in public, nor presume to touch any
thing consecrated to God.[1] This term was of forty days upon the birth
of a son, and the time was double for a daughter: on the expiration of
which, the mother was to bring to the door of the tabernacle, or temple,
a lamb of a year old, and a young pigeon or turtle-dove. The lamb was
for a holocaust, or burnt-offering, in acknowledgment of the sovereignty
of God, and in thanksgiving for her own happy delivery; the pigeon or
turtle-dove was for a sin-offering. These being sacrificed to Almighty
God by the priest, the woman was cleansed of the legal impurity, and
reinstated in her former privileges.

A young pigeon, or turtle-dove, by way of a sin-offering, was required
of all, whether rich or poor: but whereas the charge of a lamb might be
too burdensome on persons of narrow circumstances, in that case, nothing
more was required than two pigeons, or two turtle-doves, one for a
burnt, the other for a sin-offering.[2]

Our Saviour having been conceived by the Holy Ghost, and his blessed
Mother remaining always a spotless virgin, it is most evident from the
terms of the law,[3] that she was, in reality, under no obligation to
it, nor within the intent of it. She was, however, within the letter of
the law, in the eye of the world, who were as yet strangers to her
miraculous conception. And her humility making her perfectly resigned,
and even desirous to conceal her privilege and dignity, she submitted
with great punctuality and exactness to every humbling circumstance
which the law required. Pride indeed proclaims its own advantages, and
seeks honors not its due; but the humble find their delight in obscurity
and abasement, they shun all distinction and esteem, which they clearly
see their own nothingness and baseness to be most unworthy of: they give
all glory to God alone, to whom it is due. Devotion also and zeal to
honor God by every observance prescribed by his law, prompted Mary to
perform this act of religion, though evidently exempt from the precept.
Being poor herself, she made the offering appointed for the poor:
accordingly is this part of the law mentioned by St. Luke,[4] as best
agreeing with the meanness of her worldly condition. But her offering,
however mean in itself, was made with a perfect heart, which is what God
chiefly regards in all that is offered to him. The King of Glory would
appear everywhere in the robes of poverty, to point out to us the
advantages of a suffering and lowly state, and to repress our pride, by
which, though really poor and mean in the eyes of God, we covet to
appear rich, and, though sinners, would be deemed innocents and saints.

A second great mystery is honored this day, regarding more immediately
{338} the person of our Redeemer, viz. his presentation in the
temple.[5] Besides the law which obliged the mother to purify herself,
there was another which ordered that the first-born son should be
offered to God: and in these two laws were included several others, as,
that the child, after its presentation, should be ransomed[6] with a
certain sum of money,[7] and peculiar sacrifices offered on the
occasion.

Mary complies exactly with all these ordinances. She obeys not only in
the essential points of the law, as in presenting herself to be
purified, and in her offering her first-born, but has strict regard to
all the circumstances. She remains forty days at home, she denies
herself all this time the liberty of entering the temple, she partakes
not of things sacred, though the living temple of the God of Israel; and
on the day of her purification, she walks several miles to Jerusalem,
with the world's Redeemer in her arms. She waits for the priest at the
gate of the temple, makes her offerings of thanksgiving and expiation,
presents her divine Son by the hands of the priest to his eternal
Father, with the most profound humility, adoration, and thanks giving.
She then redeems him with five shekels, as the law appoints, and
receives him back again as a depositum in her special care, till the
Father shall again demand him for the full accomplishment of man's
redemption. It is clear that Christ was not comprehended in the law;
"The king's son, to whom the inheritance of the crown belongs, is exempt
from servitude:--much more Christ, who was the Redeemer both of our
souls and bodies, was not subject to any law by which he was to be
himself redeemed," as St. Hilary observes.[8] But he would set an
example of humility, obedience, and devotion: and would renew, in a
solemn and public manner, and in the temple, the oblation of himself to
his Father for the accomplishment of his will, and the redemption of
man, which he had made privately in the first moment of his Incarnation.
With what sentiments did the divine Infant offer himself to his Father
at the same time! the greatest homage of his honor and glory the Father
could receive, and a sacrifice of satisfaction adequate to the injuries
done to the Godhead by our sins, and sufficient to ransom our souls from
everlasting death! With what cheerfulness and charity did he offer
himself to all his torments! to be whipped, crowned with thorns, and
ignominiously put to death for us!

Let every Christian learn hence to offer himself to God with this divine
victim, through which he may be accepted by the Father; let him devote
himself with all his senses and faculties to his service. If sloth, or
any other vice, has made us neglectful of this essential duty, we must
bewail past omissions, and make a solemn and serious consecration of
ourselves this day to the divine majesty with the greater fervor, crying
out with St. Austin, in compunction of heart: "Too late have I known
thee, too late have I begun to love thee, O beauty more ancient than the
world!" But our sacrifice, if we desire it may be accepted, must not be
lame and imperfect. It would be an insult to offer to God, in union with
his Christ, a divided heart, or a heart infected with wilful sin. It
must therefore first be cleansed by tears of sincere compunction: its
affections must be crucified to the world by perfect mortification. Our
offering must be sincere and fervent, without reserve, allowing no
quarter to any of our vicious passions and inclinations, and no division
in any of our affections. It must also be universal; to suffer and to do
all for the divine honor. If we give our hearts to Christ in this
manner, we shall receive him with his graces and {339} benedictions. He
would be presented in the temple by the hands of his mother: let us
accordingly make the offering of our souls through Mary and beg his
graces through the same channel.

The ceremony of this day was closed by a third mystery, the meeting in
the temple of the holy persons, Simeon and Anne, with Jesus and his
parents, from which this festival was anciently called by the Greeks
Hypante, the meeting.[9] Holy Simeon, on that occasion, received into
his arms the object of all his desires and sighs, and praised God in
raptures of devotion for being blessed with the happiness of beholding
the so much longed-for Messias. He foretold to Mary her martyrdom of
sorrow; and that Jesus brought redemption to those who would accept of
it on the terms it was offered them; but a heavy judgment on all
infidels who should obstinately reject it, and on Christians also whose
lives were a contradiction to his holy maxims and example. Mary, hearing
this terrible prediction, did not answer one word, felt no agitation of
mind from the present, no dread for the future; but courageously and
sweetly committed all to God's holy will. Anne also, the prophetess,
who, in her widowhood, served God with great fervor, had the happiness
to acknowledge and adore in this great mystery the world's Redeemer.
Amidst the crowd of priests and people, the Saviour of the world is
known only by Simeon and Anne. Even when he disputed with the doctors,
and when he wrought the most stupendous miracles, the learned, the wise,
and the princes did not know him. Yet here, while a weak, speechless
child, carried in the arms of his poor mother, he is acknowledged and
adored by Simeon and Anne. He could not hide himself from those who
sought him with fervor, humility, and ardent love. Unless we seek him in
these dispositions, he will not manifest himself, nor communicate his
graces to us. Simeon, having beheld his Saviour in the flesh, desired no
longer to see the light of this world, nor any creatures on earth. If we
truly love God, our distance from him must be a continual pain: and we
must sigh after that desired moment which will free us from the danger
of ever losing him by sin, and will put us in possession of Him who is
the joy of the blessed, and the infinite treasure of heaven. Let us
never cease to pray that he purify our hearts from all earthly dross,
and draw them to himself: that he heal, satiate, and inflame our souls,
as he only came upon earth to kindle in all hearts the fire of his love.

Footnotes:
1.  Lev. xii. 2.
2.  Lev. xii. 8.
3.  Ibid. 2.
4.  Luke ii. 64.
5.  {Footnote not in text} Luke ii. 23.
6.  Exod. xiii. 13.
7.  This, from Levit. xxvii. 6, and Numb. iii. 47, appears to have been
    five shekels, each shekel weighing according to Prideaux, (Preface
    to Connection of the Old and New Testament, p. xvii.) about three
    shillings of our money: so that the five amounted to about fifteen
    shillings sterling.
8.  S. Hilar. in Matt. c. 17, n. 11, pp. 696, 697.
9.  [Greek: Hypantê], from [Greek: hupantaô], occurro.

_On blessing the candles and the procession._

The procession with lighted tapers on this day is mentioned by pope
Gelasius I., also by St. Ildefonsus, St. Eligius,[1] St. Sophronius,
patriarch of Jerusalem, St. Cyril of Alexandria, &c., in their sermons
on this festival, St. Bernard says:[2] "This holy procession was first
made by the virgin mother, St. Joseph, holy Simeon, and Anne, to be
afterwards performed in all places and by every nation, with the
exultation of the whole earth, to honor this mystery." In his second
sermon on this feast he describes it thus:[3] "They walk two and two,
holding in their hands candles lighted, not from common fire, but from
that which had been first blessed in the church by the priests,[4] and
singing in the ways of the Lord, because great is his glory." He shows
that the concurrence of many in the procession and prayer is a symbol
of our union and charity, and renders our praises {340} the more
honorable and acceptable to God. We _walk_ while we sing to God, to
denote that to stand still in the paths of virtue is to go back. The
lights we bear in our hands represent the divine fire of love with
which our hearts ought to be inflamed, and which we are to offer to
God without any mixture of strange fire, the fire of concupiscence,
envy, ambition, or the love of creatures. We also hold these lights in
our hands to honor Christ, and to acknowledge him as the _true
light_,[5] whom they represent under this character, and who is called
by holy Simeon in this mystery, _a light for the enlightening of the
Gentiles;_[6] for he came to dispel our spiritual darkness. The
candles likewise express that by faith his light shines in our souls:
as also that we are to _prepare his way_ by good works, by which we
are to be _a light to_ men.[7]

Lights are used by the church during the celebration of the divine
mysteries, while the gospel is read, and the sacraments administered,
on a motive of honor and respect. On the same account lamps burned
before the Lord in the tabernacle[8] and temple. Great personages were
anciently received and welcomed with lights, as was king Antiochus by
Jason and others on his entering Jerusalem.[9] Lights are likewise
expressive of joy, and were anciently used on this account in
receiving Roman emperors, and on other public occasions, as at
present. "Throughout all the churches of the East," says St. Jerom,
"when the gospel is to be read, though the sun shines, torches are
used, not to chase away darkness, but for a sign of joy."[10] The
apostolic canons mention incense, and oil for the lamps, then used in
the churches.[11] Many out of devotion burned lamps before the bodies
of saints, as we read in Prudentius,[12] St. Paulinus,[13] &c. The
corporeal creatures, which we use, are the gifts of God: it is
therefore just that we should honor and glorify him by them. Besides,
in our embodied state, they contribute to excite our souls to
devotion; they are to our eyes, what words are to our ears, and by our
organs move the affections of our hearts.[14] Though piety consists in
the fervor of the soul, and is interior and spiritual, yet many
sensible things concur to its aid and improvement; and we may as well
condemn the use of words, which are corporeal, and affect the soul by
the sense of hearing, as the use of suitable approved ceremonies.
Christ made use of sensible signs in the institution of his most
divine sacraments, and in several miraculous cures, &c. The church
always used external rites and ceremonies in the divine worship. These
contribute to the majesty and dignity of religion, which in our
present condition would appear naked, if destitute of all exterior.
The candles are blessed previously to the use of them, because the
church blesses and sanctifies, by prayer, what ever is employed in the
divine service. We are to hold the candles in our hands on this day,
while the gospel is read or sung; also from the elevation to the
communion, in the most fervent spirit of sacrifice, offering ourselves
to God with our divine Redeemer, and desiring to meet in spirit this
blessed company in this mystery; likewise to honor the mother of God
in her purification, and still more so, with the most profound
adoration and gratitude, our divine Saviour in his presentation in our
flesh for us. The same lively sentiments of devotion ought to inflame
our breasts on this occasion, as if we had been present with holy
Simeon and the rest in the temple, while we carry in our hands these
emblems of our spiritual joy and homage, and of the consecration of
ourselves in union with our heavenly victim, through the intercession
of his virgin mother.

Footnotes:
1.  Serm. 2.
2.  Serm. de Purif. p. 959.
3.  Serm. 2, p. 961.
4.  According to the ceremonies then in use.
5.  John i. 9.
6.  Luke ii. 3.
7.  Matt. v. 6.
8.  Exod. xxviii. 20.
9.  2 Macch. iv. 22.
10. Adv. Vigil. p. 304.
11. Can. 3.
12. Hymn 2.
13. Nat. iii. v. 98.
14. See the pastoral charge of the late Dr. Butler, bishop of Durham.

{341}

_On the Christian rite of churching women after childbirth._

God, in the old law, declared several actions unclean, which, though
innocent and faultless it themselves, had a constant but remote regard
to sin. One of these was childbirth, to denote the impurity of man's
origin by his being conceived and born in sin. For the removal of legal
uncleanness in general, God established certain expiatory rites,
consisting of ablutions and sacrifices, to which all were strictly
obliged who desired to be purified; that is, restored to the privileges
of their brethren, and declared duly qualified members of the synagogue
or Jewish church. It would be superstitious since the death of Christ,
and the publication of the new law, to stand in awe of legal
uncleannesses, or to have recourse to Jewish purifications on account of
any of them, whether after childbirth or in any other cases. It is not,
therefore, with that intention, that Christian mothers come to the
church, as Jewish women did to the tabernacle, in order to be purified
from any uncleanness they contract by childbirth. It is not on any
consideration peculiar to the Jews that this ceremony was established in
the Christian church, but on a motive common to all mankind, the
performing the duty of thanksgiving and prayer. Hence in the canon law,
pope Innocent III. speaks of it as follows: "If women after childbearing
desire immediately to enter the church, they commit no sin by so doing,
nor are they to be hindered. Nevertheless, if they choose to refrain out
of respect for some time, we do not think their devotion ought to be
reprehended."[1]

In some dioceses this term is limited to a certain number of days. Where
this is not regulated by custom, or by any particular statute, the party
may perform this duty as soon as she is able to go abroad. Her first
visit is to be to the church: first, to give God thanks for her safe
delivery: secondly, to implore his blessing on herself and her child. It
ought to be her first visit, to show her readiness to acquit herself of
this duty to God, and to give him the first-fruits of her recovery and
blessing received; as the first-fruits in every thing are most
particularly due to God, and most agreeable to him, and which, in the
old law, he was most jealous in exacting of his people. The
acknowledgment of a benefit received, is the least return we can make
for it: the law of nature dictates the obligation of this tribute; God
strictly requires it, and this is the means to draw down new blessings
on us, the flowing of which is by nothing more effectually obstructed
than by insensibility and ingratitude: wherefore, next to the praise and
love of God, thanksgiving is the principal homage we owe him in the
sacrifice of our hearts, and is a primary act of prayer. The book of
psalms abounds with acts of thanksgiving; the apostle everywhere
recommends and inculcates it in the strongest terms. The primitive
Christians had these words, _Thanks be to God_, always in their mouths,
and used them as their ordinary form of salutation on all occasions, as
St. Austin mentions,[2] who adds, "What better thing can we bear in our
hearts, or pronounce with our tongues, or express with our pens, than,
_Thanks be to God_?" It is the remark of St. Gregory of Nyssa,[3] that
besides past benefits, and promises of other inestimable benefits to
come, we every instant of our lives receive from God fresh favors; and
therefore we ought, if it were possible, every moment to make him a
return of thanks with our whole hearts, and never cease from this duty.
We owe a particular thanksgiving for his more remarkable blessings. A
mother regards her safe delivery, and her happiness is being blessed
with a child, as signal benefits, and therefore she owes a {342}
particular holocaust of thanks for them. This she comes to offer at the
foot of the altar. She comes also to ask the succors of divine grace.
She stands in need of an extraordinary aid from above, both for herself
and her child. For herself, that, by her example, instructions, and
watchfulness, she may fulfil her great obligations as a mother. For her
child, that it may reap the advantage of a virtuous education, may live
to God, and become one day a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem:
otherwise, what will it avail her to have been a mother, or the child to
have been born? Now prayer is the channel which God has appointed for
the conveyance of his graces to us. The mother, therefore, must be
assiduous in begging daily of the Father of mercies all necessary
succors for these purposes: but this she should make the subject of her
most zealous petitions on the occasion of her first solemn appearance
after childbed before his altar. She should, at the same time, make the
most perfect offering and consecration of her child to the divine
Majesty. Every mother, in imitation of the Blessed Virgin, ought to
perform this triple duty of thanksgiving, petition, and oblation, and
through her hands, who, on the day of her purification, set so perfect a
pattern of this devotion.

Footnotes:
1.  Cap. unico de Purif. post partum.
2.  Ep. 41. olim 77.
3.  Or. 1, de præst. t. 1, p. 715


ST. LAURENCE, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.

HE was one of those who accompanied St. Austin into this island, about
the year 597, and was his immediate successor in the see of Canterbury,
in 608, in which he sat eleven years. When Eadbald, son and successor to
the holy king Ethelbert, not only refused to follow his father's example
in embracing the faith, but gave into idolatry, and incestuously took to
his bed his father's widow, Laurence having labored hard for his
conversion to no purpose, and despairing of reclaiming him, thought of
nothing but retiring into France, as some others had already done. But
he was severely scourged by St. Peter, in a dream, on the eve of his
intended departure, with reproaches for designing to forsake that flock
for which Christ had laid down his life. This did not only prevent his
going, but had such an effect upon the king, when he was shown the marks
of the stripes he had received on this occasion, that he became a
thorough convert, doing whatever was required of him, both for his own
sanctification, and the propagation of Christianity in his dominions.
St. Laurence did not long survive this happy change, dying in the year
619. He is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology. See Bede, Hist. b. 2, c.
4, 6, 7.[1] Malmesb. l. 1, Pontif. Angl.

Footnotes:
1.  From these words of Bede, b. 1, c. 27, Austin sent to Rome Laurence
    the priest, and Peter the monk, some modern historians infer that
    St. Laurence was no monk, but a secular priest; though this proof is
    wreak. See Collier, Dict. Suppl. Henschenius, p. 290. and Le Quien,
    Oriens Christ. t. 1, p. 421.

{343}

FEBRUARY III.

ST. BLASE, BISHOP AND MARTYR.

The four modern different Greek acts of this Saint are of small
authority. Bollandus has supplied this deficiency by learned remarks.

A D. 316.

HE was bishop of Sebaste in Armenia, and was crowned with martyrdom in
the persecution of Licinius, in 316, by the command of Agricolaus,
governor of Cappadocia and the lesser Armenia. It is mentioned in the
acts of St. Eustratius, who received the crown of martyrdom in the reign
of Dioclesian, and is honored on the 13th of December, that St. Blase,
the bishop of Sebaste, honorably received his relics, deposited them
with those of St. Orestes, and punctually executed every article of the
last will and testament of St. Eustratius. His festival is kept a
holiday in the Greek church on the 11th of February. He is mentioned in
the ancient Western Martyrologies which bear the name of St. Jerom. Ado
and Usuard, with several more ancient manuscript Martyrologies, quoted
by Chatelain, place his name on the 15th. In the holy wars his relics
were dispersed over the West, and his veneration was propagated by many
miraculous cures, especially of sore throats. He is the principal patron
of the commonwealth of Ragusa.[1] No other reason than the great
devotion of the people to this celebrated martyr of the church, seems to
have given occasion to the wool-combers to choose him the titular patron
of their profession: on which account his festival is still kept by them
with a solemn guild at Norwich. Perhaps also his country might in part
determine them to this choice: for it seems that the first branch, or at
least hint of this manufacture, was borrowed from the remotest known
countries of the East, as was that of silk: or the iron combs, with
which he is said to have been tormented, gave occasion to this choice.

       *       *       *       *       *

The iron combs, hooks, racks, swords, and scaffolds, which were purpled
with the blood of the martyrs, are eternal proofs of their invincible
courage and constancy in the divine service. But are they not at the
same time subjects of our condemnation and confusion? How weak are our
resolutions! How base our pusillanimity and cowardice in the pursuit of
virtue! We have daily renewed our most sacred baptismal engagements, and
our purposes of faithfully serving God: these we have often repeated at
the feet of God's ministers, and in presence of his holy altars; and we
have often begun our conversation with great fervor. Yet these fair
blossoms were always nipped in the bud: for want of constancy we soon
fell back into our former sloth and disorders, adding to our other
prevarications that of base infidelity. Instead of encountering gibbets
and wild beasts, we were scared at the sight of the least difficulty; or
we had not courage to make the least sacrifice of our passions, or to
repulse the weakest and most contemptible assaults of the world. Its
example, or that dangerous company from which we had not resolution to
separate ourselves, carried us {344} away; and we had not courage to
withstand those very maxims which we ourselves condemn in the moments of
our serious reflections, as contrary to the spirit of the gospel.
Perhaps we often flew back for fear of shadows, and out of apprehensions
frequently imaginary, lest we should forfeit some temporal advantage,
some useful or agreeable friend. Perhaps we were overcome by the
difficulties which arose barely from ourselves, and wanted resolution to
deny our senses, to subdue our passions, to renounce dangerous
occasions, or to enter upon a penitential life. Blinded by self-love,
have we not sheltered our dastardly pusillanimity under the cloak of
pretended necessity, or even virtue?

Footnotes:
1.  See Bollandus, Pagi ad an. 316. Chatelain, Notes on the Martyr. p.
    507, and Jos. Assemani in Cal. Univ. ad 11 Feb. t. 6, p. 123.

ST. ANSCHARIUS, C.,

ARCHBISHOP OF HAMBURG AND BREMEN.

From his excellent life compiled by St. Rembert, his successor, with the
remarks of Mabillon, Act. Bened t. 4, p. 401, and the preliminary
discourse of Henschenius, p. 391. Adam Bremensis, Hist. Episc. Hamb. and
Olof Dolin, in his new excellent history of Sweden in the reigns of
Listen, Bel, and Bagnar, c. 16.

A.D. 865.

HE was a monk, first of Old Corbie in France, afterwards of Little
Corbie in Saxony. Harold, or Heriold, prince of Denmark, having been
baptized in the court of the emperor Louis Débonnaire, Anscarius
preached the faith with great success, first to the Danes, afterwards to
the Swedes, and lastly in the north of Germany. In 832, he was made
archbishop of Hamburg, and legate of the holy see, by pope Gregory IV.
That city was burnt by an army of Normans, in 845. The saint continued
to support his desolate churches, till, in 849, the see of Bremen
becoming vacant, pope Nicholas united it to that of Hamburg, and
appointed him bishop of both. Denmark and Sweden had relapsed into
idolatry, notwithstanding the labors of many apostolical missionaries
from New Corbie, left there by our saint. His presence soon made the
faith flourish again in Denmark, under the protection of king Horick.
But in Sweden the superstitious king Olas cast lots whether he should be
admitted or no. The saint, grieved to see the cause of God and religion
committed to the cast of a die, recommended the issue to the care of
heaven. The lot proved favorable, and the bishop converted many of the
lower rank, and established many churches there, which he left under
zealous pastors at his return to Bremen. He wore a rough hair shirt,
and, while his health permitted him, contented himself with a small
quantity of bread and water. He never undertook any thing without
recommending it first to God by earnest prayer, and had an extraordinary
talent for preaching. His charity to the poor had no bounds; he washed
their feet, and waited on them at table. He ascribed it to his sins,
that he never met with the glory of martyrdom in all that he had
suffered for the faith. To excite himself to compunction and to the
divine praise, he made a collection of pathetic sentences, some of which
he placed at the end of each psalm; several of which are found in
certain manuscript psalters, as Fleury takes notice. The learned
Fabricius, in his Latin Library of the middle ages, calls them an
illustrious monument of the piety of this holy prelate. St. Anscharius
died at Bremen in the year 865, the sixty-seventh of his age, and
thirty-fourth of his episcopal dignity; and was honored with miracles.
His name occurs in the Martyrologies soon after his death. In the German
language he is called St. Scharies, and his collegiate church of Bremen
Sant-Scharies. That at Hamburg, which bore his name, has been converted
by the Lutherans into an hospital for orphans. His name was rather
Ansgar, as it {345} is written in his own letter, and in a charter of
Louis Débonnaire. In this letter[1] he attributes all the fruits and
glory of the conversion of the Northern nations, to which he preached,
to the zeal of that emperor and of Ebbo, archbishop of Rheims, without
taking the least notice of himself or his own labors. The life of St.
Willehad, first bishop of Bremen, who died in 789 or 791, compiled by
St. Anscharius, is a judicious and elegant work, and the preface a
masterpiece for that age. It is abridged and altered by Surius, but
published entire at Cologne, in 1642; and more correctly by Mabillon;
and again by Fabricius, among the historians of Hamburg, t. 2.

Footnotes:
1.  Ap. Bolland. et. Mabill.

ST. WEREBURGE, V. ABBESS.

PATRONESS OF CHESTER.

From Harpsfield, Bede, Brompton, Florence of Worcester, Higden,
Langhorn's Chronicle, Leland's Collections, Powel's History of Wales,
the Saxon Chronicle, Simeon of Durham, and her curious life, written in
old English metre, from the Passionary of the monastery of Chester, by
Henry Bradshaw, a monk of that house, who died in 1521, on whom see
Wood, Athen. Oxon., vol. 1, p. 9, n. 14, and Tanner, Bibl. p. 121. This
scarce history was printed in 1521, by Richard Pynson, printer to king
Henry VIII. See her ancient life, a MS. copy of which Camden sent to F.
Rosweide, published by Henschenius, with notes, p. 386. See also the
summary of the life of St. Wereburge, with an historical account of the
images carved on her shine, (now the episcopal throne,) in the choir of
the cathedral of Chester, by William Cooper, M.D., at Chester 1749.

Seventh Age.

ST. WEREBURGE was daughter of Wulfere, king of Mercia, by St. Ermenilde,
daughter of Ercombert, king of Kent, and St. Sexburge. In her was
centred the royal blood of all the chief Saxon kings; but her glory was
the contempt of a vain world, even from her cradle, on the pure motive
of the love of God. She had three brothers, Wulfade and Rufin, who died
martyrs, and Kenred, who ended his life at Rome in the odor of sanctity.
Her father, Wulfere, resided near Stone, in Staffordshire. His eldest
brother, Peada, had begun to plant the faith in Mercia. Wulfere promised
at his marriage to extirpate the remains of idolatry, and was then a
Christian; but worldly motives made him delay the performance of his
promise. Ermenilde endeavored to soften the fierceness of his temper;
but she found it a far more easy task to dispose the minds of her tender
nursery to be faithful to divine grace; and, under her care, all her
children grew up fruitful plants in the garden of the saints. Wereburge
excelled the rest in fervor and discretion. She was humble, obedient,
and meek; never failed of assisting with her mother at the daily
performance of the whole church office; besides spending many hours on
her knees in private devotion in her closet. She eagerly listened to
every instruction and exhortation of piety. At an age in which youth is
the fondest of recreations, pleasures, and vanities, she was always
grave, reserved, and mortified. She was a stranger to any joy but that
which the purity of her conscience afforded her; and in holy compunction
bewailed before God, without ceasing, her distance from him, and her
other spiritual miseries. She trembled at the thought of the least
danger that could threaten her purity; fasting and prayer were her
delight, by which she endeavored to render her soul acceptable to her
heavenly bridegroom. Her beauty and her extraordinary qualifications,
rendered more conspicuous by the greater lustre of her virtue, drew to
her many suitors for marriage. But a mountain might sooner be moved than
her resolution shaken. The prince of the West-Saxons waited on her with
rich presents; but she refused to accept them or listen to his
proposals, saying she had chosen the Lord Jesus, the Redeemer of
mankind, for the Spouse of her {346} soul, and had devoted herself to
his service in the state of virginity. But her greatest victory was over
the insidious attempts of Werbode, a powerful, wicked knight of her
father's court. The king was greatly indebted to the valor and services
of this knight for his temporal prosperity, and entertained a particular
affection for him. The knight, sensible of this, and being passionately
fond of Wereburge, made use of all his interest with the king to obtain
his consent to marry her, which was granted, on condition he could gain
that of the royal virgin. Queen Ermenilde and her two sons, Wulfade and
Rufin, were grievously afflicted at the news. These two princes were
then upon their conversion to Christianity, and for this purpose
resorted to the cell of St. Chad, bishop of Litchfield, under pretence
of going a hunting; for the saint resided in a hermitage, situate in a
forest. By him they were instructed in the faith, and baptized. Werbode,
finding them an obstacle to his design, contrived their murder, for
which he is said to have moved the father to give an order in a fit of
passion, by showing him the young princes returning from the bishop, and
incensing him against them by slanders: for the king was passionate, and
had been likewise prevailed on by his perfidious minister to countenance
and favor idolatry. Werbode died miserably soon after, and Wulfere no
sooner heard that the murder was perpetrate but, stung with grief and
remorse, he entered into himself, did great penance, and entirely gave
himself up to the advice of his queen and St. Chad. He destroyed all the
idols, converted their temples into churches, founded the abbey of
Peterborough, and the priory of Stone, where the two martyrs were
buried, and exceedingly propagated the worship of the true God, by his
zealous endeavors and example.

Wereburge, seeing this perfect change in the disposition of her father,
was no longer afraid to disclose to him her earnest desire of
consecrating herself to God in a religious state of life. Finding him
averse, and much grieved at the proposal, she pleaded her cause with so
many tears, and urged the necessity of preparing for death in so
pathetic a manner, that her request was granted. Her father even thanked
God with great humility for so great a grace conferred on her, though
not without many tears which such a sacrifice cost him. He conducted her
in great state to Ely, attended by his whole court, and was met at the
gate of the monastery by the royal abbess St. Audry, with her whole
religious family in procession, singing holy hymns to God. Wereburge,
falling on her knees, begged to be admitted in quality of a penitent.
She obtained her request, and Te Deum was sung. She went through the
usual trials with great humility and patience, and with joy exchanged
her rich coronet, purple, silks, and gold, for a poor veil and a coarse
habit, and resigned herself into the hands of her superior, to live only
to Christ. King Wulfere, his three brothers, and Egbright, or Egbert,
king of Kent, and Adulph, king of the East-Angles, together with the
great lords of their respective states, were present at these her solemn
espousals with Christ,[1] and were entertained by Wulfere with a royal
magnificence. The virgin here devoted herself to God with new fervor in
all her actions, and made the exercises of obedience, prayer,
contemplation, humility, and penance, her whole occupation, instead of
that circle of vanities and amusements which employ the slaves of the
world. King Wulfede dying in 675, was buried at Litchfield. Kenred, his
son, being then too young to govern, his brother Ethelred succeeded him.
St. Ermenilde was no sooner at liberty, but she took the religions veil
at Ely, under her mother, St. Sexburge, at whose death she was chosen
third abbess, and honored in England among the saints on the 13th of
February. Her daughter, St. Wereburge, at her {347} uncle king
Ethelred's persuasion, left Ely to charge herself, at his request, with
the superintendency of all the houses of religious women in his kingdom,
that she might establish in them the observance of the most exact
monastic discipline. By his liberality she founded those of Trentham in
Staffordshire, of Hanbury, near Tutbury, in the county of Stafford, (not
in the county of Huntingdon, as some mistake,) and of Wedon, one of the
royal palaces in Northamptonshire. This king also founded the collegiate
church of St. John Baptist, in the suburbs of West-Chester, and gave to
St. Egwin the ground for the great abbey of Evesham; and after having
reigned twenty-nine years, embraced the monastic state in his beloved
monastery of Bardney, upon the river Witham, not far from Lincoln, of
which he was afterwards chosen abbot. He resigned his crown to Kenred,
his nephew, brother to our saint, having been chosen king only on
account of the nonage of that prince. Kenred governed his realm with
great prudence and piety, making it his study, by all the means in his
power, to prevent and root out all manner of vice, and promote the
knowledge and love of God. After a reign of five years, he recommended
his subjects to God, took leave of them, to their inexpressible grief,
left his crown to Coelred, his uncle's son, and, making a pilgrimage to
Rome, there put on the monastic habit in 708, and persevered in great
fervor till his happy death.

St. Wereburge, both by word and example, conducted to God the souls
committed to her care. She was the most perfect model of meekness,
humility, patience, and purity. Besides the church office, she recited
every day the psalter on her knees, and, after matins, remained in the
church in prayer, either prostrate on the ground or kneeling, till
daylight, and often bathed in tears. She never took more than one repast
in the day, and read with wonderful delight the lives of the fathers of
the desert. She foretold her death, visited all places under her care,
and gave her last orders and exhortations. She prepared herself for her
last hour by ardent invitations of her heavenly bridegroom, and
languishing aspirations of divine love, in which she breathed forth her
pure soul on the 3d of February, at Trentham, about the end of the
seventh century. Her body, as she had desired, was interred at Hanbury.
Nine years after, in 708, it was taken up in presence of king Coelred,
his council, and many bishops, and being found entire and uncorrupt, was
laid in a costly shrine on the 21st of June. In 875 her body was still
entire; when, for fear of the Danish pirates, who were advanced as far
as Repton, in the county of Derby, a royal seat (not Ripon, as Guthrie
mistakes) within six miles of Hanbury, (in the county of Stafford,) her
shrine was carried to West-Chester, in the reign of king Alfred, who,
marrying his daughter Elfleda to Ethelred, created him first earl of
Mercia, after the extinction of its kings. This valiant earl built, and
endowed with secular canonries, a stately church, as a repository for
the relics of St. Wereburge, which afterwards became the cathedral. His
lady rebuilt other churches, walled in the city, and fortified it with a
strong castle against the Welsh.[2] The great kings, Athelstan and
Edgar, devoutly visited and enriched the church of St. Wereburge. In the
reign of St. Edward the Confessor, Leofrick, earl of Mercia, and his
pious wife, Godithe, rebuilt many churches and monasteries in those
parts, founded the abbeys of Leonence, near Hereford, also that of
Coventry, which city this earl made free. At Chester they repaired the
collegiate church of St. John, and out of their singular devotion to St.
Wereburge, rebuilt her minster in a most stately {348} manner. William
the Conqueror gave to his kinsman and most valiant knight, Hugh Lupus,
the earldom of Chester, with the sovereign dignity of a palatinate, on
condition he should win it. After having been thrice beaten and
repulsed, he at last took the city, and divided the conquered lands of
the country among his followers. In 1093, he removed the secular canons
of St. Wereburge, and in their stead placed monks under an abbot,
brought over from Bec in Normandy. Earl Richard, son and heir to Lupus,
going in pilgrimage to St. Winefrid's at Holywell, attributed to the
intercession of St. Wereburge his preservation from an army of Welshmen,
who came with an intention to intercept him. In memory of which, his
constable, William, gave to her church the village of Newton, and
founded the abbey of Norton on the Dee, at the place where his army
miraculously forded that great river to the succor of his master, which
place is still called Constable Sondes, says Bradshaw. The same learned
author relates, from the third book of the Passionary of the Abbey, many
miraculous cures of the sick, and preservations of that city from the
assaults of the Welsh, Danes, and Scots, and, in 1180, from a terrible
fire, which threatened to consume the whole city, but was suddenly
extinguished when the monks carried in procession the shrine of the
virgin in devout prayer. Her body fell to dust soon after its
translation to Chester. These relics being scattered in the reign of
Henry VIII., her shrine was converted into the episcopal throne in the
same church, and remains in that condition to this day. This monument is
of stone, ten feet high, embellished with thirty curious antique images
of kings of Mercia and other princes, ancestors or relations of this
saint. See Cooper's remarks on each.

Footnotes:
1.  Some authors in Leland's Collectanea place her religious profession
    after the death of her father; but our account is supported by the
    authority of Bradshaw.
2.  This noble lady, heiress of the great virtues of her royal father,
    rebuilt, after the death of her husband, the churches and towns of
    Stafford, Warwick, Tamworth, and Shrewsbury; and founded, besides
    some others, the great abbey of St. Peter's in Gloucester, which
    church she enriched with the relics of St. Oswalk, king and martyr,
    and in which she herself was buried. See Bradshaw, Dugdale, Launden.

ST. MARGARET SURNAMED OF ENGLAND, V.

HER body is preserved entire, and resorted to with great devotion, in
the church of the Cistercian nuns of Seauve Benoite,[1] in the diocese
of Puy, is Velay, eight leagues from that city toward Lyons. The
brothers of Sainte Marthe, in the old edition of Gallia Christiana,[2]
and Dom Besunier, the Maurist monk,[3] confirm the tradition of the
place, that she was an English woman, and that her shrine is famous for
miracles. Yet her life in old French, (a manuscript copy of which is
preserved by the Jesuits of Clermont college, in Paris, with remarks of
F. Peter Francis Chifflet,) tells us that she was by birth a noble
Hungarian. Her mother, probably at least of English extraction, after
the death of her husband, took her with her on a pilgrimage to
Jerusalem; and both led a very penitential religious life, first in that
city, and afterwards at Bethlehem. St. Margaret having buried her mother
in that country, made a pilgrimage to Montserrat, in Spain, and
afterwards to our Lady's, at Puy in Velay. Then she retired to the
Cistercian nunnery of Seauve Benoite,[4] where she happily ended her
mortal course in the twelfth century. See Gallia Christ. Nova in Dioec.
Aniciensi seu Podiensi, t. 2, p. 777.

Footnotes:
1.  Sylva Benedicta.
2.  Gallia Christ. vetus, t. 4, p. 828.
3.  Recueil Hist. des Abbayes de France, t. 1, p. 314.
4.  This St. Margarey perhaps never professed the Cistercian order. At
    least Henriquez, in the annals of that order, speak only of one
    Margaret, and English woman, whose brother Thomas was banished by
    Henry II. among the friends and relations of St. Thomas of
    Canterbury. By this brother's advice she made her profession in the
    Cistercian nunnery at Laon, where she died in odor of sanctity in
    1192. See Henriquez ad eum annum.

{349}


FEBRUARY IV.

SAINT ANDREW CORSINI

BISHOP AND CONFESSOR.

From his two original lives, written, the one by a disciple, the other
by Peter Andrew Castagna, a friar of his Order, one hundred years after
his death. See the same compiled in Latin by Francis Venturius bishop of
San-Severo, printed at Rome in 1620, in quarto, and abridged by the
elegant Jesuit Maffei.

A.D. 1373.

THIS saint at his baptism was called Andrew, from the apostle of that
name, on whose festival he was born in Florence, in 1302. The family of
the Corsini was then one of the most illustrious of that commonwealth.
This child was the fruit of the prayers of his pious parents, who
consecrated him by vow to God before his birth. But notwithstanding the
care his parents took to instil good principles into him, he spent the
first part of his youth in vice and extravagance, in the company of such
as were as wicked as himself. His devout mother Peregrina never ceased
weeping and praying for his conversion, and one day said to him, with
many sighs, in the bitterness of her grief: "I see you are the wolf I
saw in my sleep;" giving him to understand, that when with child of him
she had dreamed she was brought to bed of a wolf, which running into a
church, was turned into a lamb. She added, that she and her husband had
in a particular manner devoted him, while in the womb, to the service of
God, under the protection of the blessed Virgin; and that in consequence
of his being born not for them, nor for the world, but for God, a very
different kind of life from what he led was expected from him. This
discourse made so strong an impression on his heart, that he went
immediately to the church of the Carmelite friars, and having prayed
there for some time with great fervor before the altar of our Lady, he
was so touched by God, that he took a resolution upon the spot to return
no more to his father's house, but to embrace the religious state of
life professed in that convent. He was readily admitted, in the year
1318, and after a novitiate of a year and some months, during which he
eluded the artifices of his worldly companions, and resolutely rejected
the solicitations of an uncle who sought to draw him back into the
world, he made his solemn profession. He never departed from the first
fervor of his conversion. He strenuously labored to subdue his passions
by extreme humiliations, obedience even to the last person in the house,
by silence and prayer; and his superiors employed him in the meanest
offices, often in washing the dishes in the scullery. The progress he
made in learning, particularly in the holy scriptures and in divinity,
was very great. In the year 1328 he was ordained priest; but to prevent
the music and feast which his family had prepared, according to custom,
for the day on which he was to say his first mass, he privately withdrew
to a little convent seven miles out of town, where he offered, unknown,
his first-fruits to God, with wonderful recollection and devotion. After
some time employed in preaching at Florence, he was sent to Paris, where
he studied three years, and took some degrees. He prosecuted his studies
some time at Avignon, with his uncle, cardinal Corsini; and in 1332,
returning to Florence, was chosen prior of that convent by a provincial
chapter. God honored his extraordinary {350} virtue with the gifts of
prophecy and miracles; and the astonishing fruits of his example and
zealous preaching made him be looked upon as a second apostle of his
country. Among other miracles and conquests of hardened souls, was the
conversion of his cousin John Corsini, an infamous gamester; and the
miraculous cure of an ulcer in his neck.

The bishop of Fiesoli, a town three miles from Florence, being dead, the
chapter unanimously chose our saint to fill up the vacant see. Being
informed of their proceedings, he hid himself, and remained so long
concealed that the canons, despairing to find him, were going to proceed
to a second election; when, by a particular direction of divine
providence, he was discovered by a child. Being consecrated bishop in
the beginning of the year 1360, he redoubled his former austerities. To
his hair-shirt he added an iron girdle. He daily said the seven
penitential psalms and the litany of the saints, and gave himself a
severe discipline while he recited the litany. His bed was of
vine-branches strewed on the floor. All his time was taken up in prayer
or in his functions. Holy meditation and reading the scriptures he
called his recreation from his labors. He avoided discourse with women
as much as possible, and would never listen to flatterers or informers.
His tenderness and care of the poor were incredible, and he had a
particular regard for the bashful among them, that is, such as were
ashamed to make known their distress: these he was diligent in seeking
out, and assisted them with all possible secrecy. By an excellent talent
for composing differences and dissensions, he never failed to reconcile
persons at variance, and to appease all seditions that happened in his
time, either at Fiesoli, or at Florence. Urban V., on this account, sent
him vested with legatine power to Bologna, where the nobility and people
were miserably divided. He happily pacified them, and their union
continued during the remainder of his life. He was accustomed every
Thursday to wash, with singular charity and humility, the feet of the
poor: one excused himself, alleging that his feet were full of ulcers
and corruption; the saint insisted upon washing them notwithstanding,
and they were immediately healed. In imitation of St. Gregory the Great,
he kept a list of the names of all the poor, and furnished them all with
allowances. He never dismissed any without an alms, for which purpose he
once miraculously multiplied bread. He was taken ill while he was
singing high mass on Christmas-night, in the year 1372. His fever
increasing, he gave up his happy soul to God with a surprising joy and
tranquillity, on the 6th of January, 1373, being seventy-one years and
five weeks old, having been twelve years bishop. He was honored with
many miracles, and immediately canonized by the voice of the people. The
state of Florence has often sensibly experienced his powerful
intercession. Pope Eugenius IV. allowed his relics to be exposed to
public veneration. He was canonized by Urban VIII. in 1629. His festival
was transferred to the 4th of February. Clement XII. being of this
family, in conjunction with his nephew, the marquis of Corsini,
sumptuously adorned the chapel of the Carmelite friars' church in
Florence, in which the saint's body is kept. He also built and endowed a
magnificent independent chapel in the great church of St. John Lateran,
under the name of this his patron, in which the corpse of that pope is
interred.

       *       *       *       *       *

The example of all the saints confirms the fundamental maxim of our
divine Redeemer, that the, foundation of all solid virtue and of true
sanctity, is to be laid by subduing the passions and dying to ourselves.
Pride, sensuality, covetousness, and every vice must be rooted out of
the heart, the senses must be mortified, the inconstancy of the mind
must be settled, and its inclination to roving and dissipation fixed by
recollection, and all depraved {351} affections curbed. Both in
cloisters and in the world, many Christians take pains to become
virtuous by multiplying religious practices, yet lose in a great measure
the fruit of their labors, because they never study with their whole
hearts to die to themselves. So long as self-love reigns in their souls,
almost without control, this will often blind and deceive them, and will
easily infect even their good works, and their devotion will be liable
to a thousand illusions, and always very imperfect. Hence religious
persons, after many years spent in the rigorous observance of their
rule, still fail upon the least trial or contradiction which thwarts
their favorite inclination, and are stopped in their spiritual progress
as it were by every grain of sand in their way: their whole life they
crawl like base insects in the mire of their imperfections, whereas if
they studied once in good earnest to curb sensuality and to renounce
their own lights, their own will, and the inordinate love of themselves,
difficulties would disappear before them, and they would in a short time
arrive at the perfection of true virtue, and enjoy the liberty of the
children of God, and his interior peace, the true road to which is only
humility, meekness, and perfect self-denial. Did we know the treasure
and happiness which this would procure us, we should, in imitation of
the ancient holy monks, desire to meet with superiors who would exercise
us by the severest trials, and think ourselves most obliged to those who
apply the strongest remedies to purge and cure our sick souls.

SS. PHILEAS, MM.

BISHOP OF THMUIS, AND PHILOROMUS.

PHILEAS was a rich nobleman of Thmuis[1] in Egypt, very eloquent and
learned. Being converted to the faith, he was chosen bishop of that
city; but was taken and carried prisoner to Alexandria by the
persecutors, under the successors of Dioclesian. Eusebius has preserved
part of a letter which he wrote in his dungeon, and sent to his flock to
comfort and encourage them.[2] Describing the sufferings of his fellow
confessors at Alexandria, he says that every one had full liberty
allowed to insult, strike, and beat them with rods, whips, or clubs.
Some of the confessors, with their hands behind their backs, were tied
to pillars, their bodies stretched out with engines, and their sides,
belly, thighs, legs, and cheeks, hideously torn with iron hooks: others
were hung by one hand, suffering excessive pain by the stretching of
their joints: others hung by both hands, their bodies being drawn down.
The governor thought no treatment too bad for Christians. Some expired
on the racks; others expired soon after they were taken down: others
were laid on their backs in the dungeons, with their legs stretched out
in the wooden stocks to the fourth hole, &c. Culcian, who had been
prefect of Thebais, was then governor of all Egypt, under the tyrant
Maximinus, but afterwards lost his head in 313, by the order of
Licinius. We have a long interrogatory of St. Phileas before him from
the presidial registers. Culcian, after many other things, asked him,
"Was Christ God?" The saint answered, "Yes;" and alleged his miracles as
a proof of his divinity. The governor professed a great regard for his
quality and merit, and said: "If you were in misery, or necessity, you
should be {352} dispatched without more ado; but as you have riches and
estates sufficient not only for yourself and family, but for the
maintenance almost of a whole province, I pity you, and will do all in
my power to save you." The counsellors and lawyers, desirous also of
saving him, said: "He had already sacrificed in the Phrontisterium, (or
academy for the exercises of literature.") Phileas cried out: "I have
not by any immolation; but say barely that I have sacrificed, and you
will say no more than the truth." Having been confined there some time,
he might perhaps have said mass in that place.[3]

His wife, children, brother, and other relations, persons of
distinction, and Pagans, were present at the trial. The governor, hoping
to overcome him by tenderness, said:--"See how sorrowful your wife
stands with her eyes fixed upon you." Phileas replied: "Jesus Christ,
the Saviour of souls, calls me to his glory: and he can also, if he
pleases, call my wife." The counsellors, out of compassion, said to the
judge: "Phileas begs a delay." Culcian said to him: "I grant it you most
willingly, that you may consider what to do." Phileas replied: "I have
considered, and it is my unchangeable resolution to die for Jesus
Christ." Then all the counsellors, the emperor's lieutenant, who was the
first magistrate of the city, all the other officers of justice, and his
relations, fell down together at his feet, embracing his knees, and
conjuring him to have compassion on his disconsolate family, and not to
abandon his children in their tender years, while his presence was
absolutely necessary for them. But he, like a rock unshaken by the
impetuous waves that dash against it, stood unmoved; and raising his
heart to God, protested aloud that he owned no other kindred but the
apostles and martyrs. Philoromus, a noble Christian, was present: he was
a tribune or colonel, and the emperor's treasurer-general in Alexandria,
and had his tribunal in the city, where he sat every day hearing and
judging causes, attended by many officers in great state. Admiring the
prudence and inflexible courage of Phileas, and moved with indignation
against his adversaries, he cried out to them: "Why strive ye to
overcome this brave man, and to make him, by an impious compliance with
men, renounce God? Do not you see that, contemplating the glory of
heaven, he makes no account of earthly things?" This speech drew upon
him the indignation of the whole assembly, who in rage demanded that
both might be condemned to die. To which the judge readily assented.

As they were led out to execution, the brother of Phileas, who was a
judge, said to the governor: "Phileas desires his pardon." Culcian there
fore called him back, and asked him if it was true. He answered: "No;
God forbid. Do not listen to this unhappy man. Far from desiring the
reversion of my sentence, I think myself much obliged to the emperors,
to you, and to your court: for by your means I become coheir with
Christ, and shall enter this very day into the possession of his
kingdom." Hereupon he was remanded to the place of execution, where
having made his prayer aloud, and exhorted the faithful to constancy and
perseverance, he was beheaded with Philoromus. The exact time of their
martyrdom is not known, but it happened between the years 306 and 312.
Their names stand in the ancient martyrologies. See Eusebius, Hist. l.
8, c. 9. St. Hier. in Catal. in Philea; and their original beautiful
acts, published by Combefis, Henschenius, and Ruinart.

Footnotes:
1.  Thmuis, capital of the Nomos, or district of Mendes, is called, by
    Strata, Mendes: which word in the Egyptian tongue signifies a goat,
    Pan being there worshipped with extraordinary superstition under the
    figure of a goat. This city was anciently one of the largest and
    richest in Egypt, as Amm. Marcellinus (l. 22) testifies; but is now
    reduced to the condition of a mean village, and called Themoi, or
    rather Them{o}wia. See Le Quien. Oriens Christ. t. 2. p. 53{}.
2.  Eus. Hist. l. 8, c. 10, p. 302.
3.  See Tillemont and Ceillier.

{353}

ST. GILBERT, A.

FOUNDER OF THE GILBERTINS

HE was born at Sempringham in Lincolnshire, and, after a clerical
education, was ordained priest by the bishop of Lincoln. For some time
he taught a free-school, training up youth in regular exercises of piety
and learning. The advowson of the parsonages of Sempringham and
Tirington being the right of his father, he was presented by him to
those united livings, in 1123. He gave all the revenues of them to the
poor, except a small sum for bare necessaries, which he reserved out of
the first living. By his care his parishioners seemed to lead the lives
of religious men, and were known to be of his flock, by their
conversation, wherever they went. He gave a rule to seven holy virgins,
who lived in strict enclosure in a house adjoining to the wall of his
parish church of St. Andrew at Sempringham, and another afterwards to a
community of men, who desired to live under his direction. The latter
was drawn from the rule of the canon regulars; but that given to his
nuns, from St. Bennet's: but to both he added many particular
constitutions. Such was the origin of the Order of the Gilbertins, the
approbation of which he procured from pope Eugenius III. At length he
entered the Order himself, but resigned the government of it some time
before his death, when he lost his sight. His diet was chiefly roots and
pulse, and so sparing, that others wondered how he could subsist. He had
always at table a dish which he called, The plate of the Lord Jesus, in
which he put all that was best of what was served up; and this was for
the poor. He always wore a hair shirt, took his short rest sitting, and
spent great part of the night in prayer. In this, his favorite exercise,
his soul found those wings on which she continually soared to God.
During the exile of St. Thomas of Canterbury, he and the other superiors
of his Order were accused of having sent him succors abroad. The charge
was false: yet the saint chose rather to suffer imprisonment and the
danger of the suppression of his Order, than to deny it, lest he should
seem to condemn what would have been good and just. He departed to our
Lord on the 3d of February, 1190, being one hundred and six years old.
Miracles wrought at his tomb were examined and approved by Hubert,
archbishop of Canterbury, and the commissioners of pope Innocent III. in
1201, and he was canonized by that pope the year following. The Statutes
of the Gilbertins, and Exhortations to his Brethren, are ascribed to
him. See his life by a contemporary writer, in Dugdale's Monasticon, t.
2, p. 696; and the same in Henschenius, with another from Capgrave of
the same age. See also, Harpsfield, Hist. Angl. cent. 12, c. 37. De
Visch, Bibl. Cisterc. Henschenius, p. 567. Helyot, &c.

ST. JANE, JOAN, OR JOANNA OF VALOIS,

QUEEN OF FRANCE.

SHE was daughter of king Louis XI. and Charlotte of Savoy, born to 1464.
Her low stature and deformed body rendered her the object of her
father's aversion, who, notwithstanding, married her to Louis duke of
Orleans, his cousin-german, in 1476. She obtained his life of her
brother, Charles VIII., who had resolved to put him to death for
rebellion. Yet {354} nothing could conquer his antipathy against her,
from which she suffered every thing with patience, making exercises of
piety her chief occupation and comfort. Her husband coming to the crown
of France in 1498, under the name of Louis XII., having in view an
advantageous match with Anne, the heiress of Brittany, and the late
king's widow, alleging also the nullity of his marriage with Jane,
chiefly on account of his being forced to it by Louis XI., applied to
pope Alexander VI. for commissaries to examine the matter according to
law. These having taken cognizance of the affair, declared the marriage
void; nor did Jane make any opposition to the divorce, but rejoiced to
see herself at liberty, and in a condition to serve God in a state of
greater perfection, and attended with fewer impediments in his service.
She therefore meekly acquiesced in the sentence, and the king, pleased
at her submission, gave her the duchy of Berry, besides Pontoise and
other townships. She resided at Bourges, wore only sackcloth, and
addicted herself entirely to the exercises of mortification and prayer,
and to works of charity, in which she employed all her great revenues.
By the assistance of her confessarius, a virtuous Franciscan friar,
called Gabriel Maria, as he always signed his name, she instituted, in
1500, the Order of nuns of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin.[1] It
was approved by Julius II., Leo X., Paul V., and Gregory XV. The nuns
wear a black veil, a white cloak, a red scapular, and a brown habit with
a cross, and a cord for a girdle. The superioress is only called
Ancelle, or servant, for humility. St. Jane took the habit herself in
1504, but died on the 4th of February, 1505. The Huguenots burned her
remains at Bourges, in 1562.[2] She was canonized by Clement XII. in
1738, but had been venerated at Bourges from the time of her death. See
the brief of Benedict XIV., concerning her immemorial veneration, t. 2,
de Canoniz. l. 2, c. 24, p. 296. Bullarii, t. 16, p. 104, and Helyot,
Hist. des Ord. Rel. t. 7, p. 339. Also, Henschenius, p. 575. Chatelain's
Notes on the Mart. Her life, compiled by Andrew Fremiot, archbishop of
Bourges; by Hilarion de Coste, of the Order of Minims, among his
illustrious ladies; another printed by the order of Doni d'Attichi,
bishop of Autun, in 1656, (who had from his youth professed the same
Order of the Minims, of which he wrote the Annals, and a History of the
French Cardinals.) See also, on St. Jane, Godeau, Eloges des Princesses,
&c.

Footnotes:
1.  The imitation of the ten principal virtues, of which the mysteries
    of the Blessed Virgin, honored by the Church in her yearly
    festivals, furnish perfect models, is the peculiar end of this
    religious institute, which takes its name from the first and
    principal of the joyful mysteries of the mother of God. These nuns
    wear a gray habit with a red scapular, with a gold cross (or of
    silver gilt) hanging before their breast, and a gold ring on one of
    their fingers. A noble Genoese widow, called Mary Victoria Fornaro,
    instituted in 1604 another Order of the same title, called of the
    Celestial Annunciades, Annuntiatæ Coelestinæ. As an emblem of
    heaven, their habit is white, with a blue mantle to represent the
    azure of the heavens. The most rigorous poverty, and a total
    separation from the world, are prescribed. The religious are only
    allowed to speak to externs six times in a year, and then only to
    near relations, the men to those of the first, the women to those of
    the first and second degree. See the life of ven. Mary Victoria
    Fornaro, by F. Ambrose Spinola, Jesuit; and Hist. des Ordres Relig.
    t. 4, p. 297.
2.  See Henschenius, p. 578.

ST. ISIDORE OF PELUSIUM.

HE was a monk from his youth, and became superior of a monastery in the
neighborhood of that city, in the fifth age. Facundus and Suidas assure
us that he was promoted to the dignity of priest. He was looked upon as
a living rule of religious perfection, and treated by his patriarch, St.
Cyril, and the other prelates of his time, as their father. He chose St.
Chrysostom for his model. We have still extant two thousand and twelve
of his letters, abounding with excellent instructions of piety, and with
theological {355} and critical learning. They are concise, and the style
natural, very elegant, agreeable, full of fire and penetration. Possevin
laments that they are not in use as a classic author for the Greek
language. His prudence, undaunted zeal, profound humility, ardent love
of God, and other virtues, shine admirably in them. He died about the
year 449. See Photius, Bibl. Cod. 232 and 228. Tillem. t. 15, p. 97.
Bolland. 4 Feb, p. 468.

ST. REMBERT, ARCHBISHOP OF BREMEN, C.

HE was a native of Flanders, near Bruges, and a monk in the neighboring
monastery of Turholt. St. Anscharius called him to his assistance in his
missionary labors, and in his last sickness recommended him for his
successor, saying: "Rembert is more worthy to be archbishop, than I to
discharge the office of his deacon." After his death, in 865, St.
Rembert was unanimously chosen archbishop of Hamburg and Bremen, and
superintended all the churches of Sweden, Denmark, and the Lower
Germany, finishing the work of their conversion. He also began the
conversion of the Sclavi and the Vandals, now called Brandenburghers. He
sold the sacred vessels to redeem captives from the Normans; and gave
the horse on which he was riding for the ransom of a virgin taken by the
Sclavi. He was most careful never to lose a moment of time from serious
duties and prayer, and never to interrupt the attention of his mind to
God in his exterior functions. He died on the 11th of June, in 888, but
is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on the 4th of February, the day
on which he was chosen archbishop. His life of St. Anscharius is
admired, both for the author's accuracy and piety, and for the elegance
and correctness of the composition. His letter to Walburge, first abbess
of Nienherse, is a pathetic exhortation to humility and virginity. The
see of Hamburg being united to Bremen by St. Anscharius, this became the
metropolitan church of all the north of Germany: but the city becoming
Lutheran, expelled the archbishop in the reign of Charles V. This see
and that of Ferden were secularized and yielded to the Swedes by the
treaty of Westphalia, in 1648. See his life written soon after his
death, in Henschenius, p. 555. Mabillon, Act. Bened., &c.

ST. MODAN, ABBOT IN SCOTLAND, C.

DRYBURGH, situated near Mailros, was anciently one of the most famous
monasteries in Scotland: in this house of saints, Modan dedicated
himself to God, about the year 522. Being persuaded that Christian
perfection is to be attained by holy prayer and contemplation, and by a
close union of our souls with God, he gave six or seven hours every day
to prayer, and moreover seasoned with it all his other actions and
employments. A spirit of prayer is founded in the purity of the
affections, the fruit of self-denial, humility, and obedience. Hence
proceeded the ardor with which our saint studied to crucify his flesh
and senses by the practice of the greatest austerities, to place himself
beneath all creatures by the most profound and sincere humility, and in
all things to subject his will to that of his superiors with such an
astonishing readiness and cheerfulness, that they unanimously declared
they never saw any one so perfectly divested of all self-will, and dead
to himself, as Modan. The abbacy falling vacant, he was raised against
his will to that dignity. In this charge, his conduct was a clear proof
of the well-known maxim, that no man possesses the art of governing
{356} others well, unless he is perfectly master of that of obeying. His
inflexible firmness, in maintaining every point of monastic discipline,
was tempered by the most winning sweetness and charity, and an
unalterable calmness and meekness. Such, moreover, was his prudence, and
such the unction of his words in instructing or reproving others, that
his precepts and very reprimands gave pleasure, gained all hearts, and
inspired the love, and communicated the spirit of every duty. He
preached the faith at Stirling, and in other places near the Forth,
especially at Falkirk; but frequently interrupted his apostolic
employments to retire among the craggy mountains of Dunbarton, where he
usually spent thirty or forty days at once in the heavenly exercises of
devout contemplation, in which he enjoyed a kind of anticipation or
foretaste of the delights in which consists the happiness of the
blessed. He died in his retirement near Alcluid, (a fortress on the
river Cluid,) since called Dunbritton, now Dunbarton. His death is
usually placed in the seventh century, though some think he flourished
later. His relics were kept with singular veneration in a famous church
of his name at Rosneith. He is also titular saint of the great church at
Stirling, and honored particularly at Dunbarton and Falkirk. See Hector
Boetius, Lesley, King, in his Calendar, the Breviary of Aberdeen, and
the Chronicle of Scone: also Bollandus, p. 497.

ST. JOSEPH OF LEONISSA, C.

THIS saint was born to 1556, at Leonissa a small town near Otricoli, in
the ecclesiastical state, and at eighteen years of age made his
profession among the Capuchin friars, in the place of his birth, taking
the name of Joseph; for before he was called Eufranius. He was always
mild, humble, chaste, patient, charitable, mortified, and obedient to an
heroic degree: with the utmost fervor, and on the most perfect motive of
religion, he endeavored to glorify God in all his actions. Three days in
the week he usually took no other sustenance than bread and water, and
passed several Lents in the year after the same manner. His bed was hard
boards, with the trunk of a vine for his pillow. The love of injuries,
contumelies, and humiliations, made him find in them his greatest joy.
He looked upon himself as the basest of sinners, and said, that indeed
God by his infinite mercy had preserved him from grievous crimes; but
that by his sloth, ingratitude, and infidelity to the divine grace, he
deserved to have been abandoned by God above all creatures. By this
humility and mortification he crucified in himself the _old man with his
deeds_, and prepared his soul for heavenly communications in prayer and
contemplation, which was his assiduous exercise. The sufferings of
Christ were the favorite and most ordinary object of his devotions. He
usually preached with a crucifix in his hands, and the fire of his words
kindled a flame in the hearts of his hearers and penitents. In 1587 he
was sent by his superiors into Turkey, to labor as a missioner among the
Christians at Pera, a suburb of Constantinople, He there encouraged and
served the Christian galley-slaves with wonderful charity and fruit,
especially during a violent pestilence, with which he himself was
seized, but recovered. He converted many apostates, one of whom was a
bashaw. By preaching the faith to the Mahometans he incurred the utmost
severity of the Turkish laws, was twice imprisoned, and the second time
condemned to a cruel death. He was hung on a gibbet by one hand, which
was fastened by a chain, and pierced with a sharp hook at the end of the
chain; and by one foot in the same manner. Having been some time on
{357} the gibbet, he was released,[1] and the sentence of death was
changed by the sultan into banishment. Wherefore, embarking for Italy,
he landed at Venice; and after two years' absence arrived at Leonissa.
He resumed his apostolic labors in his Own country with extraordinary
zeal, and an uncommon benediction from heaven. To complete his
sacrifice, he suffered very much towards the end of his life from a
painful cancer, to extirpate which he underwent two incisions without
the least groan or complaint, only repeating: "Holy Mary, pray for us
miserable afflicted sinners:" and holding all the while a crucifix to
his hand, on which he fixed his eyes. When some said, before the
operation, that he ought to be bound or held, he pointed to the
crucifix, saying: "This is the strongest band: this will hold me unmoved
better than any cords could do." The operation proving unsuccessful, the
saint happily expired, on the 4th day of February, in 1612, being
fifty-eight years old. His name was inserted in the Roman Martyrology on
the 4th of February. See the history of his miracles in the acts of his
beatification, which ceremony was performed by Clement XII. in 1737, and
in those of his canonization by Benedict XIV. in 1746. Acta
Canonizationis 5 Sanctorum, viz. Fidelis a Sigmaringa, M. Camilli de
Lelia, Petri Regalati, Josephi a Leonissa, and Catharinæa de Riccis, a
Benedicto XIV., an. 1746, printed at Rome an. 1749, pp. 11, 85, and the
bull for his canonization, p. 558. Also Bollan. t. 15, p. 127.

Footnotes:
1.  Some say he was released by an angel, after hanging three days, but
    this circumstance is not mentioned by Benedict XIV., in the decree
    for his canonization, p. 559.


FEBRUARY V.

ST. AGATHA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR.

We have her panegyrics by St. Aldhelm, in the seventh, and St.
Methodius, patriarch of Constantinople, in the ninth, centuries; also a
hymn in her honor among the poems of pope Damasus, and another by St.
Isidore of Seville, in Bollandus, p. 596. The Greeks have interpolated
her acts, but those in Latin are very ancient. They are abridged by
Tillemont, t. 3, p. 409. See also Rocci Pyrrho, in Sicilia Sacra on
Palermo, Catana, and Malta.

A. D 251.

THE cities of Palermo and Catana, in Sicily, dispute the honor of her
birth: but they do much better who, by copying her virtues, and claiming
her patronage, strive to become her fellow-citizens in heaven. It is
agreed that she received the crown of martyrdom at Catana, in the
persecution of Decius, in the third consulship of that prince, in the
year of our Lord 251. She was of a rich and illustrious family, and
having been consecrated to God from her tender years, triumphed over
many assaults upon her chastity. Quintianus, a man of consular dignity,
bent on gratifying both his lust and avarice, imagined he should easily
compass his wicked designs on Agatha's person and estate, by means of
the emperor's edict against the Christians. He therefore caused her to
be apprehended and brought before him at Catana. Seeing herself in the
hands of the persecutors, she made this prayer: "Jesus Christ, Lord of
all things, you see my heart, you know my desire: possess alone all that
I am. I am your sheep, make me worthy to overcome the devil." She wept,
and prayed for courage and strength all the way she {358} went. On her
appearance, Quintianus gave orders for her being put into the hands of
Aphrodisia, a most wicked woman, who with six daughters, all
prostitutes, kept a common stew. The saint suffered in this infamous
place, assaults and stratagems against her virtue, infinitely more
terrible to her than any tortures or death itself. But placing her
confidence in God, she never ceased with sighs and most earnest tears to
implore his protection, and by it was an overmatch for all their hellish
attempts, the whole month she was there. Quintianus being informed of
her constancy after thirty days, ordered her to be brought before him.
The virgin, in her first interrogatory, told him, that to be a servant
of Jesus Christ was the most illustrious nobility, and true liberty. The
judge, offended at her resolute answers, commanded her to be buffeted,
and led to prison. She entered it with great joy, recommending her
future conflict to God. The next day she was arraigned a second time at
the tribunal, and answered with equal constancy that Jesus Christ was
her life and her salvation. Quintianus then ordered her to be stretched
on the rack, which torment was usually accompanied with stripes, the
tearing of the sides with iron hooks, and burning them with torches or
matches. The governor, enraged to see her suffer all this with
cheerfulness, commanded her breast to be tortured, and afterwards to be
cut off. At which she made him this reproach: "Cruel tyrant, do you not
blush to torture this part of my body, you that sucked the breasts of a
woman yourself?" He remanded her to prison with a severe order, that
neither salves nor food should be allowed her. But God would be himself
her physician, and the apostle St. Peter in a vision comforted her,
healed all her wounds, and filled her dungeon with a heavenly light.
Quintianus, four days after, not the least moved at the miraculous cure
of her wounds, caused her to be rolled naked over live coals mixed with
broken potsherds. Being carried back to prison, she made this prayer:
"Lord, my Creator, you have ever protected me from the cradle. You have
taken from me the love of the world, and given me patience to suffer:
receive now my soul." After which words she sweetly gave up the ghost.
Her name is inserted in the canon of the mass, in the calendar of
Carthage, as ancient as the year 530, and in all martyrologies of the
Latins and Greeks. Pope Symmachus built a church in Rome on the Aurelian
way, under her name, about the year 500, which is fallen to decay.[1]
St. Gregory the Great enriched a church which he purged from the Arian
impiety, with her relics,[2] which it still possesses. This church had
been rebuilt in her honor by Ricimer, general of the western empire, in
460. Gregory II. built another famous church at Rome, under her
invocation, in 726, which Clement VIII. gave to the congregation of the
Christian doctrine. St. Gregory the Great[3] ordered some of her relics
to be placed in the church of the monastery of St. Stephen, in the Isle
of Capreæ, now Capri. The chief part, which remained at Catana, was
carried to Constantinople by the Greek general, who drove the Saracens
out of Sicily about the year 1040: these were brought back to Catana in
1127, a relation of which translation, written by Mauritius, who was
then bishop, is recorded by Rocci Pyrrho, and Bollandus.[4] The same
authors relate in what manner the torrent of burning sulphur and stones
which issue from mount Ætna, in great eruptions, was several times
averted from the walls of Catana by the veil of St. Agatha, (taken out
of her tomb,) which was carried in procession. Also that through her
intercession, Malta (where she is honored as patroness of the island)
was preserved from the Turks who invaded it in 1551. Small portions of
relics of St. Agatha are said to be distributed in many places.

{359}

       *       *       *       *       *

The perfect purity of intention by which St. Agatha was entirely dead to
the world and herself, and sought only to please God, is the
circumstance which sanctified her sufferings, and rendered her sacrifice
complete. The least cross which we bear, the least action which we
perform in this disposition, will be a great holocaust, and a most
acceptable offering. We have frequently something to suffer--sometimes
an aching pain in the body, at other times some trouble of mind, often
some disappointment, some humbling rebuke, or reproach, or the like. If
we only bear these trials with patience when others are witnesses, or if
we often speak of them, or are fretful under them, or if we bear
patiently public affronts or great trials, yet sink under those which
are trifling, and are sensible to small or secret injuries, it is
evident that we have not attained to true purity of intention in our
patience; that we are not dead to ourselves, and love not to disappear
to the eyes of creatures, but court them, and take a secret complacency
in things which appear great. We profess ourselves ready to die for
Christ; yet cannot bear the least cross or humiliation. How agreeable to
our divine spouse is the sacrifice of a soul which suffers in silence,
desiring to have no other witness of her patience than God alone, who
sends her trials; which shuns superiority and honors, but takes all care
possible that no one knows the humility or modesty of such a refusal;
which suffers humiliations, and seeks no comfort or reward but from God.
This simplicity and purity of heart; this love of being hid in God,
through Jesus Christ, is the perfection of all our sacrifices, and the
complete victory over self-love, which it attacks and forces out of its
strongest intrenchments: this says to Christ, with St. Agatha, "Possess
alone all that I am."

Footnotes:
1.  Fronteau Cal. p. 25.
2.  Disi. l. 3, c. 30.
3.  L. 1, ep. 52.
4.  Feb. {}1, p. 647.

THE MARTYRS OF JAPAN.

See the triumph of the martyrs of Japan. by F. Trigault, from the year
1612 to 1640, the history of Japan, by F. Crasset, to the year 1658, and
that by the learned F. Charlevoix in nine volumes: also the life of F.
Spinola, &c.

THE empire of Japan, so called from one of the islands of which it is
composed, was discovered by certain Portuguese merchants, about the year
1541. It is generally divided into several little kingdoms, all which
obey one sovereign emperor. The capital cities are Meaco and Jedo. The
manners of this people are the reverse of ours in many things. Their
characteristic is pride, and an extravagant love of honor. They adore
idols of grotesque shapes, by which they represent certain famous wicked
ancestors: the chiefest are Amida and Xacha. Their priests are called
Bonzas, and all obey the Jaco, or high-priest. St. Francis Xavier
arrived in Japan in 1549, baptized great numbers, and whole provinces
received the faith. The great kings of Arima, Bungo, and Omura, sent a
solemn embassy of obedience to pope Gregory XIII. in 1582: and in 1587
there were in Japan above two hundred thousand Christians, and among
these several kings, princes, and bonzas, but in 1588, Cambacundono, the
haughty emperor, having usurped the honors of a deity, commanded all the
Jesuits to leave his dominions within six months: however, many remained
there disguised. In 1593, the persecution was renewed, and several
Japanese converts received the crown of martyrdom. The emperor
Tagcosama, one of the proudest and most vicious of men, was worked up
into rage and jealousy by a suspicion suggested by certain European
merchants desirous of the monopoly of this trade, that the view of the
missionaries in preaching the Christian faith was to facilitate the
conquest of their country by the Portuguese or Spaniards. Three Jesuits
and six Franciscans were crucified on {360}a hill near Nangasaqui in
1597. The latter were partly Spaniards and partly Indians, and had at
their head F. Peter Baptist, commissary of his Order, a native of Avila,
in Spain. As to the Jesuits, one was Paul Michi, a noble Japanese and an
eminent preacher, at that time thirty-three years old. The other two,
John Gotto and James Kisai, were admitted into the Society in prison a
little before they suffered. Several Japanese converts suffered with
them. The martyrs were twenty-six in number, and among them were three
boys who used to serve the friars at mass; two of them were fifteen
years of age, and the third only twelve, yet each showed great joy and
constancy in their sufferings. Of these martyrs, twenty-four had been
brought to Meaco, where only a part of their left ears was cut off, by a
mitigation of the sentence which had commanded the amputation of their
noses and both ears. They were conducted through many towns and public
places, their cheeks stained with blood, for a terror to others. When
the twenty-six soldiers of Christ were arrived at the place of execution
near Nangasaqui, they were allowed to make their confession to two
Jesuits of the convent, in that town, and being fastened to crosses by
cords and chains, about their arms and legs, and an iron collar about
their necks, were raised into the air, the foot of each cross falling
into a hole prepared for it in the ground. The crosses were planted in a
row, about four feet asunder, and each martyr had an executioner near
him with a spear ready to pierce his side, for such is the Japanese
manner of crucifixion. As soon as all the crosses were planted, the
executioners lifted up their lances, and at a signal given, all pierced
the martyrs almost in the same instant; upon which they expired and went
to receive the reward of their sufferings. Their blood and garments were
procured by Christians, and miracles were wrought by them. Urban VIII.
ranked them among the martyrs, and they are honored on the 5th of
February, the day of their triumph. The rest of the missionaries were
put on board a vessel, and carried out of the dominions, except
twenty-eight priests, who stayed behind in disguise. Tagcosama dying,
ordered his body should not be burned, as was the custom in Japan, but
preserved enshrined in his palace of Fuximi, that he might be worshipped
among the gods under the title of the new god of war. The most stately
temple in the empire was built to him, and his body deposited in it. The
Jesuits returned soon after, and though the missionaries were only a
hundred in number, they converted, in 1599, forty thousand, and in 1600,
above thirty thousand, and built fifty churches; for the people were
highly scandalized to see him worshipped as a god, whom they had
remembered a most covetous, proud, and vicious tyrant. But in 1602,
Cubosama renewed the bloody persecution, and many Japanese converts were
beheaded, crucified, or burned. In 1614, new cruelties were exercised to
overcome their constancy, as by bruising their feet between certain
pieces of wood, cutting off or squeezing their limbs one after another,
applying red-hot irons or slow fires, flaying off the skin of the
fingers, putting burning coals to their hands, tearing off the flesh
with pincers, or thrusting reeds into all parts of their bodies, and
turning them about to tear their flesh, till they should say they would
forsake their faith: all which, innumerable persons, even children, bore
with invincible constancy till death. In 1616, Xogun succeeding his
father Cubosama in the empire, surpassed him in cruelty. The most
illustrious of these religious heroes was F. Charles Spinola. He was of
a noble Genoese family, and entered the Society at Nola, while his uncle
cardinal Spinola was bishop of that city. Out of zeal and a desire of
martyrdom, he begged to be sent on the Japanese mission. He arrived
there in 1602; labored many years in that mission, gained many to
Christ, by his mildness, and lived in great austerity, for his usual
food was only a little rice and {361} herbs. He suffered four years a
most cruel imprisonment, during which, in burning fevers, he was not
able to obtain of his keepers a drop of cold water out of meals: yet he
wrote from his dungeon: "Father, how sweet and delightful is it to
suffer for Jesus Christ! I have learned this better by experience than I
am able to express, especially since we are in these dungeons where we
fast continually. The strength of my body fails me, but my joy increases
as I see death draw nearer. O what a happiness for me, if next Easter I
shall sing the heavenly Alleluia in the company of the blessed!" In a
long letter to his cousin Maximilian Spinola, he said: "O, if you had
tasted the delights with which God tills the souls of those who serve
him, and suffer for him, how would you contemn all that the world can
promise! I now begin to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, since for his
love I am in prison, where I suffer much. But I assure you, that when I
am fainting with hunger, God hath fortified me by his sweet
consolations, so that I have looked upon myself as well recompensed for
his service. And though I were yet to pass many years in prison, the
time would appear short, through the extreme desire which I feel of
suffering for him, who even here so well repays our labors. Besides
other sickness, I have been afflicted with a continual fever a hundred
days without any remedies or proper nourishment. All this time my heart
was so full of joy, that it seemed to me too narrow to contain it. I
have never felt any equal to it, and I thought myself at the gates of
paradise." His joy was excessive at the news that he was condemned to be
burnt alive, and he never ceased to thank God for so great a mercy, of
which he owned himself unworthy. He was conducted from his last prison
at Omura to Nangasaqui, where fifty martyrs suffered together on a hill
within sight of that city-nine Jesuits, four Franciscans, and six
Dominicans, the rest seculars: twenty-five were burned, the rest
beheaded. The twenty-five stakes were fixed all in a row, and the
martyrs tied to them. Fire was set to the end of the pile of wood
twenty-five feet from the martyrs, and gradually approached them, two
hours before it reached them. F. Spinola stood unmoved, with his eyes
lifted up towards heaven, till the cords which tied him being burnt, he
fell into the flames, and was consumed, on the 2d of September, in 1622,
being fifty-eight years old. Many others, especially Jesuits, suffered
variously, being either burnt at slow fires, crucified, beheaded, or
thrown into a burning mountain, or hung with their heads downward in
pits, which cruel torment usually put an end to their lives in three or
four days. In 1639, the Portuguese and all other Europeans, except the
Dutch, were forbid to enter Japan, even for trade; the very ambassadors
which the Portuguese sent thither were beheaded. In 1642, five Jesuits
landed secretly in Japan, but were soon discovered, and after cruel
tortures were hung in pits till they expired. Thus hath Japan encouraged
the church militant, and filled the triumphant with glorious martyrs:
though only the first-mentioned have as yet been publicly declared such
by the holy See, who are mentioned in the new edition of the Roman
Martyrology published by Benedict XIV. in 1749.

{362}

APPENDIX

ON

THE MARTYRS OF CHINA.

THE devil set all his engines to work, that he might detain in his
captivity those great nations, which, by the inscrutable judgments of
God, lay yet buried in the night of infidelity, and by their vicious
habits and prejudices had almost extinguished the law written in their
breast by their Creator. The pure light of the gospel sufficed to dispel
the dark clouds of idolatry by its own brightness; but the passions of
men were not to be subdued but by the omnipotent hand of Him who
promised that his holy faith and salvation should be propagated
throughout all nations. All the machinations of hell were not able to
defeat the divine mercy, not even by the scandal of those false
Christians, whom jealousy, covetousness, and the spirit of the world
blinded and seared to every feeling, not only of religion, but even of
humanity. Religious missionaries, filled with the spirit of the
apostles, and armed with the power of God, baffled obstacles which
seemed insurmountable to flesh and blood; and by their zeal, charity,
patience, humility, meekness, mortification, and invincible courage,
triumphantly planted the standard of the cross in a world heretofore
unknown to us, and but lately discovered, not by blind chance, but for
these great purposes of divine providence.

It appears from the Chinese annals, in F. Du Halde's History of China,
that this vast empire is the most ancient in the world. Mr. Shuckford
(B. 1, 2, 6) thinks, that their first, king, Fo-hi, was Noah himself,
whom he imagines to have settled here soon after the deluge. Mr.
Swinton, in the twentieth tome of the Universal History, justly censures
this conjecture, and rejects the first dynasty of the Chinese history;
which Mr. Jackson in his chronology, with others, vindicates. We must
own that the Chinese annals are unanimous in asserting this first
dynasty, whatever some have, by mistake, wrote against it; and this
antiquity agrees very well with the chronology of the Septuagint, or
that of the Samaritan Pentateuch, one of which several learned men seem
at present much inclined to embrace. As for this notion that the Chinese
are originally an Egyptian colony, and that their first dynasty is
borrowed from the latter; notwithstanding my great personal respect for
the worthy author of that system, it stands in need of proofs founded in
facts, not in conjectures. A little acquaintance with languages shows,
that we frequently find in certain words and circumstances a surprising
analogy, in some things, between several words or customs of the most
disparate languages and manners of very distant countries: several
Persian words are the same in English, and it would be as plausible a
system to advance that one of these nations was a colony of the other.
From such circumstances it only results, that all nations have one
common original. Allowing therefore the Chinese an antiquity of which
they are infinitely jealous, Fo-hi was perhaps either Sem himself, or
one that lived very soon after the flood, from whom this empire derives
its origin. Confucius was the great philosopher of this people, who drew
up the plan of their laws and religion. He is thought to have flourished
about the time of king Solomon, or not much later. He was of royal
extraction, and a man of severe morals. His writings contain many
sublime moral truths, and show him to have been the greatest philosopher
that ever lived. As he came nearer to the patriarchs in time, and
received a more perfect tradition from them, he surpassed, in the
excellency of his moral precepts, Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato. He
taught men to obey, honor, and fear the Lord of Heaven, to love their
neighbor as themselves, to subdue irregular inclinations, and to be
guided in all things by reason; that God is the original and ultimate
end of all things, which he produced and preserves, himself eternal,
infinite, and immutable; one, supremely holy, supremely intelligent, and
invisible. He often mentioned the expectation of a Messias to come, a
perfect guide and teacher of virtue; calling him the holy man, and the
holy person, who is expected to come on earth. It is a tradition in
China, that he was often heard to say, "That in the West the Holy One
will appear." This he delivered from the patriarchal tradition; but he
not only mentions heavenly spirits, the ministers of God, but he also
ordains the worship of these spirits by religious rites and sacrifices,
and concurs with the idolatry which was established in his time. St.
Francis Xavier had made the conversion of China the object of his
zealous wishes; but died, like another Moses, in sight of it. His
religious brethren long attempted in vain to gain admittance into that
country; but the jealousy of the inhabitants refused entrance to all
strangers. However, God was pleased, at the repeated prayers of his
servants, to crown them with success. The Portuguese made a settlement
at Macao. an island within sight of China, and obtained leave to go
thither {363} twice a year for to trade at the fairs of Canton. F.
Matthew Ricci, a Roman Jesuit, a good mathematician, and a disciple of
Clavius, being settled a missionary at Macao, went over with them
several times into China, and in 1593, obtained leave of the governor to
reside there with two other Jesuits. A little catechism which he
published, and a map of the world, in which he placed the first meridian
in China, to make it the middle of the world, according to the Chinese
notion, gained him many friends and admirers. In 1595, he established a
second residence of Jesuits, at Nanquin; and made himself admired them
by teaching the true figure of the earth, the cause of lunar eclipses,
&c. He also built an observatory, and converted many to the faith. In
1600, he went to Pekin, and carried with him a clock, a watch, and many
other presents to the emperor, who granted him a residence in that
capital. He converted many, and among these several officers of the
court, one of whom was Paul Siu, afterwards prime minister, under whose
protection a flourishing Church was established in his country, Xankai,
(in the province of Nanquin,) in which were forty thousand Christians
when the late persecution began. Francis Martinez, a Chinese Jesuit,
having converted a famous doctor, was beaten several times, and at
length expired under the torment. Ricci died in 1617, having lived in
favor with the emperor Vanlie.

F. Adam Schall, a Jesuit from Cologn, by his mathematics, became known
to the emperor Zonchi: but in 1636, that prince laid violent hands upon
himself, that he might not fall into the hands of two rebels who had
taken Pekin. The Chinese called in Xuute, king of a frontier nation of
the Tartars, to their assistance, who recovered Pekin, but demanded the
empire for the prize of his victory: and his son Chunchi obtained quiet
possession of it in 1650. From that time the Tartars have been emperors
of China, but they govern it by its own religion and laws. They
frequently visit their original territories, but rather treat them as
the conquered country. Chunchi esteemed F. Schall, called him father,
and wag favorable to the Christians. After his death the four regents
pat to death five Christian mandarins for their faith, and condemned F.
Schall, but granted him a reprieve; during which he died. The young
emperor Camhi coming of age, put a stop to the persecution, and employed
F. Verbiest, a Jesuit, to publish the yearly Chinese calendar, declared
him president of the mathematics in his palace, and consequently a
mandarin. The first year he opened the Christian churches, which was in
1671, above twenty thousand souls were baptized: and in the year
following, an uncle of the emperor, one of the eight perpetual generals
of the Tartar troops, and several other persons of distinction. The
succeeding emperors were no less favorable to the Christians, and
permitted them to build a most sumptuous church within the enclosures of
their own palace, which in many respects surpassed all the other
buildings of the empire. It was finished in 1702. The Dominican friars,
according to Touron, (Hommes Illustr. t. 6,) entered China in 1556,
converted many to the faith, and, in 1631, laid the foundation of the
most numerous church of Fokieu, great part of which province they
converted to the faith. Four priests of this order received the crown of
martyrdom in 1647, and a fifth, named Francis de Capillas, from the
convent of Valladolid, the apostle of the town of Fogau, was cruelly
beaten, and soon after beheaded, on the 15th of January, 1648;
"because," as his sentence imported, "he contemned the spirits and gods
of the country." Relations hereof were transmitted to the Congregation
de Propagandâ Fide, under pope Urban VIII.

Upwards of a hundred thousand souls zealously professed the faith, and
they had above two hundred churches. But a debate arose whether certain
honors paid by the Chinese to Confucius and their deceased ancestors,
with certain oblations made, either solemnly, by the mandarins and
doctors at the equinoxes, and at the now and full moons, or privately,
in their own houses or temples, were superstitious and idolatrous. Pope
Clement XI., in 1704, condemned those rites as superstitious, _utpote
superstitione imbutos_, the execution of which decree he committed to
the patriarch of Antioch, afterwards cardinal Tournon, whom he sent as
his commissary into that kingdom. Benedict XIV. confirmed the same more
amply and severely by his constitution, _ex quo singulari_, in 1742, in
which he declares, that the faithful ought to express God, in the
Chinese language, by the name Thien Chu, _i.e._ the Lord of heaven: and
that the words Tien, the heaven, and Xang Ti, the Supreme Ruler, are not
to be used, because they signify the supreme god of the idolaters, a
kind of fifth essence, or intelligent nature, in the heaven itself: that
the inscription, King Tien, worship thou the heaven, cannot be allowed.
The obedience of those who had formerly defended these rites to be
merely political and civil honors, not sacred, was such, that from that
time they have taken every occasion of testifying it to the world. By a
like submission end victory over himself, Fenelon was truly greater than
by all his other illustrious virtues and actions.

The emperor Kang-hi protected the Christian religion in the most
favorable manner. Whereas his successor, Yongtching, banished the
missionaries out of the chief cities, but kept those religious in his
palace who were employed by him in painting, mathematics, and other
liberal arts, and who continued mandarins of the court. Kien-long, the
next emperor, carried the persecution to the greatest rigors of cruelty.
The tragedy was begun by the viceroy of Fokieu, who stirred up the
emperor himself. A great number of Christians of {364} all ages and
sexes were banished, beaten, and tortured divers ways, especially by
being buffeted on the face with a terrible kind of armed ferula, one
blow of which would knock the teeth out, and make the head swell
exceedingly. All which torments even the young converts bore with
incredible constancy, rather than discover where the priest lay hid, or
deliver up the crosses, relics, or sacred books, or do any thing
contrary to the law of God. Many priests and others died of their
torments, or of the hardships of their dungeons. One bishop and six
priests received the crown of martyrdom. Peter Martyr Sanz, a Spanish
Dominican friar, arrived in China in 1715, where he had labored fifteen
years, when he was named by the congregation bishop of Mauricastre, and
ordained by the bishop of Nanquin, assisted by the bishops of Pekin and
Macao, and appointed Apostolic Vicar for the province of Fokieu. In
1732, the emperor, by an edict, banished all the missionaries. Peter
Sauz retired to Macao, but returned to Fokieu, in 1738, and founded
several new churches for his numerous converts, and received the vows of
several virgins who consecrated themselves to God. The viceroy, provoked
at this, caused him to be apprehended, amidst the tears of his dear
flock, with four Dominican friars, his fellow-laborers. They were beaten
with clubs, buffeted on the face with gauntlets made of several pieces
of leather, and at length condemned to lose their heads. The bishop was
beheaded on the same day, the 26th of May, 1747. The Chinese
superstitiously imagine, that the soul of one that is put to death
seizes the first person it meets, and therefore all the spectators run
away as soon as they see the stroke of death given; but none of them did
so at the death of this blessed martyr. On the contrary, admiring the
joy with which he died, and esteeming his holy soul happy, they thought
it a blessing to come the nearest to him, and to touch his blood; which
they did as respectfully as Christians could have done, for whom a pagan
gathered the blood, because they durst not appear. The other four
Dominican friars, who were also Spaniards, suffered much during
twenty-eight months' cruel imprisonment, and were strangled privately in
their dungeons on the 28th of October, 1748. Pope Benedict XIV. made a
discourse to the cardinals on the precious death of this holy bishop,
September 16, 1748. See Touron, t. 6, p. 729.

These four fellow-martyrs of the Order of St. Dominic, were, Francis
Serranus, fifty-two years old, who had labored nineteen years in the
Chinese mission, and during his last imprisonment was nominated by pope
Benedict XIV., bishop of Tipasa: Joachim Roio, fifty-six years old, who
had preached in that empire thirty-three years: John Alcober, forty-two
years old, who had spent eighteen years in that mission: and Francis
Diaz, thirty-three years old, of which he had employed nine in the same
vineyard. During their imprisonment, a report that their lives would be
spared, filled them not with joy, but with grief, to the great
admiration of the infidels, as pope Benedict XIV. mentions in his
discourse to the consistory of cardinals, on their death, delivered in
1752: in which he qualifies them crowned, but not declared martyrs:
_martyres consummatos, nondum martyres vindicatos_. In the same
persecution, two Jesuits, F. Joseph of Attemis, an Italian, and F.
Antony Joseph Heuriquez, a Portuguese, were apprehended in December,
1747, and tortured several times, to compel them to renounce their
religion. They were at length condemned to death by the mandarins, and
the sentence, according to custom, being sent to the emperor, was
confirmed by him, and the two priests were strangled in prison on the
12th of September, 1748. On these martyrs see F. Touron, Hommes
Illustres de l'Ordre de S. Domin., t. 6, and the letters of the Jesuit
missionaries. On the history of China, F. Du Halde's Description of
China, in four vols. fol. Mullerus de Chataiâ, Navarrete, Tratados
Históricos de la China, an. 1676. Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses des
Missionaires, vols. 27, 28. Jackson's Chronology, &c.

In Tonquin, a kingdom southwest of China, in which the king and
mandarins follow the Chinese religion, though various sects of idolatry
and superstition reign among the people, a persecution was raised
against the Christians in 1713. In this storm one hundred and fifty
churches were demolished, many converts were beaten with a hammer on
their knees, and tortured various other ways; and two Spanish missionary
priests of the order of St. Dominick suffered martyrdom for the faith,
F. Francis Gil de Federich, and F. Matthew Alfonso Leziniana. F. Gil
arrived there in 1735, and found above twenty thousand Christians in the
west of the kingdom, who had been baptized by priests of his order. This
vineyard he began assiduously to cultivate; but was apprehended by a
neighboring Bonza, in 1737, and condemned to die the year following. The
Touquinese usually execute condemned persons only in the last moon of
the year, and a rejoicing or other accidents often cause much longer
delays. The confessor was often allowed the liberty of saying mass in
the prison: and was pressed to save his life, by saying that he came
into Tonquin as a merchant; but this would have been a lie, and he would
not suffer any other to give in such an answer for him. Father Matthew,
a priest of the same order, after having preached ten years in Tonquin,
was seized while he was saying mass; and because he refused to trample
on a crucifix, was condemned to die in 1743; and in May, 1744, was
brought into the same prison with F. Gil. The idolaters were so
astonished to see their ardor to die, and the sorrow of the latter upon
an offer of his life, that they cried out: "Others desire to live, but
{365} these men to die." They were both beheaded together on the 22d of
January, 1744. See Touron, t. 6, and Lettres Edif. of Curieuses des
Missionaires.

Many other vast countries, both in the eastern and western parts of the
world, received the light of the gospel in the sixteenth century; in
which great work several apostolic men were raised by God, and some were
honored with the crown of martyrdom. Among the zealous missionaries who
converted to the faith the savage inhabitants of Brazil, in America, of
which the Portuguese took possession in 1500, under king John II., F.
Joseph Anchieta is highly celebrated. He was a native of the Canary
islands, but took the Jesuit's habit at Coimbra; died in Brazil, on the
9th of June, 1597, of his age sixty-four; having labored in cultivating
that vineyard forty-seven years. He was a man of apostolic humility,
patience, meekness, prayer, zeal, and charity. The fruit of his labors
was not less wonderful than the example of his virtues. See his life by
F. Peter Roterigius, and by F. Sebastian Beretarius. The sanctity of the
venerable F. Peter Claver, who labored in the same vineyard, was so
heroic, that a process has been commenced for his canonization.

F. Peter Claver was nobly born in Catalonia, and entered himself in the
Society at Tarragon, in 1602, when about twenty years old. From his
infancy he looked upon nothing small in which the service of God was
concerned; for the least action or circumstance which is referred to his
honor is great and precious, and requires our utmost application: in
this spirit of fervor he considered God in every neighbor and superior;
and upon motives of religion was humble and meek towards all, and ever
ready to obey and serve every one. From the time of his religious
profession, he applied himself with the greatest ardor to seek nothing
in the world, but what Jesus Christ sought in his mortal life, that is,
the kingdom of his grace: for the only aim of this servant of God was,
the sanctification of his own soul, and the salvation of others. He was
thoroughly instructed that a man's spiritual progress depends very much
upon the fervor of his beginning; and he omitted nothing both to lay a
solid foundation, and continually to raise upon it the structure of all
virtues; and he sought and found God in all things. The progress which
he made was very great, because he set out by the most perfect exterior
and interior renunciation of the world and himself. Being sent to
Majorca, to study philosophy and divinity, he contracted a particular
friendship with a lay-brother, Alphonsus Rodriguez, then porter of the
college, an eminent contemplative, and perfect servant of God: nor is it
to be expressed how much the fervent disciple improved himself in the
school of this humble master, in the maxims of Christian perfection. His
first lessons were, to speak little with men, and much with God: to
direct every action in the beginning with great fervor, to the most
perfect glory of God, in union with the holy actions of Christ: to have
God always present in his heart; and to pray continually for the grace
never to offend God: never to speak of any thing that belongs to
clothing, lodging, and such conveniences, especially eating or drinking:
to meditate often on the sufferings of Christ, and on the virtues of his
calling. F. Claver, in 1610, was, at his earnest request, sent with
other missionaries to preach the faith to the infidels at Carthagena,
and the neighboring country in America. At the first sight of the poor
negro slaves, he was moved with the strongest sentiments of compassion,
tenderness, and zeal, which never forsook him; and it was his constant
study to afford them all the temporal comfort and assistance in his
power. In the first place he was indefatigable in instructing and
baptizing them, and in giving them every spiritual succor: the title in
which he gloried was that of the Slave of the Slaves, or of the Negroes;
and incredible were the fatigues which he underwent night and day with
them, and the many heroic acts of all virtues which he exercised in
serving them. The Mahometans, the Pagans, and the very Catholics, whose
scandalous lives were a reproach to their holy religion; the hospitals
and the prisons, were other theatres where he exercised his zeal. The
history of his life furnishes us with most edifying instances, and gives
all account of two persons raised to life by him, and of other miracles;
though his assiduous prayer, and his extraordinary humility,
mortification of his senses, and perfect self-denial, might be called
the greatest of his miracles. In the same rank we may place the
wonderful conversions of many obstinate sinners, and the heroic sanctity
of many great servants of God, who were by him formed to perfect virtue.
Among his maxims of humility, he used especially to inculcate, that he
who is sincerely humble desires to be contemned; he seeks not to appear
humble, but worthy to be humbled, is subject to all in his heart, and
ready to obey the whole world. By the holy hatred of ourselves, we must
secretly rejoice in our hearts when we meet with contempt end affronts;
but must take care, said this holy man, that no one think we rejoice at
them, but rather believe that we are confounded and grieved at the
ill-treatment which we receive. F. Claver died on the 8th of September,
1651, being about seventy-two years old; having spent in the Society
fifty-five years, in the same uniform crucified life, and in the
constant round of the same uninterrupted labors, which perhaps requires
a courage more heroic than martyrdom. In the process for his
canonization, the scrutiny relating to his life and virtues is happily
finished; and Benedict XIV. confirmed the decree of the Congregation of
Rites, in 1747, by which it is declared, that the proofs of the heroic
degree of the Christian virtues which he practised, are competent and
sufficient. See his life by F. Fleuriau.

{366}

MANY Martyrs in Pontus, under Dioclesian. Some were tortured with melted
lead poured upon them, others with sharp reeds thrust under their nails,
and such like inventions, several times repeated: at length they various
ways completed their martyrdom. See Eusebius, Hist. l. 8, c. 12, p. 306.

ST. AVITUS, ARCHBISHOP OF VIENNE, C.

ST. ALCIMUS ECDITIUS AVITUS was of a senatorian Roman family, but born
in Auvergne. His father, Isychius, was chosen archbishop of Vienne upon
the death of St. Mammertus, and was succeeded in that dignity by our
saint, in 490. Ennodius, in his life of St. Epiphanius of Pavia, says of
him, that he was a treasure of learning and piety; and adds, that when
the Burgundians had crossed the Alps, and carried home many captives out
of Liguria, this holy prelate ransomed a great number. Clovis, king of
France, while yet a pagan, and Gondebald, king of Burgundy, though an
Arian, held him in great veneration. This latter, for fear of giving
offence to his subjects, durst not embrace the Catholic faith, yet gave
sufficient proofs that he was convinced of the truth by our saint, who,
in a public conference, reduced the Arian bishops to silence in his
presence, at Lyons. Gondebald died in 516. His son and successor,
Sigismund, was brought over by St. Avitus to the Catholic faith. In 517,
our saint presided in the famous council of Epaone, (now called Yenne,)
upon the Rhone, in which forty canons of discipline were framed. When
king Sigismund had imbrued his hands in the blood of his son Sigeric,
upon a false charge brought against him by a stepmother, St. Avitus
inspired him with so great a horror of his crime, that he rebuilt the
abbey of Agaunum, or St. Maurice, became a monk, and died a saint. Most
of the works of St. Avitus are lost: we have yet his poem on the praises
of virginity, to his sister Fuscina, a nun, and some others; several
epistles; two homilies On the Rogation days; and a third on the same,
lately published by Dom Martenne;[1] fragments of eight other homilies;
his conference against the Arians is given us in the Spicilege.[2] St.
Avitus died in 525, and is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on the
5th of February; and in the collegiate church of our Lady at Vienne,
where he was buried, on the 20th of August. Ennodius, and other writers
of that age, extol his learning, his extensive charity to the poor, and
his other virtues. See St. Gregory of Tours, Hist. l. 2. His works, and
his life in Henschenius;[3] and Gallia Christ. Nova, t. 2, p. 242.

Footnotes:
1.  Martenne Thesaur. Anecdot. t. 5, p. 49.
2.  Spicil. t. 5.
3.  F. Sirmond published the works of St. Avitus, with judicious short
    notes, in 8vo., 1643. See them in Sirmond's works, t. 2, and Bibl.
    Patr. His close manner of confuting the Arians in some of his
    letters, makes us regret the loss of many other works, which he
    wrote against them.

ST. ALICE, OR ADELAIDE, V. ABBESS.

SHE was daughter of Megendose, count of Guelders, and governed the
nunnery of Bellich on the Rhine, near Bonn, (now a church of
canonesses,) but died in 1015, abbess of our Lady's in Cologne, both
monasteries having been founded by her father. Her festival, with an
octave, is kept at Bellich, or Vilich, where the nunnery which she
instituted, of the order of St. Bennet, is now converted into a church
of canonesses. See her life in Surius and Bollandus; also Miræus, in
Fastis Belgicis, &c.

{367}

ST. ABRAAMIUS, BISHOP OF ARBELA, M.

THIS city, after the fall of Ninive, was long the capital of Adiabene,
in Assyria, and was one bishopric with Hazza, anciently called Adiab.
Arbeta, now called Irbil, was famous for the victory of Alexander; but
received far greater lustre from the martyrdom of St. Abraamius, its
bishop, who sealed his faith with his blood, after having suffered
horrible torments, which were inflicted by order of an arch magian, in
the fifth year of king Sapor's persecution, that is, of Christ 348. See
Sozomen, l. 2, c. 12 and the Greek Menæa and Synaxary.

FEBRUARY VI.

ST. DOROTHY, VIRGIN AND MARTYR.

See S. Aldhelm, Ado, Usuard, &c., in Bollandus, p. 771.

ST. ALDHELM relates from her acts,[1] that Fabritius, the governor of
Cæsarea, in Cappadocia, inflicted on her most cruel torments, because
she refused to marry, or to adore idols: that she converted two apostate
women sent to seduce her: and that being condemned to be beheaded, she
converted one Theophilus, by sending him certain fruits and flowers
miraculously obtained of her heavenly spouse. She seems to have suffered
under Dioclesian. Her body is kept in the celebrated church which bears
her name, beyond the Tiber, in Rome. She is mentioned on this day in the
ancient Martyrology under the name of St. Jerom. There was another holy
virgin, whom Rufin calls Dorothy, a rich and noble lady of the city of
Alexandria, who suffered torments and a voluntary banishment, to
preserve her faith and chastity against the brutish lust and tyranny of
the emperor Maximinus, in the year 308, as is recorded by Eusebius[2]
and Rufinus:[3] but many take this latter, whose name is not mentioned
by Eusebius, to be the famous St. Catharine of Alexandria.

       *       *       *       *       *

The blood of the martyrs flourished in its hundred-fold increase, as St.
Justin has well observed: "We are slain with the sword, but we increase
and multiply: the more we are persecuted and destroyed, the more are
added to our numbers. As a vine, by being pruned and cut close, shoots
forth new suckers, and bears a greater abundance of fruit; so is it with
us."[4] Among other false reflections, the baron of Montesquieu, an
author too much admired by many, writes:[5] "It is hardly possible that
Christianity should ever be established in China. Vows of virginity, the
assembling of women in the churches, their necessary intercourse with
the ministers of religion, their participation of the sacraments,
auricular confession, the marrying but one wife; all this oversets the
manners and customs, and strikes at the religion and laws of the
country." Could he forget that the gospel overcame {368} all these
impediments where it was first established, in spite of the most
inveterate prejudices, and of all worldly opposition from the great and
the learned; whereas philosophy, though patronized by princes, could
never in any age introduce its rules even into one city. In vain did the
philosopher Plotinus solicit the emperor Gallienus to rebuild a ruined
city in Campania, that he and his disciples might establish in it the
republic of Plato: a system, in some points, flattering the passions of
men, almost as Mahometism fell in with the prejudices and passions of
the nations where it prevailed. So visibly is the church the work of
God.

Footnotes:
1.  L. de Laud. Virgin. c. 25.
2.  L. 8, c. 14.
3.  L. 1, c. 17.
4.  Apol. 2, ol. 1.
5.  L'Esprit des Loix, b. xix. 18.

ST. VEDAST, BISHOP OF ARRAS, C.

From a very short life of his, written soon after his death, and another
longer, corrected by Alcuin, both published by Henschenius, with
remarks, p. 782, t. 1. Febr. See Alcuin's Letter ad Monachos Vedastinos,
in Martenne, Ampl. Collectio, t. l, p. 50. Gallia Christ. Nova, t. 3, p.
3.

A.D. 539.

ST. VEDAST left his own country very young, (which seems to have been in
the west of France,) and led a holy life concealed from the world in the
diocese of Toul, where the bishop, charmed with his virtue, promoted him
to the priesthood. Clovis I., king of France, returning from his victory
over the Alemanni, hastening to Rheims to receive baptism, desired at
Toul some priest who might instruct and prepare him for that holy
sacrament on the road. Vedast was presented to his majesty for this
purpose. While he accompanied the king at the passage of the river
Aisne, a blind man begging on the bridge besought the servant of God to
restore him to his sight: the saint, divinely inspired, prayed, and made
the sign of the cross on his eyes, and he immediately recovered it. The
miracle confirmed the king in the faith, and moved several of his
courtiers to embrace it. St. Vedast assisted St. Remigius in converting
the French, till that prelate consecrated him bishop of Arras, that he
might re-establish the faith in that country. As he was entering that
city in 499, he restored sight to a blind man, and cured one that was
lame. These miracles excited the attention, and disposed the hearts of
many infidels to a favorable reception of the gospel, which had been
received here when the Romans were masters of the country: but the
ravages of the Vandals and the Alans having either dispersed or
destroyed the Christians, Vedast could not discover the least footsteps
of Christianity, save only in the memory of some old people, who showed
him without the walls a poor ruinous church, where Christians used to
hold their religious assemblies. He sighed to see the Lord's field so
overgrown with bushes and brambles, and become the haunt of wild beasts;
whereupon he made it his most earnest supplication to God, that he would
in his mercy vouchsafe to restore his worship in that country. A
national faith is so great a blessing, that we seldom find it granted a
second time to those, who, by imitating the ingratitude of the Jews,
have drawn upon themselves the like terrible chastisement. St. Vedast
found the infidels stupid and obstinate; yet persevered, till by his
patience, meekness, charity, and prayers, he triumphed over bigoted
superstition and lust, and planted throughout that country the faith and
holy maxims of Christ. The great diocese of Cambray, which was extended
beyond Brussels, was also committed to the care of this holy pastor, by
St. Remigius, in 510, and the two sees remained a long time united. St.
Vedast continued his labors almost forty years, and left his church
flourishing in sanctity at his decease, on the 6th of February, in 539.
He was buried in the cathedral, which is dedicated to God, under the
patronage {369} of the Blessed Virgin; but a hundred and twenty-eight
years after, St. Aubertus, the seventh bishop, changed a little chapel
which St. Vedast had built in honor of St. Peter, without the walls,
into an abbey, and removed the relics of St. Vedast into this new
church, leaving a small portion of them in the cathedral. The great
abbey of St. Vedast was finished by St. Vindicianus, successor to St.
Aubertus, and most munificently endowed by king Theodoric or Thierry,
who lies buried in the church with his wife Doda. Our ancestors had a
particular devotion to St. Vedast, whom they called St. Foster, whence
descends the family name of Foster, as Camden takes notice in his
Remains. Alcuin has left us a standing monument of his extraordinary
devotion to St. Vedast, not only by writing his life, but also by
compiling an office and mass in his honor, for the use of his monastery
at Arras, and by a letter to the monks of that house, in 769, in which
he calls this saint his protector. See this letter in Martenne, Ampliss.
Collect. t. 1, p. 50.

SAINT AMANDUS, B.C.

HE was born near Nantes, of pious parents, lords of that territory. At
twenty years of age, he retired into a small monastery in the little
isle of Oye, near that of Rhé. He had not been there above a year, when
his father found him out, and made use of every persuasive argument in
his power to prevail with him to quit that state of life. To his threats
of disinheriting him, the saint cheerfully answered: " Christ is my only
inheritance." The saint went to Tours, and a year after to Bourges,
where he lived near fifteen years under the direction of St.
Austregisilus, the bishop, in a cell near the cathedral. His clothing
was a single sackcloth, and his sustenance barley-bread and water. After
a pilgrimage to Rome, he was ordained in France a missionary bishop,
without any fixed see, in 628, and commissioned to preach the faith to
infidels. He preached the gospel in Flanders, and among the Sclavi in
Carinthia and other provinces near the Danube:[1] but being banished by
king Dagobert, whom he had boldly reproved for his scandalous crimes, he
preached to the pagans of Gascony and Navarre. Dagobert soon recalled
him, threw himself at his feet to beg his pardon, and caused him to
baptize his new-born sort, St. Sigebert, afterwards king. The idolatrous
people about Ghent were so savage, that no preacher durst venture
himself among them. This moved the saint to choose that mission; during
the course of which he was often beaten, and sometimes thrown into the
river: he continued preaching, though for a long time he saw no fruit,
and supported himself by his labor. The miracle of his raising a dead
man to life, at last opened the eyes of the barbarians, and the country
came in crowds to receive baptism, destroying the temples of their idols
with their own hands. In 633 the saint having built them several
churches, founded two great monasteries in Ghent, both under the
patronage of St. Peter; one was named Blandinberg, from the hill Blandin
on which it stands, now the rich abbey of St. Peter's; the other took
the name of St. Bavo, from him who gave his estate for its foundation;
this became the cathedral in 1559, when the city was created a bishop's
see. Besides many pious foundations, both in France and Flanders, in
639, he built the great abbey three leagues from Tourney, called Elnon,
from the river on which it stands; but it has long since taken the name
of St. Amand, with its town and warm mineral baths. In 649 he was chosen
bishop of Maestricht; but three years after he resigned that see to St.
Remaclus, and returned to his missions, to which his compassion for the
blindness of infidels always inclined {370} his heart. He continued his
labors among them till the age of eighty-six, when, broken with
infirmities, he retired to Orion, which house he governed as abbot four
years more, spending that time in preparing his soul for his passage to
eternity, which happened in 675. His body is honorably kept in that
abbey. The Sarum Breviary honored St. Amandus and St. Vedast with an
office of nine lessons. See Buzelin, Gallo-Flandria, and Henschenius, 6
Feb. p. 815, who has published five different lives of this saint.

Footnotes:
1.  See Henschenius. p. 828.

ST. BARSANUPHIUS, ANCHORET.

HAVING renounced the world, he passed some years in the monastery of St.
Seridon, near Gaza in Palestine, in the happy company of that holy
abbot, John the prophet, the blessed Dorotheus, and St. Dositheus. That
he might live in the constant exercise of heavenly contemplation, the
sweetness of which he had begun to relish, he left the monastery about
the year 540, and in a remote cell led a life rather angelical than
human. He wrote a treatise against the Origenist monks, which Montfaucon
has published in his Bibl. Coislin. The Greeks held this saint in so
great veneration, that his picture was placed in the sanctuary of the
church of Sancta Sophia in Constantinople, with those of St. Antony and
St. Ephrem, as we are informed by the Studite monk who wrote the preface
to the Instructions of St. Dorotheus, translated into French by abbot
Rance of la Trappe. The relics of St. Barsanuphius were brought in the
ninth century to Oria, near Siponto in Italy, where he is honored as
principal patron, on the 7th of February. The Greek Synaxaries have his
office on the 6th of this month. Baronius placed his name in the Roman
Martyrology on the 11th of April. See on him Evagrius, (who finished his
history in 593,) l. 4, c. 33. Pagi ad an. 548, n. 10. Bulteau, Hist.
Mon. d'Orient. l. 4, c. 9, p. 695.


FEBRUARY VII.

ST. ROMUALD, ABBOT, C.

FOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF CAMALDOLI.

From his life, written by St. Peter Damian, fifteen years after his
death. See also Magnotii, Eremi Camaldol. descriptio, Romæ, an. 1570.
Historarium Camaldulensium, libri 3. anth. Aug. Florentino, in 4to.
Florentiæ, 1575. Earumdem pans posterior, in 4to. Venetiis, 1579.
Dissertationes Camaldulenses, in quibus agitui de institutione Ordinis,
ætate St. Romualdi, &c. auth. Guidone Grando, ej. Ord. Lucæ, 1707. The
Lives of the Saints of this Order, in Italian, by Razzi, 1600, and in
Latin, by F. Thomas de Minis, in two vols. in 4to. an. 1605, 1606.
Annales Camaldulenses Ordinis St. Benedicti, auctoribus Jo. Ben.
Mittarelli, abbate, et Ans. Costadoni, presbyteris et monachis è Cong.
Camald. Venetiis, in four vols fol., of which the fourth is dedicated to
pope Clement XIII., in 1760.

A.D. 1027.

ST. ROMUALD, of the family of the dukes of Ravenna, called Honesti, was
born in that capital about the year 956. Being brought up in the maxims
of the world, in softness and the love of pleasure, he grew every day
more and more enslaved to his passions: yet he often made a resolution
of undertaking something remarkable for the honor of God; and when he
went a hunting, if he found an agreeable solitary place in the woods, he
would stop in it to pray, and would cry out: "How happy were the ancient
hermits, who had {371} such habitations! With what tranquillity could
they serve God, free from the tumult of the world!" His father, whose
name was Sergius, a worldly man, agreed to decide a dispute he had with
a relation about an estate by a duel. Romuald was shocked at the
criminal design; but by threats of being disinherited if he refused, was
engaged by his father to be present as a spectator: Sergius slew his
adversary. Romuald, then twenty years of age, struck with horror at the
crime that had been perpetrated, though he had concurred to it no
further than by his presence, thought himself, however, obliged to
expiate it by a severe course of penance for forty days in the
neighboring Benedictine monastery of Classis, within four miles of
Ravenna. He performed great austerities, and prayed and wept almost
without intermission. His compunction and fervor made all these
exercises seem easy and sweet to him: and the young nobleman became
every day more and more penetrated with the fear and love of God. The
good example which he saw, and the discourses of a pious lay-brother,
who waited on him, concerning eternity and the contempt of the world,
wrought so powerfully upon him, that he petitioned in full chapter to be
admitted as a penitent to the religious habit. After some demurs,
through their apprehensions of his father's resentment, whose next heir
the saint was, his request was granted. He passed seven years in this
house in so great fervor and austerity, that his example became odious
to certain tepid monks, who could not bear such a continual reproach of
their sloth. They were more exasperated when his fervor prompted him to
reprove their conduct, insomuch, that some of the most abandoned formed
a design upon his life, the execution of which he prevented by leaving
that monastery, with the abbot's consent, and retiring into the
neighborhood of Venice, where he put himself under the direction of
Marinus, a holy hermit, who there led an austere ascetic life. Under
this master, Romuald made great progress in every virtue belonging to a
religious state of life.

Peter Urseoli was then doge of Venice. He had been unjustly raised to
that dignity two years before by a faction which had assassinated his
predecessor Peter Candiano; in which conspiracy he is said by some to
have been an accomplice: though this is denied by the best Venetian
historians.[1] This murder, however, paved the way for his advancement
to the sovereignty, which the stings of his conscience would not suffer
him quietly to enjoy. This put him upon consulting St. Guarinus, a holy
abbot of Catalonia, then at Venice, about what he was to do to be saved.
The advice of St. Marinus and St. Romuald was also desired. These three
unanimously agreed in proposing a monastic state, as affording the best
opportunities for expiating his crimes. Urseoli acquiesced, and, under
pretence of joining with his family at their villa, where he had ordered
a great entertainment, set out privately with St. Guarinus, St. Romuald,
and John Gradenigo, a Venetian nobleman of singular piety, and his
son-in-law John Moresini, for St. Guarinus's monastery of St. Michael of
Cusan, in that part of Catalonia which was then subject to France. Here
Urseoli and Gradenigo made their monastic profession: Marinus and
Romuald, leaving them under the conduct of Guarinus, retired into a
desert near Cusan, and there led an eremitical life. Many flocked to
them, and Romuald being made superior, first practised himself what he
taught others, joining rigorous fasts, solitude, and continual prayer,
with hard manual labor. He had an extraordinary ardor {372} for prayer,
which he exceedingly recommended to his disciples, in whom he could not
bear to see the least sloth or tepidity with regard to the discharge of
this duty; saying, they had better recite one psalm with fervor; than a
hundred with less devotion. His own fasts and mortifications were
extremely rigorous, but he was more indulgent to others, and in
particular to Urseoli, who had exchanged his monastery for St. Romuald's
desert, where he lived under his conduct; who, persevering in his
penitential state, made a most holy end, and is honored in Venice as a
saint, with an office, on the 14th of January: and in the Roman
Martyrology, published by Benedict XIV., on the 10th of that month.

Romuald, in the beginning of his conversion and retreat from the world,
was molested with various temptations. The devil sometimes directly
solicited him to vice; at other times he represented to him what he had
forsaken, and that he had left it to ungrateful relations. He would
sometimes suggest that what he did could not be agreeable to God; at
other times, that his labors and difficulties were too heavy for man to
bear. These and the like attempts of the devil he defeated by watching
and prayer, in which he passed the whole night; and the devil strove in
vain to divert him from this holy exercise by shaking his whole cell,
and threatening to bury him in the ruins. Five years of grievous
interior conflicts and buffetings of the enemy, wrought in him a great
purity of heart, and prepared him for most extraordinary heavenly
communications. The conversion of count Oliver, or Oliban, lord of that
territory, added to his spiritual joy. That count, from a voluptuous
worldling, and profligate liver, became a sincere penitent, and embraced
the order of St. Benedict. He carried great treasures with him to mount
Cassino, but left his estate to his son. The example of Romuald had also
such an influence on Sergius, his father, that, to make atonement for
his past sins and enormities, he had entered the monastery of St.
Severus, near Ravenna; but after some time spent there, he yielded so
far to the devil's temptations, as to meditate a return into the world.
This was a sore affliction to our saint, and determined him to return to
Italy, to dissuade his father from leaving his monastery. But the
inhabitants of the country where he lived, had such an opinion of his
sanctity, that they were resolved not to let him go. They therefore
formed a brutish extravagant design to kill him, that they might keep at
least his body among them, imagining it would be their protection and
safeguard on perilous occasions. The saint being informed of their
design, had recourse to David's stratagem, and feigned himself mad upon
which the people, losing their high opinion of him, guarded him no
longer. Being thus at liberty to execute his design, he set out on his
journey to Ravenna, through the south of France. He arrived there in
994, and made use of all the authority his superiority in religion gave
him over his father; and by his exhortations, tears, and prayers,
brought him to such an extraordinary degree of compunction and sorrow,
as to prevail with him to lay aside all thoughts of leaving his
monastery, where he spent the remainder of his days in great fervor, and
died with the reputation of sanctity.

Romuald, having acquitted himself of his duty towards his father,
retired into the marsh of Classis, and lived in a cell, remote from all
mankind. The devil pursued him here with his former malice; he sometimes
overwhelmed his imagination with melancholy, and once scourged him
cruelly in his cell. Romuald at length cried out: "Sweetest Jesus,
dearest Jesus, why hast thou forsaken me? hast thou entirely delivered
me over to my enemies?" At that sweet name the wicked spirits betook
themselves to flight, and such an excess of divine sweetness and
compunction filled the breast of Romuald, that he melted into tears, and
his heart seemed quite dissolved. {373} He sometimes insulted his
spiritual enemies, and cried out: "Are all your forces spent? have you
no more engines against a poor despicable servant of God?" Not long
after, the monks of Classis chose Romuald for their abbot. The emperor,
Otho III. who was then at Ravenna, made use of his authority to engage
the saint to accept the charge, and went in person to visit him in his
cell, where he passed the night lying on the saint's poor bed. But
nothing could make Romuald consent, till a synod of bishops then
assembled at Ravenna, compelled him to it by threats of excommunication.
The saint's inflexible zeal for the punctual observance of monastic
discipline, soon made these monks repent of their choice, which they
manifested by their irregular and mutinous behavior. The saint being of
a mild disposition, bore with it for some time, in hopes of bringing
them to a right sense of their duty. At length, finding all his
endeavors to reform them ineffectual, he came to a resolution of leaving
them, and went to the emperor, then besieging Tivoli, to acquaint him of
it; whom, when he could not prevail upon to accept of his resignation,
the saint, in the presence of the archbishop of Ravenna, threw down his
crosier at his feet. This interview proved very happy for Tivoli; for
the emperor, though he had condemned that city to plunder, the
inhabitants having rebelled and killed duke Matholin, their governor,
spared it at the intercession of St. Romuald. Otho having also, contrary
to his solemn promise upon oath, put one Crescentius, a Roman senator,
to death, who had been the leader in the rebellion of Tivoli, and made
his widow his concubine; he not only performed a severe public penance
enjoined him by the saint, as his confessor, but promised, by St.
Romuald's advice, to abdicate his crown and retire into a convent during
life; but this he did not live to perform. The saint's remonstrances had
a like salutary effect on Thamn, the emperor's favorite, prime minister
and accomplice in the treachery before mentioned, who, with several
other courtiers, received the religious habit at the hands of St.
Romuald, and spent the remainder of his days in retirement and penance.
It was a very edifying sight to behold several young princes and
noblemen, who a little before had been remarkable for their splendid
appearance and sumptuous living, now leading an obscure, solitary,
penitential life in humility, penance, fasting, cold, and labor. They
prayed, sung psalms, and worked. They all had their several employments:
some spun, others knit, others tilled the ground, gaining their poor
livelihood by the sweat of their brow. St. Boniface surpassed all the
rest in fervor and mortification. He was the emperor's near relation,
and so dear to him, that he never called him by any other name than, My
soul! he excelled in music, and in all the liberal arts and sciences,
and after having spent many years under the discipline of St. Romuald,
was ordained bishop, and commissioned by the pope to preach to the
infidels of Russia, whose king he converted by his miracles, but was
beheaded by the king's brothers, who were themselves afterwards
converted on seeing the miracles wrought on occasion of the martyr's
death. Several other monks of St. Romuald's monastery met with the same
cruel treatment in Sclavonia, whither they were sent by the pope to
preach the gospel.

St. Romuald built many other monasteries, and continued three years at
one he founded near Parenzo, one year in the community to settle it, and
two in a neighboring cell. Here he labored some time under a spiritual
dryness, not being able to shed one tear; but he ceased not to continue
his devotions with greater fervor. At last being in his cell, at those
words of the psalmist; _I will give thee understanding, and will
instruct thee_, he was suddenly visited by God with an extraordinary
light and spirit of compunction, which from that time never left him. By
a supernatural light, the fruit of prayer, he understood the holy
scriptures, and wrote an exposition of the {374} psalms full of
admirable unction. He often foretold things to come, and gave directions
full of heavenly wisdom to all who came to consult him, especially to
his religious, who frequently came to ask his advice how to advance in
virtue, and how to resist temptations; he always sent them back to their
cells full of an extraordinary cheerfulness. Through his continual
weeping he thought others had a like gift, and often said to his monks:
"Do not weep too much; for it prejudices the sight and the head." It was
his desire, whenever he could conveniently avoid it, not to say mass
before a number of people, because he could not refrain from tears in
offering that august sacrifice. The contemplation of the Divinity often
transported him out of himself; melting in tears, and burning with love,
he would cry out: "Dear Jesus! my dear Jesus! my unspeakable desire! my
joy! joy of the angels! sweetness of the saints!" and the like, which he
was heard to speak with a jubilation which cannot be expressed. To
propagate the honor of God, he resolved, by the advice of the bishop of
Pola and others, to exchange his remote desert, for one where he could
better advance his holy institute. The bishop of Paienzo forbade any
boat to carry him off, desiring earnestly to detain him; but the bishop
of Pola sent one to fetch him. He miraculously calmed a storm at sea,
and landed safe at Capreola. Coming to Bifurcum, he found the monks'
cells too magnificent, and would lodge in none but that of one Peter, a
man of extraordinary austerity, who never would live in a cell larger
than four cubits. This Peter admired the saint's spirit of compunction,
and said, that when he recited the psalms alternately with him, the holy
man used to go out thirty times in a night as if for some necessity, but
he saw it was to abandon himself a few moments to spiritual consolation,
with which he overflowed at prayer, or to sighs and tears which he was
not able to contain. Romuald sent to the counts of the province of
Marino, to beg a little ground whereon to build a monastery. They
hearing Romuald's name, offered him with joy whatever mountains, woods,
or fields he would choose among them. He found the valley of Castro most
proper. Exceeding great was the fruit of the blessed man's endeavors,
and many put themselves with great fervor under his direction. Sinners,
who did not forsake the world entirely, were by him in great multitudes
moved to penance, and to distribute great part of their possessions
liberally among the poor. The holy man seemed in the midst of them as a
seraph incarnate, burning with heavenly ardors of divine love, and
inflaming those who heard him speak. If he travelled, he rode or walked
at a distance behind his brethren, reciting psalms, and watering his
cheeks almost without ceasing with tears that flowed in great abundance.

The saint had always burned with an ardent desire of martyrdom, which
was much increased by the glorious crowns of some of his disciples,
especially of St. Boniface. At last, not able to contain the ardor of
his charity and desire to give his life for his Redeemer, he obtained
the pope's license, and set out to preach the gospel in Hungary, in
which mission some of his disciples accompanied him. He had procured two
of them to be consecrated archbishops by the pope, declining himself the
episcopal dignity; but a violent illness which seized him on his
entering Hungary, and returned as often as he attempted to proceed on
his intended design, was a plain indication of the will of God in this
matter; so he returned home with seven of his associates. The rest, with
the two archbishops, went forward, and preached the faith under the holy
king, St. Stephen, suffering much for Christ, but none obtained the
crown of martyrdom. Romuald in his return built some monasteries in
Germany, and labored to reform others; but this drew on him many
persecutions. Yet all, even the great ones of the world, trembled in his
presence. He refused to accept either water or wood, without {375}
paying for it, from Raynerius; marquis of Tuscia, because that prince
had married the wife of a relation whom he had killed. Raynerius, though
a sovereign, used to say, that neither the emperor nor any mortal on
earth could strike him with so much awe as Romuald's presence did. So
powerful was the impression which the Holy Ghost, dwelling in his
breast, made on the most haughty sinners. Hearing that a certain
Venetian had by simony obtained the abbey of Classis, he hastened
thither. The unworthy abbot strove to kill him, to preserve his unjust
dignity. He often met with the like plots and assaults from several of
his own disciples, which procured him the repeated merit, though not the
crown, of martyrdom. The pope having called him to Rome, he wrought
there several miracles, built some monasteries in its neighborhood, and
converted innumerable souls to God. Returning from Rome, he made a long
stay at Mount Sitria. A young nobleman addicted to impurity, being
exasperated at this saint's severe remonstrances, had the impudence to
accuse him of a scandalous crime. The monks, by a surprising levity,
believed the calumny, enjoined him a most severe penance, forbid him to
say mass, and excommunicated him. He bore all with patience and in
silence, as if really he had been guilty, and refrained from going to
the altar for six months. In the seventh month he was admonished by God
to obey no longer so unjust and irregular a sentence pronounced without
any authority and without grounds. He accordingly said mass again, and
with such raptures of devotion, as obliged him to continue long absorbed
in ecstasy. He passed seven years in Sitria, in his cell, in strict
silence, but his example did the office of his tongue and moved many to
penance. In bis old age, instead of relaxing, he increased his
austerities and fasts. He had three hair-shirts which he now and then
changed. He never would admit of the least thing to give a savor to the
herbs or meal-gruel on which he supported himself. If any thing was
brought him better dressed, he, for the greater self-denial, applied it
to his nostrils, and said: "O gluttony, gluttony, thou shalt never taste
this; perpetual war is declared against thee." His disciples also were
remarkable for their austere lives, went always barefoot, and looked
excessive pale with continual fasting. No other drink was known among
them but water, except in sickness. St. Romuald wrought in this place
many miraculous cures of the sick. At last, having settled his disciples
here in a monastery which he had built for them, he departed for
Bifurcum.

The holy emperor St. Henry II., who had succeeded Otho III., coming into
Italy, and being desirous to see the saint, sent an honorable embassy to
him to induce him to come to court. At the earnest request of his
disciples he complied, but not without great reluctance on his side. The
emperor received him with the greatest marks of honor and esteem, and
rising out of his chair, said to him: "I wish my soul was like yours."
The saint observed a strict silence the whole time the interview lasted,
to the great astonishment of the court. The emperor being convinced that
this did not proceed from pride or disdain, but from humility and a
desire of being despised, was so far from being offended at it, that it
occasioned his conceiving a higher esteem and veneration for him. The
next day he received from him wholesome advice in his closet. The German
noblemen showed him the greatest respect as he passed through the court,
and plucked the very hairs out of his garments for relics, at which he
was so much grieved, that he would have immediately gone back if he had
not been stopped. The emperor gave him a monastery on Mount Amiatus.

The most famous of all his monasteries is that of Camaldoli, near
Arezzo, in Tuscany, on the frontiers of the ecclesiastical state, thirty
miles east from Florence, founded by him about the year 1009. It lies
beyond a mountain, {376} very difficult to pass over, the descent from
which, on the opposite side, is almost a direct precipice looking down
upon a pleasant large valley, which then belonged to a lord called
Maldoli, who gave it the saint, and from him it retained the name
Camaldoli.[2] In this place St. Romuald built a monastery, and by the
several observances he added to St. Benedict's rule, gave birth to that
new order called Camaldoli, in which he united the cenobitic and
eremitical life. After seeing in a vision his monks mounting up a ladder
to heaven all in white, he changed their habit from black to white. The
hermitage is two short miles distant from the monastery. It is a
mountain quite overshaded by a dark wood of fir-trees. In it are seven
clear springs of water. The very sight of this solitude in the midst of
the forest helps to fill the mind with compunction, and a love of
heavenly contemplation. On entering it, we meet with a chapel of St.
Antony for travellers to pray in before they advance any further. Next
are the cells and lodgings for the porters. Somewhat further is the
church, which is large, well built, and richly adorned. Over the door is
a clock, which strikes so loud that it may be heard all over the desert.
On the left side of the church is the cell in which St. Romuald lived,
when he first established these hermits. Their cells, built of stone,
have each a little garden walled round. A constant fire is allowed to be
kept in every cell, on account of the coldness of the air throughout the
year: each cell has also a chapel in which they may say mass: they call
their superior, major. The whole hermitage is now enclosed with a wall:
none are allowed to go out of it; but they may walk in the woods and
alleys within the enclosure at discretion. Every thing is sent them from
the monastery in the valley: their food is every day brought to each
cell; and all are supplied with wood and necessaries, that they may have
no dissipation or hinderance in their contemplation. Many hours of the
day are allotted to particular exercises; and no rain or snow stops any
one from meeting in the church to assist at the divine office. They are
obliged to strict silence in all public common places; and everywhere
during their Lents, also on Sundays, Holydays, Fridays, and other days
of abstinence, and always from Complin till prime the next day.

For a severer solitude, St. Romuald added a third kind of life; that of
a recluse. After a holy life in the hermitage, the superior grants leave
to any that ask it, and seem called by God, to live forever shut up in
their cells, never speaking to any one but to the superior when he
visits them, and to the brother who brings them necessaries. Their
prayers and austerities are doubled, and their fasts more severe and
more frequent. St. Romuald condemned himself to this kind of life for
several years; and fervent imitators have never since failed in this
solitude.

St. Romuald died in his monastery in the valley of Castro, in the
marquisate of Ancona. As he was born about the year 956, he must have
died seventy years and some months old, not a hundred and twenty, as the
present copies of his life have it. The day of his death was the 19th of
June; but his principal feast is appointed by Clement VIII. on the 7th
of February, the day of his translation. His body was found entire and
uncorrupt five years after his death, and again in 1466. But his tomb
being sacrilegiously opened, and his body stolen in 1480, it fell to
dust, in which state it was translated to Fabriano, and there deposited
in the great church, all but the remains of one arm, sent to Camaldoli.
God has honored his relics with many miracles. The order of Camaldoli is
now divided into five congregations, under so many generals or majors.
The life of the hermits is very severe, though something mitigated since
the time of St. Romuald. The {377} Cenobites are more like Benedictines,
and perhaps were not directly established by St. Romuald, says F.
Helyot.

       *       *       *       *       *

If we are not called to practise the extraordinary austerities of many
saints, we cannot but confess that we lie under an indispensable
necessity of leading mortified lives, both in order to fulfil our
obligation of doing penance, and to subdue our passions and keep our
senses and interior faculties under due command. The appetites of the
body are only to be reduced by universal temperance, and assiduous
mortification and watchfulness over all the senses. The interior powers
of the soul must be restrained, as the imagination, memory, and
understanding: their proneness to distraction, and the itching curiosity
of the mind, must be curbed, and their repugnance to attend to spiritual
things corrected by habits of recollection, holy meditation, and prayer.
Above all, the will must be rendered supple and pliant by frequent
self-denial, which must reach and keep in subjection all its most
trifling sallies and inclinations. If any of these, how insignificant
soever they may seem, are not restrained and vanquished, they will prove
sufficient often to disturb the quiet of the mind, and betray one into
considerable inconveniences, faults, and follies. Great weaknesses are
sometimes fed by temptations which seem almost of too little moment to
deserve notice. And though these infirmities should not arise to any
great height, they always fetter the soul, and are an absolute
impediment to her progress towards perfection.

Footnotes:
1.  Sanuti tells us, that St. Peter Urseoli, from his cradle, devoted
    himself with his whole heart to the divine service, and proposed to
    himself in all his actions the holy will and the greater glory of
    God. He built in the church of St. Mark a chapel, in which the body
    of that evangelist was secretly laid, the place being known by very
    few. Being chosen doge, he refused that dignity for a long time with
    great obstinacy, but at length suffered himself to be overcome by
    the importunity of the people. He had held it only two years and
    eight months, when he retired. Sanuti. Vite de Duchi di Venezia, c.
    976. Maramri, Rerum Italicar. Scriptores, t. 22, p. 564.
2.  Contracted from Campo Maldoli.

ST. RICHARD, KING AND C.

THIS saint was an English prince, in the kingdom of the West-Saxons, and
was perhaps deprived of his inheritance by some revolution in the state
or he renounced it to be more at liberty to dedicate himself to the
pursuit of Christian perfection. His three children, Winebald,
Willibald, and Warburga, are all honored as saints. Taking with him his
two sons, he undertook a pilgrimage of penance and devotion, and sailing
from Hamble-haven, landed in Neustria on the western coasts of France.
He made a considerable stay at Rouen, and made his devotions in the most
holy places that lay in his way through France. Being arrived at Lucca
in Italy, in his road to Rome, he there died suddenly, about the year
722, and was buried in St. Fridian's church there. His relics are
venerated to this day in the same place, and his festival kept at Lucca
with singular devotion. St. Richard, when living, obtained by his
prayers the recovery of his younger son Willibald, whom he laid at the
foot of a great crucifix erected in a public place in England, when the
child's life was despaired of in a grievous sickness and since his
death, many have experienced the miraculous power of his intercession
with God, especially where his relics invite the devotion of the
faithful. His festival is kept at Lucca, and his name honored in the
Roman Martyrology on the 7th of February. See the Life of St. Willibald
by his cousin, a nun of Heidenhelm, to Canisius's Lectiones Antiquæ,
with the notes of Basnage. Henschenius, Feb. t. 2, p. 70.

ST. THEODORUS OF HERACLEA, M.

AMONG those holy martyrs whom the Greeks honor with the title of
Megalomartyrs, (_i.e._ great martyrs,) as St. George, St. Pantaleon,
&c., four are {378} distinguished by them above the rest as principal
patrons, namely, St. Theodorus of Heraclea, surnamed Stratilates,
(_i.e._ general of the army,) St. Theodorus of Amasea, surnamed Tyro,
St. Procopius, and St. Demetrius. The first was general of the forces of
Licinius, and governor of the country of the Mariandyni, who occupied
part of Bithynia, Pontus, and Paphlagonia, whose capital at that time
was Heraclea of Pontus, though originally a city of Greeks, being
founded by a colony from Megara. This was the place of our saint's
residence, and here he glorified God by martyrdom, being beheaded for
his faith by an order of the emperor Licinius, the 7th of February, on a
Saturday, in 319, as the Greek Menæa and Menologies all agree: for the
Greek Acts of his martyrdom, under the name of Augarus, are of no
authority. It appears from a Novella of the emperor Manuel Comnenus, and
from Balsamon's Scholia on the Nomocanon of Photius,[1] that the Greeks
kept as semi-festivals, that is, as holydays till noon, both the 7th of
February, which was the day of his martyrdom, and that of the
translation of his relics, the 8th of June, when they were conveyed soon
after his death, according to his own appointment, to Euchaia, or
Euchaitæ, where was the burial-place of his ancestors, a day's journey
from Amasea, the capital of all Pontus. This town became so famous for
his shrine, that the name of Theodoropolis was given it; and out of
devotion to this saint, pilgrims resorted thither from all parts of the
east, as appears from the Spiritual Meadow,[2] Zonaras,[3] and
Cedrenus.[4] The two latter historians relate, that the emperor John I.,
surnamed Zemisces, about the year 970, ascribed a great victory which he
gained over the Saracens, to the patronage of this martyr: and in
thanksgiving rebuilt in a stately manner the church where his relics
were deposited at Euchaitæ.[5] The republic of Venice has a singular
veneration for the memory of St. Theodorus of Heraclea, who, as Bernard
Justiniani proves,[6] was titular patron of the church of St. Mark in
that city, before the body of that evangelist was translated into it
from another part of the city. A famous statue of this St. Theodorus is
placed upon one of the two fine pillars which stand in the square of St.
Mark. The relics of this glorious martyr are honored in the magnificent
church of St. Saviour at Venice, whither they were brought by Mark
Dandolo in 1260, from Constantinople; James Dandolo having sent them to
that capital from Mesembria, an archiepiscopal maritime town in Romania,
or the coast of Thrace, when in 1256 he scoured the Euxine sea with a
fleet of galleys of the republic, as the Venetian historians inform
us.[7] See archbishop Falconius, Not. in Tabulis Cappon. and Jos.
Assemani in Calend. Univ. on the 8th and 17th of February, and the 8th
of June;[8] also Lubin. Not. in Martyr. Rom. p. 283, and the Greek
Synaxary.

Footnotes:
1.  Tit. 7, c. 1, Thomassin, l. 1, c. 7, n. 3.
2.  Prat. Spir. c. 180.
3.  Zonar. 3, parte Annal.
4.  Ced. in Joanne Zemisce Imp.
5.  See Baronius in his notes on the Martyrology, (ad 9 Nov.,) who
    justly censures those who confound this saint with St. Theodoras
    Tyro, as Fabricius has since done. (t. 9, Bibl. Græcæ, p. 147.) Yet
    himself falsely places Tyro's shrine at Euchaitæ, and ascribes to
    him these pilgrimages and miracles which certainly belong to St.
    Theodorus Stratilates, or of Heraclea.
6.  De Rebus Venetis, l. 6.
7.  Sansovin, l. 13, Hist. &c.
8.  The modern Greeks have transferred his feast from the 7th to the
    8th of February.

ST. TRESAIN, IN LATIN, TRESANUS, PRIEST, C.

He was a holy Irish priest, who, having left his own country, preached
with great zeal in France, and died curate of Mareuil upon the Marne, in
the sixth century. His relics are held in great veneration at Avenay in
Champagne. See his life in Colgan and Bollandus.

{379}

ST. AUGULUS, B M.

HIS name occurs with the title of bishop in all the manuscript copies of
the ancient Western Martyrology, which bears the name of St. Jerom. That
of the abbey of Esternach, which is very old, and several others, style
him martyr. He probably received that crown soon after St. Alban. All
martyrologies place him in Britain, and at Augusta, which name was given
to London, as Amm. Marcellinus mentions; never to York, for which
Henschenius would have it to be taken in this place, because it was at
that time the capital of Britain. In the ancient copy of Bede's
martyrology, which was used at St. Agnan's at Orleans, he is called St.
Augustus; in some others St. Augurius. The French call him St. Aule.
Chatelain thinks him to be the same saint who is famous in some parts of
Normandy under the name of St. Ouil.


FEBRUARY VIII.

ST. JOHN OF MATHA,

FOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF THE TRINITARIANS

From several bulls of Innocent III. and the many authors of his life,
especially that compiled by Robert Gagnin, the learned general of this
Order, in 1490, collected by Baillet, and the Hist. des Ordres Relig. by
F. Helyot. See also Annales Ordinis SS. Trinitatis, auctore Bon. Baro,
Ord. Minor. Romæ. 1684, and Regula et Statuta Ord. SS. Trinitatis, in
12mo. 1570.

A.D. 1213.

ST. JOHN was born of very pious and noble parents, at Faucon, on the
borders of Provence, June the 24th, 1169, and was baptized John, in
honor of St. John the Baptist. His mother dedicated him to God by a vow
from his infancy. His father, Euphemius, sent him to Aix, where he
learned grammar, fencing, riding, and other exercises fit for a young
nobleman. But his chief attention was to advance in virtue. He gave the
poor a considerable part of the money his parents sent him for his own
use: he visited the hospital every Friday, assisting the poor sick,
dressing and cleansing their sores, and affording them all the comfort
in his power.

Being returned home, he begged his father's leave to continue the pious
exercises he had begun, and retired to a little hermitage not far from
Faucon, with the view of living at a distance from the world, and united
to God alone by mortification and prayer. But finding his solitude
interrupted by the frequent visits of his friends, he desired his
father's consent to go to Paris to study divinity, which he easily
obtained. He went through these more sublime studies with extraordinary
success, and proceeded doctor of divinity with uncommon applause, though
his modesty gave him a reluctancy in that honor. He was soon after
ordained priest, and said his first mass in the bishop of Paris's
chapel, at which the bishop himself, Maurice de Sully, the abbots of St.
Victor and of St. Genevieve. and the rector of the {380} university,
assisted; admiring the graces of heaven in him, which appeared in his
extraordinary devotion on this occasion, as well as at his ordination.

On the day he said his first mass, by a particular inspiration from God,
he came to a resolution of devoting himself to the occupation of
ransoming Christian slaves from the captivity they groaned under among
the infidels: considering it as one of the highest acts of charity with
respect both to their souls and bodies. But before he entered upon so
important a work, he thought it needful to spend some time in
retirement, prayer, and mortification. And having heard of a holy
hermit, St. Felix Valois, living in a great wood near Gandelu, in the
diocese of Meux, he repaired to him and begged he would admit him into
his solitude, and instruct him in the practice of perfection. Felix soon
discovered him to be no novice, and would not treat him as a disciple,
but as a companion. It is incredible what progress these two holy
solitaries made in the paths of virtue, by perpetual prayer,
contemplation, fasting, and watching.

One day, sitting together on the bank of a spring, John disclosed to
Felix the design he had conceived on the day on which he said his first
mass, to succor the Christians under the Mahometan slavery, and spoke so
movingly upon the subject that Felix was convinced that the design was
from God, and offered him his joint concurrence to carry it into
execution. They took some time to recommend it to God by prayer and
fasting, and then set out for Rome in the midst of a severe winter,
towards the end of the year 1197, to obtain the pope's benediction. They
found Innocent III. promoted to the chair of St. Peter, who being
already informed of their sanctity and charitable design by letters of
recommendation from the bishop of Paris, his holiness received them as
two angels from heaven; lodged them in his own palace, and gave them
many long private audiences. After which he assembled the cardinals and
some bishops in the palace of St. John Lateran, and asked their advice.
After their deliberations he ordered a fast and particular prayers to
know the will of heaven. At length, being convinced that these two holy
men were led by the spirit of God, and that great advantages would
accrue to the church from such an institute, he consented to their
erecting a new religious order, and declared St. John the first general
minister. The bishop of Paris, and the abbot of St. Victor, were ordered
to draw up their rules, which the pope approved by a bull, in 1198. He
ordered the religious to wear a white habit, with a red and blue cross
on the breast, and to take the name of the order of the Holy Trinity. He
confirmed it some time after, adding new privileges by a second bull,
dated in 1209.

The two founders having obtained the pope's blessing and certain indults
or privileges, returned to France, and presented themselves to the king,
Philip Augustus, who authorized the establishment of their Order in his
kingdom, and favored it with his liberalities. Gaucher III., lord of
Chatillon, gave them land whereon to build a convent. Their number
increasing, the same lord, seconded by the king, gave them Cerfroid, the
place in which St. John and St. Felix concerted the first plan of their
institute. It is situated in Brie, on the confines of Valois. This house
of Cerfroid, or De Cervo frigido, is the chief of the order. The two
saints founded many other convents in France, and sent several of their
religious to accompany the counts of Flanders and Blois, and other
lords, to the holy war. Pope Innocent III. wrote to recommend these
religious to Miramolin, king of Morocco; and St. John sent thither two
of his religions in 1201, who redeemed one hundred and eighty-six
Christian slaves the first voyage. The year following, St. John went
himself to Tunis, where he purchased the liberty of one hundred and ten
more. He returned into Provence, and there received great charities,
which he carried into Spain, and redeemed many in captivity {381} under
the Moors. On his return he collected large alms among the Christians
towards this charitable undertaking. His example produced a second order
of Mercy, instituted by St. Peter Nolasco, in 1235.

St. John made a second voyage to Tunis in 1210, in which he suffered
much from the infidels, enraged at his zeal and success in exhorting the
poor slaves to patience and constancy in their faith. As he was
returning with one hundred and twenty slaves he had ransomed, the
barbarians took away the helm from his vessel, and tore all its sails,
that they might perish in the sea. The saint, full of confidence in God,
begged him to be their pilot, and hung up his companions' cloaks for
sails, and, with a crucifix in his hands, kneeling on the deck, singing
psalms, after a prosperous voyage, they all landed safe at Ostia, in
Italy. Felix, by this time, had greatly propagated his order in France,
and obtained for it a convent in Paris, in a place where stood before a
chapel of St. Mathurin, whence these religious in France are called
Mathurins.

St. John lived two years more in Rome, which he employed in exhorting
all to penance with great energy and fruit. He died on the 21st of
December, in 1213, aged sixty-one. He was buried in his church of St.
Thomas, where his monument yet remains, though his body has been
translated into Spain. Pope Honorius III. confirmed the rule of this
order a second time. By the first rule, they were not permitted to buy
any thing for their sustenance except bread, pulse, herbs, oil, eggs,
milk, cheese, and fruit; never flesh nor fish: however, they might eat
flesh on the principal festivals, on condition it was given them. They
were not, in travelling, to ride on any beasts but asses.[1]

       *       *       *       *       *

St. Chrysostom[2] elegantly and pathetically extols the charity of the
widow of Sarepta, whom neither poverty nor children, nor hunger, nor
fear of death, withheld from affording relief to the prophet Elias, and
he exhorts every one to meditate on her words, and keep her example
present to his mind. "How hard or insensible soever we are," says he,
"they will make a deep impression upon us, and we shall not be able to
refuse relief to the poor, when we have before our eyes the generous
charity of this widow. It is true, you will tell me, that if you meet
with a prophet in want, you could not refuse doing him all the good
offices in your power. But what ought you not to do for Jesus Christ,
who is the master of the prophets? He takes whatsoever you do to the
poor as done to himself." When we consider the zeal and joy with which
the saints sacrificed themselves for their neighbors, how must we blush
at, and condemn our insensibility at the spiritual and the corporal
calamities of others! The saints regarded affronts, labors, and pains,
as nothing for the service of others in Christ: we cannot bear the least
word or roughness of temper.

Footnotes:
1.  A mitigation of this rule was approved by pope Clement IV. in 1267,
    which allows them to use horses, and to buy fish, flesh, and all
    other necessaries: on which mitigations see Historia prolixior
    Priorum Grandimont, published by Martenne, Ampliff. Collectio, t. 6,
    p. 138. This order is possessed of about two hundred and fifty
    monasteries, divided into thirteen provinces, in France, Spain,
    Italy, and Portugal. That formerly in England had forty-three
    houses; that in Scotland nine, and that in Ireland fifty-two. The
    general of the order is chosen by a general chapter, which is always
    held at Cerfroid. Each house is governed by a superior who is called
    minister. Those in the provinces of Champagne, Normandy, and Picardy
    (which last includes Flanders) are perpetual but to Italy and Spain,
    triennial. Their rule is that of the canons regular of St. Austin.
    Their principal exercises are to sing the divine office at the
    canonical hours, praising and glorifying the adorable Trinity, as
    angel of the earth; and to gather and carry alms in Barbary for the
    redemption of slaves, to which work one third of the revenues of
    each house is applied. A reformation was made in this order in the
    years 1573 and 1576, which, by degrees, has been introduced into the
    greater part of the convents, and into that of Cerfroid itself.
    These never eat meat except on Sundays, sing matins at midnight, and
    wear no linen. The reformation of the barefooted Trinitarians, still
    much more severe, was set on foot in Spain, in 1594, by John Baptist
    of the Conception, who suffered many persecutions in the
    undertaking, and died in 1613, in great reputation for sanctity and
    miracles, the examination of which has been commenced in order to
    his beatification.
2.  Hom. de Eila et Vidua Sarept. pp. 33, 338, ed. Montf.

{382}

ST. STEPHEN OF GRANDMONT, ABBOT.

His life was written by Stephen de Liciaco, fourth prior of Grandmont,
in 1141: but this work seems now lost. Gerard Ithier, seventh prior, and
his abridger, fell into several anachronisms and mistakes, which are to
be corrected by the remarks of Dom Martenne, who has given us a new and
accurate edition of this life, and other pieces relating to it, Ver.
Scriptorum Ampliff. Collectio, t. 6, p. 1043. See also Dom Rivet, Hist.
Littér. de la France, t. 10, p. 410. Gallia Christ. Nova, t. 2, p. 646.

A.D. 1124.

ST. STEPHEN was son of the virtuous viscount of Thiers, the first
nobleman of Auvergne. From his infancy he gave presages of an uncommon
sanctity. Milo, a pious priest, at that time dean of the church of
Paris, was appointed his tutor, and being made bishop of Beneventum in
1074, kept the saint with him, continued to instruct him in sacred
learning, and in the maxims of Christian perfection, and ordained him
deacon. After his death in 1076, Stephen pursued his studies in Rome
during four years. All this time he seemed to himself continually
solicited by an interior voice to seek a sanctuary for his soul in holy
solitude, considering the dangers of the pastoral charge, the
obligations of leading a penitential life, and the happiness of the
exercises of holy retirement. He desired to imitate the rigorous
institute of a certain monastery which he had seen in Calabria, and
obtained leave of pope Gregory VII. to embrace an eremitical life. He
therefore returned to the castle of Thiers, the seat of his late
parents, to settle his affairs. He had always been their favorite child,
and regarded by them as the blessing bestowed on their prayers and
fasts, by which they had begged him of God. Being both exceeding pious,
they had rejoiced to see him so virtuously inclined; but they being now
dead, his other friends vehemently opposed his design of renouncing the
world. Stephen left them privately, and travelling through many deserts,
arrived at Muret, a desolate, barren mountain, in the neighborhood of
Limoges, haunted by wild beasts, and of an exceeding cold situation.
Here he took up his abode, and, by a vow, consecrated himself to the
divine service, in these words: "I, Stephen, renounce the devil and his
pomps, and do offer and dedicate myself to the Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost, one God in three Persons." This engagement he wrote and kept
always by him with a ring as the symbol. He built himself a hut with the
boughs of trees, and in this place passed forty-six years in prayer, and
the practice of such austerities as almost surpassed the strength of a
human body.[1] He lived at first on wild herbs and roots. In the second
summer he was discovered by certain shepherds, who brought him a little
coarse bread; which some country people from that time continued to do
as long as he lived. He always wore next his skin a hair-cloth with iron
plates and hoops studded with sharp spikes, over which his only garment,
made of the coarsest stuff, was the same both in summer and winter. When
overcome by sleep, he took a short rest on rough boards, laid in the
form of a coffin. When he was not employed in manual labor, he lay
prostrate on the ground in profound adoration of the majesty of God. The
sweetness which he felt in divine contemplation made him often forget to
take any refreshment for two or three days together. When sixty years of
{383} age, finding his stomach exceeding weak, he suffered a few drops
of wine to be mixed with the water which he drank.

Many were desirous to live with him and become his disciples. Though
most rigorous to himself, he was mild to those under his direction, and
proportioned their mortifications to their strength. But he allowed no
indulgence with regard to the essential points of a solitary life,
silence, poverty, and the denial of self-will. He often exhorted his
disciples to a total disengagement of their hearts from all earthly
things, and to a love of holy poverty for that purpose. He used to say
to those who desired to be admitted into his community: "This is a
prison without either door or hole whereby to return into the world,
unless a person makes for himself a breach. And should this misfortune
befall you, I could not send after you, none here having any commerce
with the world any more than myself." He behaved himself among his
disciples as the last of them, always taking the lowest place, never
suffering any one to rise up to him; and while they were at table, he
would seat himself on the ground in the midst of them, and read to them
the lives of the saints. God bestowed on him a divine light, by which he
often told others their secret thoughts. The author of his life gives a
long history of miracles which he wrought. But the conversions of many
obstinate sinners were still more miraculous: it seemed as if no heart
could resist the grace which accompanied his words.

Two cardinals coming into France, as legates to the king from the pope,
one of whom was afterwards pope Innocent II., paid the saint a visit to
his desert. They asked him whether he was a canon, a monk, or a hermit.
He said he was none of those. Being pressed to declare what he was: "We
are sinners," said he, "whom the mercy of God hath conducted into this
wilderness to do penance. The pope himself hath imposed on us these
exercises, at our request, for our sins. Our imperfection and frailty
deprive us of courage to imitate the fervor of those holy hermits who
lived in divine contemplation almost without any thought for their
bodies. You see that we neither wear the habit of monks nor of canons.
We are still further from usurping those names, which we respect and
honor at a distance in the persons of the priests, and in the sanctity
of the monks. We are poor, wretched sinners, who, terrified at the rigor
of the divine justice, still hope, with trembling, by this means, to
find mercy from our Lord Jesus Christ in the day of his judgment." The
legates departed exceedingly edified at what they saw and heard. Eight
days after the saint was admonished by God of the end of his mortal
course, after which he most earnestly sighed. He redoubled his fervor in
all his exercises, and falling sick soon after, gave his disciples his
last instructions, and exhorted them to a lively confidence in God, to
whom he recommended them by a humble prayer. His exhortation was so
moving and strong that it dispelled their fears in losing him, and they
seemed to enter into his own sentiments. He caused himself to be carried
into the chapel, where he heard mass, received extreme unction and the
viaticum: and on the 8th day of February, 1124, being fourscore years
old, expired in peace, repeating those words: "_Lord, into thy hands I
commend my spirit_." He had passed in his desert fifty years, bating two
months. His disciples buried him privately, to prevent the crowds of
people breaking in. But the news of his death drew incredible numbers to
his tomb, which was honored by innumerable miracles. Four months after
his death, the priory of Ambazac, dependent on the great Benedictin
abbey of St. Austin, to Limoges, put in a claim to the land of Muret.
The disciples of the holy man, who had inherited his maxims and spirit,
abandoned the ground to them without any contention, and retired to
Grandmont, a desert one league distant, carrying with them his precious
remains. From this place the order {384} took its name. The saint was
canonized by Clement III., in 1189, at the request of king Henry II. of
England. See Gallia Christ. Nova, t. 2, p. 646.

APPENDIX

TO

THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN OF GRANDMONT.

Such was the fervor and sanctity of the first disciples of St. Stephen
of Grandmont, that they were the admiration of the world in the age
wherein they lived. Peter, the learned and pious abbot of Celles, calls
them angels, and testifies that he placed an extraordinary confidence in
their prayers. (Petr. Cellens. ep. 8.) John of Salisbury, a contemporary
author, represents them as men who, being raised above the necessities
of life, had conquered not only sensuality and avarice, but even nature
itself. (Joan. Salisb. Poly. l. 7, c. 23.) Stephen, bishop of Tournay,
speaks of them in as high strains. (Steph. Tournac. ep. 2.) Trithemius,
Yepez, and Miræus, imagined that St. Stephen made the rule of St. Bennet
the basis of his order; and Mabillon at first embraced this opinion,
(Mabill. Præf. in part 2, sec. 6, Bened.,) but changed it afterwards,
(Annul. Bened. l. 64, n. 37 and 112,) proving that this saint neither
followed the rule of Saint Bennet nor that of St. Austin. Dom Martenne
has set this in a much fuller light in his preface to the sixth tome of
his great collection. (Amplise Collect. t. 6, n. 20, &c.) Baillet,
Helyot, and some others, pretend that St. Stephen never wrote any thing
himself, and that his rule was compiled by some of his successors from
his sayings, and from the discipline which he had established. But some
of the very passages to which these critics appeal, suffice to confute
them, and St. Stephen declares himself the author of the written rule
both in the prologue, and in several other places, (Regula Grandim. c.
9, 11, 14,) as Mabillon, or rather Martenne, (who was author of this
addition to his annals,) takes notice. (Annal. t. 6, l. 74, n. 9l.) The
rule of this holy founder consists of seventy-five chapters. In a
pathetic prologue he puts his disciples in mind, that the rule of rules,
and the origin of all monastic rules, is the gospel: they are but
streams derived from this source, and in it are all the means of
arriving at Christian perfection pointed out. He recommends strict
poverty and obedience, as the foundation of a religious life; forbids
his religious ever to receive any retributions for their masses, or to
open the door of their oratory to secular persons on Sundays or
holydays, because on these days they ought to attend their parish
churches. He forbids his religious all lawsuits. (Reg. c. 15. See
Chatelain, Notes sur le Martyr. p. 378.) He forbids them the use of
flesh meat even in time of sickness, and prescribes rigorous fasts, with
only one meal a day for a great part of the year. This rule, which was
approved by Urban III. in 1186, was mitigated by pope Innocent IV. in
1247, and again by Clement V. in 1309. It is printed at Rouen in 1672.
Besides this rule, certain maxims or instructions of St. Stephen are
extant, and were collected together by his disciples after his death.
They were printed at Paris in Latin and French, in 1704. Baillet
published a new translation of them in 1707. In them we admire the
beauty and fruitfulness of the author's genius, and still much more the
great sentiments of virtue which they contain, especially concerning
temptations, vain-glory, ambition, the sweetness of God's service, and
his holy commandments; the obligation without bounds which all men have
of loving God, the incomprehensible advantages of praising him, the
necessity of continually advancing in fervor, and of continually
gathering, by the practice of good works, new flowers, of which the
garland of our lives ought to be composed. This useful collection might
doubtless have been made much more ample by his disciples. Several other
holy maxims and short lessons delivered by him, occur in the most
ancient of his lives, entitled, Stephani Dicta et Facta, compiled by the
care of St. Stephen de Liciaco. (Martenne, t. 6, p. 1046.)

Footnotes:
1.  William of Dandina, an accurate writer, in the life of Hugh of
    Lacerta, the most famous among the first disciples of St. Stephen,
    published by Martenne, (t. 6, p. 1143,) says, that the saint died in
    the forty-sixth year after his conversion. His retreat, therefore,
    cannot be dated before the year 1076, and the foundation of his
    order, which some place in 1076, must have been posterior to this.
    Gerard Ithier mistakes when he says that St. Stephen went to
    Benevento in the twelfth year of his age; and remained there twelve
    years. He went only then to Paris to Milo, who was bishop only two
    years. See Martenne, p. 1053.

ST. PAUL, BISHOP OF VERDUN, C.

HAVING lived in the world a perfect pattern of perfection by alms,
fasts, assiduous prayer, meekness, and charity, he retired among the
hermits of {385} Mount Voge, near Triers, on a hill called from him
Paulberg. King Dagobert placed him in the episcopal chair of Verdun, and
was his protector in his zealous labors and ample foundations of that
church. The saint died in 631. See his authentic anonymous life in
Henschenius. Also Calmet, Hist. de Lorraine, t. 1, l. 9, n. 41, p. 402.
Bollandus, Feb. t. 2, p. 169.

ST. CUTHMAN, C.

THE spiritual riches of divine grace were the happy portion of this
saint, who seemed from his cradle formed to perfect virtue. His name
demonstrates him to have been an English-Saxon, not of British
extraction, either from Wales or Cornwall, as Bollandus conjectured. He
was born in the southern parts of England, and, from the example of his
pious parents, inherited the most perfect spirit of Christian piety.
From his infancy he never once transgressed their orders in the least
article, and when sent by his father to keep his sheep, he never failed
coming home exactly at the time appointed. This employment afforded him
an opportunity of consecrating his affections to God, by the exercises
of holy prayer, which only necessary occasions seemed to interrupt, and
which he may be said to have always continued in spirit, according to
that of the spouse in the Canticles: I sleep, but my heart watcheth. By
the constant union of his soul with God, and application to the
functions and exercises of the angels, the affections of his soul were
rendered daily more and more pure, and his sentiments and whole conduct
more heavenly and angelical. What gave his prayer this wonderful force
in correcting and transforming his affections, was the perfect spirit of
simplicity, disengagement from creatures, self-denial, meekness,
humility, obedience, and piety, in which it was founded. We find so
little change in our souls by our devotions, because we neglect the
practice of self-denial and mortification, live wedded to the world, and
slaves to our senses and to self-love, which is an insuperable obstacle
to this principal effect of holy prayer. Cuthman, after the death of his
father, employed his whole fortune and all that he gained by the labor
of his hands, in supporting his decrepit mother: and afterwards was not
ashamed to beg for her subsistence. To furnish her necessaries by the
sweat of his brow, and by the charitable succors of others, he removed
to several places; nor is it to be expressed what hardships and
austerities he voluntarily and cheerfully suffered, which he embraced as
part of his penance, increasing their severity in order more perfectly
to die to himself and to his senses, and sanctifying them by the most
perfect dispositions in which he bore them. Finding, at a place called
Steninges, a situation according to his desire, he built there a little
cottage to be a shelter from the injuries of the air, in which, with his
mother, he might devote himself to the divine service, without
distraction. His hut was no sooner finished but he measured out the
ground near it for the foundation of a church, which he dug with his own
hands. The inhabitants, animated by his piety and zeal, contributed
liberally to assist him in completing this work. The holy man worked
himself all day, conversing at the same time in his heart with God, and
employed a considerable part of the night in prayer. Here he said in his
heart: "Whither shall I go from thy spirit, O Lord! this is the place of
my rest for ever and ever, in which I will every day render to thee my
vows." His name was rendered famous by many miracles, of which God was
pleased to make him the instrument, both living and after his death. He
flourished about the eighth century, and his relics were honored at
Steninges. This place Saint Edward {386} the Confessor bestowed on the
great abbey of Fecam in Normandy, which was enriched with a portion of
his relics. This donation of Steninges, together with Rye, Berimunster,
and other neighboring places, made to the abbey of Fecam, was confirmed
to the same by William the Conqueror, and the two first Henries, whose
charters are still kept among the archives of that house, and were shown
me there. This parish, and that of Rye, were of the exemption of Fecam,
that is, were not subject to the jurisdiction of the diocesan, but to
this abbey, as twenty-four parishes in Normandy are to this day. For in
the enumeration of the parishes which belong to this exemption in the
bulls of several popes, in which it is confirmed, Steninges and Rye are
always mentioned with this additional clause, that those places are
situated in England.[1] St. Cuthman was titular patron of Steninges or
Estaninges, and is honored to this day, on the 8th of February, in the
great abbeys of Fecam, Jumieges, and others in Normandy: and his name
occurs in the old Missal, used by the English Saxons before the Norman
conquest, kept in the monastery of Jumieges, in which a proper mass is
assigned for his feast on the 8th of February. In the account of the
principal shrines of relics of saints, honored anciently in England,
published by the most learned Dr. Hickes, mention is made of St.
Cuthman's, as follows: "At Steninge, on the river Bramber, among the
South-Saxons, rests St. Cuthman." See Narratio de Sanctis qui in Anglia
quiescunt, published by Hickes, in his Thesaurus Linguarum veterum
Septentr. t. 1, in Dissert. Epistol. p. 121. See also two lives of St.
Cuthman, in Bollandus, t. 2, Feb. p. 197, and the more accurate lessons
for his festival in the breviary of Fecam. He is honored in most of the
Benedictin abbeys in Normandy.

Footnotes:
1.  Bollandus had not seen these charters and bulls, or he could not
    have supposed Steninges to be situated in Normandy, and St. Cuthman
    to have died in that province. Dom Le Noir, a learned Benedictin
    monk of the congregation of St. Maur, and library-keeper at Fecam,
    who is employed in compiling a history of Normandy, gives me the
    following information by a letter from Fecam: "On tient ici à Féca,
    pas une espèce de tradition que Hastings, port d'Angleterre, sur la
    Manche, dens le comté de Sossex, et dans le voisinage de Rye, est le
    Staninges de l'Abbaye de Fécam. Si le nom est un pen différent
    aujourd'hui on voit des noms des lieux qui ont souffert des plus
    grandes altérations." This pretended tradition is an evident
    mistake. Hastings was a famous sea-port under the same name, in the
    ninth century, and Stening is at this day a borough in Sussex,
    situated under the reins of Bramber castle, not far from the river,
    which was formerly navigable so high, though at present even
    Shoreham at its month has no harbor, the sea having made frequent
    changes on this coast, especially in the twelfth century.


FEBRUARY IX.

ST. APOLLONIA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR.

Her acts are of no authority, and falsely place her triumph at Rome,
instead of Alexandria. See Tillemont, t. 3, p. 495. Her authentic
history is in the letter of St. Dionysius, then bishop of Alexandria,
preserved by Eusebius, l. 6, c. 41, 42, p. 236. Ed. Val.

A.D. 249.

ST. DIONYSIUS of Alexandria wrote to Fabius, bishop of Antioch, a
relation of the persecution raised at Alexandria by the heathen populace
of that city, in the last year of the reign of the emperor Philip. A
certain poet of Alexandria, who pretended to foretell things to come,
stirred up this great city against the Christians on the motive of
religion. The first victim of their rage was a venerable old man, named
Metras, or Metrius, whom they would have compelled to utter impious
words against the worship of {387} the true God: which, when he refused
to do, they beat him with staffs, thrust splinters of reeds into his
eyes, and having dragged him into one of the suburbs, stoned him to
death. The next person they seized was a Christian woman, called Quinta,
whom they carried to one of their temples to pay divine worship to the
idol. She loaded the execrable divinity with many reproaches, which so
exasperated the people that they dragged her by the heels upon the
pavement of sharp pebbles, cruelly scourged her, and put her to the same
death. The rioters, by this time, were in the height of their fury.
Alexandria seemed like a city taken by storm. The Christians mads no
opposition, but betook themselves to flight, and beheld the loss of
their goods with joy; for their hearts had no ties on earth. Their
constancy was equal to their disinterestedness; for of all who fell into
their hands, St. Dionysius knew of none that renounced Christ.

The admirable Apollonia, whom old age and the state of virginity
rendered equally venerable, was seized by them. Their repeated blows on
her jaws beat out all her teeth. At last they made a great fire without
the city, and threatened to cast her into it, if she did not utter
certain impious words. She begged a moment's delay, as if it had been to
deliberate on the proposal; but, to convince her persecutors that her
sacrifice was perfectly voluntary, she no sooner found herself at
liberty, than of her own accord she leaped into the flames. They next
exercised their fury on a holy man called Serapion, and tortured him in
his own house with great cruelty. After bruising his limbs, disjointing
and breaking his bones, they threw him headlong from the top of the
house on the pavement, and so completed his martyrdom. A civil war among
the pagan citizens put an end to their fury this year, but the edict of
Decius renewed it in 250. See the rest of the relation on the 27th of
February. An ancient church in Rome, which is frequented with great
devotion, bears the name of St. Apollonia: under whose patronage we meet
with churches and altars in most parts of the Western church.

       *       *       *       *       *

The last part of our saint's conduct is not proposed to our imitation,
as self-murder is unjustifiable. If any among the Fathers have commended
it, they presumed, with St. Austin, that it was influenced by a
particular direction of the Holy Ghost, or was the effect of a pious
simplicity, founded in motives of holy zeal and charity. For it can
never be lawful for a person by any action wilfully to concur to, or
hasten his own death, though many martyrs out of an ardent charity, and
desire of laying down their lives for God, and being speedily united to
him, anticipated the executioners in completing their sacrifice. Among
the impious, absurd, and false maxims of the Pagan Greeks and Romans,
scarce any thing was more monstrous than the manner in which they
canonized suicide in distress, as a remedy against temporal miseries,
and a point of heroism. To bear infamy and all kind of sufferings with
unshaken constancy and virtue, is true courage and greatness of soul,
and the test and triumph of virtue: and to sink under misfortunes, is
the most unworthy baseness of soul. But what name can we find for the
pusillanimity of those who are not able so much as to look humiliations,
poverty, or affliction in the face? Our life we hold of God, and he who
destroys it injures God, to whom he owes it. He refuses also to his
friends and to the republic of mankind, the comfort and succors which
they are entitled in justice or charity to receive from him. Moreover,
if to murder another is the greatest temporal injustice a man can commit
against a neighbor, life being of all temporal blessings the greatest
and most noble, suicide is a crime so much more enormous, as the charity
which every one owes to himself, especially to his immortal soul, is
stricter, {388} more noble and of a superior order to that which he owes
to his neighbor.

SAINT NICEPHORUS, M.

From his genuine Acts in Ruinart, p. 244. Tillemont, t. 4, p. 16.

THERE dwelt in Antioch a priest called Sapricius, and a layman, named
Nicephorus, who had been linked together for many years by the strictest
friendship. But the enemy of mankind sowing between them the seeds of
discord, this their friendship was succeeded by the most implacable
hatred, and they declined meeting each other in the streets. Thus it
continued a considerable time. At length, Nicephorus, entering into
himself, and reflecting on the grievousness of the sin of hatred,
resolved on seeking a reconciliation. He accordingly deputed some
friends to go to Sapricius to beg his pardon, promising him all
reasonable satisfaction for the injury done him. But the priest refused
to forgive him. Nicephorus sent other friends to him on the same errand,
but though they pressed and entreated him to be reconciled, Sapricius
was inflexible. Nicephorus sent a third time, but to no purpose;
Sapricius having shut his ears not to men only, but to Christ himself,
who commands us to forgive as we ourselves hope to be forgiven.
Nicephorus, finding him deaf to the remonstrances of their common
friends, went in person to his house, and casting himself at his feet,
owned his fault, and begged pardon for Christ's sake; but all in vain.

The persecution suddenly began to rage under Valerian and Gallien in the
year 260. Sapricius was apprehended and brought before the governor, who
asked him his name. "It is Sapricius," answered he. Governor. "Of what
profession are you?" Sapricius. "I am a Christian." Governor. "Are you
of the clergy?" Sapricius. "I have the honor to be a priest." He added:
"We Christians acknowledge one Lord and Master Jesus Christ, who is God;
the only and true God, who created heaven and earth. The gods of nations
are devils." The president, exasperated at his answer, gave orders for
him to be put into an engine, like a screw-press, which the tyrants had
invented to torment the faithful. The excessive pain of this torture did
not shake Sapricius's constancy, and he said to the judges: "My body is
in your power; but my soul you cannot touch. Only my Saviour Jesus
Christ is master of this." The president seeing him so resolute,
pronounced this sentence: "Sapricius, priest of the Christians, who is
ridiculously persuaded that he shall rise again, shall be delivered over
to the executioner of public justice to have his head severed from his
body, because he has contemned the edict of the emperors."

Sapricius seemed to receive the sentence with great cheerfulness, and
was to haste to arrive at the place of execution in hopes of his crown.
Nicephorus ran out to meet him, and casting himself at his feet, said:
"Martyr of Jesus Christ, forgive me my offence." But Sapricius made him
no answer. Nicephorus waited for him in another street which he was to
pass through, and as soon as he saw him coming up, broke through the
crowd, and falling again at his feet, conjured him to pardon the fault
he had committed against him, through frailty rather than design. This
he begged by the glorious confession he had made of the divinity of
Jesus Christ. Sapricius's heart was more and more hardened, and now he
would not so much as look on him. The soldiers laughed at Nicephorus,
saying: "A greater fool than thou was never seen, in being so solicitous
for a man's {389} pardon who is upon the point of being executed." Being
arrived at the place of execution, Nicephorus redoubled his humble
entreaties and supplications: but all in vain; for Sapricius continued
as obstinate as ever, in refusing to forgive. The executioners said to
Sapricius: "Kneel down that we may cut off your head." Sapricius said.
"Upon what account?" They answered: "Because you will not sacrifice to
the gods, nor obey the emperor's orders, for the love of that man that
is called Christ." The unfortunate Sapricius cried out: "Stop, my
friends; do not put me to death: I will do what you desire: I am ready
to sacrifice." Nicephorus, sensibly afflicted at his apostacy, cried
aloud to him: "Brother, what are you doing? renounce not Jesus Christ
our good master. Forfeit not a crown you have already gained by tortures
and sufferings." But Sapricius would give no manner of attention to what
he said. Whereupon, Nicephorus, with tears of bitter anguish for the
fall of Sapricius, said to the executioner: "I am a Christian, and
believe in Jesus Christ, whom this wretch has renounced; behold me here
ready to die in his stead." All present were astonished at such an
unexpected declaration. The officers of justice being under an
uncertainty how to proceed, dispatched a lictor or beadle to the
governor, with this message: "Sapricius promiseth to sacrifice, but here
is another desirous to die for the same Christ, saying: I am a
Christian, and refuse to sacrifice to your gods, and comply with the
edicts of the emperors." The governor, on hearing this, dictated the
following sentence: "If this man persist in refusing to sacrifice to the
immortal gods, let him die by the sword:" which was accordingly put in
execution. Thus Nicephorus received three immortal crowns, namely, of
faith, humility, and charity, triumphs which Sapricius had made himself
unworthy of. The Greek and the Roman Martyrologies mention him on this
day.

SAINT THELIAU, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR.

HE was born in the same province with St. Samson at Eccluis-Guenwa{},
near Monmouth. His sister Anaumed went over to Armorica in 490, and upon
her arrival was married to Budic, king of the Armorican Britons. Before
she left her own country she promised St. Theliau to consecrate her
first child in a particular manner to God. Our saint was educated under
the holy discipline of St. Dubritius, and soon after the year 500, made
a pilgrimage to Jerusalem with his schoolfellows St. David and St.
Paternus. In their return St. David stopped at Dole, with Sampson the
elder, who had been bishop of York, but being expelled by the Saxons,
fled into Armorica and was made bishop of Dole. This prelate and St.
Theliau planted a great avenue, three miles long, from Dole to Cai,
which for several ages was known by their names. The people of Dole,
with the bishop and king Budic, pressed our saint to accept of that
bishopric; but in vain. After his return into the island, St. Dubritius
being removed from the see of Landaff to that of Caërleon, in 495,
Theliau was compelled to succeed him in Landaff, of which church he has
always been esteemed the principal patron. His great learning, piety,
and pastoral zeal, especially in the choice and instruction of his
clergy, have procured him a high reputation which no age can ever
obliterate, says Leland.[1] His authority alone decided whatever
controversies arose in his time. When the yellow plague depopulated
Wales, he exerted his courage and charity with an heroic intrepidity.
Providence preserved his life for the sake of others, and he died {390}
about the year 580, in a happy old age, in solitude, where he had for
some time prepared himself for his passage. The place where he departed
to our Lord was called from him Llan deilo-vaur, that is, the church of
the great Theliau: it was situated on the bank of the river Tovy in
Caermarthenshire. The Landaff register names among the most eminent of
his disciples his nephew St. Oudoceus, who succeeded him in the see of
Landaff, St. Ismael, whom he consecrated bishop, St. Tyfhei, martyr, who
reposeth in Pennalun, &c. See Capgrave, Harpsfield, Wharton,
Brown-Willis, D. Morice, Hist. de Bretagne, t. 1, p. 22, and the notes,
pp. 785 and 819. Bolland. Feb. t. 2, p. 303.

Footnotes:
1.  De Script. Brit. c. 30.

ST. ANSBERT, ARCHBISHOP OF ROUEN, C. IN 695.

HE had been chancellor to king Clotaire III., in which station he had
united the mortification and recollection of a monk with the duties of
wedlock, and of a statesman. Quitting the court, he put on the monastic
habit at Fontenelle, under St. Wandregisile, and when that holy
founder's immediate successor, St. Lantbert, was made bishop of Lyons,
Ansbert was appointed abbot of that famous monastery. He was confessor
to king Theodoric III., and with his consent was chosen archbishop of
Rouen, upon the death of St. Owen in 683. By his care, good order,
learning, and piety flourished in his diocese; nevertheless Pepin, mayor
of the palace, banished him, upon a false accusation, to the monastery
of Aumont, upon the Sambre in Hainault, where he died in the year 698.
See Mab. Sæc. 2, Ben. and Annal. l. 18.. Rivet, Hist. Littér. t. 4, p.
33, and t. 3, p. 646. Henschenius, Feb. t. 2, p. 342.

ST. ATTRACTA, OR TARAHATA, AN IRISH VIRGIN.

SHE received the veil from St. Patrick, and lived at a place called from
her Kill-Attracta to this day, in Connaught. Her acts in Colgan are of
no authority.

ST. ERHARD, ABBOT, C.

CALLED BY MERSÆUS AND OTHER GERMANS, EBERHARDUS.

HE was a Scotchman by birth, and being well instructed in the
scriptures, went into Germany to preach the gospel, with two brothers.
He taught the sacred sciences at Triers, when St. Hydulphus was bishop
of that city, whom Welser and some others take for a Scot, and one of
our saint's brothers. When St. Hydulphus resigned his bishopric to end
his days in retirement in 753, St. Erhard withdrew to Ratisbon, where he
founded a small monastery, and is said to have been honored with
miracles, both living and after his death, which happened to that city.
He was commemorated on this day in Scotland, but in Germany on the 8th
of January. See Peter Merssæus, Catal. Archiep. Trevirens. M. Welserus,
l. 5. Rerum B{}iocar, ad ab, 753. Pantaleon, Prosopographiæ, part 1.

{391}


FEBRUARY X.

ST. SCHOLASTICA, VIRGIN.

From St. Gregory the Great, Dial. l. 2, c. 33 and 34. About the year
543.

THIS saint was sister to the great St. Benedict. She consecrated herself
to God from her earliest youth, as St. Gregory testifies. Where her
first monastery was situated is not mentioned; but after her brother
removed to Mount Cassino, she chose her retreat at Plombariola, in that
neighborhood, where she founded and governed a nunnery about five miles
distant to the south from St. Benedict's monastery.[1] St. Bertharius,
who was abbot of Cassino three hundred years after, says, that she
instructed in virtue several of her own sex. And whereas St. Gregory
informs us, that St. Benedict governed nuns as well as monks, his sister
must have been their abbess under his rule and direction. She visited
her holy brother once a year, and as she was not allowed to enter his
monastery, he went out with some of his monks to meet her at a house at
some small distance. They spent these visits in the praises of God, and
in conferring together on spiritual matters, St. Gregory relates a
remarkable circumstance of the last of these visits. Scholastica having
passed the day as usual in singing psalms, and pious discourse, they sat
down in the evening to take their refection. After it was over,
Scholastica, perhaps foreknowing it would be their last interview in
this world, or at least desirous of some further spiritual improvement,
was very urgent with her brother to delay his return till the next day,
that they might entertain themselves till morning upon the happiness of
the other life. St. Benedict, unwilling to transgress his rule, told her
he could not pass a night out of his monastery: so desired her not to
insist upon such a breach of monastic discipline. Scholastica, finding
him resolved on going home, laying her hands joined upon the table and
her head upon them, with many tears begged of Almighty God to interpose
in her behalf. Her prayer was scarce ended, when there happened such a
storm of rain, thunder, and lightning, that neither St. Benedict nor any
of his companions could set a foot out of doors. He complained to his
sister, saying: "God forgive you, sister; what have you done?" She
answered: "I asked you a favor, and you refused it me: I asked it of
Almighty God, and he has granted it me." St. Benedict was therefore
obliged to comply with her request, and they spent the night in
conferences on pious subjects, chiefly on the felicity of the blessed,
to which both most ardently aspired, and which she was shortly to enjoy.
The nest morning they parted, and three days after St. Scholastica died
in her solitude. St. Benedict was then alone in contemplation on Mount
Cassino, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he saw the soul of his
sister ascending thither in the shape of a dove. Filled with joy at her
happy passage, he gave thanks for it to God, and declared her death to
his brethren; some of whom he sent to bring her corpse to his monastery,
where {392} he caused it to be laid in the tomb which he had prepared
for himself. She must have died about the year 543. Her relics are said
to have been translated into France, together with those of St. Bennet,
in the seventh century, according to the relation given by the monk
Adrevald.[2] They are said to have been deposited at Mans, and kept in
the collegiate church of St. Peter in that city in a rich silver
shrine.[3] In 1562 this shrine was preserved from being plundered by the
Huguenots, as is related by Chatelain. Her principal festival at Mans is
kept a holyday on the 11th of July, the day of the translation of her
relics. She was honored in some places with an office of three lessons,
in the time of St. Louis, as appears from a calendar of Longchamp,
written in his reign.

Lewis of Granada, treating on the perfection of the love of God,
mentions the miraculous storm obtained by St. Scholastica, to show with
what excess of goodness God is always ready to hear the petitions and
desires of his servants. This pious soul must have received strong
pledges and most sensible tokens of his love, seeing she depended on
receiving so readily what she asked of him. No child could address
himself with so great confidence to his most tender parent. The love
which God bears us, and his readiness to succor and comfort us, if we
humbly confess and lay before him our wants, infinitely surpasses all
that can be found in creatures. Nor can we be surprised that he so
easily heard the prayer of this holy virgin, since at the command of
Joshua he stopped the heavens, God obeying the voice of man. He hears
the most secret desires of those that fear and love him, and does their
will: if he sometimes seem deaf to their cries, it is to grant their
main desire by doing what is most expedient for them, as St. Austin
frequently observes. The short prayer by which St. Scholastica gained
this remarkable victory over her brother, who was one of the greatest
saints on earth, was doubtless no more than a single act of her pure
desires, which she continually turned towards, and fixed on her beloved.
It was enough for her to cast her eye interiorly upon him with whom she
was closely and inseparably united in mind and affections, to move him
so suddenly to change the course of the elements in order to satisfy her
pious desire. By placing herself, as a docile scholar, continually at
the feet of the Divine Majesty, who filled all the powers of her soul
with the sweetness of his heavenly communications, she learned that
sublime science of perfection in which she became a mistress to so many
other chaste souls by this divine exercise. Her life in her retirement,
to that happy moment which closed her mortal pilgrimage, was a continued
uniform contemplation, by which all her powers were united to, and
transformed into God.

Footnotes:
1.  This nunnery underwent the same fate with the abbey of Mount
    Cassino, both being burnt to the ground by the Lombards. When
    Rachim, king of that nation, having been converted to the Catholic
    faith by the exhortations of pope Zachary, re-established that
    abbey, and taking the monastic habit, ended his life there, his
    queen Tasai and his daughter Ratruda rebuilt and richly endowed the
    nunnery of Plombariola, in which they lived with great regularity to
    their deaths, as is related by Leo of Ostia in his Chronicle of
    Mount Cassino, ad an. 750. It has been since destroyed, so that at
    present the land is only a farm belonging to the monastery of Mount
    Cassino. See Dom Mege, Vie de St. Benoit, p. 412. Chatelain, Notes,
    p. 605. Murarori, Antichita, &c. t. 3. p. 400. Diss. 66, del
    Monasteri delle Monache.
2.  See Paul the deacon, Hist. Longob. and Dom Mege, Vie de St. Bénoit,
    p. 48.
3.  That the relics of St. Bennet were privately carried off from Mount
    Cassino, in 660, soon after the monastery was destroyed, and brought
    to Fleury on the Loire by Algiulph the monk, and those of St.
    Scholastica, by certain persons of Mans to that city, is maintained
    by Mabillon, Menard, and Bosche. But that the relics of both these
    saints still remain at Mount Cassino, is strenuously affirmed by
    Loretus Angelus de Nuce, and Marchiarelli, the late learned monk of
    the Order of Camaldoli: and this assertion Benedict XIV. looks upon
    as certain, (de Canoniz. l. 4, part 2, c. 24, t, 4, p. 245.) For
    pope Zachary in his bull assures us, that he devoutly honored the
    relics of SS. Benedict and Scholastica, at Mount Cassino, in 746.
    Leo Ostiensis and Peter the deacon visited them and found them
    untouched in 1071, as Alexander II. affirms in the bull he published
    when he consecrated the new church there. By careful visitations
    made by authority, in 1486 and 1545, the same is proved. Yet Angelus
    de Nuce allows some portions of both saints to be at Mans and
    Fleury, on the Loire. Against the supposed translation of the whole
    shrines of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica into France, see
    Muratori, Antichita, &c., dissert. 58, t. 3, p. 244.

{393}

ST. SOTERIS, VIRGIN AND MARTYR.

From St. Ambrose, Exhort. Virginit, c. 12, and l. 3. de Virgin. c. 6
Tillemont, t. 5, p. 259.

FOURTH AGE.

ST. AMBROSE boasts of this saint as the greatest honor of his family.
St. Soteris was descended from a long series of consuls and prefects:
but her greatest glory was her despising, for the sake of Christ, birth,
riches, great beauty, and all that the world prizes as valuable. She
consecrated her virginity to God, and to avoid the dangers her beauty
exposed her to, neglected it entirely, and trampled under her feet all
the vain ornaments that might set it off. Her virtue prepared her to
make a glorious confession of her faith before the persecutors, after
the publication of the cruel edicts of Dioclesian and Maximian against
the Christians. The impious judge commanded her face to be buffeted. She
rejoiced to be treated as her divine Saviour had been, and to have her
face all wounded and disfigured by the merciless blows of the
executioners. The judge ordered her to be tortured many other ways, but
without being able to draw from her one sigh or tear. At length,
overcome by her constancy and patience, he commanded her head to be
struck off. The ancient martyrologies mention her.

ST. WILLIAM OF MALEVAL, H.

AND INSTITUTER OF THE ORDER OF GULIELMITES.

From l'Hist des Ordres Relig., t. 6, p. 155, by F. Helyot.

A.D. 1157

WE know nothing of the birth or quality of this saint: he seems to have
been a Frenchman, and is on this account honored in the new Paris Missal
and Breviary. He is thought to have passed his youth in the army, and to
have given into a licentious manner of living, too common among persons
of that profession. The first accounts we have of him represent him as a
holy penitent, filled with the greatest sentiments of compunction and
fervor, and making a pilgrimage to the tombs of the apostles at Rome.
Here he begged pope Eugenius III. to put him into a course of penance,
who enjoined him a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the year 1145. In
performing this, with great devotion, the saint spent eight years.
Returning into Tuscany, in 1153, he retired into a desert. He was
prevailed upon to undertake the government of a monastery in the isle of
Lupocavio, in the territory of Pisa, but not being able to bear with the
tepidity and irregularity of his monks, he withdrew, and settled on
Mount Pruno, till, finding disciples there no less indocile to the
severity of his discipline than the former, he was determined to pursue
himself that rigorous plan of life which he had hitherto unsuccessfully
proposed to others. He pitched upon a desolate valley for this purpose,
the very sight of which was sufficient to strike the most resolute with
horror. It was then called the Stable of Rhodes, but since, Maleval; and
is situated in the territory of Sienna, in the diocese of Grosseto. He
entered this frightful solitude in September, 1155, and had no other
lodging than a cave in the ground, till being discovered some months
after, the lord of Buriano built him a cell. During the first four
months, he had no other company than that of wild beasts eating only the
herbs on which they fed. {394} On the feast of the Epiphany, in the
beginning of the year 1156, he was joined by a disciple or companion,
called Albert, who lived with him to his death, which happened thirteen
months after, and who has recorded the last circumstances of his life.
The saint, discoursing with others, always treated himself as the most
infamous of criminals, and deserving the worst of deaths; and that these
were his real sentiments, appeared from that extreme severity which he
exercised upon himself. He lay on the bare ground: though he fed on the
coarsest fare, and drank nothing but water, he was very sparing in the
use of each; saying, sensuality was to be feared even in the most
ordinary food. Prayer, divine contemplation, and manual labor, employed
his whole time. It was at his work that he instructed his disciple in
his maxims of penance and perfection, which he taught him the most
effectually by his own example, though in many respects so much raised
above the common, that it was fitter to be admired than imitated. He had
the gift of miracles, and that of prophecy. Seeing his end draw near, he
received the sacraments from a priest of the neighboring town of
Chatillon, and died on the 10th of February, in 1157, on which day he is
named in the Roman and other martyrologies.

       *       *       *       *       *

Divine Providence moved one Renauld, a physician, to join Albert, a
little before the death of the saint. They buried St. William's body in
his little garden, and studied to live according to his maxims and
example. Some time after, their number increasing, they built a chapel
over their founder's grave, with a little hermitage. This was the origin
of the Gulielmites, or Hermits of St. William, spread in the next age
over Italy, France, Flanders, and Germany. They went barefoot, and their
fasts were almost continual: but pope Gregory IX. mitigated their
austerities, and gave them the rule of St. Benedict, which they still
observe. The order is now become a congregation united to the hermits of
St. Austin, except twelve houses to the Low Countries, which still
retain the rule of the Gulielmites, which is that of St. Benedict, with
a white habit like that of the Cistercians.

The feast of St. William is kept at Paris in the Abbey of
Blancs-Manteaux, so called from certain religious men for whom it was
founded, who wore white cloaks, and were of a mendicant Order, called of
the Servants of the Virgin Mary: founded at Marseilles, and approved by
Alexander IV., in 1257. This order being extinguished, by virtue of the
decree of the second council of Lyons, in 1274, by which all mendicants,
except the four great Orders of Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites, and
Austin friars, were abolished, this monastery was bestowed on the
Gulielmites, who removed hither from Montrouge, near Paris, in 1297. The
prior and monks embraced the order of St. Bennet, and the reformation of
the Congregation of St. Vanne of Verdun, soon after called in France, of
St. Maur, in 1618, and this is in order the fifth house of that
Congregation in France, before the abbeys of St. Germany-des-Prez, and
St. Denys.[1]

Footnotes:
1.  Villefore confounds this saint with St. William, founder of the
    hermits of Monte Virgine in the kingdom of Naples, who lived in
    great repute with king Roger, and is commemorated in the Roman
    Martyrology, June 25. Others confound him with St. William, duke of
    Aquitaine, a monk of Gellone. He was a great general, and often
    vanquished the Saracens who invaded Languedoc. In recompense,
    Charlemagne made him duke or governor of Aquitaine, and appointed
    Toulouse for his residence. Some years after, in 806, having
    obtained the consent of his duchess, (who also renounced the world,)
    and or Charlemagne, though with great difficulty, he made his
    monastic profession at Gellone, a monastery which he had founded in
    a valley of that name, a league distant from Aniane, in the diocese
    of Lodeve. St. William received the habit at the hands of St.
    Benedict of Aniane, was directed by him in the exercises of a
    religious life, and sanctified himself with great fervor, embracing
    the most humbling and laborious employments, and practising
    extraordinary austerities, till his happy death in 812, on the 28th
    of May, on which day his festival is kept in the monastery of
    Gellone, (now called St. Guillem de Desert, founded by this saint in
    804,) and in the neighboring churches. See, on him, Mabillon, Sæc.
    Ben. 4, p. 88. Henschenius, diss, p. 488. Bultea p. 367. and Hist.
    Gén. du Languedoc par deux Bénédictins, l. 9. Many have also
    confounded our saint with William, the last duke of Guienne, who,
    after a licentious youth, and having been an abettor of the
    anti-pope, Peter Leonis, was wonderfully converted by St. Bernard,
    sent to him by pope Innocent II., in the year 1135. The year
    following he renounced his estates, which his eldest daughter
    brought in marriage to Louis the Young, king of France; and clothed
    with hair-cloth next his skin, end in a tattered garment expressive
    of the sincerity of his repentance and contrition, undertook a
    pilgrimage to Compostella, and died in that journey, in 1137. See
    Ordericus Vitalis, Hist. Norman. et Armoldus Bonæ-Vallis, in vita
    Bernardi; with the Historical Dissert. of Henschenius on the 10th of
    February; and Abrégé Chronol. des Grands Fiefs, p. 223.

{395}

SAINT ERLULPH, BISHOP AND MARTYR.

SEVERAL Scottish missionaries passed into the northwestern parts of
Germany, to sow there the seeds of the faith, at the time when
Charlemagne subdued the Saxons. In imitation of these apostolic men, St.
Erlulph, a holy Scotchman, went thither, and after employing many years
with great success in that arduous mission, was chosen the tenth bishop
of Verdun. His zeal in propagating the faith enraged the barbarous
infidels, and he was slain by them at a place called Eppokstorp, in 830.
See Krantzius, l. 3. Metrop. c. 30. Democh. Gatal. episc. Verd.
Pantaleon, &c.[1]

Footnotes:
1.  This saint must not be confounded with Ernulph, a most holy man, the
    apostle of Iceland, who flourished in the year 890; on whom see
    Jonas, Histor. Islandiæ.


FEBRUARY XI.

SS. SATURNINUS, DATIVUS,

AND MANY OTHER MARTYRS, OF AFRICA.

From their contemporary acts, received as authentic by St. Austin,
Brevic. Coll. die 3, c. 17. The Donatists added a preface to them and a
few glosses, in which condition they are published by Baluzius, t. 2.
But Bollandus and Ruinart give them genuine.

A.D. 304

THE emperor Dioclesian had commanded all Christians, under pain of
death, to deliver up the holy scriptures to be burnt. This persecution
had raged a whole year in Africa; some had betrayed the cause of
religion, but many more had defended it with their blood, when these
saints were apprehended. Abitina, a city of the proconsular province of
Africa, was the theatre of their triumph. Saturninus, priest of that
city, celebrated the divine mysteries on a Sunday, in the house of
Octavius Felix. The magistrates having notice of it, came with a troop
of soldiers, and seized forty-nine persons of both sexes. The principal
among them were the priest Saturninus, with his four children, viz.:
young Saturninus and Felix, both Lectors, Mary, who had consecrated her
virginity to God, and Hilarianus, yet a child; also, Dativus, a noble
senator, Ampelius, Rogatianus, and Victoria. Dativus, the ornament of
the senate of Abitina, whom God destined to be one of the principal
senators of heaven, marched at the head of this holy troop. Saturninus
walked by his side, surrounded by his illustrious family. The others
followed in silence. Being brought before the magistrates, they
confessed Jesus Christ so resolutely, that their very judges applauded
their courage, which repaired the infamous sacrilege committed there a
little before by Fundanus, the bishop of Abitina, who in that same place
had given up to the magistrates the sacred books to be burnt: but a
violent shower suddenly falling, put out the fire, and a prodigious hail
ravaged the whole country.

{396}

The confessors were shackled and sent to Carthage, the residence of the
proconsul. They rejoiced to see themselves in chains for Christ, and
sung hymns and canticles during their whole journey to Carthage,
praising and thanking God. The proconsul, Anulinus, addressing himself
first to Dativus, asked him of what condition he was, and if he had
assisted at the collect or assembly of the Christians. He answered, that
he was a Christian, and had been present at it. The proconsul bid him
discover who presided, and in whose house those religious assemblies
were held: but without waiting for his answer, commanded him to be put
on the rack and torn with iron hooks, to oblige him to a discovery. They
underwent severally the tortures of the rack, iron hooks, and cudgels.
The weaker sex fought no less gloriously, particularly the illustrious
Victoria; who, being converted to Christ in her tender years, had
signified a desire of leading a single life, which her pagan parents
would not agree to, having promised her in marriage to a rich young
nobleman. Victoria, on the day appointed for the wedding, full of
confidence in the protection of Him, whom she had chosen for the only
spouse of her soul, leaped out of a window, and was miraculously
preserved from hurt. Having made her escape, she took shelter in a
church; after which she consecrated her virginity to God, with the
ceremonies then used on such occasions at Carthage, in Italy, Gaul, and
all over the West.[1] To the crown of virginity, she earnestly desired
to join that of martyrdom. The proconsul, on account of her quality, and
for the sake of her brother, a pagan, tried all means to prevail with
her to renounce her faith. He inquired what was her religion. Her answer
was: "I am a Christian." Her brother, Fortunatianus, undertook her
defence, and endeavored to prove her lunatic. The saint, fearing his
plea might be the means of her losing the crown of martyrdom, made it
appear by her wise confutations of it, that she was in her perfect
senses, and protested that she had not been brought over to Christianity
against her will. The proconsul asked her if she would return with her
brother? She said: "She could not, being a Christian, and acknowledging
none as brethren but those who kept the law of God." The proconsul then
laid aside the quality of judge to become her humble suppliant, and
entreated her not to throw away her life. But she rejected his
entreaties with disdain, and said to him: "I have already told you my
mind. I am a Christian, and I assisted at the collect." Anulinus,
provoked at this constancy, reassumed his rage, and ordered her to
prison with the rest, to wait the sentence of death which he not long
after pronounced upon them all.

The proconsul would yet try to gain Hilarianus, Saturninus's youngest
son, not doubting to vanquish one of his tender age. But the child
showed more contempt than fear of the tyrant's threats, and answered his
interrogatories: "I am a Christian: I have been at the collect, and it
was of my own voluntary choice, without any compulsion." The proconsul
threatened him with those little punishments with which children are
accustomed to be chastised, little knowing that God himself fights in
his martyrs. The child only laughed at him. The governor then said to
him: "I will cut off your nose and ears." Hilarianus replied: "You may
do it; but I am a Christian." The proconsul, dissembling his confusion,
ordered him to prison. Upon which the child said: "Lord, I give thee
thanks." These martyrs ended their lives under the hardships of their
confinement, and are honored in the ancient calendar of Carthage, and
the Roman Martyrology, on the 11th of February, though only two (of the
name of Felix) died on that day of their wounds.

{397}

       *       *       *       *       *

The example of these martyrs condemns the sloth with which many
Christians in this age celebrate the Lord's Day. When the judge asked
them, how they durst presume to hold their assembly against the imperial
orders, they always repeated, even on the rack: "The obligation of the
Sunday is indispensable. It is not lawful for us to omit the duty of
that day. We celebrated it as well as we could. We never passed a Sunday
without meeting at our assembly. We will keep the commandments of God at
the expense of our lives." No dangers nor torments could deter them from
this duty. A rare example of fervor in keeping that holy precept, from
which too many, upon lame pretences, seek to excuse themselves. As the
Jew was known by the religious observance of the Sabbath, so is the true
Christian by his manner of celebrating the Sunday. And as our law is
more holy and more perfect than the Jewish, so must be our manner of
sanctifying the Lord's Day. This is the proof of our religion, and of
our piety towards God. The primitive Christians kept this day in the
most holy manner, assembling to public prayer in dens and caves, knowing
that, "without this religious observance, a man cannot be a Christian,"
to use the expression of an ancient father.

Footnotes:
1.  These were, by laying her head on the altar to offer it to God, and
    all her life after wearing her hair long as the ancient Nazarenes
    did: (Act. p. 417. St. Optatas, l. 6. S. Ambr. ad Virg. c. 8.)
    Whereas the ceremony of this consecration in Egypt and Syria was for
    the virgin to cut off her hair in the presence of a priest.
    (Bulteau, Hist. Mon. p. 170.)

ST. SEVERINUS, ABBOT OF AGAUNUM.

From his ancient short life, in Mabillon App. Sæc. l. Ben. The additions
in Surius and Bollandus are too modern. See Chatelain, Notes on the
Martyrol., p. 618.

A.D. 507.

ST. SEVERINUS, of a noble family in Burgundy, was educated in the
Catholic faith, at a time when the Arian heresy reigned in that country.
He forsook the world in his youth, and dedicated himself to God in the
monastery of Agaunum, which then only consisted of scattered cells, till
the Catholic king Sigismund, son and successor to the Arian Gondebald,
who then reigned in Burgundy, built there the great abbey of St.
Maurice. St. Severinus was the holy abbot of that place, and had
governed his community many years in the exercise of penance and
charity, when, in 504, Clovis, the first Christian kin; of France, lying
ill of a fever, which his physicians had for two years ineffectually
endeavored to remove, sent his chamberlain to conduct him to court; for
he heard how the sick from all parts recovered their health by his
prayers. St. Severinus took leave of his monks, telling them he should
never see them more in this world. On his journey he healed Eulalius,
bishop of Nevers, who had been for some time deaf and dumb, also a leper
at the gates of Paris; and coming to the palace, he immediately restored
the king to perfect health, by putting on him his own cloak. The king in
gratitude distributed large alms to the poor, and released all his
prisoners.[1] St. Severinus returning towards Agaunum, stopped at
Chateau-Landon, in Gatinois, where two priests served God in a solitary
chapel, among whom he was admitted, at his request, as a stranger, and
was soon greatly admired by them for his sanctity. He foresaw his death,
which happened shortly after, in 507. The place is now an abbey of
reformed canons regular of St. Austin. The Huguenots scattered the
greatest part of his relics, when they plundered this church. He is
mentioned in the Roman Martyrology, and a large parish in Paris takes
its name from this saint, not from the hermit who was St. Cloud's
master.

Footnotes:
1.  {Footnote not in text} See Le Boeuf, Hist. du Diocèse de Paris, t.
    1, p. 151, 157, and Le Fevre, Calend. Hist de Paris, p. 40{}.

{398}

THE EMPRESS THEODORA.

WHOM THE GREEKS RANK AMONG THE SAINTS.

BY her mildness and patience she often softened the cruel temper of her
brutish husband, Theophilus, and protected the defenders of holy images
from the fury of his persecution. Being left by his death regent of the
empire during the minority of her son, Michael III., she put an end to
the Iconoclast heresy, one hundred and twenty years after the first
establishment of it by Leo the Isaurian: and the patriarch Methodius
with great solemnity restored holy images in the great church in
Constantinople, on the first Sunday of Lent, which we call the second,
of which event the Greeks make an annual commemoration, calling it the
feast of Orthodoxy. After she had governed the empire with great glory
twelve years, she was banished by her unnatural son and his impious
uncle, Bardas. She prepared herself for death by spending the last eight
years of her life in a monastery, where she gave up her soul to God in
867. She is ranked among the saints in the Menology of the emperor
Basil, in the Menæa, and other calendars of the Greeks. See the
compilations of Bollandus from the authors of the Byzantine history.


FEBRUARY XII.

ST. BENEDICT, OF ANIAN, ABBOT.

From his life, written with great piety, gravity, and erudition, by St.
Ardo Smaragdus, his disciple, to whom he committed the government of his
monastery of Anian, when he was called by the emperor near the court.
Ardo died March the 7th, in 843, and is honored at Anian among the
saints. He is not to be confounded with Smaragdus, abbot in the diocese
of Verdun, author of a commentary on the rules of St. Bennet. This
excellent life is published by Dom Menard, at the head of St. Bennet's
Concordia Regularum; by Henschenius, 12 Feb., and by Dom Mabillon, Acta
SS. Ben., vol. 5, pp. 191, 817. See Helyot, Hist. des Ord. Relig. t. 5,
p. 139. See also Bulteau, Hist. de l'Ord. de S. Bénoit, l. 5, c. 2, p.
342. Eckart. de Reb. Fran. t. 2, pp. 117, 163.

A.D. 821.

HE was the son of Aigulf, count or governor of Languedoc, and served
king Pepin and his son Charlemagne in quality of cupbearer, enjoying
under them great honors and possessions. Grace made him sensible of the
vanity of all perishable goods, and at twenty years of age he took a
resolution of seeking the kingdom of God with his whole heart. From that
time he led a most mortified life in the court itself for three years,
eating very sparingly and of the coarsest fare, allowing himself very
little sleep, and mortifying all his senses. In 774, having narrowly
escaped being drowned in the Tesin, near Pavia, in endeavoring to save
his brother, he made a vow to quit the world entirely. Returning to
Languedoc, he was confirmed in his resolution by the pious advice of a
hermit of great merit and virtue, called Widmar; and under a pretext of
going to the court at Aix-la-Chapelle, he went to the abbey of St.
Seine, five leagues from Dijon, and having sent back all his attendants,
became a monk there. He spent two years and a half in wonderful
abstinence, treating his body as a furious wild beast, to {399} which he
would show no other mercy than barely not to kill it. He took no other
sustenance on any account but bread and water; and when overcome with
weariness, he allowed himself nothing softer than the bare ground
whereon to take a short rest; thus making even his repose a continuation
of penance. He frequently passed the whole night in prayer, and stood
barefoot on the ground in the sharpest cold. He studied to make himself
contemptible by all manner of humiliations, and received all insults
with joy, so perfectly was he dead to himself. God bestowed on him an
extraordinary spirit of compunction, and the gift of tears, with an
infused knowledge of spiritual things to an eminent degree. Not content
to fulfil the rule of St. Benedict in its full rigor, he practised all
the severest observances prescribed by the rules of St. Pachomius and
St. Basil. Being made cellarist, he was very solicitous to provide for
others whatever St. Benedict's rule allowed, and had a particular care
of the poor and of the guests.

His brethren, upon the abbot's death, were disposed to choose our saint,
but he, being unwilling to accept of the charge on account of their
known aversion to a reformation, left them, and returned to his own
country, Languedoc, in 780, where he built a small hermitage, near a
chapel of St. Saturninus, on the brook Anian, near the river Eraud, upon
his own estate. Here he lived some years in extreme poverty, praying
continually that God would teach him to do his will, and make him
faithfully correspond with his eternal designs. Some solitaries, and
with them the holy man Widmar, put themselves under his direction,
though he long excused himself. They earned their livelihood by their
labor, and lived on bread and water, except on Sundays and solemn
festivals, on which they added a little wine and milk when it was given
them in alms. The holy superior did not exempt himself from working with
the rest in the fields, either carrying wood or plugging; and sometimes
he copied good books. The number of his disciples increasing, he quitted
the valley, and built a monastery in a more spacious place, in that
neighborhood. He showed his love of poverty by his rigorous practice of
it: for he long used wooden, and afterwards glass or pewter chalices at
the altar; and if any presents of silk ornaments were made him, he gave
them to other churches. However, he some time after changed his way of
thinking with respect to the church; built a cloister, and a stately
church adorned with marble pillars, furnished it with silver chalices,
and rich ornaments, and bought a great number of books. He had in a
short time three hundred religious under his direction, and also
exercised a general inspection over all the monasteries of Provence,
Languedoc, and Gascony, which respected him as their common parent and
master. At last he remitted something in the austerities of the
reformation he had introduced among them. Felix, bishop of Urgel, had
advanced that Christ was not the natural, but only the adoptive son of
the eternal Father. St. Benedict most learnedly opposed this heresy, and
assisted, in 794, at the council assembled against it at Frankfort. He
employed his pen to confute the same, in four treatises, published in
the miscellanies of Clausius.

Benedict was become the oracle of the whole kingdom, and he established
his reformation in many great monasteries with little or no opposition.
His most illustrious colony was the monastery of Gellone, founded in
804, by William, duke of Aquitaine, who retired into it himself, whence
it was called St. Guillem du Desert. By the councils held under
Charlemagne, in 813, and by the Capitulars of that prince, published the
same year, it was ordained that the canons should live according to the
canons and laws of the church, and the monks according to the rule of
St. Bennet: by which regulation a uniformity was introduced in the
monastic order in the West. The emperor Louis Débonnaire, who succeeded
his father on the 28th of {400} January, 814, committed to the saint the
inspection of all the abbeys in his kingdom. To have him nearer his own
person, the emperor obliged him to live in the abbey of Marmunster, in
Alsace; and as this was still too remote, desirous of his constant
assistance in his councils, he built the monastery of Inde, two leagues
from Aix-la-Chapelle, the residence of the emperor and court.
Notwithstanding St. Benedict's constant abode in this monastery, he had
still a hand in restoring monastic discipline throughout France and
Germany; as he also was the chief instrument in drawing up the canons
for the reformation of prebendaries and monks in the council of
Aix-la-Chapelle, in 817, and presided in the assembly of abbots the same
year, to enforce restoration of discipline. His statutes were adopted by
the order, and annexed to the rule of St. Benedict, the founder. He
wrote, while a private monk at Seine, the Code of Rules, being a
collection of all the monastic regulations which he found extant; as
also a book of homilies for the use of monks, collected, according to
the custom of that age, from the works of the fathers: likewise a
Penitential, printed in the additions to the Capitulars. In his Concord
of Rules he gives that of St. Benedict, with those of other patriarchs
of the monastic order, to show their uniformity in the exercises which
they prescribe.[1] This great restorer of the monastic order in the
West, worn out at length with mortification and fatigues, suffered much
from continual sickness the latter years of his life. He died at Inde,
with extraordinary tranquillity and cheerfulness, on the 11th of
February, 821, being then about seventy-one years of age, and was buried
in the same monastery, since called St. Cornelius's, the church being
dedicated to that holy pope and martyr. At Anian his festival is kept on
the 11th, but by most other Martyrologies on the 12th of February, the
day of his burial. His relics remain in the monastery of St. Cornelius,
or of Inde, in the duchy of Cleves, and have been honored with miracles.

       *       *       *       *       *

St. Bennet, by the earnestness with which he set himself to study the
spirit of his holy rule and state, gave a proof of the ardor with which
he aspired to Christian perfection. The experienced masters of a
spiritual life, and the holy legislators of monastic institutes, have in
view the great principles of an interior life, which the gospel lays
down: for in the exercises which they prescribe, powerful means are
offered by which a soul may learn perfectly to die to herself, and be
united in all her powers to God. This dying to, and profound
annihilation of ourselves, is of such importance, that so long as a soul
remains in this state, though all the devils in hell were leagued
together, they can never hurt her. All their efforts will only make her
sink more deeply in this feeling knowledge of herself, in which she
finds her strength, her repose, and her joy, because by it she is
prepared to receive the divine grace: and if self-love be destroyed, the
devil can have no power over us; for he never makes any successful
attacks upon us but by the secret intelligence which he holds with this
domestic enemy. The crucifixion of the old man, and perfect
disengagement of the heart, by the practice of universal self-denial, is
absolutely necessary before a soul can ascend the mountain of the God of
Jacob, on which his infinite majesty is seen, separated from all
creatures; as Blosius,[2] and all other directors in the paths of an
interior life, strongly inculcate.

Footnotes:
1.  See Codex Regularum, collectus a B. Benedicto Anianæ, auctus a Lucâ
    Holstenio, printed by Holstenias at Rome, in 1661. Also, Concordia
    Regularum, authore B. Benedicto Anianæ abbate, edita ab. Hug.
    Menardo Benedictia{} Parisiis, 1638.
2.  Instit. Spir. c. 1, n. 6, &c.

{401}

ST. MELETIUS, PATRIARCH OF ANTIOCH, C.

HE was of one of the best families of Lesser Armenia, and born a
Melitene, which Strabo and Pliny place to Cappadocia; but Ptolemy, and
all succeeding writers, in Lesser Armenia, of which province it became
the capital. The saint, in his youth, made fasting and mortification his
choice, to the midst of every thing that could flatter the senses. His
conduct was uniform and irreproachable, and the sweetness and affability
of his temper gained him the confidence and esteem both of the Catholics
and Arians; for he was a nobleman of charming simplicity and sincerity,
and a great lover of peace. Eustathius, bishop of Sebaste, a semi-Arian,
being deposed by the Arians, in a council held at Constantinople, in
360, Meletius was promoted to that see; but meeting with too violent
opposition, left it, and retired first into the desert, and afterwards
to the city of Beræa, in Syria, of which Socrates falsely supposes him
to have been bishop. The patriarchal church of Antioch had been
oppressed by the Arians, ever since the banishment of Eustathius, in
331. Several succeeding bishops, who were intruded into that chair, were
infamous abettors of that heresy. Eudoxus, the last of these, had been
removed from the see of Germanicia to that of Antioch, upon the death of
Leontius, an Arian like himself, but was soon expelled by a party of
Arians, in a sedition, and be shortly after usurped the see of
Constantinople. Both the Arians and several Catholics agreed to raise
St. Meletius to the patriarchal chair at Antioch, and the emperor
ordered him to be put in possession of that dignity in 361; but some
among the Catholics refused to acknowledge him, regarding his election
as irregular, on account of the share which the Arians had had in it.
The Arians hoped that he would declare himself of their party, but were
undeceived when, the emperor Constantius arriving at Antioch, he was
ordered, with certain other prelates, to explain in his presence that
text of the Proverbs,[1] concerning the wisdom of God: _The Lord hath
created me in the beginning of his ways_. George of Laodicea first
explained it in an Arian sense, next Acacius of Cæsarea, in a sense
bordering on that heresy; but the truth triumphed in the mouth of
Meletius, who, speaking the third,[2] showed that this text is to be
understood not of a strict creation, but of a new state or being, which
the Eternal Wisdom received in his incarnation. This public testimony
thunderstruck the Arians, and Eudoxus, then the bishop of
Constantinople, prevailed with the emperor to banish him into Lesser
Armenia, thirty days after his installation. The Arians intruded the
impious Euzoius into that see, who, formerly being deacon at Alexandria,
had been deposed and expelled the church, with the priest and
arch-heretic Arius, by St. Alexander, bishop of Alexandria. From this
time is dated the famous schism of Antioch, in 360, though it drew its
origin from the banishment of St. Eustathius about thirty years before.
Many zealous Catholics always adhered to St. Eustathius, being convinced
that his faith was the only cause of his unjust expulsion. But others,
who were orthodox in their principles, made no scruple, at least for
some time, to join communion in the great church with the intruded
patriarchs; in which their conscience was more easily imposed upon, as,
by the artifices of the Arians, the cause of St. Eustathius appeared
merely personal and secular, or at least mixed; and his two first
short-lived successors Eulalius and Euphronius, do not appear to have
declared themselves Arians, otherwise than by their intrusion. Placillus
the Third joined in condemning St. Athanasius in the councils of Tyre,
in 335, and of Antioch {402} in 341. His successors, Stephen I., (who at
Philippopolis opposed the council of Sardica,) Leontius, and Eudoxus,
appeared everywhere leagued with the heads of the Arians. But the
intrusion of Euzoius, with the expulsion of St. Meletius, rendered the
necessity of an entire separation to communion more notorious; and many
who were orthodox in their faith, yet, through weakness or ignorance of
facts, had till then communicated with the Arians in the great church,
would have no communion with Euzoius, or his adherents; but under the
protection of Diodorus and Flavian, then eminent and learned laymen,
afterwards bishops, held their religious assemblies with their own
priests, in the church of the apostles without the city, in a suburb
called Palæa, that is, the old suburb or church. They attempted in vain
to unite themselves to the Eustathians, who for thirty years past had
held their separate assemblies; but these refused to admit them, or to
allow the election of Meletius, on account of the share the Arians had
had therein: they therefore continued their private assemblies within
the city. The emperor Constantius, in his return from the Persian war,
with an intention to march against his cousin Julian, Cæsar, in the
West, arrived at Antioch, and was baptized by the Arian bishop Euzoius;
but died soon after, in his march at Mopsucrêne, in Cilicia, on the 3d
of November, 361. Julian having allowed the banished bishops to go to
their respective churches, St. Meletius returned to Antioch about the
end of the year 362, but had the affliction to see the breach made by
the schism grow wider. The Eustathians not only refused still to receive
him, but proceeded to choose a bishop for themselves. This was Paulinus,
a person of great meekness and piety, who had been ordained priest by
St. Eustathius himself, and had constantly attended his zealous flock.
Lucifer, bishop of Cagliari, passing by Antioch in his return from
exile, consecrated Paulinus bishop, and by this precipitate action,
riveted the schism which divided this church near fourscore and five
years, and in which the discussion of the facts upon which the right of
the claimants was founded, was so intricate that the saints innocently
took part on both sides. It was an additional affliction to St.
Meletius, to see Julian the Apostate make Antioch the seat of the
superstitious abominations of idolatry, which he restored; and the
generous liberty with which he opposed them, provoked that emperor to
banish him a second time. But Jovian soon after succeeding that unhappy
prince, in 363, our saint returned to Antioch. Then it appeared that the
Arians were men entirely guided by ambition and interest, and that as
nothing could be more insolent than they had shown themselves when
backed by the temporal power, so nothing was more cringing and
submissive, when they were deprived of that protection. For the emperor
warmly embracing the Nicene faith, following in all ecclesiastical
matters the advice of St. Athanasius, and expressing a particular regard
for St. Meletius; the moderate Arians, with Acacius of Cæsarea, in
Palestine, at their head, went to Antioch, where our saint held a
council of twenty-seven bishops, and there subscribed an orthodox
profession of faith. Jovian dying, after a reign of eight months, Valens
became emperor of the East, who was at first very orthodox, but
afterwards, seduced by the persuasions of his wife, he espoused the
Arian heresy, and received baptism from Eudoxus, bishop of
Constantinople, who made him promise upon oath to promote the cause of
that sect. The cruel persecution which this prince raised against that
church, and the favor which he showed not only to the Arians, but also
to Pagans, Jews, and all that were not Catholics, deterred not St.
Meletius from exerting his zeal in defence of the orthodox faith. This
prince coming from Cæsarea, where he had been vanquished by the
constancy of St. Basil, arrived at Antioch in April, 372, where he left
nothing unattempted {403} to draw Meletius over to the interest of his
sect; but meeting with no success, ordered him a third time into
banishment. The people rose tumultuously to detain him among them, and
threw stones at the governor, who was carrying him off, so that he only
escaped with his life by our saint's stepping between him and the mob,
and covering him with his cloak. It is only to this manner that the
disciples of Jesus Christ revenge injuries, as St. Chrysostom
observes.[3] Hermant and Fleury suppose this to have happened at his
first banishment. By the order of Valens, he was conducted into Lesser
Armenia, where he made his own estate at Getasus, near Nicopolis, the
place of his residence. His flock at Antioch, by copying his humility,
modesty, and patience, amid the persecution which fell upon them, showed
themselves the worthy disciples of so great a master. They were driven
out of the city, and from the neighboring mountains, and the banks of
the river, where they attempted to hold their assemblies; some expired
under torments, others were thrown into the Orontes. In the mean time,
Valens allowed the pagans to renew their sacrifices, and to celebrate
publicly the feasts of Jupiter, Ceres, and Bacchus.[4] Sapor, king of
Persia, having invaded Armenia, took by treachery king Arsaces, bound
him in silver chains, (according to the Persian custom of treating royal
prisoners,) and caused him to perish in prison. To, check the progress
of these ancient enemies of the empire, Valens sent an army towards
Armenia, and marched himself to Edessa, in Mesopotamia. Thus the
persecution at Antioch was abated, to which the death of Valens put an
end, who was burnt by the Goths in a cottage, after his defeat near
Adrianople, in 378. His nephew Gratian, who then became master of the
East, went in all haste to Constantinople, by his general, Theodosius,
vanquished the Goths, and by several edicts recalled the Catholic
prelates, and restored the liberty of the church in the Eastern empire.
St. Meletius, upon his return, found that the schism had begun to engage
distant churches in the division. Most of the Western prelates adhered
to the election of Paulinus. St. Athanasius communicated with him, as he
had always done with his friends the Eustathian Catholics, though, from
the beginning, he disapproved of the precipitation of Lucifer of
Cagliari in ordaining him, and he afterwards communicated also with St.
Meletius. St. Basil, St. Amphilochius of Iconium, St. Pelagius of
Laodicea, St. Eusebius of Samosata, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Gregory
of Nyasa, St. Gregory of Nazianzum, St. Chrysostom, and the general
council of Constantinople, with almost the unanimous suffrage of all the
East, zealously supported the cause of St. Meletius. Theodosius having,
after his victory over the Goths, been associated by Gratian, and taken
possession of the Eastern empire, sent his general, Sapor, to Antioch,
to re-establish there the Catholic pastors. In an assembly which was
held in his presence, in 379, St. Meletius, Paulinus, and Vitalis, whom
Apollinarius had consecrated bishop of his party there, met, and St.
Meletius, addressing himself to Paulinus, made the following
proposal:[5] "Since our sheep have but one religion, and the same faith,
let it be our business to unite them into one flock; let us drop all
disputes for precedency, and agree to feed them together. I am ready to
share this see with you, and let the survivor have the care of the whole
flock." After some demur the proposal was accepted of, and Sapor put St.
Meletius in possession of the churches which he had governed before his
last banishment, and of those which were in the hands of the Arians, and
Paulinus was continued in his care of the Eustathians. St. Meletius
zealously reformed the disorders which heresy and divisions {404} had
produced, and provided his church with excellent ministers. In 379 he
presided in a council at Antioch, in which the errors of Apollinarius
were condemned without any mention of his name. Theodosius, whom Gratian
declared Augustus, and his partner in the empire at Sirmich, on the 19th
of January, soon after his arrival at Constantinople, concurred
zealously in assembling the second general council which was opened at
Constantinople, in the year 381. Only the prelates of the Eastern empire
assisted, so that we find no mention of legates of pope Damasus, and it
was general, not in the celebration, but by the acceptation of the
universal church. St. Meletius presided as the first patriarch that was
present; in it one hundred and fifty Catholic bishops, and thirty-six of
the Macedonian sect, made their appearance; but all these latter chose
rather to withdraw than to retract their error, or confess the divinity
of the Holy Ghost. The council approved of the election of St. Gregory
of Nazianzen to the see of Constantinople, though he resigned it to
satisfy the scruples and complaints of some, who, by mistake, thought it
made against the Nicene canon, which forbade translations of bishops;
which could not be understood of him who had never been allowed to take
possession of his former see. The council then proceeded to condemn the
Macedonian heresy, and to publish the Nicene creed, with certain
additions. In the second, among the seven canons of discipline, the two
oriental patriarchates of Alexandria and Antioch were acknowledged. In
the third, the prerogative of honor, next to the see of Rome, is given
to that of Constantinople, which before was subject to the metropolitan
of Heraclea, in Thrace. This canon laid the foundation of the
patriarchal dignity to which that see was raised by the council of
Calcedon, though not allowed for some time after in the West. St.
Meletius died at Constantinople while the council was sitting, to the
inexpressible grief of the fathers, and of the good emperor. By an
evangelical meekness, which was his characteristic, he had converted the
various trials that he had gone through into occasions of virtue, and
had exceedingly endeared himself to all that had the happiness of his
acquaintance. St. Chrysostom assures us, that his name was so venerable
to his flock at Antioch, that they gave it their children, and mentioned
it with all possible respect. They cut his image upon their seals, and
upon their plate, and carved it in their houses. His funeral was
performed at Constantinople with the utmost magnificence, and attended
by the fathers of the council, and all the Catholics of the city. One of
the most eminent among the prelates, probably St. Amphilochius of
Iconium, pronounced his panegyric in the council. St. Gregory of Nyssa
made his funeral oration in presence of the emperor, in the great
church, in the end of which he says, "He now sees God face to face, and
prays for us, and for the ignorance of the people." St. Meletius's body
was deposited in the church of the apostles, till it was removed before
the end of the same year, with the utmost pomp, to Antioch, at the
emperor's expense, and interred near the relics of St. Babylas, in the
church which he had erected in honor of that holy martyr. Five years
after, St. Chrysostom, whom our saint had ordained deacon, spoke his
elegant panegyric on the 12th of February, on which his name occurs in
the Menæa, and was inserted by Baronius in the Roman Martyrology; though
it is uncertain whether this be the day of his death, or of his
translation to Antioch. On account of his three banishments and great
sufferings, he is styled a martyr by St. John Damascen.[6] His
panegyrics, by St. Gregory of Nyssa, and St. Chrysostom, are extant. See
also Socrates, l. 5, c. 5, p. 261. Sozom. l. 4, c. 28, p. 586.
Theodoret, l. 3, c. 5, p. 128, l. 2, c. 27, p. 634. Jos. Assem. in Cal.
Univer. t. 6, p. 125.

Footnotes:
1.  Prov. viii. 22.
2.  St. Epiph. hær. 73, n. 29.
3.  Hom. in St. Melet. t. 2.
4.  Theod. l. 4, c. 23, 24. Sozom. l. 6, c. 17.
5.  Socr. l. 5, c. 5. Sozom. l. 7, c. 3. Theodoret. l. 5, c. 22.
6.  Or. 2. de Imagin.

{405}

ST. EULALIA, OF BARCELONA, V.M.

THIS holy virgin was brought up in the faith, and in the practice of
piety, at Barcelona in Spain. In the persecution of Dioclesian, under
the cruel governor Dacian, she suffered the rack, and being at last
crucified on it, joined the crown of martyrdom with that of virginity.
Her relics are preserved at Barcelona, by which city she is honored as
its special patroness. She is titular saint of many churches, and her
name is given to several villages of Guienne and Languedoc, and other
neighboring provinces, where, in some places, she is called St. Eulalie,
in others St. Olaire, St. Olacie, St. Occille, St. Olaille, and St.
Aulazie. Sainte-Aulaire and Sainte-Aulaye are names of two ancient
French families taken from this saint. Her acts deserve no notice. See
Tillemont, t. 5, in his account from Prudentius, of St. Eulalia of
Merida, with whom Vincent of Beauvais confounds her; but she is
distinguished by the tradition of the Spanish churches, by the Mozarabic
missal, and by all the martyrologies which bear the name of St. Jerom,
Ado, Usuard, &c.

ST. ANTONY CAULEAS, CONFESSOR,

PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

HE was by extraction of a noble Phrygian family, but born at a country
seat near Constantinople, where his parents lived retired for fear of
the persecution and infection of the Iconoclasts. From twelve years of
age he served God with great fervor, in a monastery of the city, which
some moderns pretend to have been that of Studius. In process of time he
was chosen abbot, and, upon the death of Stephen, brother to the emperor
Leo VI., surnamed the Wise, or the Philosopher, patriarch of
Constantinople in 893. His predecessor had succeeded Photius in 886,
(whom this emperor expelled,) and labored strenuously to extinguish the
schism he had formed, and restore the peace of the church over all the
East. St. Antony completed this great work, and in a council in which he
presided at Constantinople, condemned or reformed all that had been done
by Photius during his last usurpation of that see, after the death of
St. Ignatius. The acts of this important council are entirely lost,
perhaps through the malice of those Greeks who renewed this unhappy
schism. A perfect spirit of mortification, penance, and prayer,
sanctified this great pastor, both in his private and public life. He
died in the year 896, of his age sixty-seven, on the 12th of February,
on which day his name is inserted in the Greek Menæa, and in the Roman
Martyrology. See an historical panegyric on his virtues, spoken soon
after his death by a certain Greek philosopher named Nicephorus, in the
Bollandists. Le Quien, Oriens Christianus, t. 3; also t. 1, p. 250.

{406}


FEBRUARY XIII.

ST. CATHARINE DE RICCI, V, O.S.D.

See her life, written by F. Seraphin Razzi, a Dominican friar, who knew
her, and was fifty-eight years old when she died. The nuns of her
monastery gave an ample testimony that this account was conformable
partly to what they knew of her, and partly to MS. memorials left by her
confessor and others concerning her. Whence F. Echard calls this life a
work accurately written. It was printed in 4to. at Lucca, in 1594. Her
life was again compiled by F. Philip Galdi, confessor to the saint and
to the duchess of Urbino, and printed at Florence, in two vols. 4to., in
1622. FF. Michael Pio and John Lopez, of the same order, have given
abstracts of her life. See likewise Bened. XIV. de Can. Serv. Dei, t. 5,
inter Act. Can. 5. SS. Append.

A.D. 1589.

THE Ricci are an ancient family, which still subsists in a flourishing
condition in Tuscany. Peter de Ricci, the father of our saint, was
married to Catharine Bonza, a lady of suitable birth. The saint was born
at Florence in 1522, and called at her baptism Alexandrina: but she took
the name of Catharine at her religious profession. Having lost her
mother in her infancy, she was formed to virtue by a very pious
godmother, and whenever she was missing, she was always to be found on
her knees in some secret part of the house. When she was between six and
seven years old, her father placed her in the convent of Monticelli,
near the gates of Florence, where her aunt, Louisa de Ricci, was a nun.
This place was to her a paradise: at a distance from the noise and
tumult of the world, she served God without impediment or distraction.
After some years her father took her home. She continued her usual
exercises in the world as much as she was able; but the interruptions
and dissipation, inseparable from her station, gave her so much
uneasiness, that, with the consent of her father, which she obtained,
though with great difficulty, in the year 1535, the fourteenth of her
age, she received the religious veil in the convent of Dominicanesses at
Prat, in Tuscany, to which her uncle, F. Timothy de Ricci, was director.
God, in the merciful design to make her the spouse of his crucified Son,
and to imprint in her soul dispositions conformable to his, was pleased
to exercise her patience by rigorous trials. For two years she suffered
inexpressible pains under a complication of violent distempers, which
remedies themselves served only to increase. These sufferings she
sanctified by the interior dispositions with which she bore them, and
which she nourished principally by assiduous meditation on the passion
of Christ, in which she found an incredible relish, and a solid comfort
and joy. After the recovery of her health, which seemed miraculous, she
studied more perfectly to die to her senses, and to advance in a
penitential life and spirit, in which God had begun to conduct her, by
practising the greatest austerities which were compatible with the
obedience she had professed: she fasted two or three days a week on
bread and water, and sometimes passed the whole day without taking any
nourishment, and chastised her body with disciplines and a sharp iron
chain which she wore next her skin. Her obedience, humility, and
meekness, were still more admirable than her spirit of penance. The
least shadow of distinction or commendation gave her inexpressible
uneasiness and confusion, and she would have rejoiced to be able to lie
hid in the centre of the earth, in order to be entirely unknown to, and
blotted out of the hearts of all mankind, such were the sentiments of
annihilation and contempt of herself in which she constantly lived. It
was by profound {407} humility and perfect interior self-denial that she
learned to vanquish in her heart the sentiments or life of the first
Adam, that is, of corruption, sin, and inordinate self-love. But this
victory over herself, and purgation of her affections, was completed by
a perfect spirit of prayer: for by the union of her soul with God, and
the establishment of the absolute reign of his love in her heart, she
was dead to, and disengaged from all earthly things. And in one act of
sublime prayer, she advanced more than by a hundred exterior practices
in the purity and ardor of her desire to do constantly what was most
agreeable to God, to lose no occasion of practising every heroic virtue,
and of vigorously resisting all that was evil. Prayer, holy meditation,
and contemplation were the means by which God imprinted in her soul
sublime ideas of his heavenly truths, the strongest and most tender
sentiments of all virtues, and the most burning desire to give all to
God, with an incredible relish and affection for suffering contempt and
poverty for Christ. What she chiefly labored to obtain, by meditating on
his life and sufferings, and what she most earnestly asked of him was,
that he would be pleased, in his mercy, to purge her affections of all
poison of the inordinate love of creatures, and engrave in her his most
holy and divine image, both exterior and interior, that is to say, both
in her conversation and affections, that so she might be animated, and
might think, speak, and act by his most holy Spirit. The saint was
chosen, very young, first, mistress of the novices, then sub-prioress,
and, in the twenty-fifth year of her age, was appointed perpetual
prioress. The reputation of her extraordinary sanctity and prudence drew
her many visits from a great number of bishops, princes, and cardinals,
among others, of Cervini, Alexander of Medicis, and Aldobrandini, who
all three were afterwards raised to St. Peter's chair, under the names
of Marcellus II., Clement VIII., and Leo XI. Something like what St.
Austin relates of St. John of Egypt, happened to St. Philip Neri and St.
Catharine of Ricci. For having some time entertained together a commerce
of letters, to satisfy their mutual desire of seeing each other, while
he was detained at Rome she appeared to him in a vision, and they
conversed together a considerable time, each doubtless being in a
rapture. This St. Philip Neri, though most circumspect in giving credit
to, or in publishing visions, declared, saying, that Catharine de Ricci,
while living, had appeared to him in vision, as his disciple Galloni
assures us in his life.[1] And the continuators of Bollandus inform us
that this was confirmed by the oaths of five witnesses.[2] Bacci, in his
life of St. Philip, mentions the same thing, and pope Gregory XV., in
his bull for the canonization of St. Philip Neri, affirms, that while
this saint lived at Rome, he conversed a considerable time with
Catharine of Ricci, a nun, who was then at Prat, in Tuscany.[3] Most
wonderful were the raptures of St. Catharine in meditating on the
passion of Christ, which was her daily exercise, but to which she
totally devoted herself every week from Thursday noon to three o'clock
in the afternoon on Friday. After a long illness, she passed from this
mortal life to everlasting bliss and the possession of the object of all
her desires, on the feast of the Purification of our Lady, on the 2d of
February, in 1589, the sixty-seventh year of her age. The ceremony of
her beatification was performed by Clement XII., in 1732, and that of
her canonization by Benedict XIV., in 1746. Her festival is deferred to
the 13th of February.

       *       *       *       *       *

In the most perfect state of heavenly contemplation which this life
admits of, there must be a time allowed for action, as appears from the
most {408} eminent contemplatives among the saints, and those religious
institutes which are most devoted to this holy exercise. The mind of man
must be frequently unbent, or it will be overset. Many, by a too
constant or forced attention, have lost their senses. The body also
stands in need of exercise, and in all stations men owe several exterior
duties both to others and themselves, and to neglect any of these, upon
pretence of giving the preference to prayer, would be a false devotion
and dangerous illusion. Though a Christian be a citizen of heaven, while
he is a sojourner in this world, he is not to forget the obligations or
the necessities to which this state subjects him, or to dream of flights
which only angels and their fellow inhabitants of bliss take. As a life
altogether taken up in action and business, without frequent prayer and
pious meditation, alienates a soul from God and virtue, and weds her
totally to the world, so a life spent wholly in contemplation, without
any mixture of action, is chimerical, and the attempt dangerous. The art
of true devotion consists very much in a familiar and easy habit of
accompanying exterior actions and business with a pious attention to the
Divine Presence, frequent secret aspirations, and a constant union of
the soul with God. This St. Catharine of Ricci practised at her work, in
the exterior duties of her house and office, in her attendance on the
sick, (which was her favorite employment, and which she usually
performed on her knees,) and in the tender care of the poor over the
whole country. But this hindered not the exercises of contemplation,
which were her most assiduous employment. Hence retirement and silence
were her delight, in order to entertain herself with the Creator of all
things, and by devout meditation, kindling in her soul the fire of
heavenly love, she was never able to satiate the ardor of her desire in
adoring and praising the immense greatness and goodness of God.

Footnotes:
1.  {Footnote not in text} Gallon. apud Contin. Bolland. Acta Sanctorum,
    Maii, t. 6, p. 503, col. 2, n. 146.
2.  Ibid. p. 504, col. 2.
3.  In Bolland. Cherubini, t. 4, p. 8.

ST. LICINIUS, CONFESSOR,

CALLED BY THE FRENCH, LESIN, BISHOP OF ANGERS.

HE was born of a noble family, allied to the kings of France, about the
year 540. He was applied to learning as soon as he was capable of
instruction, and sent to the court of king Clotaire I., (whose cousin he
was,) being about twenty years of age. He signalized himself by his
prudence and valor, both in the court and in the army, and acquitted
himself of all Christian duties with extraordinary exactitude and
fervor. Fasting and prayer were familiar to him, and his heart was
always raised to God. King Chilperic made him count or governor of
Anjou, and being overcome by the importunities of his friends, the saint
consented to take a wife about the year 578. But the lady was struck
with a leprosy on the morning before it was to be solemnized. This
accident so strongly affected Licinius, that he resolved to carry into
immediate execution a design he had long entertained of entirely
renouncing the world. This he did in 580, and leaving all things to
follow Jesus Christ, he entered himself among the clergy, and hiding
himself from the world in a community of ecclesiastics, found no
pleasure but in the exercises of piety and the most austere penance, and
in meditating on the holy scriptures. Audouin, the fourteenth bishop of
Angers, dying towards the year 600, the people, remembering the equity
and mildness with which Licinius had governed them, rather as their
father than as a judge or master, demanded him for their pastor. The
voice of the clergy seconded that of the people, and, the concurrence of
the court of Clotaire II. in his minority, under the regency of his
mother Fredegonda, overcame {409} all the opposition his humility could
make. His time and his substance were divided in feeding the hungry,
comforting and releasing prisoners, and curing the bodies and souls of
his people. Though he was careful to keep up exact discipline in his
diocese, he was more inclined to indulgence than rigor, in imitation of
the tenderness which Jesus Christ showed for sinners. Strong and
persuasive eloquence, the more forcible argument of his severe and
exemplary life, and God himself speaking by miracles, qualified him to
gain the hearts of the most hardened, and make daily conquest of souls
to Christ. He renewed the spirit of devotion and penance by frequent
retreats, and desired earnestly to resign his bishopric, and hide
himself in some solitude: but the bishops of the province, whose consent
he asked, refusing to listen to such a proposal, he submitted, and
continued to spend the remainder of his life in the service of his
flock. His patience was perfected by continual infirmities in his last
years, and he finished his sacrifice about the year 618, in the
sixty-fifth of his age. He was buried in the church of St. John Baptist,
which he had founded, with a monastery, which he designed for his
retreat. It is now a collegiate church, and enriched with the treasure
of his relics. His memory was publicly honored in the seventh age: the
1st of November was the day of his festival, though he is now mentioned
in the Roman Martyrology on the 13th of February. At Angers he is
commemorated on the 8th of June, which seems to have been the day of his
consecration, and on the 21st of June, when his relics were translated
or taken up, 1169, in the time of Henry II., king of England, count of
Anjou. See his life, written from the relation of his disciples soon
after his death; and again by Marbodius, archdeacon of Angers,
afterwards bishop of Rennes, both in Bollandus.

ST. POLYEUCTUS, M.

THE city of Melitine, a station of the Roman troops in the Lesser
Armenia, is illustrious for a great number of martyrs, whereof the first
in rank is Polyeuctus. He was a rich Roman officer, and had a friend
called Nearchus, a zealous Christian, who, when the news of the
persecution, raised by the emperor against the church, reached Armenia,
prepared himself to lay down his life for his faith; and grieving to
leave Polyeuctus in the darkness of Paganism, was so successful in his
endeavors to induce him to embrace Christianity, as not only to gain him
over to the faith, but to inspire him with an eager desire of laying
down his life for the same. He openly declared himself a Christian, and
was apprehended and condemned to cruel tortures. The executioners being
weary with tormenting him, betook themselves to the method of argument
and persuasion, in order to prevail with him to renounce Christ. The
tears and cries of his wife Pauline, of his children, and of his
father-in-law, Felix, were sufficient to have shaken a mind not superior
to all the assaults of hell. But Polyeuctus, strengthened by God, grew
only the firmer in his faith, and received the sentence of death with
such cheerfulness and joy, and exhorted all to renounce their idols with
so much energy, on the road to execution, that many were converted. He
was beheaded on the 10th of January, in the persecution of Decius, or
Valerian, about the year 250, or 257. The Christians buried his body in
the city. Nearchus gathered his blood in a cloth, and afterwards wrote
his acts. The Greeks keep his festival very solemnly: and all the Latin
martyrologies mention him. There was in Melitine a famous church of St.
Polyeuctus, in the fourth age, in which St. Euthymius often prayed.
There was also a very stately one in Constantinople, under {410}
Justinian, the vault of which was covered with plates of gold, in which
it was the custom for men to make their most solemn oaths, as is related
by St. Gregory of Tours.[1] The same author informs us, in his history
of the Franks,[2] that the kings of France, of the first race, used to
confirm their treaties by the name of Polyeuctus. The martyrology
ascribed to St. Jerom, and the most ancient Armenian calendars, place
his feast on the 7th of January, which seems to have been the day of his
martyrdom. The Greeks defer his festival to the 9th of January: but it
is marked on the 13th of February in the ancient martyrology, which was
sent from Rome to Aquileia in the eighth century, and which is copied by
Ado, Usuard, and the Roman Martyrology. See his acts taken from those
written by Nearchus, the saint's friend, and Tillem. t. 3, p. 424. Jos.
Assemani, in Calend. ad 9 Januarii, t. 6.

Footnotes:
1.  De Glor. Mart. c. 103.
2.  Hist. l. 7, c. 6.

ST. GREGORY II., POPE, C.

HE was born in Rome, to an affluent fortune, and being educated in the
palace of the popes, acquired great skill in the holy scriptures and in
ecclesiastical affairs, and attained to an eminent degree of sanctity.
Pope Sergius I., to whom he was very dear, ordained him subdeacon. Under
the succeeding popes, John the sixth and seventh, Sisinnius, and
Constantine, he was treasurer of the church, and afterwards library
keeper, and was charged with several important commissions. The fifth
general council had been held upon the affair of the three chapters, in
553, in the reign of Justinian, and the sixth against the Monothelites,
in those of Constantine Pogonatus and pope Agatho, in 660. With a view
of adding a supplement of new canons to those of the aforesaid two
councils, the bishops of the Greek church, to the number of two hundred
and eleven, held the council called Quini-sext, in a hall of the
imperial palace at Constantinople, named Trullus, in 692, which laid a
foundation of certain differences to discipline between the Eastern and
Western churches; for in the thirteenth canon it was enacted, that a man
who was before married should be allowed to receive the holy orders of
subdeacon, deacon, or priest, without being obliged to leave his wife,
though this was forbid to bishops. (can. 12.) It was also forbid, (canon
55,) to fast on Saturdays, even in Lent. Pope Sergius I. refused to
confirm this council; and, in 695, the emperor, Justinian II., surnamed
Rhinotmetus, who had succeeded his father, Constantine Pogonatus, in
685, was dethroned for his cruelty, and his nose being slit, (from which
circumstance he received his surname,) banished into Chersonesus. First
Leontius, then Apsimarus Tiberius, ascended the throne; but Justinian
recovered it in 705, and invited pope Constantine into the East, hoping
to prevail upon him to confirm the council in Trullo. The pope was
received with great honor, and had with him our saint, who, in his name,
answered the questions put by the Greeks concerning the said council.
After their return to Rome, upon the death of Constantine, Gregory was
chosen pope, and ordained on the 19th of May, 715. The emperor Justinian
being detested both by the army and people, Bardanes, who took the name
of Philippicus, an Armenian, one of his generals, revolted, took
Constantinople, put him and his son Tiberius, only seven years old, to
death, and usurped the sovereignty in December, 711. In Justinian II was
extinguished the family of Heraclius. Philippicus abetted warmly the
heresy of the Monothelites, and caused the sixth council to be
proscribed in a pretended synod at Constantinople. His reign was very
short, for Artemius, his secretary, {411} who took the name of
Anastasius II., deposed him, and stepped into the throne on the fourth
of June, 713. By him the Monothelites were expelled; but, after a reign
of two years and seven months, seeing one Theodosius chosen emperor by
the army, which had revolted in January, 716, he withdrew, and took the
monastic habit at Thessalonica. The eastern army having proclaimed Leo
III., surnamed the Isaurian, emperor, on the 25th of March, 717,
Theodosius and his son embraced an ecclesiastical state, and lived in
peace among the clergy. Pope Gregory signalized the beginning of his
popedom by deposing John VI., the Monothelite, false patriarch of
Constantinople, who had been nominated by Philippicus, and he promoted
the election of St. Germanus, who was translated to that dignity from
Cyzicus, in 715. With unwearied watchfulness and zeal he laid himself
out in extirpating heresies on all sides, and in settling a reformation
of manners. Besides a hospital for old men, he rebuilt the great
monastery near the church of St. Paul at Rome, and, after the death of
his mother, in 718, changed her house into the monastery of St. Agatha.
The same year he re-established the abbey of Mount Cassino, sending
thither, from Rome, the holy abbot St. Petronax, to take upon him the
government, one hundred and forty years after it had been laid in ruins
by the Lombards. This holy abbot lived to see monastic discipline
settled here in so flourishing a manner, that in the same century,
Carloman, duke or prince of the French, Rachis, king of the Lombards,
St. Willebald, St. Sturmius, first abbot of Fulda, and other eminent
persons, fled to this sanctuary.[1] Our holy pope commissioned zealous
missionaries to preach the faith in Germany, and consecrated St.
Corbinian bishop of Frisingen, and St. Boniface bishop of Mentz. Leo,
the Isaurian, protected the Catholic church during the first ten years
of his reign, and St. Gregory II. laid up among the archives of his
church several letters which he had received from him, from the year 717
to 726, which proved afterwards authentic monuments of his perfidy. For,
being infatuated by certain Jews, who had gained an ascendant over him
by certain pretended astrological predictions, in 726 he commanded holy
images to be abolished, and enforced the execution of his edicts of a
cruel persecution. St. Germanus, and other orthodox prelates in the
East, endeavored to reclaim him, refused to obey his edicts, and
addressed themselves to pope Gregory. Our saint employed long the arms
of tears and entreaties, yet strenuously maintained the people of Italy
in their allegiance to their prince, as Anastasius assures us. A
rebellion was raised in Sicily, but soon quelled by the death of
Artemius, who had assumed the purple. The pope vigorously opposed the
mutineers, both here and in other parts of the West. When he was
informed that the army at Ravenna and Venice, making zeal a pretence for
rebellion, had created a new emperor, he effectually opposed their
attempt, and prevented the effect. Several disturbances which were
raised in Rome were pacified by his care. Nevertheless, he by letters
encouraged the pastors of the church to resist the heresy which the
emperor endeavored to establish by bloodshed and violence. The tyrant
sent orders to several of his officers, six or seven times, to murder
the pope: but he was so faithfully guarded by the Romans and Lombards,
that he escaped all their snares. St. Gregory II. held the pontificate
fifteen years, eight months, and twenty-three days, and died in 731, on
the 10th of February; but the Roman Martyrology consecrates to his
memory the 13th which was probably the day on which his corpse was
deposited in the Vatican church.

Footnotes:
1.  Bulteau, Hist. Mon. d'Occid. t. 2, l. 4, c. 2, p. 8.

{412}

ST. MARTINIANUS, HERMIT AT ATHENS.

MARTINIANUS was born at Cæsarea in Palestine, during the reign of
Constantius. At eighteen years of age he retired to a mountain near that
city, called, The place of the Ark, where he lived for twenty-five years
among many holy solitaries in the practice of all virtues, and was
endowed with the gift of miracles. A wicked strumpet of Cæsarea, called
Zoe, hearing his sanctity much extolled, at the instigation of the devil
undertook to pervert him. She feigned herself a poor woman, wandering in
the desert late at night, and ready to perish. By this pretext she
prevailed on Martinianus to let her remain that night in his cell.
Towards morning she threw aside her rags, put on her best attire, and
going in to Martinianus, told him she was a lady of the city, possessed
of a large estate and plentiful fortune, all which she came to offer him
with herself. She also instanced, in the examples of the saints of the
Old Testament, who were rich and engaged in the conjugal state, to
induce him to abandon his purpose. The hermit, who should have imitated
the chaste Joseph in his flight, was permitted, in punishment perhaps of
some secret presumption, to listen to her enchanting tongue, and to
consent in his heart to her proposal. But as it was near the time that
he expected certain persons to call on him to receive his blessing and
instructions, he told her he would go and meet them on the road and
dismiss them. He went out with this intent, but being touched with
remorse, he returned speedily to his cell, where, making a great fire,
he thrust his feet into it. The pain this occasioned was so great, that
he could not forbear crying out aloud. The woman at the noise ran in and
found him lying on the ground, bathed in tears, and his feet half
burned. On seeing her he said: "Ah! if I cannot bear this weak fire, how
can I endure that of hell?" This example excited Zoe to sentiments of
grief and repentance; and she conjured him to put her in a way of
securing her salvation. He sent her to Bethlehem, to the monastery of
St. Paula, to which she lived in continual penance, and lying on the
bare floor, with no other sustenance than bread and water. Martinianus,
as soon as his legs were healed, which was not till seven months after,
not being able all that time to rise from the ground, retired to a rock
surrounded with water on every side, to be secure from the approach of
danger and all occasions of sin. He lived here exposed always to the
open air, and without ever seeing any human creature, except a boatman,
who brought him twice a year biscuit and fresh water, and twigs
wherewith to make baskets. Six years after this, he saw a vessel split
and wrecked at the bottom of his rock. All on board perished, except one
girl, who, floating on a plank, cried out for succor. Martinianus could
not refuse to go down and save her life: but fearing the danger of
living on the same mountain with her till the boatman should come, as
was expected in two months, resolved to leave her there to subsist on
his provisions till that time, and she chose to end her days on this
rock in imitation of his penitential life. He, trusting himself to the
waves and Providence, to shun all danger of sin, swam to the main land,
and travelled through many deserts to Athens, where he made a happy end
towards the year 400, being about fifty years old. His name, though not
mentioned in the Roman Martyrology, occurs in the Greek Menæa, and was
in great veneration in the East, particularly at Constantinople, in the
famous church near Sancta Sophia. See his acts in the Bollandists, and
in most compilers of the lives of the saints. Also Jos. Assemani in Cal.
Univ. ad 13 Feb. t. 6, p. 145.

{413}

ST. MODOMNOC, OR DOMINICK, OF OSSORY, C.

HE is said to have been of the noble race of the O'Neils, and, passing
into Wales, to have studied under St. David in the Vale of Ross. After
his return home he served God at Tiprat Fachna, in the western part of
Ossory. He is said to have been honored there with the Episcopal
dignity, about the middle of the sixth century. The see of Ossory was
translated from Seirkeran, the capital of this small county, to Aghavoa,
in the eleventh century, and in the twelfth, in the reign of Henry II.,
to Kilkenny. See Sir James Ware, l. De Antiquitatibus Hiberniæ, and l.
De Episcopal. Hibern.

ST. STEPHEN, ABBOT.

HE was abbot of a monastery near the walls of Rieti in Italy, and a man
of admirable sanctity. He had despised all things for the love of
heaven. He shunned all company to employ himself wholly in prayer. So
wonderful was his patience, that he looked upon them as his greatest
friends and benefactors, who did him the greatest injuries, and regarded
insults as his greatest gain. He lived in extreme poverty, and a
privation of all the conveniences of life. His barns, with all the corn
in them, the whole subsistence of his family, were burned down by wicked
men. He received the news with cheerfulness, grieving only for their sin
by which God was offended. In his agony angels were seen surrounding him
to conduct his happy soul to bliss. He lived in the sixth age. He is
named in the Roman Martyrology. See St. Gregory, hom. 35, in Evang. t.
1, p. 1616, and l. 4, Dial. c. 19.

B. ROGER, ABBOT, C.

HAVING embraced the Cistercian order at Loroy, or Locus Regis, in Berry,
he was chosen abbot of Elan near Retel in Champagne, and died about the
year 1175. His remains are enshrined in a chapel which bears his name,
in the church at Elan, where his festival is kept with a mass in his
honor on the 13th of February. His life was written by a monk of Elan.
See Chatelain, on the 4th of January, on which day his name occurs in a
Cistercian calendar printed at Dijon.


FEBRUARY XIV.

ST. VALENTINE, PRIEST AND MARTYR.

His acts are commended by Henschenius, but objected to by Tillemont, &c.
Here is given only an abridgment of the principal circumstances, from
Tillem. l. 4, p. 678.

THIRD AGE.

VALENTINE was a holy priest in Rome, who, with St. Marius and his
family, assisted the martyrs in the persecution under Claudius II. He
was {414} apprehended, and sent by the emperor to the prefect of Rome;
who, on finding all his promises to make him renounce his faith
ineffectual, commanded him to be beaten with clubs, and afterwards to be
beheaded, which was executed on the 14th of February, about the year
270. Pope Julius I. is said to have built a church near Ponte Mole to
his memory, which for a long time gave name to the gate, now called
Ports del Popolo, formerly Porta Valentini. The greatest part of his
relics are now in the church of St. Praxedes. His name is celebrated as
that of an illustrious martyr, in the sacramentary of St. Gregory, the
Roman missal of Thomasius, in the calendar of F. Fronto, and that of
Allatius, in Bede, Usuard, Ado, Notker, and all other martyrologies on
this day. To abolish the heathen's lewd superstitious custom of boys
drawing the names of girls, in honor of their goddess Februata Juno, on
the 15th of this month, several zealous pastors substituted the names of
saints in billets given on this day. See January 29, on St. Francis de
Sales.

ST. MARO, ABBOT.

From Theodoret Philoth. c. 16, 22, 24, 30, Tillem. t. 12, p. 412. Le
Quien, Oriens Christ. t. 3, p. 5, Jos Assemani Bibl. Orient. t. 1, p.
497.

A.D. 433.

ST. MARO made choice of a solitary abode on a mountain in the diocese of
Syria and near that city, where, out of a spirit of mortification, he
lived for the most part in the open air. He had indeed a little hut,
covered with goat skins, to shelter him from the inclemencies of the
weather; but he very seldom made use of it for that purpose, even on the
most urgent occasions. Finding here a heathen temple, he dedicated it to
the true God, and made it his house of prayer. Being renowned for
sanctity, he was raised, in 405, to the dignity of priesthood. St.
Chrysostom, who had a singular regard for him, wrote to him from
Cucusus, the place of his banishment, and recommended himself to his
prayers, and begged to hear from him by every opportunity.[1]

St. Zebinus, our saint's master, surpassed all the solitaries of his
time, with regard to assiduity in prayer. He devoted to this exercise
whole days and nights, without being sensible of any weariness or
fatigue: nay, his ardor for it seemed rather to increase than slacken by
its continuance. He generally prayed in an erect posture; but in his old
age was forced to support his body by leaning on a staff. He gave advice
in very few words to those that came to see him, to gain the more time
for heavenly contemplation. St. Maro imitated his constancy in prayer:
yet he not only received all visitants with great tenderness, but
encouraged their stay with him; though few were willing to pass the
whole night in prayer standing. God recompensed his labors with most
abundant graces, and the gift of curing all distempers, both of body and
mind. He prescribed admirable remedies against all vices. This drew
great multitudes to him, and he erected many monasteries in Syria, and
trained up holy solitaries. Theodoret, bishop of Cyr, says, that the
great number of monks who peopled his diocese were the fruit of his
instructions. The chief among his disciples was St. James of Cyr, who
gloried that he had received from the hands of St. Maro his first
hair-cloth.

God called St. Maro to his glory after a short illness, which showed,
says Theodoret, the great weakness to which his body was reduced. A
{415} pious contest ensued among the neighboring provinces about his
burial. The inhabitants of a large and populous place carried off the
treasure, and built to his honor a spacious church over his tomb, to
which a monastery was adjoined, which seems to have been the monastery
of St. Maro in the diocese of Apamea.[2]

Footnotes:
1.  St. Chrys. ep. 36.
2.  It is not altogether certain whether this monastery near Apamea, or
    another on the Orontes, between Apamea and Emesa, or a third in
    Palmyrene, (for each of them bore his name,) possessed his body, or
    gave name to the people called Maronites. It seems most probable of
    the second, the abbot of which is styled primate of all the
    monasteries of the second Syria, in the acts of the second council
    of Constantinople, under the patriarch Mennas, in 536, and he
    subscribes first a common letter to pope Hormisdas, in 517. The
    Maronites were called so from these religious, in the fifth century,
    and adhered to the council of Chalcedon against the Eutychians. They
    were joined in communion with the Melchites or Loyalists, who
    maintained the authority of the council of Chalcedon. The Maronites,
    with their patriarch, who live in Syria, towards the seacoast,
    especially about mount Libanus, are steady in the communion of the
    Catholic church, and profess a strict obedience to the pope, as its
    supreme pastor; and such has always been the conduct of that nation,
    except during a very short time, that they were inveigled into the
    Greek schism; and some fell into Eutychianism, and a greater number
    into Nestorianism; they returned to the communion of the Catholic
    church under Gregory XIII. and Clement VIII., as Stephen Assemani
    proves, (Assemani, Act. Mart. t. 2, p. 410,) against the slander of
    Eutychius in his Arabic Annals, which had imposed upon Renaudot. The
    Maronites keep the feast of St. Maro on the 9th, the Greeks on the
    14th of February. The seminary of the Maronites at Rome, founded by
    Gregory XIII. under the direction of the Jesuits, had produced
    several great men, who have exceedingly promoted true literature
    especially the Oriental; such as Abraham Eckellensis, the three
    Assemani, Joseph, Stephen Evodius, and Lewis, known by his Judicious
    writings on the ceremonies of the church. The patriarch of the
    Maronites, styled of Antioch, resides in the monastery of Canabine,
    at the foot of mount Libanus; he is confirmed by the pope, and has
    under him five metropolitans, namely, of Tyre, Damascus, Tripolis,
    Aleppo, and Niocsia, in Cyprus. See Le Quien. Oriens Christianus. t.
    3, p. 46.

ST. ABRAAMES, BISHOP OF CARRES.

HE was a holy solitary, who, going to preach to an idolatrous village on
Mount Libanus, overcame the persecutions of the heathens by meekness and
patience. When he had narrowly escaped death from their hands, he
borrowed money wherewith to satisfy the demands of the collectors of the
public taxes, for their failure in which respect they were to be cast
into prison; and by this charity he gained them all to Christ. After
instructing them for three years, he left them in the care of a holy
priest, and returned to his desert. He was some time after ordained
bishop of Canes, in Mesopotamia, which country he cleared of idolatry,
dissensions, and other vices. He joined the recollection and penance of
a monk with the labors of his functions, and died at Constantinople, in
422, having been sent for to court by Theodosius the Younger, and there
treated with the greatest honor on account of his sanctity. The emperor
kept one of his mean garments, and wore it himself on certain days, out
of respect. See Theodoret Philoth. c. 17, t. 3, p. 847.

ST. AUXENTIUS, H.

HE was a holy hermit in Bithynia, in the fifth age. In his youth he was
one of the equestrian guards of Theodosius the Younger, but this state
of life, which he discharged with the utmost fidelity to his prince, did
not hinder him from making the service of God his main concern. All his
spare time was spent in solitude and prayer; and he often visited holy
hermits, to spend the nights with them in tears and singing the divine
praises, prostrate on the ground. The fear of vain-glory moved him to
retire to the desert mountain of Oxen, in Bithynia, eight miles from
Constantinople. After the council of Chalcedon, where he appeared upon
summons by order of the emperor Marcian, against Eutyches, he chose a
cell on the mountain of Siope, near Chalcedon, in which he contributed
to the sanctification of many who resorted to him for advice; he
finished his martyrdom of penance, together {416} with his life, about
470. Sozomen commended exceedingly his sanctity while he was yet
living.[1] St. Stephen the Younger caused the church of his monastery to
be dedicated to God, under the invocation of our saint; and mount Siope
is called to this day mount St. Auxentius. See his life, written from
the relation of his disciple Vendimian, with the remarks of Henschenius.

Footnotes:
1.  Sozom. l. 7, c. 21.

ST. CONRAN, BISHOP OF ORKNEY, CONFESSOR.

THE isles of Orkney are twenty-six in number, besides the lesser, called
Holmes, which are uninhabited, and serve only for pasture. The faith was
planted here by St. Palladius, and St. Sylvester, one of his
fellow-laborers, who was appointed by him the first pastor of this
church, and was honored in it on the 5th of February. In these islands
formerly stood a great number of holy monasteries, the chief of which
was Kirkwall. This place was the bishop's residence, and is at this day
the only remarkable town in these islands. It is situated in the largest
of them, which is thirty miles long, called anciently Pomonia, now
Mainland. This church is much indebted to St. Conran, who was bishop
here in the seventh century, and whose name, for the austerity of his
life, zeal, and eminent sanctity, was no less famous in those parts, so
long as the Catholic religion flourished there, than those of St.
Palladius and of St. Kentigern. The cathedral of Orkney was dedicated
under the invocation of St. Magnus, king of Norway. On St. Conran, see
bishop Lesley, Hist. Scot. l. 4. Wion, in addit. c. 3. Ligni Vitæ. King,
in Calend.


FEBRUARY XV.

SS. FAUSTINUS AND JOVITA, MM.

A.D. 121.

FAUSTINUS and JOVITA were brothers, nobly born, and zealous professors
of the Christian religion, which they preached without fear in their
city of Brescia, while the bishop of that place lay concealed during the
persecution. The acts of their martyrdom seeming of doubtful authority,
all we can affirm with certainty of them is, that their remarkable zeal
excited the fury of the heathens against them, and procured them a
glorious death for their faith at Brescia, in Lombardy, under the
emperor Adrian. Julian, a heathen lord, apprehended them; and the
emperor himself passing through Brescia, when neither threats nor
torments could shake their constancy, commanded them to be beheaded.
They seem to have suffered about the year 121.[1] The city of Brescia
honors them as its chief patrons, and possesses their relics. A very
ancient church in that city bears their name, and all the martyrologies
mention them.

The spirit of Christ is a spirit of martyrdom, at least of mortification
and penance. It is always the spirit of the cross. The remains of the
old man, of sin and of death, must be extinguished, before one can be
made heavenly by putting on affections which are divine. What mortifies
the {417} senses and the flesh gives life to the spirit, and what
weakens and subdues the body strengthens the soul. Hence the divine love
infuses a spirit of mortification, patience, obedience, humility, and
meekness, with a love of sufferings and contempt, in which consists the
sweetness of the cross. The more we share in the suffering life of
Christ, the greater share we inherit in his spirit, and in the fruit of
his death. To souls mortified to their senses and disengaged from
earthly things, God gives frequent foretastes of the sweetness of
eternal life, and the most ardent desire of possessing him in his glory.
This is the spirit of martyrdom, which entitles a Christian to a happy
resurrection and to the bliss of the life to come.

Footnotes:
1.  See Tillemont, t. 2, p. 249. Pagi, &c.

ST. SIGEFRIDE, OR SIGFRID,

BISHOP, APOSTLE OF SWEDES.

From Joan. Magnus, Hist. Goth. l. 17, c. 20, quoted by Bollandus, and
chiefly from a life of this saint, compiled at Wexlow about the year
1205, published from an ancient MS. by the care of Ericus Benzelius
junior, in his Monuments Historica vetera Ecclesiæ Suevogothicæ, printed
at Upsal in 1709, p. 1, ad p. 14, and in Prolegom. Sect. 1. The editor
was not able to discover the author's name: upon which he repeats the
remark of the learned Maussac, (in Diss. Critica ad Harpocrat.,) that
"many monkish writers endeavored to conceal their names out of
humility." On which see Mabillon, Diar. Ital. p. 36. Benzelius gives us
a considerable fragment of a second life of this holy prelate, ib. p.
21, ad 29, and some verses of bishop Brynoth the third, on St. Sigfrid
and the other bishops of this province, ib. p. 72.

Our zealous ancestors having received the light of our faith, propagated
the same throughout all the northern provinces of Europe. St. Anscarius
had planted the faith in, in 830; but it relapsed soon into idolatry.
King Olas Scobcong entreated king Edred, who died in 91{} to send him
missionaries to preach the gospel in his country. Sigefride, an eminent
priest of York, undertook that mission, and on the 21st of June, in 950,
arrived at Wexiow, in Gothland, in the territory of Smaland. He first
erected a cross, then built a church of wood, celebrated the divine
mysteries, and preached to the people. Twelve principal men of the
province were converted by him, and one who died, was buried after the
Christian manner, and a cross placed upon his grave. So great numbers
were in a short time brought to the faith, that the cross of Christ was
triumphantly planted in all the twelve tribes into which the inhabitants
of South-Gothland were divided. The fountain near the mountain of
Ostrabo, since called Wexiow, in which St. Sigefride baptized the
catechumens, long retained the names of the twelve first converts,
engraved on a monument. King Olas was much pleased with the accounts he
heard of the man of God, and many flocked from remote parts, out of mere
curiosity to hear his doctrine, and to see him minister at the altar,
admiring the rich ornaments of linen, and over them of silk, which he
wore in celebrating the divine mysteries, with a mitre on his head, and
a crosier, or pastoral staff, in his hand. Also the gold and silver
vessels which he had brought with him for the use of the altar, and the
dignity and majesty of the ceremonies of the Christian worship,
attracted their attention. But the sublime truths of our religion, and
the mortification, disinterestedness, zeal, and sanctity of the
apostolic missionaries, engaged them to give them a favorable reception,
and to open their eyes to the evidence of the divine revelation. St.
Sigefride ordained two bishops, the one of East, the other of West
Gothland, or Lingkoping, and Scara. The see of Wexiow he continued
himself to govern so long as he lived. His three nephews, Unaman, a
priest, and Sunaman and Wiaman, the one a deacon, the other a subdeacon,
were his chief assistants in his apostolic labors. Haring intrusted the
administration of his see of Wexiow to Unaman, and left his two brothers
to assist and comfort him, the saint himself set out to carry {418} the
light of the gospel into the midland and northern provinces. King Olas
received him with great respect, and was baptized by him, with his whole
court and his army. St. Sigefride founded many churches, and consecrated
a bishop of Upsal, and another of Strengues. The former of these sees
had been founded by St. Anscharius, in 830, and the bishop was declared
by pope Alexander III., in 1160, metropolitan and primate of the whole
kingdom. During the absence of our saint, a troop of idolatrous rebels,
partly out of hatred of the Christian religion, and partly for booty,
plundered the church of Wexiow, and barbarously murdered the holy pastor
Unaman and his two brothers. Their bodies they buried in the midst of a
forest, where they have always remained hid. But the murderers put the
heads of the martyrs into a box, which, with a great stone they had
fastened to it, they threw into a great pond. But they were afterwards
taken out, and kept richly enshrined in the church of Wexiow till their
relics were removed by the Lutherans. These three holy martyrs were
honored in Sweden. Upon the news of this massacre St. Sigefride hastened
to Wexiow to repair the ruins of his church. The king resolved to put
the murderers to death; but Sigefride, by his earnest entreaties,
prevailed on him to spare their lives. However, he condemned them to pay
a heavy fine, which he would have bestowed on the saint, but he refused
accepting a single farthing of it, notwithstanding his extreme poverty,
and the difficulties which he had to struggle with, in laying the
foundation of that new church. He had inherited the spirit of the
apostles in an heroic degree. Our saint died about the year 1002, and
was buried in his cathedral at Wexiow, where his tomb became famous for
miracles. He was canonized about the year 1158, by pope Adrian IV.,[1]
an Englishman, who had himself labored zealously, and with great
success, in the conversion of Norway, and other northern countries,
about a hundred and forty years after St. Sigefride, who was honored by
the Swedes as their apostle, till the change of religion among them.[2]

Footnotes:
1.  Vastove, Vinea Aquilonis.
2.  In the life of St. Sigefride, published by Benzelius, it is
    mentioned, that St. Sigefride, upon his first arrival in Sweden,
    preached chiefly by interpreters.


FEBRUARY XVI.

ST. ONESIMUS, DISCIPLE OF ST. PAUL.

HE was a Phrygian by birth, slave to Philemon, a person of note of the
city of Colossæ, converted to the faith by St. Paul. Having robbed his
master, and being obliged to fly, he providentially met with St. Paul,
then a prisoner for the faith at Rome, who there converted and baptized
him, and sent him with his canonical letter of recommendation to
Philemon, by whom he was pardoned, set at liberty, and sent back to his
spiritual father, whom he afterwards faithfully served. That apostle
made him, with Tychicus, the bearer of his epistle to the Colossians,[1]
and afterwards, as St. Jerom[2] and other fathers witness, a preacher of
the gospel, and a bishop. The Greeks say he was crowned with martyrdom
under Domitian, in the year 95, and {419} keep his festival on the 15th.
Bede, Ado, Usuard, the Roman and other Latin martyrologists mention him
on the 16th of February.[3]

Baronius and some others confound him with St. Onesimus, the third
bishop of Ephesus, after St. Timothy, who was succeeded first by John,
then by Caius. This Onesimus showed great respect and charity to St.
Ignatius, when on his journey to Rome, in 107, and is highly commended
by him.[4]

       *       *       *       *       *

When a sinner, by the light and power of an extraordinary grace, is
snatched like a firebrand out of the fire, and rescued from the gates of
hell, we cannot wonder if he is swallowed up by the deepest and most
lively sense of his own guilt, and of the divine mercy; if such a one
loves much, because much has been forgiven him; if he endeavors to
repair his past crimes by heroic acts of penance and all virtues, and if
he makes haste to redeem his lost time by a zeal and vigilance hard to
be imitated by others. Hence we read of the _first love of the church of
Ephesus_[5] as more perfect. The ardor of the compunction and love of a
true penitent, is compared to the unparalleled _love of Judah in the day
of her espousal_.[6] This ardor is not to be understood as a passing
sally of the purest passions, as a shortlived fit of fervor, or desire
of perfection, as a transient taste or sudden transport of the soul: it
must be sincere and constant. With what excess of goodness does God
communicate himself to souls which thus open themselves to him! With
what caresses does he often visit them! With what a profusion of graces
does he enrich and strengthen them! It often happens that, in the
beginning, God, either to allure the frailty of a new convert, or to
fortify his resolution against hazardous trials, favors him with more
than usual communications of the sweetness of his love, and ravishes him
by some glances, as it were, of the beatific vision. His tenderness was
not less, when, for their spiritual advancement, their exercise in
heroic virtues, and the increase of their victories and glory, he
conducted them through severe trials. On the other side, with what
fidelity and ardor did these holy penitents improve themselves daily in
divine love and all virtues! Alas! our coldness and insensibility, since
our pretended conversion from the world and sin, is a far greater
subject of amazement than the extraordinary fervor of the saints in the
divine service.

Footnotes:
1.  Colos. iv.
2.  Ep. 62, c. 2.
3.  Tillem. t. 1, p. 294, and note 10, on St. Paul.
4.  Ep. ad Ephes.
5.  Apoc. 11. 4.
6.  Jerem. 11. 2.


SS. ELIAS, JEREMY, ISAIAS, SAMUEL, AND DANIEL,

WITH OTHER HOLY MARTYRS AT CÆSAREA, IN PALESTINE.

From Eusebius's relation of the martyrs of Palestine, at the end of the
eighth book of his history, c. 11, 12, p. 346. Ed. Vales.

A.D. 309.

In the year 309, the emperors Galerius Maximianus and Maximinus
continuing the persecution begun by Dioclesian, these five pious
Egyptians went to visit the confessors condemned to the mines in
Cilicia, and on their return were stopped by the guards of the gates of
Cæsarea, in Palestine, as they were entering the town. They readily
declared themselves Christians, together with the motive of their
journey; upon which they were apprehended. The day following they were
brought before Firmilian, the governor of Palestine, together with St.
Pamphilus and others. The judge, before {420} he began his
interrogatory, ordered the five Egyptians to be laid on the rack, as was
his custom. After they had long suffered all manner of tortures, he
addressed himself to him who seemed to be their chief, and asked him his
name and his country. They had changed their names, which, perhaps,
before their conversion, were those of some heathen gods, as was
customary in Egypt. The martyr answered, according to the names they had
given themselves, that he was called Elias, and his companions, Jeremy,
Isaias, Samuel, and Daniel. Firmilian then asked their country; he
answered, Jerusalem, meaning the heavenly Jerusalem, the true country of
all Christians. The judge inquired in what part of the world that was,
and ordered him to be tormented with fresh cruelty. All this while the
executioners continued to tear his body with stripes, while his hands
were bound behind him, and his feet squeezed in the woodstocks, called
the Nervus. The judge, at last, tired with tormenting them, condemned
all five to be beheaded, which was immediately executed.

Porphyrius, a youth who was a servant of St. Pamphilus, hearing the
sentence pronounced, cried out, that at least the honor of burial ought
not to be refused them. Firmilian, provoked at this boldness, ordered
him to be apprehended, and finding that he confessed himself a
Christian, and refused to sacrifice, ordered his sides to be torn so
cruelly, that his very bones and bowels were exposed to view. He
underwent all this without a sigh or tear, or so much as making the
least complaint. The tyrant, not to be overcome by so heroic a
constancy, gave orders for a great fire to be kindled, with a vacant
space to be left in the midst of it, for the martyr to be laid in, when
taken off the rack. This was accordingly done, and he lay there a
considerable time, surrounded by the flames, singing the praises of God,
and invoking the name of Jesus; till at length, quite broiled by the
fire, he consummated a slow, but glorious martyrdom.

Seleucus, an eye-witness of this victory, was heard by the soldiers
applauding the martyr's resolution; and being brought before the
governor, he, without more ado, ordered his head to be struck off.

ST. JULIANA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR.

AFTER many torments, she was beheaded at Nicomedia, under Galerius
Maximianus. St. Gregory the great mentions that her bones were
translated to Rome. Part of them are now at Brussels, in the church of
our Lady of Sablon. This saint is much honored in the Low Countries. Her
acts in Bollandus deserve no notice. Bede, and martyrologies ascribed to
St. Jerom, call this the day of her martyrdom, which the ancient Corbie
manuscript places at Nicomedia. See Chatelain's notes on the
martyrology, p. 667.

ST. GREGORY X., POPE, C.

HE was of an illustrious family, born at Placentia, and at his baptism
was called Theobald. In his youth he was distinguished for his
extraordinary virtue, and his progress in his studies, especially of the
canon law, which he began in Italy, and pursued at Paris, and lastly at
Liege. He was archdeacon of this last church when he received an order
from the pope to preach the crusade for the recovery of the Holy Land.
Incredible were the pains which he took in executing this commission,
and in reconciling the Christian princes, who were at variance. The
death of St. Lewis, in 1270, {421} struck a damp upon the spirits of the
Christians in the East, though the prince of Wales, soon after Edward
I., king of England, sailed from Sicily, in March, 1271, to their
assistance, took Jaffa and Nazareth, and plundered Antioch. A tender
compassion for the distressed situation of the servants of Christ in
those parts, moved the holy archdeacon of Liege to undertake a dangerous
pilgrimage to Palestine, in order to comfort them, and at the same time
to satisfy his devotion by visiting the holy places. The see of Rome had
been vacant almost three years, from the death of Clement IV. to
November, 1268, the cardinals who were assembled at Viterbo not coming
to an agreement in the choice of a pope, till, by common consent, they
referred his election to six among them, who, on the 1st of September,
in 1271, nominated Theobald, the archdeacon of Liege. Upon the news of
his election, he prepared himself to return to Italy. Nothing could be
more tender and moving than his last farewell to the disconsolate
Christians of Palestine, whom he promised, in a most solemn manner,
never to forget. He arrived at Rome in March, and was first ordained
priest, then consecrated bishop, and crowned on the 27th of the same
month, in 1272. He took the name of Gregory X., and, to procure the most
effectual succor to the Holy Land, called a general council to meet at
Lyons, where pope Innocent IV. had held the last in 1245, partly for the
same purpose of the holy war, and partly to endeavor to reclaim the
emperor Frederick II. The city of Lyons was most convenient for the
meeting of those princes whose succors were principally expected for the
holy war; and was most unexceptionable, because at that time it
acknowledged no other sovereign than its archbishop. Henry III., king of
England, died on the 16th of November, 1272, and Edward I., who had
concluded a peace of ten years with the Saracens, in the name of the
Christians in Syria and Palestine, returned for England, and on the road
at Trapani, in Sicily, met the news of his father's death. In the same
place he received most obliging letters from pope Gregory X. The
fourteenth general council, the second of Lyons, was opened in that city
in May, 1274, in which were assembled five hundred bishops and seventy
abbots. In the fourth session, the Greek ambassadors (who were,
Germanus, formerly patriarch of Constantinople, Theophanes, archbishop
of Nice, and the senator, George Acropolita, great logothete, or
chancellor) were admitted. The logothete abjured the schism in the name
of the emperor Michael Palæologus; and the pope, while Te Deum was sung,
stood with his cheeks all the time bathed in tears. St. Thomas Aquinas
died on the 7th of March, before the opening of the council, and St.
Bonaventure at Lyons, on the 15th of July. The council was closed by the
fifth and last session, on the 17th of July. The more our holy pope was
overwhelmed with public affairs, the more watchful he was over his own
soul, and the more earnest in the interior duties of self-examination,
contemplation, and prayer. He spoke little, conversing assiduously in
his heart with God; he was very abstemious in his diet, and most
rigorous to himself in all things. By this crucified life, his soul was
prepared to taste the hidden manna which is concealed in the divine
word, with which he continually nourished it in holy meditation. After
the council he was taken up in concerting measures for carrying its
decrees into execution, particularly those relating to the crusade in
the East. By his unwearied application to business, and the fatigues of
his journey, in passing the Alps in his return to Rome, he contracted a
distemper, of which he died at Arezzo, on the 10th of January, in 1276,
three years and nine months after his consecration, and four years, four
months, and ten days after his election. His name is inserted in the
Roman Martyrology, published by Benedict XIV., on the 16th of February.
See Platina, Ciacconius, St. Antoninus, Hist. part 3, it. 20, c. 2. The
account of his life and miracles in {422} the archives of the tribunal
of the Rota, and in Benedict XIV. de Canoniz. l. 2, t. 2, Append. 8, p.
673; the proofs of his miracles, ib. p. 709; also, ib. l. 2, c. 24, sec.
37 and 42; and l. 1, c. 20, n. 17. See likewise his life, copied from a
MS. history of several popes, by Bernard Guidonis, published by
Muratori, Scriptor. Ital. t. 3, p. 597, and another life of this pope,
written before the canonization of St. Lewis, in which mention is made
of miraculous cures performed by him, ibid. pp. 599, 604.

ST. TANCO, OR TATTA, B.M.

PATTON, abbot of Amabaric, in Scotland, passing into Germany to preach
the gospel, and being chosen bishop of Verdun, Tanco, who had served God
many years in that abbey in great reputation for his singular learning
and piety, was raised to the dignity of abbot. Out of an ardent thirst
after martyrdom, he resigned this charge, and followed his countryman
and predecessor into Germany, where, after some time, he succeeded him
in the see of Verdun, of which he was the third bishop. His success in
propagating the faith was exceeding great, but it was to him a subject
of inexpressible grief to see many who professed themselves Christians,
live enslaved to shameful passions. In order to convert, or at least to
confound them, he preached a most zealous sermon against the vices which
reigned among them; at which a barbarous mob was so enraged as fiercely
to assault him; and one of them, stabbing him with a lance, procured him
the glorious crown of martyrdom, about the year 815. This account of him
is given us by Krantzius, (l. 1, Metrop. c. 22 & 29.) Lesley, l. 5,
Hist. Wion, l. 3, Ligni Vitæ.

FEBRUARY XVII.

ST. FLAVIAN, M.

ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

From the councils, and historians Cedrenus, Evagrius, Theophanes, &c.
See Baronius, Henschenius. t. 3, Feb. p. 71. Fleury, l. 27, 28. Quesnel,
in his edition of the works of St. Leo, t. 2, diss. 1, and F. Cacciari,
t. 3, Exercit. in opera St. Leonis, Romæ, an. 1755. Dissert. 4, de
Eutychiana Hær. l. 1, c. 2, p. 322; c. 8, p. 383; c. 9, p. 393, c. 11,
p. 432.

A.D. 449

ST. FLAVIAN was a priest of distinguished merit, and treasurer of the
church of Constantinople, when he succeeded St. Proclus in the
archiepiscopal dignity in 447. The eunuch Chrysaphius, chamberlain to
the emperor Theodosius the Younger, and a particular favorite, suggested
to his master, a weak prince, to require of him a present, out of
gratitude to the emperor for his promotion. The holy bishop sent him
some blessed bread, according to the custom of the church at that time,
as a benediction and symbol of communion. Chrysaphius let him know that
it was a present of a very different kind that was expected from him.
St. Flavian, an enemy to simony, answered resolutely, than the revenues
and treasure of the church were designed for other uses, namely, the
honor of God and the relief of his poor. The eunuch, highly provoked at
the bishop's refusal, from that moment {423} resolved to contrive his
ruin. Wherefore, with a view to his expulsion, he persuaded the emperor,
by the means of his wife Eudoxia, to order the bishop to make Pulcheria,
sister to Theodosius, a deaconess of his church. The saint's refusal was
a second offence in the eyes of the sycophants of the court. The next
year Chrysaphius was still more grievously offended with our saint for
his condemning the errors of his kinsman Eutyches, abbot of a monastery
of three hundred monks, near the city, who had acquired a reputation for
virtue, but in effect was no better than an ignorant, proud, and
obstinate man. His intemperate zeal against Nestorius, for asserting two
distinct persons in Christ, threw him into the opposite error, that of
denying two distinct natures after the incarnation.

In a council, held by St. Flavian in 448, Eutyches was accused of this
error by Eusebius of Dorylæum, his former friend, and it was there
condemned as heretical, and the author was cited to appear to give an
account of his faith. On the day appointed in the last summons he
appeared before the council, but attended by two of the principal
officers of the court, and a troop of the imperial guards. Being
admitted and interrogated on the point in question, that is, his faith
concerning the incarnation; he declared that he acknowledged indeed two
natures before the union, but after it only one. To all reasonings and
authority produced against his tenet, his reply was, that he did not
come thither to dispute, but to satisfy the assembly what his faith was.
The council, upon this, anathematized and deposed him, and St. Flavian
pronounced the sentence, which was subscribed by thirty-two bishops and
twenty-three abbots, of which last eighteen were priests. Eutyches said
privately to his guards, that he appealed to the bishops of Rome, Egypt,
and Jerusalem; and in a letter he wrote to St. Leo to complain of his
usage in the council, he endeavored to impose on the pope. But his
Holiness being informed of the state of the affair by St. Flavian, wrote
to him an ample declaration of the orthodox faith upon the point which
was afterwards read, and inserted in the acts of the council of
Chalcedon, in which the errors of Eutyches were solemnly condemned.
Chrysaphius, however, had interest enough with the weak emperor to
obtain an order for a re-examination of the cause between St. Flavian
and Eutyches in another council. This met in April, 449, consisting of
about thirty bishops, one third whereof had assisted at the late
council. St. Flavian being looked on as a party, Thalassius, bishop of
Cæsarea, presided in his room. After the strictest scrutiny into every
particular, the impiety of Eutyches, and the justice of our saint's
proceedings, clearly appeared. St. Flavian presented to the emperor a
profession of his faith, wherein he condemned the errors of both
Eutyches and Nestorius, his adversaries pretending that he favored the
latter.

Chrysaphius, though baffled in his attempts, was still bent on the ruin
of the holy bishop, and employed all his craft and power to save
Eutyches and destroy Flavian. With this view he wrote to Dioscorus, a
man of a violent temper, who had succeeded St. Cyril in the patriarchal
see of Alexandria, promising him his friendship and favor in all his
designs, if he would undertake the defence of the deposed abbot against
Flavian and Eusebius. Dioscorus came into his measures; and, by their
joint interest with the empress Eudoxia, glad of an opportunity to
mortify Pulcheria, who had a high esteem for our saint, they prevailed
with the emperor to order a council to be called at Ephesus, to
determine the dispute. Dioscorus was invited by the emperor to come and
preside in it, accompanied with ten metropolitans and other bishops,
together with the archimandrite, or abbot Barsumas, a man strongly
attached to Eutyches and Dioscorus. The like directions were sent to the
other patriarchs. St. Leo, who was invited, though late, sent legatee to
act {424} in his name, Julius, bishop of Puteoli, Renatus, a priest, who
died on the road, Hilarius, a deacon, and Dulcitius, a notary. He sent
by them a learned letter to St. Flavian, in which he taxes the ignorance
of Eutyches in the holy scriptures, and explains the Catholic doctrine
against that heresiarch, which he also did by other letters.

The false council of Ephesus, for the violences therein used commonly
called the Latrocinale, was opened on the 8th of August, in 449, and
consisted of one hundred and thirty bishops, or their deputies, from
Egypt and the East. Eutyches was there, and two officers from the
emperor, with a great number of soldiers. Every thing was carried on, by
violence and open faction, in favor of Eutyches, by those officers and
bishops who had espoused his party and formed a cabal. The pope's
legates were never suffered to read his letters to the council. The
final result of the proceedings was, to pronounce sentence of deposition
against St. Flavian and Eusebius. The pope's legates protested against
the sentence. Hilarius, the deacon, cried out aloud, "contradicitur,"
opposition is made; which Latin word was inserted in the Greek acts of
the synod. And Dioscorus no sooner began to read the sentence, but he
was interrupted by several of the bishops, who, prostrating themselves
before him, besought him, in the most submissive terms, to proceed no
further in so unwarrantable an affair. Upon this he starts up, and calls
aloud for the imperial commissioners, Elpidius and Eulogius, who,
without more ado, ordered the church doors to be set open; upon which
Proclus, the proconsul of Asia, entered, surrounded with a band of
soldiers, and followed by a confused multitude with chains, clubs, and
swords. This struck such a terror into the whole assembly, that, when
the bishops were required by Dioscorus and his creatures to subscribe,
few or none had the courage to withstand his threats, the pope's legates
excepted, who protested aloud against these violent proceedings; one of
whom was imprisoned; the other, Hilarius, got off with much difficulty,
and came safe to Rome. St. Flavian, on hearing the sentence read by
Dioscorus, appealed from him to the holy see, and delivered his acts of
appeal in writing to the pope's legates, then present. This so provoked
Dioscorus,[1] that, together with Barsumas and others of their party,[2]
after throwing the holy bishop on the ground, they so kicked and bruised
him, that he died within a few days, in 449, not at Ephesus, as some
have said by mistake, but in his exile at Epipus, two days' journey from
that city, situated near Sardes in Lydia, as Marcellinus testifies in
his chronicle.

The council being over, Dioscorus, with two of his Egyptian bishops, had
the insolence to excommunicate St. Leo. But violence and injustice did
not triumph long. For the emperor's eyes being opened on his sister
Pulcheria's return to court, whom the ambition of Chrysaphius had found
means to remove in the beginning of these disturbances, the eunuch was
disgraced, and soon after put to death; and the empress Eudoxia obliged
to retire to Jerusalem. The next year the emperor died, as Cedrenus
says, penitent; and Pulcheria, ascending the throne in 450, ordered
Saint Flavian's body to be brought with great honor to Constantinople,
and there magnificently interred, among his predecessors in that see.
St. Leo had, upon the first news of these proceedings, written to him to
comfort him, as also to Theodosius, Pulcheria, and the clergy of
Constantinople, in his defence. The general council of Chalcedon
declared him a saint and martyr, and paid great honors to his memory, in
451. The same council honorably restored Eusebius of Dorylæum to his
see. Pope Hilarius, who had been St. Leo's legate at Ephesus, had so
great a veneration for the saint, that he caused his martyrdom {425} to
be represented in mosaic work, in the church which he built in honor of
the holy Cross. The wicked Dioscorus was condemned by the council of
Chalcedon, in 451, and died obstinate and impenitent, in the Eutychian
heresy, and his other crimes, in his banishment at Gangres, in 454.

       *       *       *       *       *

It was the glory of St. Flavian to die a martyr of the mystery of the
incarnation of the Son of God. This is the fundamental article of the
Christian religion, and, above all other mysteries, challenges our most
profound homages and constant devotion. In it hath God displayed, in the
most incomprehensible manner, the astonishing immensity of his power,
mercy, wisdom, and love, the contemplation of which will be the sweet
occupation of angels and saints to all eternity. The servants of God on
earth find their greatest delight in meditating on this great mystery,
and in profound adoration and transports of love, honoring, praising,
and glorifying their divine Saviour, and studying to put on his spirit
by the constant union in mind and heart, or of their thoughts and
affections, with him. Is it possible that we who believe in this God,
who annihilated himself, and died for us most miserable and ungrateful
sinners, should not die of love for him? At least, how is it possible we
should not always have him present to our minds, and prostrate ourselves
at his feet a thousand times a day to return him our most humble thanks,
and to pay him the homages of our adoration, love, and praise? The more
he is insulted in this mystery of goodness itself, by the blasphemies of
unbelievers and heretics, the greater ought to be our zeal and fervor in
honoring it. But as the incarnation is the mystery of the unfathomed
humility of a God to heal the wound of our pride, it is only by
humility, and the annihilation of creatures in our hearts, that we can
be disposed to contemplate or honor it with fruit. The dreadful fall and
impenitence of Eutyches, after he had renounced the world with a view to
give himself to God, were owing to the fatal sin of a secret pride.

Footnotes:
1.  Evag. l. xi. c. 11.
2.  Conc. Calced. act. 4.

SS. THEODULUS AND JULIAN, MM.

THEY suffered at Cæsarea, in Palestine, at the same time with those
mentioned yesterday, but are named on this day in the Roman Martyrology.
Theodulus was an old man of eminent virtue and wisdom, who enjoyed one
of the most honorable posts in the household of Firmilian, the governor
of Palestine, and had several sons. His personal merit gained him the
love of all that knew him, and the governor had a particular esteem for
him. This holy man had seen the invincible courage and patience of the
five Egyptian martyrs at Cæsarea, and, going to the prisons, made use of
their example to encourage the other confessors, and prepare them for
the like battles. Firmilian, vexed at this conduct of an old favorite
servant, sent for him, reproached him strongly with ingratitude, and,
without hearing his defence, condemned him to be crucified. Theodulus
received the sentence with joy, and went with transports to a death
which was speedily to unite him to his Saviour, and in which he was
thought worthy to bear a near resemblance to him. Julian, who shared the
glory of that day with the other martyrs, was a Cappadocian, as was also
St. Seleucus; he was only a catechumen, though highly esteemed by the
faithful for his many great virtues, and he was just then come to
Cæsarea. At his arrival, hearing of the conflicts of the martyrs, he ran
to the place, and finding the execution over, expressed his veneration
for them, by kissing and embracing the bodies which had been animated by
those heroic and happy souls. The guards apprehended {426} him, and
carried him to the governor, who, finding him as inflexible as the rest,
would not lose his time in useless interrogatories, but immediately
ordered him to be burnt. Julian, now master of all he wished for, gave
God thanks for the honor done him by this sentence, and begged he would
be pleased to accept of his life as a voluntary sacrifice. The courage
and cheerfulness which he maintained to his last moment, filled his
executioners with surprise and confusion. See Eusebius, an eye-witness,
l. de Mart. Palæst. c. 12, p. 337.

ST. SILVIN OF AUCHY, B.C.

HE was born of a considerable family in the territory of Thoulouse, and
passed his first years at the court of two successive kings, Childeric
II. and Theodoric III. Every thing was ready for his marriage, when,
powerfully touched by divine grace, he renounced all worldly prospects,
and retired from court. His thoughts were now bent upon Jesus Christ
alone, and he longed for nothing so much as to enjoy silence and
solitude. After several devout penitential pilgrimages to Jerusalem and
other places, he took orders at Rome, and was consecrated bishop, some
say of Thoulouse, others of Terouenne. But his name is not found in any
ancient register of either of those churches, and it is now agreed,
among the most judicious critics, that he was ordained a regionary
bishop to preach the gospel to infidels. His zeal carried him into the
north of France, and he spent most of his time in the diocese of
Terouenne, which was then full of Pagans, and Christians but one remove
from them. He was indefatigable in preaching to them the great truths
and essential obligations of our holy faith, and taught them to despise
and renounce the pleasures of this life, by appearing on all occasions a
strong lesson of self-denial and mortification. Instructing them thus,
both by words and actions, he gathered a large harvest in a wild and
uncultivated field. After many years thus spent, he died at Auchy, in
the county of Artois, on the 15th of February, in 718. He is
commemorated in Usuard, the Belgic and Roman Martyrologies, on the 17th,
which was the day of his burial: but at Auchy on the 15th. The greatest
part of his relics is now at St. Bertin's, at St. Omers, whither they
were carried in 951, for fear of the Normans. Usuard is the first who
styles St. Silvin bishop of Terouenne. Some think he was born, not at
Thoulouse, but at Thosa, or Doest, near Bruges; or rather at another
Thosa, now Doesbury, in Brabant; for in his life it is said that he
travelled westward to preach the gospel. His original life, which was
ascribed to Antenor, a disciple of the saint, is lost: that which we
have was compiled in the ninth century. See Bolland. t. 3, Feb. p. 29,
Mabillon, Act. Bened. Sæc. 3, par. 1, p. 298. Chatelain's Notes, p. 659.

ST. LOMAN, OR LUMAN, B.C.

JOCELIN calls him a nephew of St. Patrick, by a sister. He was at least
a disciple of that saint, and first bishop of Trim, in Meath.
Port-Loman, a town belonging to the Nugents in West-meath, takes its
name from him, and honors his memory with singular veneration. St.
Forcher{n}, son of the lord of that territory, was baptized by St.
Loman, succeeded him in the bishopric of Trim, and is honored among the
saints in Ireland, both on this same day and on the 11th of October. See
Colgan on the 17th Febr. Usher's Antiqu. ad ann. 433.

{427}

ST. FINTAN, ABBOT OF CLUAINEDNECH,

WHICH Usher interprets the Ivy-Cave, in the diocese of Lethglean, in
Leinster, in the sixth century. He had for disciple St. Comgal, the
founder of the abbey of Benchor, and master of St. Columban. Colgan
reckons twenty-four Irish saints of the name of Fintan; but probably
several of these were the same person honored in several places. Another
St. Fintan, surnamed Munnu, who is honored on the 21st of October, was
very famous. See Colgan, Usher, and Henschenius.


FEBRUARY XVIII.

ST. SIMEON, BISHOP OF JERUSALEM, M.

From Euseb. l. 3, c. 32. Tillem. t. 1, p. 186, and t. 2. Le Quien,
Oriens Christ. t. 3, p. 140.

A.D. 116

ST. SIMEON was the son of Cleophas, otherwise called Alpheus, brother to
St. Joseph, and of Mary, sister of the Blessed Virgin. He was therefore
nephew both to St. Joseph and to the Blessed Virgin, and cousin-german
to Christ. Simeon and Simon are the same name, and this saint is,
according to the best interpreters of the holy scripture, the Simon
mentioned,[1] who was brother to St. James the Lesser, and St. Jude,
apostles, and to Joseph or José. He was eight or nine years older than
our Saviour. We cannot doubt but he was an early follower of Christ, as
his father and mother and three brothers were, and an exception to that
of St. John,[2] that our Lord's relations did not believe in him. Nor
does St. Luke[3] leave us any room to doubt but that he received the
Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, with the blessed Virgin and the
apostles; for he mentions present St. James and St. Jude, and the
brothers of our Lord. St. Epiphanius relates,[4] that when the Jews
massacred St. James the Lesser, his brother Simeon reproached them for
their atrocious cruelty. St. James, bishop of Jerusalem, being put to
death in the year 62, twenty-nine years after our Saviour's
resurrection, the apostles and disciples met at Jerusalem to appoint him
a successor. They unanimously chose St. Simeon, who had probably before
assisted his brother in the government of that church.

In the year 66, in which SS. Peter and Paul suffered martyrdom at Rome,
the civil war began in Judea, by the seditions of the Jews against the
Romans. The Christians in Jerusalem were warned by God of the impending
destruction of that city, and by a divine revelation[5] commanded to
leave it, as Lot was rescued out of Sodom. They therefore departed out
of it the same year, before Vespasian, Nero's general, and afterward
emperor, entered Judæa, and retired beyond Jordan to a small city called
Pella; having St. Simeon at their head. After the taking and burning of
Jerusalem they returned thither again, and settled themselves amidst its
{428} ruins, till Adrian afterwards entirely razed it. St. Epiphanius[6]
and Eusebius[7] assure us, that the church here flourished extremely,
and that multitudes of Jews were converted by the great number of
prodigies and miracles wrought in it.

St. Simeon, amidst the consolations of the Holy Ghost and the great
progress of the church, had the affliction to see two heresies arise
within its bosom, namely, those of the Nazareans and the Ebionites; the
first seeds of which, according to St. Epiphanius, appeared at Pella.
The Nazareans were a sect of men between Jews and Christians, but
abhorred by both. They allowed Christ to be the greatest of the
prophets, but said he was a mere man, whose natural parents were Joseph
and Mary: they joined all the ceremonies of the old law with the new,
and observed both the Jewish Sabbath and the Sunday. Ebion added other
errors to these, which Cerenthus had also espoused, and taught many
superstitions, permitted divorces, and allowed of the most infamous
abominations. He began to preach at Cocabe, a village beyond Jordan,
where he dwelt; but he afterwards travelled into Asia, and thence to
Rome. The authority of St. Simeon kept the heretics in some awe during
his life, which was the longest upon earth of any of our Lord's
disciples. But, as Eusebius says, he was no sooner dead than a deluge of
execrable heresies broke out of hell upon the church, which durst not
openly appear during his life.

Vespasian and Domitian had commanded all to be put to death who were of
the race of David. St. Simeon had escaped their searches; but Trajan
having given the same order, certain heretics and Jews accused him, as
being both of the race of David and a Christian, to Atticus, the Roman
governor in Palestine. The holy bishop was condemned by him to be
crucified: who, after having undergone the usual tortures during several
days, which, though one hundred and twenty years old, he suffered with
so much patience that he drew on him a universal admiration, and that of
Atticus in particular, he died in 107, according to Eusebius in his
chronicle, but in 116, according to Dodwell, bishop Loyde, and F. Pagi.
He must have governed the church of Jerusalem about forty-three years.

       *       *       *       *       *

The eminent saints among the primitive disciples of Jesus Christ, were
entirely animated by his spirit, and being dead to the world and
themselves, they appeared like angels among men. Free from the secret
mixture of the sinister views of all passions, to a degree which was a
miracle of grace, they had in all things only God, his will and honor,
before their eyes, equally aspiring to him through honor and infamy. In
the midst of human applause they remained perfectly humbled in the
centre of their own nothing: when loaded with reproaches and contempt,
and persecuted with all the rage that malice could inspire, they were
raised above all these things so as to stand fearless amid racks and
executioners, inflexibly constant in their fidelity to God, before
tyrants, invincible under torments, and superior to them almost as if
they had been impassible. Their resolution never failed them, their
fervor seemed never slackened. Such wonderful men wrought continual
miracles in converting souls to God. We bear the name of Christians, and
wear the habit of Saints; but are full of the spirit of worldlings, and
our actions are infected with its poison. We secretly seek ourselves,
even when we flatter ourselves that God is our only aim, and while we
undertake to convert the world, we suffer it to pervert us. When shall
we begin to study to crucify our passions and die to ourselves, that we
may lay a solid foundation of true virtue, and establish its reign in
our hearts?

Footnotes:
1.  Matt. xiii.55.
2.  John vii. 5.
3.  Acts i. 14.
4.  Hær. 78. c. 14.
5.  Eus. l. 3, c. 5, Epiph. hær. 29, c. 7, hær. 30, c. 2.
6.  L. de Pond. et Mensur. c. 15.
7.  Demonst. l. 3, c. 5.

{429}

SS. LEO AND PAREGORIUS, MARTYRS

From their ancient authentic acts in Ruinart, Bollandus, &c.

THIRD AGE.

ST. PAREGORIUS having spilt his blood for the faith at Patara, in Lycia,
St. Leo, who had been a witness of his conflict, found his heart divided
between joy for his friend's glorious victory, and sorrow to see himself
deprived of the happiness of sharing in it. The proconsul of Asia being
absent in order to wait on the emperors, probably Valerian and Galien,
the governor of Lycia, residing at Patara, to show his zeal for the
idols, published an order on the festival of Serapis, to oblige all to
offer sacrifice to that false god. Leo seeing the heathens out of
superstition, and some Christians out of fear, going in crowds to adore
the idol, sighed within himself, and went to offer up his prayers to the
true God, on the tomb of St. Paregorius, to which he passed before the
temple of Serapis, it lying in his way to the martyr's tomb. The
heathens that were sacrificing in it knew him to be a Christian by his
modesty. He had exercised himself from his childhood in the austerities
and devotions of an ascetic life, and possessed, in an eminent degree,
chastity, temperance, and all other virtues. His clothes were of a
coarse cloth made of camel's hair. Not long after his return home from
the tomb of the martyr, with his mind full of the glorious exit of his
friend, he fell asleep, and from a dream he had on that occasion,
understood, when he awaked, that God called him to a conflict of the
same kind with that of St. Paregorius, which filled him with
inexpressible joy and comfort.

Wherefore, the next time he visited the martyr's tomb, instead of going
to the place through by-roads, he went boldly through the market-place,
and by the Tychæaum, or temple of Fortune, which he saw illuminated with
lanterns. He pitied their blindness; and, being moved with zeal for the
honor of the true God, he made no scruple to break as many of the
lanterns as were within reach, and trampled on the tapers in open view,
saying: "Let your gods revenge the injury if they are able to do it."
The priest of the idol having raised the populace, cried out: "Unless
this impiety be punished, the goddess Fortune will withdraw her
protection from the city." An account of this affair soon reached the
ears of the governor, who ordered the saint to be brought before him,
and on his appearance addressed him in this manner; "Wicked wretch, thy
sacrilegious action surely bespeaks thee either ignorant of the immortal
gods, or downright mad, in flying in the face of our most divine
emperors, whom we justly regard as secondary deities and saviours." The
martyr replied with great calmness: "You are under a great mistake, in
supposing a plurality of gods; there is but one, who is the God of
heaven and earth, and who does not stand in need of being worshipped
after that gross manner that men worship idols. The most acceptable
sacrifice we can offer him is that of a contrite and humble heart."
"Answer to your indictment," said the governor, "and don't preach your
Christianity. I thank the gods, however, that they have not suffered you
to lie concealed after such a sacrilegious attempt. Choose therefore
either to sacrifice to them, with those that are here present, or to
suffer the punishment due to your impiety." The martyr said: "The fear
of torments shall never draw me from my duty. I am ready to suffer all
you shall inflict. All your tortures cannot reach beyond death. Eternal
life is not to be attained but by the way of tribulations; the scripture
accordingly {430} informs us, _that narrow is the way that leads to
life_." "Since you own the way you walk in is narrow," said the
governor, "exchange it for ours, which is broad and commodious." "When I
called it narrow," said the martyr, "this was only because it is not
entered without difficulty, and that its beginnings are often attended
with afflictions and persecutions for justice sake. But being once
entered, it is not difficult to keep in it by the practice of virtue,
which helps to widen it and render it easy to those that persevere in
it, which has been done by many."

The multitude of Jews and Gentiles cried out to the judge to silence
him. But he said, he allowed him liberty of speech, and even offered him
his friendship if he would but sacrifice. The confessor answered: "You
seem to have forgot what I just before told you, or you would not have
urged me again to sacrifice. Would you have me acknowledge for a deity
that which has nothing in its nature of divine?" These last words put
the governor in a rage, and he ordered the saint to be scourged. While
the executioners were tearing his body unmercifully, the judge said to
him: "This is nothing to the torments I am preparing for you. If you
would have me stop here, you must sacrifice." Leo said: "O judge, I will
repeat to you again what I have so often told you: I own not your gods,
nor will I ever sacrifice to them." The judge said: "Only say the gods
are great, and I will discharge you. I really pity your old age." Leo
answered: "If I allow them that title, it can only be with regard to
their power of destroying their worshippers." The judge in a fury said:
"I will cause you to be dragged over rocks and stones, till you are torn
to pieces." Leo said: "Any kind of death is welcome to me, that procures
me the kingdom of heaven, and introduces me into the company of the
blessed." The judge said: "Obey the edict, and say the gods are the
preservers of the world, or you shall die." The martyr answered: "You do
nothing but threaten: why don't you proceed to effects?" The mob began
to be clamorous, and the governor, to appease them, was forced to
pronounce sentence on the saint, which was, that he should be tied by
the feet, and dragged to the torrent, and there executed; and his orders
were immediately obeyed in a most cruel manner. The martyr being upon
the point of consummating his sacrifice, and obtaining the
accomplishment of all his desires, with his eyes lifted up to heaven,
prayed thus aloud: "I thank thee, O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, for not suffering me to be long separated from thy servant
Paregorius. I rejoice in what has befallen me as the means of expiating
my past sins. I commend my soul to the care of thy holy angels, to be
placed by them where it will have nothing to fear from the judgments of
the wicked. But thou, O Lord, who willest not the death of a sinner, but
his repentance, grant them to know thee, and to find pardon for their
crimes, through the merits of thy only Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."
He no sooner repeated the word Amen, together with an act of
thanksgiving, but he expired. His executioners then took the body and
cast it down a great precipice into a deep pit; and notwithstanding the
fall, it seemed only to have received a few slight bruises. The very
place which was before a frightful precipice, seemed to have changed its
nature; and the acts say, no more dangers or accidents happened in it to
travellers. The Christians took up the martyr's body, and found it of a
lively color, and entire, and his face appeared comely and smiling; and
they buried it in the most honorable manner they could. The Greeks keep
his festival on the 18th of February.

{431}

FEBRUARY XIX.

ST. BARBATUS, OR BARBAS, C.

BISHOP OF BENEVENTO.

From his two authentic lives in Bollandus, t. 3, Febr. p. 139. See
Ughelli, Italia Sacra, t. 8, p. l3.

A.D. 682.

ST. BARBATUS was born in the territory of Benevento, in Italy, towards
the end of the pontificate of St. Gregory the Great, in the beginning of
the seventh century. His parents gave him a Christian education, and
Barbatus in his youth laid the foundation of that eminent sanctity which
recommends him to our veneration. Devout meditation on the holy
scriptures was his chief entertainment; and the innocence, simplicity,
and purity of his manners, and extraordinary progress in all virtues,
qualified him for the service of the altar, to which he was assumed by
taking holy orders as soon as the canons of the church would allow it.
He was immediately employed by his bishop in preaching, for which he had
an extraordinary talent; and, after some time, made curate of St.
Basil's, in Morcona, a town near Benevento. His parishioners were
steeled in their irregularities, and averse from whatever looked like
establishing order and discipline among them. As they desired only to
slumber on in their sins, they could not bear the remonstrances of their
pastor, who endeavored to awake them to a sense of their miseries, and
to sincere repentance: they treated him as a disturber of their peace,
and persecuted him with the utmost violence. Finding their malice
conquered by his patience and humility, and his character shining still
more bright, they had recourse to slanders, in which, such was their
virulence and success, that he was obliged to withdraw his charitable
endeavors among them. By these fiery trials, God purified his heart from
all earthly attachments, and perfectly crucified it to the world.
Barbatus returned to Benevento, where he was received with joy by those
who were acquainted with his innocence and sanctity. The seed of
Christianity had been first sown at Benevento by St. Potin, who is said
to have been sent thither by St. Peter, and is looked upon as the first
bishop of this see. We have no names of his successors till St.
Januarius, by whom this church was exceedingly increased, and who was
honored with the crown of martyrdom in 305. Totila, the Goth, laid the
city of Benevento in ruins, in 545. The Lombards having possessed
themselves of that country, repaired it, and king Autharis gave it to
Zotion, a general among those invaders, with the title of a duchy, about
the year 598, and his successors governed it, as sovereign dukes, for
several ages. These Lombards were at that time chiefly Arians; but among
them there remained many idolaters, and several at Benevento had
embraced the Catholic faith, even before the death of St. Gregory the
Great, with their duke Arichis, a warm friend of that holy pope. But
when St. Barbatus entered upon his ministry in that city, the Christians
themselves retained many idolatrous superstitions, which even their
duke, or prince Romuald, authorized by his example, though son of
Grimoald, king of the Lombards, who had edified all Italy by his
conversion. They expressed a religious veneration to a golden viper, and
prostrated themselves before it: they paid also a superstitious honor to
a tree, on which they hung {432} the skin of a wild beast, and these
ceremonies were closed by public games, in which the skin served for a
mark at which bowmen shot arrows over their shoulder. St. Barbatus
preached zealously against these abuses, and labored long to no purpose:
yet desisted not, but joined his exhortations with fervent prayer and
rigorous fasting, for the conversion of this unhappy people. At length
he roused their attention by foretelling the distress of their city, and
the calamities which it was to suffer from the army of the emperor
Constans, who, landing soon after in Italy, laid siege to Benevento. In
their extreme distress, and still more grievous alarms and fears, they
listened to the holy preacher, and, entering into themselves, renounced
their errors and idolatrous practices. Hereupon St. Barbatus gave them
the comfortable assurance that the siege should be raised, and the
emperor worsted: which happened as he had foretold. Upon their
repentance, the saint with his own hand cut down the tree which was the
object of their superstition, and afterwards melted down the golden
viper which they adored, of which he made a chalice for the use of the
altar. Ildebrand, bishop of Benevento, dying during the siege, after the
public tranquillity was restored, St. Barbatus was consecrated bishop on
the 10th of March, 653; for this see was only raised to the
archiepiscopal dignity by pope John XIII., about the year 965. Barbatus,
being invested with the episcopal character, pursued and completed the
good work which he had so happily begun, and destroyed every trace or
the least remain of superstition in the prince's closet, and in the
whole state. In the year 680 he assisted in a council held by pope
Agatho at Rome, and the year following in the sixth general council held
at Constantinople against the Monothelites. He did not long survive this
great assembly, for he died on the 29th of February, 682, being about
seventy years old, almost nineteen of which he had spent in the
episcopal chair. He is named in the Roman Martyrology, and honored at
Benevento among the chief patrons of that city.

       *       *       *       *       *

Many sinners are moved by alarming sensible dangers or calamities to
enter into themselves, on whom the terrors of the divine judgment make
very little impression. The reason can only be a supine neglect of
serious reflection, and a habit of considering them only transiently,
and as at a distance; for it is impossible for any one who believes
these great truths, if he takes a serious review of them, and has them
present to his mind, to remain insensible: transient glances effect not
a change of heart. Among the pretended conversions which sickness daily
produces, very few bear the characters of sincerity, as appears by those
who, after their recovery, live on in their former lukewarmness and
disorders.[1] St. Austin, in a sermon which he made upon the news that
Rome had been sacked by the barbarians, relates,[2] that not long
before, at Constantinople, upon the appearance of an unusual meteor, and
a rumor of a pretended prediction that the city would be destroyed by
fire from heaven, the inhabitants were seized with a panic fear, all
began to do penance like Ninive, and fled, with the emperor at their
head, to a great distance from the city. After the term appointed for
its pretended destruction was elapsed, they sent scouts to the city,
which they had left quite empty, and, hearing that it was still
standing, returned to it, and with their fears forgot their repentance
and all their good resolutions. To prevent the danger of penitents
imposing upon themselves by superficial conversions, St. Barbatus took
all necessary precautions to improve their {433} first dispositions to a
sincere and perfect change of heart, and to cut off and remove all
dangerous occasions of temptations.

Footnotes:
1.  The devil was sick, the devil a monk would be;
    The devil was well, the devil no monk was he.
2.  S. Aug. Serm. de Excidio Urbis, c. 6, t. 6, p. 627, ed. Ben.


FEBRUARY XX.

SS. TYRANNIO, BISHOP OF TYRE,

ZENOBIUS, AND OTHERS, MARTYRS IN PHOENICIA, ETC.

From Eusebius, Hist l. 8, c.7, 13, 25. St. Jerom in Chron. Euseb.

A.D. 304, 310.

EUSEBIUS, the parent of church history, and an eye-witness of what he
relates concerning these martyrs, gives the following account of them.
"Several Christians of Egypt, whereof some had settled in Palestine,
others at Tyre, gave astonishing proofs of their patience and constancy
in the faith. After innumerable stripes and blows, which they cheerfully
underwent, they were exposed to wild beasts, such as leopards, wild
bears, boars, and bulls. I myself was present when these savage
creatures, accustomed to human blood, being let out upon them, instead
of devouring them, or tearing them to pieces, as it was natural to
expect, stood off, refusing even to touch or approach them, at the same
time that they fell foul on their keepers, and others that came in their
way.[1] The soldiers of Christ were the only persons they refused,
though these martyrs, pursuant to the order given them, tossed about
their arms, which was thought a ready way to provoke the beasts, and
stir them up against them. Sometimes, indeed, they were perceived to
rush towards them with their usual impetuosity, but, withheld by a
divine power, they suddenly withdrew; and this many times, to the great
admiration of all present. The first having done no execution, others
were a second and a third time let out upon them, but in vain; the
martyrs standing all the while unshaken, though many of them very young.
Among them was a youth of not yet twenty, who had his eyes lifted up to
heaven, and his arms extended in the form of a cross, not in the least
daunted, nor trembling, nor shifting his place, while the bears and
leopards, with their jaws wide open, threatening immediate death, seemed
just ready, to tear him to pieces; but, by a miracle, not being suffered
to touch him, they speedily withdrew. Others were exposed to a furious
bull, which had already gored and tossed into the air several infidels
who had ventured too near, and left them half dead: only the martyrs he
could not approach; he stopped, and stood scraping the dust with his
feet, and though he seemed to endeavor it with his utmost might, butting
with his horns on every side, and pawing the ground with his feet, being
also urged on by red-hot iron goads, it was all to no purpose. After
repeated trials of this kind with other wild beasts, with as little
success as the former, the saints were slain by the sword, and their
bodies cast into the sea. Others who refused to sacrifice were beaten
{434} to death, or burned, or executed divers other ways." This happened
in the year 304, under Veturius, a Roman general, in the reign of
Dioclesian.

The church on this day commemorates the other holy martyrs, whose crown
was deferred till 310. The principal of these was St. Tyrannio, bishop
of Tyre, who had been present at the glorious triumph of the former, and
encouraged them in their conflict. He had not the comfort to follow them
till six years after; when, being conducted from Tyre to Antioch, with
St. Zenobius, a holy priest and physician of Sidon, after many torments
he was thrown into the sea, or rather into the river Orontes, upon which
Antioch stands, at twelve miles distance front the sea. Zenobius expired
on the rack, while his sides and body were furrowed and laid open with
iron hooks and nails. St. Sylvanus, bishop of Emisa, in Phoenicia, was,
some time after, under Maximinus, devoured by wild beasts in the midst
of his own city, with two companions, after having governed that church
forty years. Peleus and Nilus, two other Egyptian priests, in Palestine,
were consumed by fire with some others. St. Sylvanus, bishop of Gaza,
was condemned to the copper mines of Phoenon, near Petra, in Arabia, and
afterwards beheaded there with thirty-nine others.

St. Tyrannio is commemorated on the 20th of February, in the Roman
Martyrology, with those who suffered under Veturius, at Tyre, in 304.
St. Zenobius, the priest and physician of Sidon, who suffered with him
at Antioch, on the 29th of October: St. Sylvanus of Emisa, to whom the
Menology gives many companions, on the 6th of February: St. Sylvanus of
Gaza, on the 29th of May.

       *       *       *       *       *

The love of Christ triumphed in the hearts of so many glorious martyrs,
upon racks, in the midst of boiling furnaces, or flames, and in the
claws or teeth of furious wild beasts. How many inflamed with his love
have forsaken all things to follow him, despising honors, riches,
pleasures, and the endearments of worldly friends, to take up their
crosses, and walk with constancy in the narrow paths of a most austere
penitential life! We also pretend to love him: but what effect has this
love upon us? what fruit does it produce in our lives? If we examine our
own hearts, we shall be obliged to confess that we have great reason to
fear that we deceive ourselves. What pains do we take to rescue our
souls from the slavery of the world, and the tyranny of self-love, to
purge our affections of vice, or to undertake any thing for the divine
honor, and the sanctification of our souls? Let us earnestly entreat our
most merciful Redeemer, by the power of this his holy love, to triumph
over all his enemies, which are our unruly passions, in our souls, and
perfectly to subdue our stubborn hearts to its empire. Let it be our
resolution, from this moment, to renounce the love of the world, and all
self-love, to seek and obey him alone.

Footnotes:
1.  Rufinus adds, that these beasts killed several of the keepers and
    spectators. It is in this sense that some have translated this
    passage with Nicephorus. See Vales. In Annot. p. 165. But it seems
    improbable that the spectators, who were separated from the arena by
    iron rails, and seated on stone benches gradually ascending ten or
    twenty men deep all round, should be killed or injured by the
    beasts, unless some were so rash as to venture within the rails with
    the keepers; which we see several do in the combats of wild beasts.
    This, therefore, we are to restrain to the keepers and those who
    kept them company.

S. SADOTH, BISHOP OF SELEUCIA AND CTESIPHON,

WITH 128 COMPANIONS, MARTYRS.

From his genuine acts in Metaphrastes, Bollandus, and Ruinart; but more
correctly in the original Chaldaic given us by Assemani, t. 1, p. 83.
Orsi, Hist. t. 5, l. 13. See Le Quien, Oriens Christ. t. 2, p. 1108.

A.D. 342.

SADOTH, as he is called by the Greeks and Latins, is named in the
original Persian language, Schiadustes, which signifies "friend of the
king," from _schiah_, king, and _dust_, friend. His unspotted purity of
heart, his ardent zeal, and the practice of all Christian virtues,
prepared him, from his {435} youth, for the episcopal dignity, and the
crown of martyrdom. St. Simeon, bishop of Selec, or Seleucia, and
Ctesiphon, then the two capital cities of Persia, situate on the river
Tigris, being translated to glory by martyrdom, in the beginning of the
persecution raised by Sapor II., in 341, St. Sadoth was chosen three
months after to fill his see, the most important in that empire, but the
most exposed to the storm. This grew more violent on the publication of
a new edict against the Christians, which made it capital to confess
Christ. To wait with patience the manifestation of the divine will, St.
Sadoth, with part of his clergy, lay hid for some time; which did not
however hinder him from affording his distressed flock all proper
assistance and encouragement, but rather enabled him to do it with the
greater fruit. During this retreat he had a vision which seemed to
indicate that the time was come for the holy bishop to seal his faith
with his blood. This he related to his priests and deacons, whom he
assembled for that purpose. "I saw," said he, "in my sleep, a ladder
environed with light and reaching from earth to the heavens. St. Simeon
was at the top of it, and in great glory. He beheld me at the bottom,
and said to me, with a smiling countenance: 'Mount up, Sadoth, fear not.
I mounted yesterday, and it is your turn to-day:' which means, that as
he was slain last year, so I am to follow him this." He was not wanting
on this occasion to exhort his clergy, with great zeal and fervor, to
make a provision of good works, and employ well their time, till they
should be called on in like manner, that they might be in readiness to
take possession of their inheritance. "A man that is guided by the
Spirit," says St. Maruthas, author of these acts, "fears not death; he
loves God, and goes to him with an incredible ardor; but he who lives
according to the desires of the flesh, trembles, and is in despair at
its approach: he loves the world, and it is with grief that he leaves
it."

The second year of the persecution, king Sapor coming to Seleucia,
Sadoth was apprehended, with several of his clergy, some ecclesiastics
of the neighborhood, end certain monks and nuns belonging to his church,
to the amount of one hundred and twenty-eight persons. They were thrown
into dungeons, where, during five months' confinement, they suffered
incredible misery and torments. They were thrice called out, and put to
the rack or question; their legs were straight bound with cords, which
were drawn with so much violence, that their bones breaking, were heard
to crack like sticks in a fagot. Amidst these tortures the officers
cried out to them: "Adore the sun, and obey the king, if you would save
your lives." Sadoth answered in the name of all, that the sun was but a
creature, the work of God, made for the use of mankind; that they would
pay supreme adoration to none but the Creator of heaven and earth, and
never be unfaithful to him; that it was indeed in their power to take
away their lives, but that this would be the greatest favor they could
do them; wherefore he conjured them not to spare them, or delay their
execution. The officers said: "Obey! or know that your death is certain,
and immediate." The martyrs all cried out with one voice: "We shall not
die, but live and reign eternally with God and his Son Jesus Christ.
Wherefore inflict death as soon as you please; for we repeat it to you
that we will not adore the sun, nor obey the unjust edicts." Then
sentence of death was pronounced upon them all by the king; for which
they thanked God, and mutually encouraged each other. They were chained
two and two together, and led out of the city to execution, singing
psalms and canticles of joy as they went. Being arrived at the place of
their martyrdom, they raised their voices still higher, blessing and
thanking God for his mercy in bringing them thither, and begging the
grace of perseverance, and that by this baptism of their blood they
might enter into his glory. These prayers and praises of God did not
cease but with {436} the life of the last of this blessed company. St.
Sadoth, by the king's orders, was separated from them, and sent into the
province of the Huzites, where he was beheaded. He thus rejoined his
happy flock in the kingdom of glory. Ancient Chaldaic writers quoted by
Assemani say, St. Schiadustes, or Sadoth, was nephew to Simeon Barsaboe,
being son to his sister. He governed his church only eight months, and
finished his martyrdom after five months imprisonment, in the year 342,
and of king Sapor II. the thirty-third. These martyrs are honored in the
Roman Martyrology on this day.

ST. ELEUTHERIUS, MARTYR,

BISHOP OF TOURNAY.

A.D. 532.

HE was born at Tournay, of Christian parents, whose family had been
converted to Christ by St. Piat, one hundred and fifty years before. The
faith had declined at Tournay ever since St. Piat's martyrdom, by reason
of its commerce with the heathen islands of Taxandria, now Zealand, and
by means of the heathen French kings, who resided some time at Tournay.
Eleutherius was chosen bishop of that city in 486; ten years after which
king Clovis was baptized at Rheims. Eleutherius converted the greatest
part of the Franks in that country to the faith, and opposed most
zealously certain heretics who denied the mystery of the Incarnation, by
whom he was wounded on the head with a sword, and died of the wound five
weeks after, on the first of July, in 532. The most ancient monuments,
relating to this saint, seem to have perished in a great fire which
consumed his church, and many other buildings at Tournay, in 1092, with
his relics. See Miræus, and his life written in the ninth century,
extant in Bollandus, p. 187.[1] Of the sermons ascribed to St.
Eleutherius, in the Library of the Fathers t. 8, none seem sufficiently
warranted genuine, except three on the Incarnation and Birth of Christ,
and the Annunciation. See Dom. Rivet, Hist. Littér., t. 3, p. 154, and
t. 5, pp. 40, 41. Gallia Christ. Nova, t. 3, p. 571, and Henschenius, p
180.

Footnotes:
1.  This author wrote before the invasion of the Normans, and the
    translation of the saint's relics; but long after the saint's death,
    and by making him born in the reign of Dioclesian, yet contemporary
    with St. Medard, destroys his own credit. Some years after, another
    author much enlarged this life, and inserted a history of the
    translation of the relics of this saint, made in 897. A third writer
    added a relation of later miracles, and of the translation of these
    relics into the city of Tourney, in 1164. All these authors deserve
    little notice, except in relating facts of their own time.

ST. MILDRED, V. ABBESS.

EORMENBURGA,[1] pronounced Ermenburga, otherwise called Domneva, was
married to Merwald, a son of king Penda, and had by him three daughters
and a son, who all consecrated their whole estates to pious uses, and
were all honored by our ancestors among the saints. Their names were
Milburg, Mildred, Mildgithe, and Mervin. King Egbert caused his two
nephews, Ethelred and Ethelbright, to be secretly murdered in the isle
of Thanet. Count Thunor, whom he had charged with that execrable
commission, buried the bodies of the two princes under the king's
throne, in the {437} royal palace at Estrage, now called Estria. The
king is said to have been miraculously terrified by seeing a ray of
bright light dart from the heavens upon their grave, and, in sentiments
of compunction, he sent for their sister Eormenburga, out of Mercia, to
pay her the weregeld, which was the mulct for a murder, ordained by the
laws to be paid to the relations of the persons deceased. In
satisfaction for the murder, he settled on her forty-eight ploughs of
land, which she employed in founding a monastery, in which prayers might
be continually put up to God for the repose of the souls of the two
princes. This pious establishment was much promoted by the king, and
thus the monastery was founded about the year 670; not 596, as Leland[2]
and Speed mistake. The monastery was called Menstrey, or rather Minstre,
in the isle of Thanet. Domneva sent her daughter Mildred to the abbey of
Chelles, in France, where she took the religious veil, and was
thoroughly instructed in all the duties of that state, the perfect
spirit of which she had imbibed from her tender years. Upon her return
to England she was consecrated first abbess of Minstre, in Thanet, by
St. Theodorus, archbishop of Canterbury, and at the same time received
to the habit seventy chosen virgins. She behaved herself by humility as
the servant of her sisters, and conducted them to virtue by the
authority of her example, for all were ashamed not to imitate her
watching, mortification, and prayer, and not to walk according to her
spirit. Her aunt, Ermengitha, served God in the same house with such
fervor, that after her death she was ranked among the saints, and her
tomb, situated a mile from the monastery, was famous for the resort of
devout pilgrims. St. Mildred died of a lingering, painful illness,
towards the close of the seventh century. This great monastery was often
plundered by the Danes, and the nuns and clerks murdered, chiefly in the
years 980 and 1011. After the last of these burnings, here were no more
nuns, but only a few secular priests. In 1033, the remains of St.
Mildred were translated to the monastery of St. Austin's at Canterbury,
and venerated above all the relics of that holy place, says
Malmesbury,[3] who testifies frequent miracles to have been wrought by
them: Thorn and others confirm the same. Two churches in London bear her
name. See Thorn's Chronicle, inter Decem Scriptores, coll. 1770, 1783,
1906. Harpsfield: an old Saxon book, entitled, Narratio de Sanctis qui
in Angliâ quiescunt published by Hickes, Thesaur., t. 1, in Dissert.
Epistolari, p. 116. Monast. Anglic. t. 1, p. 84. Stevens Supplem. vol.
1, p. 518. Reyneri Apostolat. Bened. t. 1, p. 61, and Lewis's History of
the isle of Thanet, (printed at London in 1723, in 4to.,) pp. 51, 62,
and in Append. n. 23.

Footnotes:
1.  Eadbald, king of Kent, had by his queen Emma, daughter to a king of
    the French, St. Eanswithe, (whose relics were venerated at
    Folkstone, till the change of religion,) and two sons, Eorcombert
    (afterwards king) and Eormenred, surnamed Clito. This last left four
    children by his wife Oslave, namely, Eurmenburga and St.
    Eormengitha, with two sons, St. Ethelred and St. Ethelbright. King
    Eorcombert had, by his queen Sexburga, Egbert and Lothaire,
    successively kings, and St. Eormenilda and St. Ercongota.
    Eormenburga was surnamed Moldeva, as we are assured by the ancient
    English Saxon account of these saints, published by Hickes: though
    Capgrave frequently speaks of them as different women.
2.  Leland, Collect. t. 1, p. 97.
3.  L. 2, de Reg. Angl. c. 13.

ST. EUCHERIUS, BISHOP OF ORLEANS, C.

OUR saint's mother, who was a lady of eminent virtue, and of the first
quality at Orleans, while she was with child of him, made a daily
offering of him to God, and begged nothing for him but divine grace.
When he was born, his parents dedicated him to God, and set him to study
when he was but seven years old, resolving to omit nothing that could be
done towards cultivating his mind, or forming his heart. His improvement
in virtue kept pace with his progress in learning: he meditated
assiduously on the sacred writings, especially on St. Paul's manner of
speaking on the world, and its enjoyments, as mere empty shadows, that
deceive us and vanish away;[1] and took particular notice that the
apostle says, the wisdom of those who love the pleasures and riches of
this life is no better than folly before God. {438} These reflections at
length sunk so deep into his mind, that he resolved to quit the world.
To put this design in execution, about the year 714, he retired to the
abbey of Jumiege, on the banks of the Seine, in the diocese of Rouen.
When he had spent six or seven years here, in the practice of
penitential austerities and obedience, Suavaric, his uncle, bishop of
Orleans, died: the senate and people, with the clergy of that city,
deputed persons to Charles Martel, mayor of the palace, to beg his
permission to elect Eucherius to the vacant see. That prince granted
their request, and sent with them one of his principal officers of state
to conduct him from his monastery to Orleans. The saint's affliction at
their arrival was inexpressible, and he entreated the monks to screen
him from the dangers that threatened him. But they preferred the public
good to their private inclinations, and resigned him up for that
important charge. He was received at Orleans, and consecrated with
universal applause, in 721. Though he received the episcopal character
with grievous apprehensions of its obligations and dangers, he was not
discouraged, but had recourse to the supreme pastor for assistance in
the discharge of his duties, and devoted himself entirely to the care of
his church. He was indefatigable in instructing and reforming his flock,
and his zeal and even reproofs were attended with so much sweetness and
charity, that it was impossible not to love and obey him. Charles
Martel, to defray the expenses of his wars and other undertakings, and
to recompense those that served him, often stripped the churches of
their revenues, and encouraged others to do the same. St. Eucherius
reproved these encroachments with so much zeal, that flatterers
represented it to the prince as an insult offered to his person;
therefore, in the year 737, Charles, in his return to Paris, after
having defeated the Saracens in Aquitaine, took Orleans in his way,
ordered Eucherius to follow him to Verneuil upon the Oise, in the
diocese of Beauvais, where he then kept his court, and banished him to
Cologne. The extraordinary esteem which his virtue procured him in that
city, moved Charles to order him to be conveyed thence to a strong place
in Hasbain, now called Haspengaw, in the territory of Liege, under the
guard of Robert, governor of that country. The governor was so charmed
with his virtue, that he made him the distributer of his large alms, and
allowed him to retire to the monastery of Sarchinium, or St. Tron's.
Here prayer and contemplation were his whole employment, till the year
743, in which he died on the 20th of February. He is named in the Roman,
and other martyrologies. See his original life by one of the same age,
with the preliminary dissertation of Henschenius, and the remarks of
Mabillon, sæc. 3, Ben. The pretended vision of the damnation of Charles
Martel, is an evident interpolation, found only in later copies and in
Surius.

Footnotes:
1.  1. Cor. vii {}, m. 19.

ST. ULRICK, A RECLUSE.

HE was born near Bristol, and being promoted to the priesthood, took
great pleasure in hunting, till being touched by divine grace, he
retired near Hoselborough in Dorsetshire, where he led a most austere
and holy life. He died on the 20th of February, in 1154. See Matthew
Paris, Ford Henry of Huntingdon, and Harpsfield, sæc. 12, c. 29

{439}

FEBRUARY XXI.

ST. SEVERIANUS, MARTYR.

BISHOP OF SCYTHOPHOLIS.

From the life of St. Euthymius, written by Cyril the monk; a letter of
the emperor Marcia{}agrius, l. 2, c. 5. Nicephorus Calixt. l. 15, c. 9,
collected by Bollandus, p. 246.

A.D. 452, or 453.

IN the reign of Marcian and St. Pulcheria, the council of Chalcedon
which condemned the Eutychian heresy, was received by St. Euthymius, and
by a great part of the monks of Palestine. But Theodosius, an ignorant
Eutychian monk, and a man of a most tyrannical temper, under the
protection of the empress Eudoxia, widow of Theodosius the Younger, who
lived at Jerusalem, perverted many among the monks themselves, and
having obliged Juvenal, bishop of Jerusalem, to withdraw, unjustly
possessed himself of that important see, and in a cruel persecution
which he raised, filled Jerusalem with blood, as the emperor Marcian
assures us: then, at the head of a band of soldiers, he carried
desolation over the country. Many, however, had the courage to stand
their ground. No one resisted him with greater zeal and resolution than
Severianus, bishop of Scythopolis, and his recompense was the crown of
martyrdom; for the furious soldiers seized his person, dragged him out
of the city, and massacred him in the latter part of the year 452, or in
the beginning of the year 453. His name occurs in the Roman Martyrology,
on the 21st of February.

       *       *       *       *       *

Palestine, the country which for above one thousand four hundred years
had been God's chosen inheritance under the Old Law, when other nations
were covered with the abominations of idolatry, had been sanctified by
the presence, labors, and sufferings of our divine Redeemer, and had
given birth to his church, and to so many saints, became often the
theatre of enormous scandals, and has now, for many ages, been enslaved
to the most impious and gross superstitions. So many flourishing
churches in the East which were planted by the labors of the chiefest
among the apostles, watered with the blood of innumerable glorious
martyrs, illustrated with the bright light of the Ignatiuses, the
Polycarps, the Basils, the Ephrems, and the Chrysostoms, blessed by the
example and supported by the prayers of legions of eminent saints, are
fallen a prey to almost universal vice and infidelity. With what floods
of tears can we sufficiently bewail so grievous a misfortune, and
implore the divine mercy in behalf of so many souls! How ought we to be
alarmed at the consideration of so many dreadful examples of God's
inscrutable judgments, and tremble for ourselves! _Let him who stands
beware lest he fall_. _Hold fast what thou hast_, says the oracle of the
Holy Ghost to every one of us, _lest another bear away thy crown_.

{440}

SS. GERMAN, ABBOT OF GRANFEL,

AND RANDAUT, OR RANDOALD, MARTYRS.

From their acts, written by the priest Babolen in the same age, in
Bollandus, Le Cointe, ad an. 662. Bulteau, Hist. Mon. d'Occid. l. 3, c.
44, p. 661.

ABOUT THE YEAR 666.

ST. GERMAN, or GERMANUS, was son of a rich senator of Triers, and
brought up from the cradle under the care of Modoald, bishop of Triers.
At seventeen years of age, he gave all he could dispose of to the poor,
and with Modoald's consent applied himself to St. Arnoul, who having
resigned his dignities of bishop of Metz, and minister of state under
Dagobert, then led an eremitical life in a desert in Lorrain, near
Romberg, or Remiremont. That great saint, charmed with the innocence and
fervor of the tender young nobleman, received him in the most
affectionate manner, and gave him the monastic tonsure. Under such a
master the holy youth made great progress in a spiritual life, and after
some time, having engaged a younger brother, called Numerian, to forsake
the world, he went with him to Romberg, or the monastery of St. Romaric,
a prince of royal blood, who, resigning the first dignity and rank which
he enjoyed in the court of king Theodebert, had founded in his own
castle, in concert with his friend St. Arnoul, a double house, one
larger for nuns, the other less for monks; both known since under the
name of Remiremont, situated on a part of Mount Vosge. St. Romaric died
in 653, and is named in the Roman Martyrology on the 8th of December, on
which his festival is kept at Remiremont, and that of the Blessed Virgin
deferred to the day following. He settled here the rule of Luxeu, or of
St. Columban.[1] St. German made the practices of all manner of
humiliations, penance, and religion, the object of his earnest ambition,
and out of a desire of greater spiritual advancement, after some time
passed with his brother to the monastery of Luxeu, then governed by the
holy abbot, St. Walbert. Duke Gondo, one of the principal lords of
Alsace, having founded a monastery in the diocese of Basil, called the
Great Valley, in German, Granfel, and now more commonly Munster-thal, or
the Monastery of the valley, St. Walbert appointed St. German abbot of
the colony which he settled there. Afterwards the two monasteries of
Ursiein, commonly called St. Ursitz, and of St. Paul Zu-Werd, or of the
island, were also put under his direction, though he usually resided at
Granfel. Catihe, called also Boniface, who succeeded Gondo in the duchy,
inherited no share of his charity and religion, and oppressed both the
monks and poor inhabitants with daily acts of violence and arbitrary
tyranny. The holy abbot bore all private injuries in silence, but often
pleaded the cause of the poor. The duke had thrown the magistrates of
several villages into prison, and many ways distressed the other
inhabitants, laying waste their lands at pleasure, and destroying all
the fruits of their toil, and all the means of their poor subsistence.
As he was one day ravaging their lands and plundering their houses at
the head of a troop of soldiers, St. German went out to meet him, to
entreat him to spare a distressed and innocent people. The duke listened
to his remonstrances and promised to desist; but while the saint stayed
to offer up his prayers in the church of St. Maurice, the {441} soldiers
fell again to killing, burning, and plundering: and while St. German was
on his road to return to Granfel, with his companion Randoald, commonly
called Randaut, they first stripped them, and then, while they were at
their prayers, pierced them both with lances, about the year 666. Their
relics were deposited at Granfel, and were exposed in a rich shrine till
the change of religion, since which time the canonries, into which this
monastery was converted, are removed to Telsberg, or Delmont.

Footnotes:
1.  Remiremont was destroyed in the tenth century by the Hungarians or
    New Huns, but rebuilt in the reign of Louis III., in the plain
    beyond the Moselle, at the bottom of the mountain, where a town is
    formed. It has been, if not from its restoration, at least for
    several centuries, a noble collegiate church for canonesses, who
    make proof of nobility for two hundred years, but can marry if they
    resign their p{}ends; except the abbess, who makes solemn religious
    vows.

SS. DANIEL, PRIEST, AND VERDA, VIRGIN,

MARTYRS.

From their authentic acts, written by St. Maruthas, in Syriac, and
published by Stephen Assemani among the Oriental Martyrs, t. 1, p. 103.

A.D. 344.

Two years after the martyrdom of St. Milles, Daniel, a priest, and a
virgin consecrated to God, named Verda, which in Chaldaic signifies a
rose, were apprehended in the province of the Razicheans, in Persia, by
an order of the governor, and put to all manner of torments for three
months, almost without intermission. Among other tortures, their feet
being bored through, were put into frozen water for five days together.
The governor, seeing it impossible to overcome their constancy,
condemned them to lose their heads. They were crowned on the 25th of the
moon of February, which was that year the 21st of that month, in the
year of Christ 344, and of king Sapor II., the thirty-fifth. Their names
were not known either to the Greek or Latin martyrologists: and their
illustrious triumph is recorded in few words by St. Maruthas: but was
most glorious in the sight of heaven.

B. PEPIN OF LANDEN, MAYOR OF THE PALACE

TO THE KINGS CLOTAIRE II., DAGOBERT, AND SIGEBERT.

HE was son of Carloman, the most powerful nobleman of Austrasia, who had
been mayor to Clotaire I., son of Clovis I. He was grandfather to Pepin
of Herstal, the most powerful mayor, whose son was Charles Martel, and
grandson Pepin the Short, king of France, in whom began the Carlovingian
race. Pepin of Landen, upon the river Geete, in Brabant, was a lover of
peace, the constant defender of truth and justice, a true friend to all
servants of God, the terror of the wicked, the support of the weak, the
father of his country, the zealous and humble defender of religion. He
was lord of great part of Brabant, and governor of Austrasia, when
Theodebert II., king of that country, was defeated by Theodoric II.,
king of Burgundy, and soon after assassinated in 612: and Theodoric
dying the year following, Clotaire II., king of Soissons, reunited
Burgundy, Neustria, and Austrasia to his former dominions, and became
sole monarch of France. For the pacific possession of Austrasia he was
much indebted to Pepin, whom he appointed mayor of the palace to his son
Dagobert I., when, in 622, he declared him king of Austrasia and
Neustria. The death of Clotaire II., in 628, put him in possession of
all France, except a small part of Aquitaine, with Thoulouse, which was
settled upon his younger brother, Charibert. When king Dagobert,
forgetful of the maxims instilled into him in his youth, had given
himself up to a shameful lust, this faithful minister {442} boldly
reproached him with his ingratitude to God, and ceased not till he saw
him a sincere and perfect penitent. This great king died in 638, and was
buried at St. Denys's. He had appointed Pepin tutor to his son Sigebert
from his cradle, and mayor of his palace when he declared him king of
Austrasia, in 633. After the death of Dagobert, Clovis II. reigning in
Burgundy and Neustria, (by whom Erchinoald was made mayor for the
latter, and Flaochat for the former,) Pepin quitted the administration
of those dominions, and resided at Metz, with Sigebert, who always
considered him as his father, and under his discipline became himself a
saint, and one of the most happy among all the French kings. Pepin was
married to the blessed Itta, of one of the first families in Aquitaine,
by whom he had a son called Grimoald, and two daughters, St. Gertrude,
and St. Begga. The latter, who was the elder, was married to Ansigisus,
son of St. Arnoul, to whom she bore Pepin of Herstal. B. Pepin, of
Landen, died on the 21st of February, in 640, and was buried at Landen;
but his body was afterwards removed to Nivelle, where it is now
enshrined, as are those of the B. Itta, and St. Gertrude in the same
place. His name stands in the Belgi martyrologies, though no other act
of public veneration has been paid to his memory, than the enshrining of
his relics, which are carried in processions. His name is found in a
litany published by the authority of the archbishop of Mechlin. See
Bollandus, t. 3, Fehr. p. 250, and Dom Bouquet, Recueil des Hist. de
France, t. 2, p. 603.


FEBRUARY XXII.

THE CHAIR OF ST. PETER AT ANTIOCH.

Baronius, Annot. In Martyrol. ad 18 Januarii, the Bollandists, ib. t. 2
p. 182, sect. 5 and 6, and especially Jos. Bianchini, Dissecr. De Romanâ
Cathedrâ in notis in Anastatium Biblioth. t. 4, p. 150.

THAT Saint Peter, before he went to Rome, founded the see of Antioch, is
attested by Eusebius,[1] Origen,[2] St. Jerom,[3] St. Innocent,[4] Pope
Gelasius, in his Roman Council,[5] Saint Chrysostom, and others. It was
just that the prince of the apostles should take this city under his
particular care and inspection, which was then the capital of the East,
and in which the faith took so early and so deep root as to give birth
in it to the name of Christians. St. Chrysostom says, that St. Peter
made there a long stay: St. Gregory the Great,[6] that he was seven
years bishop of Antioch; not that he resided there all that time, but
only that he had a particular care over that church. If he sat
twenty-five years at Rome, the date of his establishing his church at
Antioch must be within three years after our Saviour's ascension; for in
that supposition he must have gone to Rome in the second year of
Claudius.

The festival of St. Peter's chair in general, Natale Petri de Cathedrâ,
is marked on this day in the most ancient calendar extant, made in the
time of pope Liberius, about the year 354.[7] It also occurs in
Gregory's sacramentary, {443} and in all the martyrologies. It was kept
in France in the sixth century, as appears from the council of Tours,[8]
and from Le Cointo.[9]

       *       *       *       *       *

In the first ages it was customary, especially in the East, for every
Christian to keep the anniversary of his baptism, on which he renewed
his baptismal vows, and gave thanks to God for his heavenly adoption:
this they called their spiritual birthday. The bishops in like manner
kept the anniversary of their own consecration, as appears from four
sermons of St. Leo, on the anniversary of his accession or assumption to
the pontifical dignity, and this was frequently continued by the people
after their decease, out of respect to their memory. St. Leo says, we
ought to celebrate the chair of St. Peter with no less joy than the day
of his martyrdom; for as in this he was exalted to a throne of glory in
heaven, so by the former he was installed head of the church on
earth.[10]

On this festival we are especially bound to adore and thank the divine
goodness for the establishment and propagation of his church, and
earnestly to pray that in his mercy he preserve the same, and dilate its
pale, that his name may be glorified by all nations, and by all hearts,
to the boundaries of the earth, for his divine honor and the salvation
of souls, framed to his divine image, and the price of his adorable
blood. The church of Christ is his spiritual kingdom: he is not only the
architect and founder, but continues to govern it, and by his spirit to
animate its members to the end of the world as its invisible head:
though he has left in St. Peter and his successors a vicar, or
lieutenant, as a visible head, with an established hierarchy for its
exterior government. If we love him and desire his honor, if we love men
on so many titles linked with us, can we cease weeping and praying, that
by his sweet omnipotent grace he subdue all the enemies of his church,
converting to it all infidels and apostates? In its very bosom sinners
fight against him. Though these continue his members by faith, they are
dead members, because he lives not in them by his grace and charity,
reigns not in their hearts, animates them not with his spirit. He will
indeed always live by grace and sanctity in many members of his mystical
body. Let us pray that by the destruction of the tyranny of sin all
souls may subject themselves to the reign of his holy love. Good Jesus!
for your mercy's sake, hear me in this above all other petitions: never
suffer me to be separated from you by forfeiting your holy love: may I
remain always _rooted and grounded in your charity_, as is the will of
your Father. Eph. iii.

Footnotes:
1.  Chron. and Hist., l. 3, c. 30.
2.  Hom. 6, in Luc.
3.  In Catal. c. 1.
4.  Ep. 18, t. 2, Conc. p. 1269.
5.  Conc. t. 4, p. 1262.
6.  Ep. 40, l. 7, t. 2, p. 888, Ed. Ben.
7.  Some have imagined that the feast of the chair of St. Peter was not
    known, at least in Africa, because it occurs not in the ancient
    calendar of Carthage. But how should the eighth day before the
    calends of March now appear in it, since the part is lost from the
    fourteenth before the calends of March to the eleventh before the
    calends of May? Hence St. Pontius, deacon and martyr, on the eighth
    before the Ides of March; St. Donatus, and some other African
    martyrs are not there found. At least it is certain that it was kept
    at Rome long before that time. St. Leo preached a sermon on St.
    Peter's chair, (Serm. 100, t. 1, p. 285, ad. Rom.) Quesnel denied it
    to be genuine in his first edition; but in the second at Lyons, to
    1700, he corrected this mistake, and proved this sermon to be St.
    Leo's; which is more fully demonstrated by Cacciari in his late
    Roman edition of St. Leo's works, t. 1, p. 285.
8.  Can. 22.
9.  Ad an. 566.
10. St. Leo Serm. 100, in Cathedrâ S. Petri, t. 1, p. 285, ed. Romanæ.

ST. MARGARET OF CORTONA, PENITENT.

From her life written by her confessor, in the Acta Sanctorum; by
Bollandus, p. 298. Wadding, Annal. FF. Minorum ad an. 1297; and the
Lives of the SS. of Third Ord. by Barb. t. 1, p. 508.

A.D. 1297

MARGARET was a native of Alviano, in Tuscany. The harshness of a
stepmother, and her own indulged propension to vice, cast her headlong
into the greatest disorders. The sight of the carcass of a man, half
putrefied, {444} who had been her gallant, struck her with so great a
fear of the divine judgments, and with so deep a sense of the treachery
of this world, that she in a moment became a perfect penitent. The first
thing she did was to throw herself at her father's feet, bathed in
tears, to beg his pardon for her contempt of his authority and fatherly
admonitions. She spent the days and nights in tears: and to repair the
scandal she had given by her crimes, she went to the parish church of
Alviano; with a rope about her neck, and there asked public pardon for
them. After this she repaired to Cortona, and made her most penitent
confession to a father of the Order of St. Francis, who admired the
great sentiments of compunction with which she was filled, and
prescribed her austerities and practices suitable to her fervor. Her
conversion happened in the year 1274, the twenty-fifth of her age. She
was assaulted by violent temptations of various kinds, but courageously
overcame them, and after a trial of three years, was admitted to her
profession among the penitents of the third Order of St. Francis, in
Cortona. The extraordinary austerities with which she punished her
criminal flesh soon disfigured her body. To exterior mortification she
joined all sorts of humiliations; and the confusion with which she was
covered at the sight of her own sins, pushed her on continually to
invent many extraordinary means of drawing upon herself all manner of
confusion before men. This model of true penitents, after twenty-three
years spent in severe penance, and twenty of them in the religious
habit, being worn out by austerities, and consumed by the fire of divine
love, died on the 22d of February, in 1297. After the proof of many
miracles, Leo X. granted an office in her honor to the city of Cortona,
which Urban VIII. extended to the whole Franciscan Order, in 1623, and
she was canonized by Benedict XIII. in 1728.

SS. THALASSIUS AND LIMNEUS, CC.

THEY were contemporaries with the great Theodoret, bishop of Cyr, and
lived in his diocese. The former dwelt in a cavern in a neighboring
mountain, and was endowed with extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost,
but was a treasure unknown to the world. His disciple St. Limneus was
famous for miraculous cures of the sick, while he himself bore patiently
the sharpest colics and other distempers without any human succor. He
opened his enclosure only to Theodoret, his bishop, but spoke to others
through a window. See Theodoret, Phil. c. 22.

ST. BARADAT, C.

HE lived in the same diocese, in a solitary hut, made of wood in
trellis, like windows, says Theodoret,[1] exposed to all the severities
of the weather. He was clothed with the skins of wild beasts, and by
conversing continually with God, he attained to an eminent degree of
wisdom, and knowledge of heavenly things. He left his wooden prison by
the order of the patriarch of Antioch, giving a proof of his humility by
his ready obedience. He studied to imitate all the practices of penance,
which all the other solitaries of those parts exercised, though of a
tender constitution himself. The fervor of his soul, and the fire of
divine love, supported him under his incredible labors {445} though his
body was weak and infirm. It is sloth that makes us so often allege a
pretended weakness of constitution, in the practice of penance and the
exercises of devotion, which courage and fervor would not even feel. See
Theodoret, Phil. c. 22, t. 3, p. 868, and c. 27.

Footnotes:
1.  This passage of Theodoret shows, that the windows of the ancients
    were made of trellis or wicker before the invention of glass; though
    not universally; for in the ruins of Herculaneum, near Portichi were
    found windows of a diaphanous thin slate, such as the rich in Rome
    sometimes used.


FEBRUARY XXIII.

ST. SERENUS, A GARDENER, MARTYR.

From his genuine acts in Ruinart, p. 546.

A.D. 327.

SERENUS was by birth a Grecian. He quitted estate, friends, and country,
to serve God in an ascetic life, that is, in celibacy, penance, and
prayer. Coming with this design to Sirmium, in Pannonia or Hungary, he
there bought a garden, which he cultivated with his own hands, and lived
on the fruits and herbs it produced. The apprehension of the persecution
made him hide himself for some months; after which he returned to his
garden. On a certain day, there came thither a woman, with her two
daughters, to walk. Serenus seeing them come up to him, said, "What do
you seek here?" "I take a particular satisfaction," she replied, "in
walking in this garden." "A lady of your quality," said Serenus, "ought
not to walk here at unseasonable hours, and this you know is an hour you
ought to be at home. Some other design brought you hither. Let me advise
you to withdraw, and be more regular in your hours and conduct for the
future, as decency requires in persons of your sex and condition." It
was usual for the Romans to repose themselves at noon, as it is still
the custom in Italy. The woman, stung at our saint's charitable
remonstrance, retired in confusion, but resolved on revenging the
supposed affront. She accordingly writes to her husband, who belonged to
the guards of the emperor Maximian, to complain of Serenus as having
insulted her. Her husband, on receiving her letter, went to the emperor
to demand justice, and said: "While we are waiting on your majesty's
person, our wives in distant countries are insulted." Whereupon the
emperor gave him a letter to the governor of the province to enable him
to obtain satisfaction. With this letter he set out for Sirmium, and
presented it to the governor, conjuring him, in the name of the emperor
his master, to revenge the affront offered to him in the person of his
wife during his absence. "And who is that insolent man," said the
magistrate, "who durst insult such a gentleman's wife?" "It is," said
he, "a vulgar pitiful fellow, one Serenus, a gardener." The governor
ordered him to be immediately brought before him, and asked him his
name. "It is Serenus," said he. The judge said: "Of what profession are
you?" He answered: "I am a gardener." The governor said: "How durst you
have the insolence and boldness to affront the wife of this officer?"
Serenus: "I never insulted any woman, to my knowledge, in my life." The
governor then said: "Let the witnesses be called in to convict this
fellow of the affront he offered this lady in a garden." Serenus,
hearing the garden mentioned, recalled this woman to mind, and answered:
"I remember that, some time ago, a lady came into my garden at an
unseasonable hour, with a design, as she said, to take a walk: and I own
I took the liberty to tell her it was against decency {446} for one of
her sex and quality to be abroad at such an hour." This plea of Serenus
having put the officer to the blush for his wife's action, which was too
plain an indication of her wicked purpose and design, he dropped his
prosecution against the innocent gardener, and withdrew out of court.

But the governor, understanding by this answer that Serenus was a man of
virtue, suspected by it that he might be a Christian, such being the
most likely, he thought, to resent visits from ladies at improper hours.
Wherefore, instead of discharging him, he began to question him on this
head, saying: "Who are you, and what is your religion?" Serenus, without
hesitating one moment, answered: "I am a Christian." The governor said:
"Where have you concealed yourself? and how have you avoided sacrificing
to the gods?" "It has pleased God," replied Serenus, "to reserve me for
this present time. It seemed awhile ago as if he rejected me as a stone
unfit to enter his building, but he has the goodness to take me now to
be placed in it; I am ready to suffer all things for his name, that I
may have a part in his kingdom with his saints." The governor, hearing
this generous answer, burst into rage, and said: "Since you sought to
elude by flight the emperor's edicts, and have positively refused to
sacrifice to the gods, I condemn you for these crimes to lose your
head." The sentence was no sooner pronounced, but the saint was carried
off and led to the place of execution, where he was beheaded, on the 23d
of February, in 307. The ancient Martyrology attributed to St. Jerom,
published at Lucca by Florentinius, joins with him sixty-two others,
who, at different times, were crowned at Sirmium. The Roman Martyrology,
with others, says seventy-two.

The garden affords a beautiful emblem of a Christian's continual
progress to the path of virtue. Plants always mount upwards, and never
stop in their growth till they have attained to that maturity which the
author of nature has prescribed: all the nourishment they,receive ought
to tend to this end; if any part wastes itself in superfluities, this is
a kind of disease. So in a Christian, every thing ought to carry him
towards that perfection which the sanctity of his state requires; and
every desire of his soul, every action of his life, to be a step
advancing to this in a direct line. When all his inclinations have one
uniform bent, and all his labors the same tendency, his progress must be
great, because uninterrupted, however imperceptible it may often appear.
Even his temporal affairs must be undertaken with this intention, and so
conducted as to fall within the compass of this his great design. The
saints so regulated all their ordinary actions, their meals, their
studies, their conversation and visits, their business and toil, whether
tilling a garden or superintending an estate, as to make the love of God
their motive, and the accomplishment of his will their only ambition in
every action. All travail which leadeth not towards this end is but so
much of life misspent and lost, whatever names men may give to their
political or military achievements, study of nature, knowledge of
distant shores, or cunning in the mysteries of trade, or arts of
conversation. Though such actions, when of duty, fall under the order of
our salvation, and must be so moderated, directed, and animated with a
spirit of religion, as to be made means of our sanctification. But in a
Christian life the exercises of devotion, holy desires, and tender
affections, which proceed from a spirit of humble compunction, and an
ardent love of our Saviour, and by which a soul raises herself up to,
and continually sighs after him, are what every one ought most
assiduously and most earnestly to study to cultivate. By these is the
soul more and more purified, and all her powers united to God, and made
heavenly {447} These are properly the most sweet and beautiful flowers
of paradise, or of a virtuous life.

ST. MILBURGE, V.

See Malmesb. l. 2, Regibus, & l. 4, de Pontif. Angl. c. 3. Thorn's
Chron. Capgrave Harpsfield, &c.

SEVENTH CENTURY.

ST. MILBURGE was sister to St. Mildred, and daughter of Merowald, son of
Penda, king of Mercia. Having dedicated herself to God in a religious
state, she was chosen abbess of Wenlock, in Shropshire, which house she
rendered a true paradise of all virtue. The more she humbled herself,
the more she was exalted by God; and while she preferred sackcloth to
purple and diadems, she became the invisible glory of heaven. The love
of purity of heart and holy peace were the subject of her dying
exhortation to her dear sisters. She closed her mortal pilgrimage about
the end of the seventh century. Malmesbury and Harpsfield write, that
many miracles accompanied the translation of her relics, in 1101, on the
26th of May; which Capgrave and Mabillon mistake for the day of her
death: but Harpsfield, who had seen the best ancient English
manuscripts, assures us that she died on the 23d of February, which is
confirmed by all the manuscript additions to the Martyrologies of Bede
and others, in which her name occurs, which are followed by the Roman on
this day. The abbey of Wenlock was destroyed by the Danes: but a
monastery of Cluni monks was afterwards erected upon the same spot, by
whom her remains were discovered in a vault in 1101, as Malmesbury, who
wrote not long after, relates.

B. DOSITHEUS, MONK.

From his life, by a fellow-disciple, in Bollandus, p. 38, and from S.
Dorotheus, Docum. 1.

DOSITHEUS, a young man who had spent his first years in a worldly
manner, and in gross ignorance of the first principles of Christianity,
came to Jerusalem on the motive of curiosity, to see a place he had
heard frequent mention made of in common discourse. Here he became so
strongly affected by the sight of a picture representing hell, and by
the exposition given him of it by an unknown person, that, on the spot,
he forsook the world, and entered into a monastery, where the abbot
Seridon gave him the monastic habit, and recommended him to the care of
one of his monks, named Dorotheus. This experienced director, sensible
of the difficulty of passing from one extreme to another, left his pupil
at first pretty much to his own liberty in point of eating, but was
particularly careful to instil into him the necessity of a perfect
renunciation of his own will in every thing, both great and little. As
he found his strength would permit, he daily diminished his allowance,
till the quantity of six pounds of bread became reduced to eight ounces.
St. Dorotheus proceeded with his pupil after much the same manner in
other monastic duties; and thus, by a constant and unreserved denial of
his own will, and a perfect submission to his director, he surpassed in
virtue the greatest fasters of the monastery. All his actions seemed to
have nothing of choice, nothing of his own humor in any circumstance of
them, the will of God alone reigned in his heart. At the end of five
years he was intrusted with the care of the sick, an office he
discharged with such an incomparable vigilance, charity, and sweetness,
as procured him a high and {448} universal esteem: the sick in
particular were comforted and relieved by the very sight of him. He fell
into a spitting of blood and a consumption, but continued to the last
denying his own will, and was extremely vigilant to prevent any of its
suggestions taking place in his heart; being quite the reverse of those
persons afflicted with sickness, who, on that account, think every thing
allowed them. Unable to do any thing but pray, he asked continually, and
followed, in all his devotions, the directions of his master; and when
he could not perform his long exercises of prayer, he declared this with
his ordinary simplicity to St. Dorotheus, who said to him: "Be not
uneasy, only have Jesus Christ always present in your heart." He begged
of a holy old man, renowned in that monastery for sanctity, to pray that
God would soon take him to himself. The other answered: "Have a little
patience, God's mercy is near." Soon after he said to him: "Depart in
peace, and appear in joy before the blessed Trinity, and pray for us."
The same servant of God declared after his death, that he had surpassed
the rest in virtue, without the practice of any extraordinary austerity.
Though he is honored with the epithet of saint, his name is not placed
either in the Roman or Greek calendars.

B. PETER DAMIAN, OR OF DAMIAN,

CARDINAL, BISHOP OF OSTIA.

From his life by his disciple, John of Lodi, in Mabill., s. 6. Ben. and
from his own writings. Fleury, {} 99, n. 48, and Hist des Ordres Relig.
Ceillier, t. 20, p. 512. Henschenius ad 23 Febr. p. 406.

A.D. 1072.

PETER, surnamed of Damian, was born about the year 988, in Ravenna, of a
good family, but reduced. He was the youngest of many children, and,
losing his father and mother very young, was left in the hands of a
brother who was married, in whose house he was treated more like a
slave, or rather like a beast, than one so nearly related; and when
grown up, he was sent to keep swine. He one day became master of a piece
of money, which, instead of laying it out in something for his own use,
he chose to bestow in alms on a priest, desiring him to offer up his
prayers for his father's soul. He had another brother called Damian, who
was archpriest of Ravenna, and afterwards a monk; who, taking pity on
him, had the charity to give him an education. Having found a father in
this brother, he seems from him to have taken the surname of Damian,
though he often styles himself the Sinner, out of humility. Those who
call him De Honestis, confound him with Peter of Ravenna, who was of the
family of Honesti. Damian sent Peter to school, first at Faenza,
afterwards at Parma, where he had Ivo for his master. By the means of
good natural parts and close application, it was not long before he
found himself in a capacity to teach others, which he did with great
applause, and no less advantage by the profits which accrued to him from
his professorship. To arm himself against the allurements of pleasure
and the artifices of the devil, he began to wear a rough hair shirt
under his clothes, and to inure himself to fasting, watching, and
prayer. In the night, if any temptation of concupiscence arose, he got
out of bed and plunged himself into the cold river. After this he
visited churches, reciting the psalter while he performed this devotion,
till the church office began. He not only gave much away in alms, but
was seldom without some poor person at his table, and took a pleasure in
serving such, or rather Jesus Christ in their persons, with his own
hands. But {449} thinking all this to be removing himself from the
deadly poison of sin but by halves, he resolved entirely to leave the
world and embrace a monastic life, and at a distance from his own
country, for the sake of meeting with the fewer obstacles to his design.
While his mind was full of these thoughts, two religious of the order of
St. Benedict, belonging to Font-Avellano, a desert at the foot of the
Apennine in Umbria, happened to call at the place of his abode; and
being much edified at their disinterestedness, he took a resolution to
embrace their institute, as he did soon after. This hermitage had been
founded by blessed Ludolf, about twenty years before St. Peter came
thither, and was then in the greatest repute. The hermits here remained
two and two together in separate cells, occupied chiefly in prayer and
reading. They lived on bread and water four days in the week: on
Tuesdays and Thursdays they ate pulse and herbs, which every one dressed
in his own cell: on their fast days all their bread was given them by
weight. They never used any wine, (the common drink of the country,)
except for mass, or in sickness: they went barefoot, used disciplines,
made many genuflections, struck their breasts, stood with their arms
stretched out in prayer, each according to his strength and devotion.
After the night office they said the whole psalter before day. Peter
watched long before the signal for matins, and after, with the rest.
These excessive watchings brought on him an insomnie, or wakefulness,
which was cured with very great difficulty. But he learned from this to
use more discretion. He gave a considerable time to sacred studies, and
became as well versed in the scriptures, and other sacred learning, as
he was before in profane literature.

His superior ordered him to make frequent exhortations to the religious,
and as he had acquired a very great character for virtue and learning,
Guy, abbot of Pomposia, begged his superior to send him to instruct his
monastery, which consisted of a hundred monks. Peter stayed there two
years, preaching with great fruit, and was then called back by his
abbot, and sent to perform the same function in the numerous abbey of
St. Vincent, near the mountain called Pietra Pertusa, or the Hollow
Rock. His love for poverty made him abhor and be ashamed to put on a new
habit, or any clothes which were not threadbare and most mean. His
obedience was so perfect, that the least word of any superior, or signal
given, according to the rule of the house, for the performance of any
duty, made him run that moment to discharge, with the utmost exactness,
whatever was enjoined. Being recalled home some time after, and
commanded by his abbot, with the unanimous consent of the hermitage, to
take upon him the government of the desert after his death, Peter's
extreme reluctance only obliged his superior to make greater use of his
authority till he acquiesced. Wherefore, at his decease, in 1041, Peter
took upon him the direction of that holy family, which he governed with
the greatest reputation for wisdom and sanctity. He also founded five
other numerous hermitages; in which he placed priors under his
inspection. His principal care was to cherish in his disciples the
spirit of solitude, charity, and humility. Among them many became great
lights of the church, as St. Ralph, bishop of Gubio, whose festival is
kept on the 26th of June, St. Dominick, surnamed Loricatus, the 14th of
October; St. John of Lodi, his successor in the priory of the Holy
Cross, who was also bishop of Gubio, and wrote St. Peter's life; and
many others. He was for twelve years much employed in the service of the
church by many zealous bishops, and by four popes successively, namely:
Gregory VI., Clement II., Leo IX., and Victor II. Their successor,
Stephen IX., in 1057, prevailed with him to quit his desert, and made
him cardinal bishop of Ostia. But such was his reluctance to the
dignity, that nothing less than the pope's {450} threatening him with
excommunication, and his commands, in virtue of obedience, could induce
Peter to submit.

Stephen IX. dying in 1058, Nicholas II. was chosen pope, a man of deep
penetration, of great virtue and learning, and very liberal in alms, as
our saint testifies, who assisted him in obliging John, bishop of
Veletri, an antipope, set up by the capitaneos or magistrates of Rome,
to quit his usurped dignity. Upon complaints of simony in the church of
Milan, Nicholas II. sent Peter thither as his legate, who chastised the
guilty. Nicholas II. dying, after having sat two years and six months,
Alexander was chosen pope, in 1062. Peter strenuously supported him
against the emperor, who set up an antipope, Cadolaus, bishop of Parma,
on whom the saint prevailed soon after to renounce his pretensions, in a
council held at Rome; and engaged Henry IV., king of Germany, who was
afterwards emperor, to acquiesce in what had been done, though that
prince, who in his infancy had succeeded his pious father, Henry III.,
had sucked in very early the corrupt maxims of tyranny and irreligion.
But virtue is amiable in the eyes of its very enemies, and often disarms
them of their fury. St. Peter had, with great importunity, solicited
Nicholas II. for leave to resign his bishopric, and return to his
solitude; but could not obtain it. His successor, Alexander II., out of
affection for the holy man, was prevailed upon to allow it, in 1062, but
not without great difficulty, and the reserve of a power to employ him
in church matters of importance, as he might have occasion hereafter for
his assistance. The saint from that time thought himself discharged, not
only from the burden of his flock, but also from the quality of
superior, with regard to the several monasteries, the general inspection
of which he had formerly charged himself with, reducing himself to the
condition of a simple monk.

In this retirement he edified the church by his penance and compunction,
and labored by his writings to enforce the observance of discipline and
morality. His style is copious and vehement, and the strictness of his
maxims appears in all his works, especially where he treats of the
duties of clergymen and monks. He severely rebuked the bishop of
Florence for playing a game at chess.[1] That prelate acknowledged his
amusement to be a faulty sloth in a man of his character, and received
the saint's remonstrance with great mildness, and submitted to his
injunction by way of penance, namely: to recite three times the psalter,
to wash the feet of twelve poor men, and to give to each a piece of
money. He shows those to be guilty of manifold simony, who serve princes
or flatter them for the sake of obtaining ecclesiastical preferments.[2]
He wrote a treatise to the bishop of Besanzon,[3] against the custom
which the canons of that church had of saying the divine office sitting;
though he allowed all to sit during the lessons. This saint recommended
the use of disciplines whereby to subdue and punish the flesh, which was
adopted as a compensation for long penitential fasts. Three thousand
lashes, with the recital of thirty psalms, were a redemption of a
canonical penance of one year's continuance. Sir Thomas More, St.
Francis of Sales, and others, testify that such means of mortification
are great helps to tame the flesh, and inure it to the labors of
penance; also to remove a hardness of heart and spiritual dryness, and
to soften the soul into compunction. But all danger of abuses, excess,
and singularity, is to be shunned, and other ordinary bodily
mortifications, as watching and fasting, are frequently more advisable.
This saint wrote most severely on the obligations of religious men,[4]
particularly against their strolling abroad; for one of the most
essential qualities of their state is solitude, or at least the spirit
{451} of retirement. He complained loudly of certain evasions, by which
many palliated real infractions of their vow of poverty. He justly
observed: "We can never restore what is decayed of primitive discipline;
and if we, by negligence, suffer any diminution in what remains
established, future ages will never be able to repair such breaches. Let
us not draw upon ourselves so base a reproach; but let us faithfully
transmit to posterity the examples of virtue which we have received from
our forefathers."[5] The holy man was obliged to interrupt his solitude
in obedience to the pope, who sent him in quality of his legate into
France, in 1063, commanding the archbishops and others to receive him as
himself. The holy man reconciled discords, settled the bounds of the
jurisdiction of certain dioceses, and condemned and deposed in councils
those who were convicted of simony. He, notwithstanding, tempered his
severity with mildness and indulgence towards penitents, where charity
and prudence required such a condescension. Henry IV., king of Germany,
at eighteen years of age, began to show the symptoms of a heart
abandoned to impiety, infamous debauchery, treachery, and cruelty. He
married, in 1066, Bertha, daughter to Otho, marquis of Italy, but
afterwards, in 1069, sought a divorce, by taking his oath that he had
never been able to consummate his marriage. The archbishop of Mentz had
the weakness to be gained over by his artifices to favor his desires, in
which view he assembled a council at Mentz. Pope Alexander II. forbade
him ever to consent to so enormous an injustice, and pitched upon Peter
Damian for his legate to preside in that synod, being sensible that a
person of the most inflexible virtue, prudence, and constancy, was
necessary for so important and difficult an affair, in which passion,
power, and craft, made use of every engine in opposition to the cause of
God. The venerable legate met the king and bishops at Frankfort, laid
before them the orders and instructions of his holiness, and in his name
conjured the king to pay a due respect to the law of God, the canons of
the church, and his own reputation, and seriously reflect on the public
scandal of so pernicious an example. The noblemen likewise all rose up
and entreated his majesty never to stain his honor by so foul an action.
The king, unable to resist so cogent an authority, dropped his project
of a divorce; but remaining the same man in his heart, continued to hate
the queen more than ever.

Saint Peter hastened back to his desert of Font-Avellano. Whatever
austerities he prescribed to others he was the first to practise
himself, remitting nothing of them even in his old age. He lived shut up
in his cell as in a prison, fasted every day, except festivals, and
allowed himself no other subsistence than coarse bread, bran, herbs, and
water, and this he never drank fresh, but what he had kept from the day
before. He tortured his body with iron girdles and frequent disciplines,
to render it more obedient to the spirit. He passed the three first days
of every Lent and Advent without taking any kind of nourishment
whatever; and often for forty days together lived only on raw herbs and
fruits, or on pulse steeped in cold water, without touching so much as
bread, or any thing which had passed the fire. A mat spread on the floor
was his bed. He used to make wooden spoons and such like useful mean
things, to exercise himself at certain hours in manual labor. Henry,
archbishop of Ravenna, having been excommunicated for grievous
enormities, St. Peter was sent by Pope Alexander II. in quality of
legate, to adjust the affairs of the church. When he arrived at Ravenna,
in 1072, he found the unfortunate prelate just dead; but brought {452}
the accomplices of his crimes to a sense of their guilt, and imposed on
them a suitable penance. This was his last undertaking for the church,
God being pleased soon after to call him to eternal rest, and to the
crown of his labors. Old age and the fatigues of his journey did not
make him lay aside his accustomed mortifications, by which he
consummated his holocaust. In his return towards Rome, he was stopped by
a fever in the monastery of our Lady without the gates of Faenza, and
died there on the eighth day of his sickness, while the monks were
reciting matins round about him. He passed from that employment which
had been the delight of his heart on earth, to sing the same praises of
God in eternal glory, on the 22d of February, 1072, being fourscore and
three years old. He is honored as patron at Faenza and Font-Avellano, on
the 23d of the same month.

Footnotes:
1.  Opusc. 20, c. 7.
2.  Ib. 22.
3.  Ib. 29, Nat. Alex. Theo Dogm. l. 2, c. 8, reg. 8.
4.  Opusc. 12.
5.  The works of St. Peter Damien, printed in three volumes, at Lyons,
    in 1623, consist of one hundred and fifty-eight letters, fifteen
    sermons, five lives of saints, namely, of St. Odilo, abbot of Cluni;
    St. Maurus, bishop of Cesene; St. Romuald; St. Ralph, bishop of
    Gubio; and St. Dominick Luricatus, and SS. Lucillia and Flora. The
    third volume contains sixty small tracts, with several prayers and
    hymns.

ST. BOISIL, PRIOR OF MAILROSS, OR MELROSS, C.

THE famous abbey of Mailross, which in later ages embraced the
Cistercian rule, originally followed that of St. Columba. It was
situated upon the river Tweed, in a great forest, and in the seventh
century was comprised in the kingdom of the English Saxons in
Northumberland, which was extended in the eastern part of Scotland as
high as the Frith. Saint Boisil was prior of this house under the holy
abbot Eata, who seem to have been both English youths, trained up in
monastic discipline by St. Aidan. Boisil was, says Bede, a man of
sublime virtues, and endued with a prophetic spirit. His eminent
sanctity determined St. Cuthbert to repair rather to Mailross than to
Lindisfarne in his youth, and he received from this saint the knowledge
of the holy scriptures, and the example of all virtues. St. Boisil had
often in his mouth the holy names of the adorable Trinity, and of our
divine Redeemer Jesus, which he repeated with a wonderful sentiment of
devotion, and often with such an abundance of tears as excited others to
weep with him. He would say, frequently, with the most tender affection,
"How good a Jesus have we!" At the first sight of St. Cuthbert, he said
to the bystanders: "Behold a servant of God." Bede produces the
testimony of St. Cuthbert, who declared that Boisil foretold him the
chief things that afterwards happened to him in the sequel of his life.
Three years beforehand, he foretold the great pestilence of 664, and
that he himself should die of it, but Eata, the abbot, should outlive
it. Boisil, not content continually to instruct and exhort his religious
brethren by word and example, made frequent excursions into the villages
to preach to the poor, and to bring straying souls into the paths of
truth and of life. St. Cuthbert was taken with the pestilential disease:
when St. Boisil saw him recovered, he said to him: "Thou seest, brother,
that God hath delivered thee from this disease, nor shalt thou any more
feel it, nor die at this time: but my death being at hand, neglect not
to learn something of me so long as I shall be able to teach thee, which
will be no more than seven days." "And what," said Cuthbert, "will be
best for me to read, which may be finished in seven days?" "The gospel
of St. John," said he, "which we may in that time read over, and confer
upon as much as shall be necessary." For they only sought therein, says
Bede, the sincerity of faith working through love, and not the treating
of profound questions. Having accomplished this reading in seven days,
the man of God, Boisil, falling ill of the aforesaid disease, came to
his last day, which he passed over in extraordinary jubilation of soul,
out of his earnest desire of being with Christ. In his last moments he
often repeated those words of St. Stephen: "Lord Jesus receive my
spirit!" Thus he {453} entered into the happiness of eternal light, in
the year 664. The instructions which he was accustomed most earnestly to
inculcate to his religious brethren were: "That they would never cease
giving thanks to God for the gift of their religious vocation; that they
would always watch over themselves against self-love, and all attachment
to their own will and private judgment, as against their capital enemy;
that they would converse assiduously with God by interior prayer, and
labor continually to attain to the most perfect purity of heart, this
being the true and short road to the perfection of Christian virtue."
Out of the most ardent and tender love which he bore our divine
Redeemer, and in order daily to enkindle and improve the sane, he was
wonderfully delighted with reading every day a part of the gospel of St.
John, which for this purpose he divided into seven parts or tasks. St.
Cuthbert inherited from him this devotion, and in his tomb was fouled a
Latin copy of St. John's gospel, which was in the possession of the
present earl of Litchfield, and which his lordship gave to Mr. Thomas
Philips, canon of Tongres.

Bede relates[1] as an instance that St. Boisil continued after his death
to interest himself particularly in obtaining for his country and
friends the divine mercy and grace, that he appeared twice to one of his
disciples, giving him a charge to assure St. Egbert, who had been
hindered from going to preach the gospel to the infidels in Germany,
that God commanded him to repair to the monasteries of St. Columba, to
instruct them in the right manner of celebrating Easter. These
monasteries were, that in the island of Colm-Kill, or Iona, (which was
the ordinary burial-place of the kings of Scotland down to Malcolm
III.,) and that of Magis, in the isles of Orkney, built by bishop
Colman. The remains of St. Boisil were translated to Durham, and
deposited near those of his disciple St. Cuthbert, in 1030. Wilson and
other English authors mention St. Boisil on the 7th of August; but in
the Scottish calendars his name occurs on the 23d of February. See Bede,
Hist. l. 4, c. 27, l. 5, c. 10, and in Vitâ S. Cuthberti, c. 8.

Footnotes:
1.  Hist. l. 5, c. 10.


FEBRUARY XXIV.

SAINT MATTHIAS, APOSTLE.

From Acts i. 21. See Tillemont, t. 1, p. 406. Henschenius, p. 434.

ST. CLEMENT of Alexandria[1] assures us, from tradition, that this saint
was one of the seventy-two disciples, which is confirmed by Eusebius[2]
and St. Jerom;[3] and we learn from the Acts[4] of the apostles, that he
was a constant attendant on our Lord, from the time of his baptism by
St. John to his ascension. St. Peter having, in a general assembly of
the faithful held soon after, declared from holy scripture, the
necessity of choosing a twelfth apostle, in the room of Judas; two were
unanimously pitched upon by the assembly, as most worthy of the dignity,
Joseph, called Barsabas, and, on account of his extraordinary piety,
surnamed the Just, and Matthias. After devout prayer to God, that he
would direct them in their choice, they proceeded in {454} it by way of
lot, which falling by the divine direction on Matthias, he was
accordingly associated with the eleven, and ranked among the apostles.
When in deliberations each side appears equally good, or each candidate
of equally approved merit, lots may be sometimes lawfully used;
otherwise, to commit a thing of importance to such a chance, or to
expect a miraculous direction of divine providence in it, would be a
criminal superstition and a tempting of God, except he himself, by an
evident revelation or inspiration, should appoint such a means for the
manifestation of his will, promising his supernatural interposition in
it, which was the case on this extraordinary occasion. The miraculous
dreams or lots, which we read of in the prophets, must no ways authorize
any rash superstitious use of such means in others who have not the like
authority.

       *       *       *       *       *

We justly admire the virtue of this holy assembly of saints. Here were
no solicitations or intrigues. No one presented himself to the dignity.
Ambition can find no place in a virtuous or humble heart. He who seeks a
dignity either knows himself unqualified, and is on this account guilty
of the most flagrant injustice with regard to the public, by desiring a
charge to which he is no ways equal: or he thinks himself qualified for
it, and this self-conceit and confidence in his own abilities renders
him the most unworthy of all others. Such a disposition deprives a soul
of the divine assistance, without which we can do nothing; for God
withdraws his grace and refuses his blessing where self-sufficiency and
pride have found any footing. It is something of a secret confidence in
ourselves, and a presumption that we deserve the divine succor, which
banishes him from us. This is true even in temporal undertakings; but
much more so in the charge of souls, in which all success is more
particularly the special work of the Holy Ghost, not the fruit of human
industry. These two holy candidates were most worthy of the apostleship,
because perfectly humble, and because they looked upon that dignity with
trembling, though they considered its labors, dangers, and persecutions
with holy joy, and with a burning zeal for the glory of God. No regard
was had to worldly talents, none to flesh and blood. God was consulted
by prayer, because no one is to be assumed to his ministry who is not
called by him, and who does not enter it by the door,[5] and with the
undoubted marks of his vocation. Judas's misfortune filled St. Matthias
with the greater humility and fervor, lest he also should fall. We
Gentiles are called upon the disinherison of the Jews, and are ingrafted
on their stock.[6] We ought therefore to learn to stand always in
watchfulness and fear, or we shall be also cut off ourselves, to give
place to others whom God will call in our room, and even compel to
enter, rather than spare us. The number of his elect depends not on us.
His infinite mercy has invited us without any merit on our side; but if
we are ungrateful, he can complete his heavenly city without us, and
will certainly make our reprobation the most dreadful example of his
justice, to all eternity. The greater the excess of his goodness and
clemency has been towards us, the more dreadful will be the effects of
his vengeance. _Many shall come from the east and the west, and shall
sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God; but the
sons of the kingdom shall be cast forth_.[7]

St. Matthias received the Holy Ghost with the rest soon after his
election; and after the dispersion of the disciples, applied himself
with zeal to the functions of his apostleship, in converting nations to
the faith. He is recorded by St. Clement of Alexandria,[8] to have been
remarkable for inculcating the necessity of the mortification of the
flesh with regard to all {455} its sensual and irregular desires, an
important lesson he had received from Christ, and which he practised
assiduously on his own flesh. The tradition of the Greeks in their
menologies tells us that St: Matthias planted the faith about Cappadocia
and on the coasts of the Caspian sea, residing chiefly near the port
Issus. He must have undergone great hardships and labors amidst so
savage a people. The same authors add that he received the crown of
martyrdom in Colchis, which they call Æthiopia. The Latins keep his
festival on the 24th of February. Some portions of his relics are shown
in the abbatical church of Triers, and in that of St. Mary Major in
Rome, unless these latter belong to another Matthias, who was one of the
first bishops of Jerusalem: on which see the Bollandists.

As the call of St. Matthias, so is ours purely the work of God, and his
most gratuitous favor and mercy. What thanks, what fidelity and love do
we not owe him for this inestimable grace! When he decreed to call us to
his holy faith, cleanse us from sin, and make us members of his
spiritual kingdom, and heirs of his glory, he saw nothing in us which
could determine him to such a predilection. We were infected with sin,
and could have no title to the least favor, when God said to us, _I have
loved Jacob_: when he distinguished us from so many millions who perish
in the blindness of infidelity and sin, drew us out of the mass of
perdition, and bestowed on us the grace of his adoption, and all the
high privileges that are annexed to this dignity. In what transports of
love and gratitude ought we not, without intermission, to adore his
infinite goodness to us, and beg that we may be always strengthened by
his grace to advance continually in humility and his holy love, lest, by
slackening our pace in his service, we fall from this state of
happiness, forfeit this sublime grace, and perish with Judas. Happy
would the church be, if all converts were careful to maintain themselves
in the same fervor in which they returned to God. But by a neglect to
watch over themselves, and to shun dangers, and by falling into sloth,
they often relapse into a condition much worse than the former.

Footnotes:
1.  Strom. l. 4, p. 488.
2.  L. 1, c. {1}.
3.  In Catal.
4.  C. i. 21.
5.  Jo. x. 1.
6.  Rom. xi. 12.
7.  Matt. viii. 11.
8.  Strom. l. 3, p. 436.

SS. MONTANUS, LUCIUS, FLAVIAN, JULIAN, VICTORICUS,

PRIMOLUS, RHENUS, AND DONATIAN, MARTYRS AT CARTHAGE.

From their original acts written, the first part by the martyrs
themselves, the rest by an eye-witness. They are published more
correctly by Ruinart than by Surius and Bollandus. See Tillemont, t. 4,
p. 206.

A.D. 259.

THE persecution, raised by Valerian, had raged two years, during which
many had received the crown of martyrdom, and, among others, St.
Cyprian, in September, 258. The proconsul Galerius Maximus, who had
pronounced sentence on that saint, dying himself soon after, the
procurator, Solon, continued the persecution, waiting for the arrival of
a new proconsul from Rome. After some days, a sedition was raised in
Carthage against him, in which many were killed. The tyrannical man,
instead of making search after the guilty, vented his fury upon the
Christians, knowing this would be agreeable to the idolaters.
Accordingly he caused these eight Christians, all disciples of St.
Cyprian, and most of them of the clergy, to be apprehended. As soon as
we were taken, say the authors of the acts, we were given in custody to
the officers of the quarter:[1] when the governor's soldiers told us
that we should be condemned to the flames, we prayed to God with great
fervor to be delivered from that punishment: and he in {456} whose hands
are the hearts of men, was pleased to grant our request. The governor
altered his first intent, and ordered us into a very dark and
incommodious prison, where we found the priest, Victor, and some others:
but we were not dismayed at the filth and darkness of the place, our
faith and joy in the Holy Ghost reconciled us to our sufferings in that
place, though these were such as it is not easy for words to describe;
but the greater our trials, the greater is he who overcomes them in us.
Our brother Rhenus, in the mean time, had a vision, in which he saw
several of the prisoners going out of prison with a lighted lamp
preceding each of them, while others, that had no such lamp, stayed
behind. He discerned us in this vision, and assured us that we were of
the number of those who went forth with lamps. This gave us great joy.
for we understood that the lamp represented Christ, the true light, and
that we were to follow him by martyrdom.

The next day we were sent for by the governor, to be examined. It was a
triumph to us to be conducted as a spectacle through the market-place
and the streets, with our chains rattling. The soldiers, who knew not
where the governor would hear its, dragged us from place to place, till,
at length, he ordered us to be brought into his closet. He put several
questions to us; our answers were modest, but firm: at length we were
remanded to prison; here we prepared ourselves for new conflicts. The
sharpest trial was that which we underwent by hunger and thirst, the
governor having commanded that we should be kept without meat and drink
for several days, insomuch that water was refused us after our work: yet
Flavian, the deacon, added great voluntary austerities to these
hardships, often bestowing on others what little refreshment which was
most sparingly allowed us at the public charge.

God was pleased himself to comfort us in this our extreme misery, by a
vision which he vouchsafed to the priest Victor, who suffered martyrdom
a few days after. "I saw last night," said he to us, "an infant, whose
countenance was of a wonderful brightness, enter the prison. He took us
to all parts to make us go out, but there was no outlet; then he said to
me, 'You have still some concern at your being retained here, but be not
discouraged. I am with you: carry these tidings to your companions, and
let them know that they shall have a more glorious crown.' I asked him
where heaven was; the infant replied, 'Out of the world.' 'Show it me,'
says Victor. The infant answered, 'Where then would be your faith?'
Victor said, 'I cannot retain what you command me: tell me a sign that I
may give them.' He answered, 'Give them the sign of Jacob, that is, his
mystical ladder, reaching to the heavens.'" Soon after this vision,
Victor was put to death. This vision filled us with joy.

God gave us, the night following, another assurance of his mercy by a
vision to our sister Quartillosia, a fellow-prisoner, whose husband and
son had suffered death for Christ three days before, and who followed
them by martyrdom a few days after. "I saw," says she, "my son, who
suffered; he was in the prison sitting on a vessel of water, and said to
me: 'God has seen your sufferings.' Then entered a young man of a
wonderful stature, and he said: 'Be of good courage, God hath remembered
you.'" The martyrs had received no nourishment the preceding day, nor
had they any on the day that followed this vision; but at length Lucian,
then priest, and afterwards bishop of Carthage, surmounting all
obstacles, got food to be carried to them in abundance by the subdeacon,
Herermian, and by Januarius, a catechumen. The acts say they brought the
never-failing food[2] {457} which Tillemont understands of the blessed
eucharist, and the following words still more clearly determine it in
favor of this sense. They go on: We have all one and the same spirit,
which unites and cements us together in prayer, in mutual conversation,
and in all our actions. These are those amiable bands which put the
devil to flight, are most agreeable to God, and obtain of him, by joint
prayer, whatever they ask. These are the ties which link hearts
together, and which make men the children of God. To be heirs of his
kingdom we must be his children, and to be his children we must love one
another. It is impossible for us to attain to the inheritance of his
heavenly glory, unless we keep that union and peace with all our
brethren which our heavenly Father has established among us.
Nevertheless, this union suffered some prejudice in our troop, but the
breach was soon repaired. It happened that Montanus had some words with
Julian, about a person who was not of our communion, and who was got
among us, (probably admitted by Julian.) Montanus on this account
rebuked Julian, and they, for some time afterwards, behaved towards each
other with coldness, which was, as it were, a seed of discord. Heaven
had pity on them both, and, to reunite them, admonished Montanus by a
dream, which he related to us as follows: "It appeared to me that the
centurions were come to us, and that they conducted us through a long
path into a spacious field, where we were met by Cyprian and Lucius.
After this we came into a very luminous place, where our garments became
white, and our flesh became whiter than our garments, and so wonderfully
transparent, that there was nothing in our hearts but what was clearly
exposed to view: but in looking into myself, I could discover some filth
in my own bosom; and, meeting Lucian, I told him what I had seen,
adding, that the filth I had observed within my breast denoted my
coldness towards Julian. Wherefore, brethren, let us love, cherish, and
promote, with all our might, peace and concord. Let us be here unanimous
in imitation of what we shall be hereafter. As we hope to share in the
rewards promised to the just, and to avoid the punishments wherewith the
wicked are threatened: as, in fine, we desire to be and reign with
Christ, let us do those things which will lead us to him and his
heavenly kingdom." Hitherto the martyrs wrote in prison what happened to
them there: the rest was written by those persons who were present, to
whom Flavian, one of the martyrs, had recommended it.

After suffering extreme hunger and thirst, with other hardships, during
an imprisonment of many months, the confessors were brought before the
president, and made a glorious confession. The edict of Valerian
condemned only bishops, priests, and deacons to death. The false friends
of Flavian maintained before the judge that he was no deacon, and,
consequently, was not comprehended within the emperor's decree; upon
which, though he declared himself to be one, he was not then condemned;
but the rest were adjudged to die. They walked cheerfully to the place
of execution, and each of them gave exhortations to the people. Lucius,
who was naturally mild and modest, was a little dejected on account of
his distemper and the inconveniences of the prison; he therefore went
before the rest, accompanied but by a few persons, lest he should be
oppressed by the crowd, and so not have the honor to spill his blood.
Some cried out to him, "Remember us." "Do you also," says he, "remember
me." Julian and Victoricus exhorted a long while the brethren to peace,
and recommended to their care the whole body of the clergy, those
especially who had undergone the hardships of imprisonment. Montanus,
who was endued with great strength, both of body and mind, cried out,
"He that sacrificeth to any God but the true one, shall be utterly
destroyed." This he often repeated. He also checked the pride and wicked
obstinacy of the heretics, telling them {458} that they might discern
the true church by the multitude of its martyrs. Like a true disciple of
Saint Cyprian, and a zealous lover of discipline, he exhorted those that
had fallen not to be over hasty, but fully to accomplish their penance.
He exhorted the virgins to preserve their purity, and to honor the
bishops, and all the bishops to abide to concord. When the executioner
was ready to give the stroke, he prayed aloud to God that Flavian, who
had been reprieved at the people's request, might follow them on the
third day. And, to express his assurance that his prayer was heard, he
rent in pieces the handkerchief with which his eyes were to be covered,
and ordered one half of it to be reserved for Flavian, and desired that
a place might be kept for him where he was to be interred, that they
might not be separated even in the grave. Flavian, seeing his crown
delayed, made it the object of his ardent desires and prayers. And as
his mother stuck close by his side with the constancy of the mother of
the holy Maccabees, and with longing desires to see him glorify God by
his sacrifice, he said to her "You know, mother, how much I have longed
to enjoy the happiness of dying by martyrdom." In one of the two nights
which he survived, he was favored with a vision, in which one said to
him: "Why do you grieve? You have been twice a confessor, and you shall
suffer martyrdom by the sword." On the third day he was ordered to be
brought before the governor. Here it appeared how much he was beloved by
the people, who endeavored by all means to save his life. They cried out
to the judge that he was no deacon; but he affirmed that he was. A
centurion presented a billet which set forth that he was not. The judge
accused him of lying to procure his own death. He answered: "Is that
probable? and not rather that they are guilty of an untruth who say the
contrary?" The people demanded that he might be tortured, in hopes he
would recall his confession on the rack; but the judge condemned him to
be beheaded. The sentence filled him with joy, and he was conducted to
the place of execution, accompanied by a great multitude, and by many
priests. A shower dispersed the infidels, and the martyr was lead into a
house where he had an opportunity of taking his last leave of the
faithful without one profane person being present. He told them that in
a vision he had asked Cyprian whether the stroke of death is painful,
and that the martyr answered: "The body feels no pain when the soul
gives herself entirely to God." At the place of execution he prayed for
the peace of the church and the union of the brethren; and seemed to
foretell Lucian that he should be bishop of Carthage, as he was soon
after. Having done speaking, he bound his eyes with that half of the
handkerchief which Montanus had ordered to be kept for him, and,
kneeling in prayer, received the last stroke. These saints are joined
together on his day in the present Roman and in ancient Martyrologies.

Footnotes:
1.  Apud regionantes.
2.  Alimentum indeficiens.

ST. LETHARD, BISHOP OF SENLIS, C.

CALLED BY VENERABLE BEDE, LUIDHARD.

BEDE, William of Malmesbury, and other historians relate, that when
Bertha, daughter of Charibert, king of the French, was married to
Ethelbert, king of Kent, about the year 566, this holy French prelate
accompanied her into England, and resided at Canterbury in quality of
almoner and chaplain to the queen. Though his name does not occur in the
imperfect catalogue of the bishops of Senlis, which is found in the
ancient copy of St. Gregory's sacramentary, which belonged to that
church in 880, nor in the old edition of Gallia Christiana yet, upon the
authority of the English historians, {459} is inserted in the new
edition, the thirteenth, from St. Regulus, the founder of that see, one
of the Roman missionaries in Gaul about the time of St. Dionysius. The
relics of St. Regulus are venerated in the ancient collegiate church
which bears his name in Senlis, and his principal festival is kept on
the 23d of April. St. Lethard having resigned this see to St. Sanctinus,
was only recorded in England. On the high altar of St. Augustine's
monastery at Canterbury, originally called SS. Peter and Paul's, his
relics were exposed in a shrine near those of the holy king Ethelbert,
as appears from the Monasticon. St. Lethard died at Canterbury about the
year 596. Several miracles are recorded to have been obtained by his
intercession, particularly a ready supply of rain in time of drought.
See Bede, l. 1, c. 25. Will. of Malmesbury, de Pontif. l. 1. Monas.
Angl. t. 1, p. 24. Tho. Sprot, in his History of the Abbey of
Canterbury, Thorn, Henschenius ad 24 Feb., Gallia Christ. Nova, t. 10,
p. 1382.

B. ROBERT OF ARBRISSEL,

SO CALLED FROM THE PLACE OF HIS BIRTH.

HE was archpriest and grand vicar of the diocese of Rennes, and
chancellor to the duke of Brittany; but divested himself of these
employments, and led a most austere eremitical life, in the forest of
Craon, in Anjou. He soon filled that desert with anchorets, and built in
it a monastery of regular canons. This is the abbey called De la Roe, in
Latin De Rotâ, which was founded, according to Duchesne, in 1093, and
confirmed by pope Urban II., in 1096. This pope having heard him preach
at Angers, gave him the powers of an apostolical missionary. The blessed
man therefore preached in many places, and formed many disciples. In
1099 he founded the great monastery of Fontevraud, Fons Ebraldi, a
league from the Loire, in Poitou. He appointed superioress Herlande of
Champagne, a near kinswoman to the duke of Brittany; and Petronilla of
Craon, baroness of Chemillé, coadjutress. He settled it under the rule
of St. Benedict, with perpetual abstinence from flesh, even in all
sicknesses, and put his order under the special patronage of the blessed
Virgin. By a singular institution, he appointed the abbess superioress
over the men, who live in a remote monastery, whose superiors she
nominates. The holy founder prescribed so strict silence in his order,
as to forbid any one to speak, even by signs, without necessity. The law
of enclosure was not less rigorous, insomuch that no priest was allowed
to enter even the infirmary of the nuns, to visit the sick, if it could
possibly be avoided, and the sick, even in their agonies, were carried
into the church, that they might there receive the sacraments. Among the
great conversions of which St. Robert was the instrument, none was more
famous than that of queen Bertrade, the daughter of Simon Montfort, and
sister of Amauri Montfort, count of Evreux. She was married to Fulk,
count of Anjou, in 1089, but quitted him in 1092, to marry Philip I.,
king of France, who was enamored of her. Pope Urban II. excommunicated
that prince on this account in 1094, and again in 1100, because the
king, after having put her away, had taken her again. These censures
were taken off when she and the king had sworn upon the gospels, in the
council of Poitiers, never to live together again. Bertrade, when she
had retired to an estate which was her dower, in the diocese of
Chartres, was so powerfully moved by the exhortations of St. Robert,
that, renouncing the world, of which she had been long the idol, she
took the religious veil at Fontevraud, and led there an exemplary life
till her death. Many other princesses embraced the same state {460}
under the direction of the holy founder: among others Hersande of
Champagne, widow of William of Monsoreau; Agnes of Montroëil, of the
same family; Ermengarde, wife of Alin Fergan, duke of Brittany; {}pa,
countess of Thoulouse, wife of William IX., duke of Aquitaine, &c. After
the death of St. Robert, several queens and princesses had taken
sanctuary in this monastery, flying from the corruption of the world.
Among its abbesses are counted fourteen princesses, of which five were
of the royal house of Bourbon. The abbot Suger, writing to pope Eugenius
III., about fifty years after the death of the founder, says there were
at that time in this order between five and six thousand religious
persons. The order of Fontevraud, in France, is divided into four
provinces. B. Robert lived to see above three thousand nuns in this one
house. He died in 1116, on the 25th of February, St. Matthias's day, it
being leap-year, in the seventieth of his age, at the monastery of
Orsan, near Linieres, in Berry. His body was conveyed to Fontevraud, and
there interred. The bishop of Poitiers, in 1644, took a juridical
information of many miracles wrought by his intercession.[1] From the
time of his death he has been honored with the title of blessed, and is
invoked in the litany of his order, which keeps his festival only with a
mass of the Trinity on St. Matthias's day. See his life by Baldric,
bishop of Dole, his contemporary; Helyot, Hist. des Ordres Relig. t. 6,
p. 83, Dom Lobineau, Hist. de Bretagne, fol. 1707, p. 113, and, in the
first place, Chatelain, Notes on the Martyrol. p. 736 to 758, who
clearly confutes those who place his death in 1117.

Footnotes:
1.  Some have raked up most groundless slanders to asperse the character
    of this holy man, as, that he admitted all to the religious habit
    that asked it, and was guilty of too familiar conversation with
    women. These slanders were spread in a letter of Roscelin, whose
    errors against faith were condemned in the council of Soissons in
    1095. Such scandalous reports excited the zeal of some good men, and
    they are mentioned in a letter ascribed to Marbodius, bishop of
    Rennes, and in another of Godfrey, abbot of Vendome, addressed to
    the holy man himself. This last letter seems genuine, though some
    have denied it. But the charge was only gathered from hearsay, and
    notoriously false, as the very authors of these letters were soon
    convinced. It is not surprising that a man who bade open defiance to
    all sinners, and whose reputation ran so high in the world, should
    excite the murmurs of some and envy of others, which zeal and merit
    never escape. But his boldness to declaim against the vices of great
    men, and the most hardened sinners; the high encomiums and favorable
    testimonies which all who knew him gave to his extraordinary
    sanctity, which forced even envy itself to respect him; and his most
    holy comportment and happy death, furnish most invincible proofs of
    his innocence and purity; which he preserved only by humility, and
    the most scrupulous flight of all dangerous occasions. Godfrey of
    Vendome was afterwards perfectly satisfied of the sanctity of this
    great servant of God and became his warmest friend and patron; as is
    evident from several of his letters. See l. 1, ep. 24, and 26, l. 3,
    ep.2, l. 4, ep. 32. He entered into an association of prayers with
    the monastery of Fontevraud in 1114; and so much did he esteem his
    virtue that he made a considerable foundation at Fontevraud, often
    visited the church, and built himself a house near it, called Hotel
    de Vendome, that he might more frequently enjoy the converse of St.
    Robert, and promote his holy endeavors. The letter of Marbodius is
    denied to be genuine by Mainferme and Natalis Alexander, and
    suspected by D. Beaugendre, who published the works of Marbodius at
    Paris, in 1708. But the continuator of the Hist. Littér. t. 10, p.
    359, clearly shows this letter to have been written by Marbodius,
    who, in it, speaks of these rumors without giving credit to them,
    and with tenderness and charity exhorts Robert to reform his conduct
    if the reports were true; to dissipate them by justifying himself,
    if they were false. Marbodius was soon satisfied as to these
    calumnies, and was the saint's great protector, in 1101, in his
    missions in Brittany, particularly in his diocese of Rennes; whither
    he seems to have invited him. Ermengarde, countess of Brittany, was
    so moved by St. Robert's sermons, that she earnestly desired to
    renounce the world, and retire to Fontevraud. The saint exhorted her
    to continue in the world, and to sanctify her soul by her duties in
    her public station, especially by patience and prayer: yet, some
    years after, she took the veil at Fontevaud. See F. de la Mainferme,
    in his three apologetic volumes in vindication of this patriarch of
    his order, Natalis Alexander, sæc. xii. diss. 6, and especially
    Sorin's Apologetique du Saint. in 1702, a polite and spirited work.

ST. PRETEXTATUS, OR PRIX, M.

ARCHBISHOP OF ROUEN.

HE was chosen archbishop of Rouen in 549, and in 557 assisted at the
third council of Paris held to abolish incestuous marriages, and remove
other crying abuses: also at the second council of Tours in 566. By his
zeal in reproving Fredegonda for her injustices and cruelties, he had
incurred her indignation. King Clotaire I., in 562, had left the French
monarchy {461} divided among his four sons. Charibert was king of Paris,
Gontran of Orleans and Burgundy, Sigebert I. of Austrasia, and Chilperic
I. of Soissons. Sigebert married Brunehault, younger daughter of
Athanagilde, king of the Visigoths in Spain, and Chilperic her elder
sister Galsvinda; but after her death he took to wife Fredegonda, who
had been his mistress, and was strongly suspected to have contrived the
death of the queen by poison. Hence Brunehault stirred up Sigebert
against her and her husband. But Fredegonda contrived the assassination
of king Sigebert in 575, and Chilperic secured Brunehault his wife, her
three daughters, and her son Childebert. This latter soon made his
escape, and fled to Metz, where he was received by his subjects, and
crowned king of Austrasia. The city of Paris, after the death of
Charibert in 566, by the agreement of the three surviving brothers,
remained common to them all, till Chilperic seized it. He sent Meroveus,
his son by his first wife, to reduce the country about Poitiers, which
belonged to the young prince Childebert. But Meroveus, at Ronen, fell in
love with his aunt Brunehault, then a prisoner in that city; and bishop
Prix, in order to prevent a grievous scandal, judging circumstances to
be sufficiently cogent to require a dispensation, married them: for
which he was accused of high treason by king Chilperic before a council
at Paris, in 577, in the church of St. Peter, since called St.
Genevieve. St. Gregory of Tours there warmly defended his innocence, and
Prix confessed the marriage, but denied that he had been privy to the
prince's revolt; but was afterwards prevailed upon, through the
insidious persuasion of certain emissaries of Chilperic, to plead
guilty, and confess that out of affection he had been drawn in to favor
the young prince, who was his godson. Whereupon he was condemned by the
council, and banished by the king into a small island upon the coast of
Lower Neustria, near Coutances. His sufferings he improved to the
sanctification of his soul by penance and the exercise of all heroic
Christian virtues. The rage and clamor with which his powerful enemies
spread their slanders to beat down his reputation, staggered many of his
friends: but St. Gregory of Tours never forsook him. Meroveus was
assassinated near Terouanne, by an order of his stepmother Fredegonda,
who was also suspected to have contrived the death of her husband
Chilperic, who was murdered at Chelles, in 584. She had three years
before procured Clovis, his younger son by a former wife, to be
assassinated, so that the crown of Soissons devolved upon her own son
Clotaire II.: but for his and her own protection, she had recourse to
Gontran, the religious king of Orleans and Burgundy. By his order Prix,
after a banishment of six years, was restored with honor to his see;
Ragnemond, the bishop of Paris, who had been a principal flatterer of
Chilperic in the persecution of this prelate, having assured this prince
that the council had not deposed him, but only enjoined him penance. St.
Prix assisted at the council of Macon in 585, where he harangued several
times, and exerted his zeal in framing many wise regulations for the
reformation of discipline. He continued his pastoral labors in the care
of his flock, and by just remonstrances often endeavored to reclaim the
wicked queen Fredegonda, who frequently resided at Rouen, and filled the
kingdom with scandals, tyrannical oppressions, and murders. This Jezabel
grew daily more and more hardened in iniquity, and by her secret order
St. Prix was assassinated while he assisted at matins in his church in
the midst of his clergy on Sunday the 25th of February. Happy should we
be if under all afflictions, with this holy penitent, we considered that
sin is the original fountain from whence all those waters of bitterness
flow, and by laboring effectually to cut off this evil, convert its
punishment into its remedy and a source of benedictions. St. Prix of
Rouen to honored in the Roman and Gallican Martyrologies. Those who with
{462} Chatelain, &c. place his death on the 14th of April, suppose him
to have been murdered on Easter-day, but the day of our Lord's
Resurrection in this passage of our historian, means no more than
Sunday. See St. Gregory of Tours, Hist. Franc. l. 5, c. 10, 15. Fleury,
l. 34, n. 52. Gallia Christiana Nova, t. 11, pp. 11 and 638. Mons.
Levesque de la Ravaliere in his Nouvelle Vie de S. Gregoire, Evêque de
Tours, published in the Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions et
Belles Lettres, An. 1760, t. 26, pp. 699, 60. F. Daniel, Hist. de
France, t. 1, p. 242.

ST. ETHELBERT, C.

FIRST CHRISTIAN KING AMONG THE ENGLISH.

HE was king of Kent, the fifth descendant from Hengist, who first
settled the English Saxons in Britain, in 448, and the foundation of
whose kingdom is dated in 445. Ethelbert married, in his father's
lifetime, Bertha, the only daughter of Charibert, king of Paris, and
cousin-german to Clotaire, king of Soissons, and Childebort, king of
Austrasia, whose two sons, Theodobert and Theodoric, or Thierry, reigned
after his death, the one in Austrasia, the other in Burgundy. Ethelbert
succeeded his father Ermenric, in 560. The kingdom of Kent having
enjoyed a continued peace for about a hundred years, was arrived at a
degree of power and riches which gave it a pre-eminence in the Saxon
heptarchy in Britain, and so great a superiority and influence over the
rest, that Ethelbert is said by Bede to have ruled as far as the Humber,
and Ethelbert is often styled king of the English. His queen Bertha was
a very zealous and pious Christian princess, and by the articles of her
marriage had free liberty to exercise her religion; for which purpose
she was attended by a venerable French prelate, named Luidhard, or
Lethard, bishop of Senlis. He officiated constantly in an old church
dedicated to St. Martin, lying a little out of the walls of Canterbury.
The exemplary life of this prelate, and his frequent discourses on
religion, disposed several Pagans about the court to embrace the faith.
The merit of the queen in the great work of her husband's conversion is
acknowledged by our historians, and she deserved by her piety and great
zeal to be compared by St. Gregory the Great to the celebrated St.
Helen.[1] Divine providence, by these means, mercifully prepared the
heart of a great king to entertain a favorable opinion of our holy
religion, when St. Augustine landed in his dominions: to whose life the
reader is referred for all account of this monarch's happy conversion to
the faith. From that time he appeared quite changed into another man, it
being for the remaining twenty years of his life his only ambition and
endeavor to establish the perfect reign of Christ, both in his own soul
and in the hearts of all his subjects. His ardor in the exercises of
penance and devotion never suffered any abatement, this being a property
of true virtue, which is not to be acquired without much labor and
pains, self-denial and watchfulness, resolution and constancy. Great
were, doubtless, the difficulties and dangers which he had to encounter
in subduing his passions, and in vanquishing many obstacles which the
world and devil failed not to raise: but these trials were infinitely
subservient to his spiritual advancement, by rousing him continually to
greater vigilance and fervor, and by the many victories and the exercise
of all heroic virtues of which they furnished the occasions. In the
government of his kingdom, his thoughts were altogether turned upon the
means of best promoting the {463} welfare of his people. He enacted most
wholesome laws, which were held in high esteem in succeeding ages in
this island: he abolished the worship of idols throughout his kingdom,
and shut up their temples, or turned them into churches. His royal
palace at Canterbury he gave for the use of the archbishop St. Austin:
he founded in that city the cathedral called Christ Church, and built
without the walls the abbey and church of SS. Peter and Paul, afterwards
called St. Austin's. The foundation of St. Andrew's at Rochester, St.
Paul's at London, and many other churches, affords many standing proofs
of his munificence to the church, and the servants of God. He was
instrumental in bringing over to the faith of Christ, Sebert, king of
the East-Saxons, with his people, and Redwald, king of the East-Angles,
though the latter afterwards relapsing, pretended to join the worship of
idols with that of Christ. King Ethelbert, after having reigned
fifty-six years, exchanged his temporal diadem for an eternal crown, in
616, and was buried in the church of SS. Peter and Paul. His remains
were afterwards deposited under the high altar in the same church, then
called St. Austin's. St. Ethelbert is commemorated on this day in the
British and Roman Martyrologies: he was vulgarly called by our ancestors
St. Albert, under which name he is titular saint of several churches in
England; particularly of one in Norwich, which was built before the
cathedral, an account of which is given by Blomfield, in his history of
Norfolk, and the city of Norwich. Polydore Virgil tells us that a light
was kept always burning before the tomb of St. Ethelbert, and was
sometimes an instrument of miracles, even to the days of Henry VIII. See
Bede, Hist. Ang. l. 1, c. 25, &c. Henschen. t. 3, Febr. p. 471.

Footnotes:
1.  St. Greg. M. l. 9, ep. 60.


FEBRUARY XXV.

SAINT TARASIUS, CONFESSOR,

PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

From his life written by Ignatius, his disciple, afterwards bishop of
Nice, and from the church historians of his time. See Bollandus, t. 5,
p. 576. Fleury, B. 44.

A.D. 806.

TARASIUS was born about the middle of the eighth century. His parents
were both of patrician families. His father, George, was a judge in
great esteem for his well-known justice, and his mother, Eucratia, no
less celebrated for her piety. She brought him up in the practice of the
most eminent virtues. Above all things, she recommended to him to keep
no company but that of the most virtuous. The young man, by his talents
and virtue, gained the esteem of all, and was raised to the greatest
honors of the empire, being made consul, and afterwards first secretary
of state to the emperor Constantine and the empress Irene, his mother.
In the midst of the court, and in its highest honors, surrounded by all
that could flatter pride, or gratify sensuality, he led a life like that
of a religious man.

Leo, the Isaurian, his son Constantine Copronymus, and his grandson Leo,
surnamed Chazarus, three successive emperors, had established, with all
their power, the heresy of the Iconoclasts, or image-breakers, in the
{464} East. The empress Irene, wife to the last, was always privately a
Catholic, though an artful, ambitious woman. Her husband dying miserably
in 780, after a five years' reign, and having left his son Constantine,
but ten years old, under her guardianship, she so managed the nobility
in her favor as to get the regency and whole government of the state
into her hands, and put a stop to the persecution of the Catholics.
Paul, patriarch of Constantinople, the third of that name, had been
raised to that dignity by the late emperor. Though, contrary to the
dictates of his own conscience, he had conformed in some respects to the
then reigning heresy, he had however several good qualities; and was not
only singularly beloved by the people for his charity to the poor, but
highly esteemed by the empress and the whole court for his great
prudence. Finding himself indisposed, and being touched with remorse for
his condescension to the Iconoclasts in the former reign, without
communicating his design to any one, he quitted the patriarchal see, and
put on a religious habit in the monastery of Florus, in Constantinople.
The empress was no sooner informed of it, but taking with her the young
emperor, went to the monastery to dissuade a person so useful to her
from persisting in such a resolution, but all in vain, for the patriarch
assured them with tears, and bitter lamentations, that, in order to
repair the scandal he had given, he had taken an unalterable resolution
to end his days in that monastery; so desired them to provide the church
of Constantinople with a worthy pastor in his room. Being asked whom he
thought equal to the charge, he immediately named Tarasius, and dying
soon after this declaration, Tarasius was accordingly chosen patriarch
by the unanimous consent of the court, clergy, and people. Tarasius
finding it in vain to oppose his election, declared, however, that he
thought he could not in conscience accept of the government of a see
which had been cut off from the Catholic communion, but upon condition
that a general council should be called to compose the disputes which
divided the church at that time, in relation to holy images. This being
agreed to, he was solemnly declared patriarch, and consecrated soon
after, on Christmas-day. He was no sooner installed, but he sent his
synodal letters to pope Adrian, to whom the empress also wrote in her
own and her son's name on the subject of a general council; begging that
he would either come in person, or at least send some venerable and
learned men as his legates to Constantinople. Tarasius wrote likewise a
letter to the patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, wherein
he desires them to send their respective legates to the intended
council. His letter to the pope was to the same effect. The pope sent
his legates, as desired, and wrote by them to the emperor, the empress,
and the patriarch; applauded their zeal, showing at large the impiety of
the Iconoclast heresy, insisting that the false council of the
Iconoclasts, held under Copronymus for the establishment of Iconoclasm,
should be first condemned in presence of his legates, and conjuring them
before God to re-establish holy images at Constantinople, and in all
Greece, on the footing they were before. He recommends to the emperor
and empress his two legates to the council, who were Peter, archpriest
of the Roman church, and Peter, priest and abbot of St. Sabas, in Rome.
The eastern patriarchs being under the Saracen yoke, could not come for
fear of giving offence to their jealous masters, who prohibited, under
the strictest penalties, all commerce with the empire. However, with
much difficulty and through many dangers, they sent their deputies.

The legates of the pope and the oriental patriarchs being arrived, as
also the bishops under their jurisdiction, the council was opened on the
1st of August, in the church of the apostles at Constantinople, in 786.
But the assembly being disturbed by the violences of the Iconoclasts,
and desired {465} by the empress to break up and withdraw for the
present, the council met again the year following in the church of St.
Sophia, at Nice. The two legates from the pope are named first in the
Acts, St. Tarasms next, and after him the legates of the Oriental
patriarchs, namely, John, priest and monk, for the patriarchs of Antioch
and Jerusalem; and Thomas, priest and monk, for the patriarch of
Alexandria. The council consisted of three hundred and fifty bishops,
besides many abbots and other holy priests and confessors,[1] who having
declared the sense of the present church, in relation to the matter in
debate, which was found to be the allowing to holy pictures and images a
relative honor, the council was closed with the usual acclamations and
prayers for the prosperity of the emperor and empress. After which,
synodal letters were sent to all the churches, and in particular to the
pope, who approved the council.

The good patriarch, pursuant to the decrees of the synod, restored holy
images throughout the extent of his jurisdiction. He also labored
zealously to abolish simony, and wrote a letter upon that subject to
pope Adrian, to which, by saying it was the glory of the Roman church to
preserve the purity of the priesthood, he intimated that that church was
free from this reproach. The life of this holy patriarch was a model of
perfection to his clergy and people. His table had nothing of the
superfluity, nor his palace any thing of the magnificence, of several of
his predecessors. He allowed himself very little time for sleep, being
always up the first and last in his family. Reading and prayer filled
all his leisure hours. It was his pleasure, in imitation of our blessed
Redeemer, to serve others instead of being served by them;{466} on which
account he would scarce permit his own servants to do any thing for him.
Loving humility in himself, he sought sweetly to induce all others to
the love of that virtue. He banished the use of gold and scarlet from
among the clergy, and labored to extirpate all the irregularities among
the people. His charity and love for the poor seemed to surpass his
other virtues. He often took the dishes of meat from his table to
distribute among them with his own hands: and he assigned them a large
fixed revenue. And that none might be overlooked, he visited all the
houses and hospitals in Constantinople. In Lent, especially, his bounty
to them was incredible. His discourses were powerful exhortations to the
universal mortification of the senses, and he was particularly severe
against all theatrical entertainments. Some time after, the emperor
became enamored of Theodota, a maid of honor to his wife, the empress
Mary, whom he had always hated; and forgetting what he owed to God, he
was resolved to divorce her in 795, after seven years' cohabitation. He
used all his efforts to gain the patriarch, and sent a principal officer
to him for that purpose, accusing his wife of a plot to poison him. St.
Tarasius answered the messenger, saying: "I know not how the emperor can
bear the infamy of so scandalous an action in the sight of the universe:
nor how he will be able to hinder or punish adulteries and debaucheries,
if he himself set such an example. Tell him that I will rather suffer
death and all manner of torments than consent to his design." The
emperor hoping to prevail with him by flattery, sent for him to the
palace, and said to him: "I can conceal nothing from you, whom I regard
as my father. No one can deny but I may divorce one who has attempted my
life. She deserves death or perpetual penance." He then produced a
vessel, as he pretended, full of the poison prepared for him. The
patriarch, with good reason, judging the whole to be only an artful
contrivance to impose upon him, answered: that he was too well convinced
that his passion for Theodota was at the bottom of all his complaints
against the empress. He added, that, though she were guilty of the crime
he laid to her charge, his second marriage during her life, with any
other, would still be contrary to the law of God, and that he would draw
upon himself the censures of the church by attempting it. The monk John,
who had been legate of the eastern patriarchs in the seventh council,
being present, spoke also very resolutely to the emperor on the subject,
so that the pretors and patricians threatened to stab him on the spot:
and the emperor, boiling with rage, drove them both from his presence.
As soon as they were gone, he turned the empress Mary out of his palace,
and obliged her to put on a religious veil. Tarasius persisting in his
refusal to marry him to Theodota, the ceremony was performed by Joseph,
treasurer of the church of Constantinople. This scandalous example was
the occasion of several governors and other powerful men divorcing their
wives, or taking more than one at the same time, and gave great
encouragement to public lewdness. SS. Plato and Theodorus separated
themselves from the emperor's communion to show their abhorrence of his
crime. But Tarasius did not think it prudent to proceed to
excommunication, as he had threatened, apprehensive that the violence of
his temper, when further provoked, might carry him still greater
lengths, and prompt him to re-establish the heresy which he had taken
such effectual measures to suppress. Thus the patriarch, by his
moderation, prevented the ruin of religion, but drew upon himself the
emperor's resentment, who persecuted him many ways during the remainder
of his reign. Not content to set spies and guards over him under the
name of Syncelli, who watched all his actions, and suffered no one to
speak to him without their leave, he banished many of his domestics and
relations. This confinement gave the saint the more leisure for
contemplation, and he {467} never ceased in it to recommend his flock to
God. The ambitious Irene, finding that all her contrivances to render
her son odious to his subjects had proved ineffectual to her design,
which was to engross the whole power to herself, having gained over to
her party the principal officers of the court and army, she made him
prisoner, and caused his eyes to be plucked out; this was executed with
so much violence that the unhappy prince died of it in 797. After this
she reigned alone five years, during which she recalled all the
banished; but at length met with the deserved reward of her ambition and
cruelty from Nicephorus, a patrician, and the treasurer general; who, in
802, usurped the empire, and having deposed her, banished her into the
isle of Lesbos, where she soon after died with grief.

St. Tarasius, on the death of the late emperor, having interdicted and
deposed the treasurer Joseph, who had married and crowned Theodota, St.
Plato, and others, who had censured his lenity, became thoroughly
reconciled to him. The saint, under his successor Nicephorus, persevered
peaceably in his practices of penance, and in the functions of his
pastoral charge. In his last sickness he still continued to offer daily
the holy sacrifice as long as he was able to move. A little before his
death he fell into a kind of trance, as the author of his life, who was
an eye-witness, relates, wherein he was heard to dispute and argue with
a number of accusers, very busy in sifting his whole life, and objecting
all they could to it. He seemed in a great fright and agitation on this
account, and, defending himself, answered every thing laid to his
charge. This filled all present with fear, seeing the endeavors of the
enemy of man to find something to condemn even in the life of so holy
and so irreprehensible a bishop. But a great serenity succeeded, and the
holy man gave up his soul to God in peace, on the 25th of February, 806,
having sat twenty-one years and two months. God honored his memory with
miracles, some of which are related by the author of his life. His
festival began to be celebrated under his successor. The Latin and Greek
churches both honor his memory on this day. Fourteen years after his
decease, Leo, the Armenian, the Iconoclast emperor, dreamed a little
before his own death, that he saw St. Tarasius highly incensed against
him, and heard him command one Michael to stab him. Leo, judging this
Michael to be a monk in the saint's monastery, ordered him the next
morning to be sought for, and even tortured some of the religious to
oblige them to a discovery of the person: but it happened there was none
of that name among them; and Leo was killed six days after by Michael
Balbus.

       *       *       *       *       *

The virtue of St. Tarasius was truly great, because constant and crowned
with perseverance, though exposed to continual dangers of illusion or
seduction, amidst the artifices of hypocrites and a wicked court. St.
Chrysostom observes,[2] that the path of virtue is narrow, and lies
between precipices, in which it is easier for the traveller to be seized
with giddiness even near the end of his course, and fall. Hence this
father most grievously laments the misfortune of king Ozias, who, after
long practising the most heroic virtues, fell, and perished through
pride; and he strenuously exhorts all who walk in the service of God,
constantly to live in fear, watchfulness, humility, and compunction. "A
soul," says he, "often wants not so much spurring in the beginning of
her conversion; her own fervor and cheerfulness make her run vigorously.
But this fervor, unless it be continually nourished, cools by degrees:
then the devil assails her with all his might. Pirates wait for and
principally attack ships when they are upon the return home laden with
{468} riches, rather than empty vessels going out of the port. Just so
the devil, when he sees a soul has gathered great spiritual riches, by
fasts, prayer, alms, chastity, and all other virtues, when he sees our
vessel fraught with rich commodities, then he falls upon her, and seeks
on all sides to break in. What exceedingly aggravates the evil, is the
extreme difficulty of ever rising again after such a fall. To err in the
beginning may be in part a want of experience; but to fall after a long
course is mere negligence, and can deserve no excuse or pardon."

Footnotes:
1.  In the third session the letters of the patriarchs of Alexandria,
    Antioch, and Jerusalem were read, all teaching the same doctrine of
    paying a relative honor to sacred images, no less than the letters
    of pope Adrian. Their deputies, John and Thomas, then added, that
    the absence of those patriarchs should not affect the authority of
    the council, because the tyranny under which they lived made their
    presence impossible, and because they had sent their deputies and
    professions of faith by letter: that none of the oriental patriarchs
    had been at the sixth general Council, laboring then under the yoke
    of the barbarians, yet it was not less an [oe]cumenical synod,
    especially "as the apostolic Roman pope agreed to it, and presided
    in it by his legates." This is a clear testimony of the eastern
    churches in favor of the authority of the holy see in general
    councils, and it cannot in the least be suspected of fluttery. In
    the fourth session were read many passages of the fathers in favor
    of the relative honor due to holy images. After which, all cried
    out, they were sons of obedience, who placed their glory in
    following the tradition of their holy mother the church; and they
    pronounced many anathemas against all image-breakers, that is, those
    who do not honor holy images, or those who call them Idols. In the
    end they add a confession of filth, in which they declare, that they
    honor the mother of God, who is above all the heavenly powers: then
    the angels, apostles, prophets, martyrs, doctors, and all the
    saints; as also their pictures: for though the angels are
    incorporeal, they have appeared like men. This profession of faith
    was subscribed by the pope's legates, St. Turasius, the legates of
    the three other patriarchs, and three hundred and one bishops
    present, besides a great many priests and deacons, deputies of
    absent bishops, and by one hundred and thirty abbots. In the fifth
    session were read many passages of fathers falsified and corrupted
    by the Iconoclasts, as was clearly shown. The archpriest, the pope's
    legate, demanded that an image should be then set up in the midst of
    the assembly, and honored by all, which was done; and that the books
    written against holy images night be condemned and burned, which the
    council also ratified. In the sixth session the sham council of the
    Iconoclasts under Copronymus was condemned and refuted as to every
    article: as first, that it falsely styled itself a _general_
    council; for it was not received but anathematized by the other
    bishops of the church. Secondly, because the pope of Rome had no
    ways concurred to it, neither by himself nor by his legates, nor by
    a circular letter, according to the custom of councils: nor had the
    western bishops assisted at it. Thirdly, there had not been obtained
    any consent of the patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem,
    nor of the bishops of their respective districts. These are
    conditions necessary to a general council, which were all wanting to
    that sham synod. The council goes on refuting it, because it accused
    the church of idolatry; which is giving the lie to Christ, whose
    kingdom, according to scripture, is everlasting, and whose power
    over hell can never be wrested from him. To accuse the whole church
    is to do fill injury to Christ. They added, that the sham synod had
    contradicted itself by admitting that the six general councils had
    preserved the faith entire, and yet condemned the use of images,
    which it must allow to be more ancient than the sixth council, and
    which is of as great antiquity as the apostolic age. And that
    whereas the same synod had advanced that the clergy having fallen
    Into Idolatry, God had raised faithful emperors to destroy the
    fortresses of the devil; the council of Nice vehemently condemns
    this, because the bishops are the depositaries of tradition, and not
    the emperors. It adds, that the Iconoclasts falsely called the
    blessed Eucharist the only image, for it is not an image nor a
    figure, but the true body and blood of Christ. In the seventh
    session was read the definition of filth, declaring, that images
    ought to be set up in churches as well as crosses, (which last the
    Iconoclasts allowed of,) also to be figured on the sacred vessels
    and ornaments, on the walls, ceilings, houses, &c. For the oftener
    people behold holy images or pictures, the oftener are they excited
    to the remembrance of what they represent: that these images are to
    be honored, but not with the worship called Latria, which can only
    be given to God: that they shall be honored with incense and
    candles, as the cross, the gospels, and other holy things are, all
    according to the pious customs of the ancients. For the honor paid
    to images, passes to the archetypes, or things represented, and he
    who reveres the image reveres the person it represents. This the
    council declared to be the doctrine of the fathers, and tradition of
    the Catholic church.
2.  Chrysos. Hom. 3. de Ozia, t. 6, p. 14. ed Ben.

ST. VICTORINUS, AND SIX COMPANIONS, MARTYRS.

From their genuine acts published from the Chaldaic by Monsignor Steph.
Assemani. Act. Mart. Occid. t. 2. p. 60. See also Henschenius on this
day.

A.D. 284.

THESE seven martyrs were citizens of Corinth, and confessed their faith
before Tertius the proconsul, in their own country, in 249, in the
beginning of the reign of Decius. After their torments they passed into
Egypt, whether by compulsion or by voluntary banishment is not known,
and there finished their martyrdom at Diospolis, capital of Thebais, in
the reign of Numerian, in 284, under the governor Sabinus. After the
governor had tried the constancy of the martyrs by racks, scourges, and
various inventions of cruelty, he caused Victorinus to be thrown into a
great mortar, (the Greek Menology says, of marble.) The executioners
began by pounding his feet and legs, saying to him at every stroke:
"Spare yourself, wretch. It depends upon you to escape this death, if
you will only renounce your new God." The prefect grew furious at his
constancy, and at length commanded his head to be beat to pieces. The
sight of this mortar, so far from casting a damp on his companions,
seemed to inspire them with the greater ardor to be treated in the like
manner. So that when the tyrant threatened Victor with the same death,
he only desired him to hasten the execution; and, pointing to the
mortar, said: "In that is salvation and true felicity prepared for me!"
He was immediately cast into it and beaten to death. Nicephorus, the
third martyr, was impatient of delay, and leaped of his own accord into
the bloody mortar. The judge, enraged at his boldness, commanded not
one, but many executioners at once to pound him in the same manner. He
caused Claudian, the fourth, to be chopped in pieces, and his bleeding
joints to be thrown at the feet of those that were yet living. He
expired after his feet, hands, arms, legs, and thighs were cut off. The
tyrant, pointing to his mangled limbs and scattered bones, said to the
other three: "It concerns you to avoid this punishment; I do not compel
you to suffer." The martyrs answered with one voice: "On the contrary,
we rather pray that if you have any other more exquisite torment you
would inflict it on us. We are determined never to violate the fidelity
which we owe to God, or to deny Jesus Christ our Saviour, for he is our
God, from whom we have our being, and to whom alone we aspire." The
tyrant became almost distracted with fury, and commanded Diodorus to be
burned alive, Serapion to be beheaded, and Papias to be drowned. This
happened on the 25th of February; on which day the Roman and other
western Martyrologies name them; but the Greek Menæa, and the Menology
of the emperor Basil Porphyrogenitus, honor them on the 21st of January,
the day of their confession at Corinth.

{469}

ST. WALBURGE,[1] V. ABBESS.

SHE was daughter to the holy king St. Richard, and sister to SS.
Willibald and Winebald; was born in the kingdom of the West-Saxons in
England, and educated in the monastery of Winburn in Dorsetshire, where
she took the religious veil. After having passed twenty-seven years in
this holy nunnery, she was sent by the abbess Tetta, under the conduct
of St. Lioba, with several others, into Germany, at the request of her
cousin, St. Boniface.[2] Her first settlement in that country was under
St. Lioba, in the monastery of Bischofsheim, in the diocese of Mentz.
Two years after she was appointed abbess of a nunnery founded by her two
brothers, at Heidenheim in Suabia, (now subject to the duke of
Wirtemberg,) where her brother, St. Winebald, took upon him at the same
time the government of an abbey of monks. This town is situated in the
diocese of Aichstadt, in Franconia, upon the borders of Bavaria, of
which St. Willibald, our saint's other brother, had been consecrated
bishop by St. Boniface. So eminent was the spirit of evangelical
charity, meekness, and piety, which all the words and actions of St.
Walburge breathed, and so remarkable was the fruit which her zeal and
example produced in others, that when St. Winebald died, in 760, she was
charged with a superintendency also over the abbey of monks till her
death. St. Willibald caused the remains of their brother Winebald to be
removed to Aichstadt, sixteen years after his death; at which ceremony
St. Walburge assisted. Two years after she passed herself to eternal
rest; on the 25th of February, in 779, having lived twenty-five years at
Heidenheim. Her relics were translated, in the year 870, to Aichstadt,
on the 21st of September, and the principal part still remains there in
the church anciently called of the Holy Cross, but since that time of
St. Walburge. A considerable portion is venerated with singular devotion
at Furnes, where, by the pious zeal of Baldwin, surnamed of Iron, it was
received on the 25th of April, and enshrined on the 1st of May, on which
day her chief festival is placed in the Belgic Martyrologies, imitated
by Baronius in the Roman. From Furnes certain small parts have been
distributed in several other towns in the Low Countries, especially at
Antwerp, Brussels, Tiel, Arnhem, Groningue, and Zutphen; also Cologne,
Wirtemberg, Ausberg, Christ Church at Canterbury, and other places, were
enriched with particles of this treasure from Aichstadt. St. Walburge is
titular saint of many other great churches in Germany, Brabant,
Flanders, and several provinces of France, especially in Poitou, Perche,
Normandy, Burgundy, Lorraine, Alsace, &c. Her festival, on account of
various translations of her relics, is marked on several days of the
year, but the principal is kept in most places on the day of her death.
A portion of her relics was preserved in a rich shrine in the repository
of relics in the electoral palace of Hanover, as appears from the
catalogue printed in folio at Hanover in 1713. See her life written by
Wolfhard, a devout priest of Aichstadt, in the following century, about
the year {470} 890, again by Adelbold, nineteenth bishop of Utrecht, (of
which diocese Heda calls her patroness;) thirdly, by an anonymous
author; fourthly, by the poet Medibard; fifthly, by Philip, bishop of
Aichstadt; sixthly, by an anonymous author, at the request of the nuns
of St. Walburge of Aichstadt. All these six lives are published by
Henschenius. See also Raderus, in Bavaria Sancta, t. 3, p. 4. Gretser,
de Sanctis Eystettensibus, &c.

Footnotes:
1.  This saint is corruptly called, in Perche, St. Gauburge, in Normandy
    and Champagne, St. Vaubourg, about Luzon, St. Falbourg, in ether
    parts of Poitou, St. Avougourg, in Germany, Walburge, Waltpurde,
    Walpourc, and in some places Warpurg. Her English-Saxon name
    Walburge, is the same with the Greek Eucharia, and signifies
    gracious. See Camden's Remains.
2.  St. Boniface being sensible of how great importance it is for the
    public advantage of the church, and the general advancement of the
    kingdom of Christ in the souls of men, called over from England into
    Germany many holy nuns whom he judged best qualified to instruct and
    train up others in the maxims and spirit of the Gospel. Among these
    he placed St. Tecla in the monastery of Kitzingen, founded by
    Alheide, daughter of king Pepin; St. Lioba was appointed by him
    abbess at Bischofsheim; St. Cunihilt, aunt of St. Lulius, and her
    daughter Berathgit, called also Bergitis, were mistresses of
    religious schools in Thuringia, and were honored in that country
    among the saints. Cunihildls is also called Gunthildis and
    Bilhildis. See Thuringia Sacra, printed at Frankfort, an. 1737.

SAINT CÆSARIUS, C.

HE was a physician, and brother to St. Gregory Nazianzen. When the
latter repaired to Cæsarea, in Palestine, where the sacred studies
flourished, Cæsarius went to Alexandria, and with incredible success ran
through the circle of the sciences, among which oratory, philosophy, and
especially medicine, fixed his attention. In this last he became the
first man of his age. He perfected himself in this profession at
Constantinople, but excused himself from settling there, as the city and
the emperor Constantius earnestly requested him to do. He was afterwards
recalled thither, singularly honored by Julian the Apostate, nominated
his first physician, and excepted in several edicts which that prince
published against the Christians. He resisted strenuously the
insinuating discourses and artifices with which that prince endeavored
to seduce him, and was prevailed upon by the remonstrances of his father
and brother to resign his places at court, and prefer a retreat,
whatever solicitations Julian could use to detain him. Jovian honorably
restored him, and Valens, moreover, created him treasurer of his own
private purse, and of Bithynia. A narrow escape in an earthquake at
Nice, in Bithynia, in 368, worked so powerfully on his mind, that he
renounced the world, and died shortly after, in the beginning of the
year 369, leaving the poor his heirs. The Greeks honor his memory on the
9th of March, as Nicephorus testifies, (Hist. l. 11, c. 19,) and as
appears from the Menæa: in the Roman Martyrology he is named on the 25th
of February.


FEBRUARY XXVI.

ST. ALEXANDER, CONFESSOR,

PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA.

From Theodoret, St. Athanasius, &c. See Hennant, Tillemont, t. 6, pp.
213, 240. Ceillier, t. 4.

A.D. 326.

ST. ALEXANDER succeeded St. Achillas in the see of Alexandria, in 313.
He was a man of apostolic doctrine and life, mild, affable, exceeding
charitable to the poor, and full of faith, zeal, and fervor. He assumed
to the sacred ministry chiefly those who had first sanctified themselves
in holy solitude, and was happy in the choice of bishops throughout all
Egypt. The devil, enraged to see the havoc made in his usurped empire
over mankind, by the disrepute idolatry was generally fallen into, used
his utmost endeavors to repair the loss to his infernal kingdom, by
procuring the establishment of a most impious heresy. Arius, a priest of
Alexandria, was his {471} principal instrument for that purpose. This
heresiarch was well versed in profane literature, was a subtle
dialectician, had an exterior show of virtue, and an insinuating
behavior; but was a monster of pride, vain-glory, ambition, envy, and
jealousy. Under an affected modesty he concealed a soul full of deceit,
and capable of all crimes. He joined Meletius, the bishop of Lycopolis,
in the beginning of his schism against St. Peter, our saint's
predecessor, in 300; but quitting that party after some time, St. Peter
was so well satisfied of the sincerity of his repentance, that he
ordained him deacon. Soon after Arius discovered his turbulent spirit,
in accusing his archbishop, and raising disturbances in favor of the
Meletians. This obliged St. Peter to excommunicate him, nor could he
ever be induced to revoke that sentence. But his successor, St.
Achillas, upon his repentance, admitted him to his communion, ordained
him priest, and made him curate of the church of Baucales, one of the
quarters of Alexandria. Giving way to spite and envy, on seeing St.
Alexander preferred before him to the see of Alexandria,[1] he became
his mortal enemy: and as the saint's life and conduct were
irreproachable, all his endeavors to oppose him were levelled at his
doctrine, in opposition to which the heresiarch denied the divinity of
Christ. This error he at first taught only in private; but having, about
the year 319, gained followers to support him, he boldly advanced his
blasphemies in his sermons, affirming, with Ebion, Artemas, and
Theodotus, that Christ was not truly God; adding, what no heretic had
before asserted in such a manner, that the Son was a creature, and made
out of nothing; that there was a time when he did not exist, and that he
was capable of sinning, with other such impieties. St. Athanasius
informs us,[2] that he also held that Christ had no other soul than his
created divinity, or spiritual substance, made before the world:
consequently, that it truly suffered on the cross, descended into hell,
and rose again from the dead. Arius engaged in his errors two other
curates of the city, a great many virgins, twelve deacons, seven
priests, and two bishops.

One Colluthus, another curate of Alexandria, and many others, declaimed
loudly against these blasphemies. The heretics were called Arians, and
these called the Catholics Colluthians. St. Alexander, who was one of
the mildest of men, first made use of soft and gentle methods to recover
Arius to the truth, and endeavored to gain him by sweetness and
exhortations. Several were offended at his lenity, and Colluthus carried
his resentment so far as to commence a schism; but this was soon at an
end, and the author of it returned to the Catholic communion. But St.
Alexander, finding Arius's party increase, and all his endeavors to
reclaim him ineffectual, he summoned him to appear in an assembly of his
clergy, where, being found obstinate and incorrigible, he was
excommunicated, together with his adherents. This sentence of
excommunication the saint confirmed soon after, about the end of the
year 320, in a council at Alexandria, at the head of near one hundred
bishops, at which Arius was also present, who, repeating his former
blasphemies, and adding still more horrible ones was unanimously
condemned by the synod, which loaded him and all his followers with
anathemas. Arius lay hid for some time after this in Alexandria, but
being discovered, went into Palestine, and found means to gain over to
his party Eusebius, bishop of Cæsarea, also Theognis of Nice, and
Eusebius of Nicomedia, which last was, of all others, his most declared
protector, and had great authority with the emperor Constantine, who
resided even at Nicomedia, or rather with his sister Constantia. Yet it
is clear, from Constantine himself, that he was a wicked, proud,
ambitious, intriguing man. {472} It is no wonder, after his other
crimes, that he became an heresiarch, and that he should have an
ascendant over many weak, but well-meaning men, on account of his high
credit and reputation at court. After several letters that had passed
between these two serpents, Arius retired to him at Nicomedia, and there
composed his Thalia, a poem stuffed with his own praises, and his
impious heresies.

Alexander wrote to the pope, St. Sylvester, and, in a circular letter,
to the other bishops of the church, giving them an account of Arius's
heresy and condemnation. Arius, Eusebius, and many others, wrote to our
saint, begging that he would take off his censures. The emperor
Constantine also exhorted him by letter to a reconciliation with Arius,
and sent it by the great Osius to Alexandria, with express orders to
procure information of the state of the affair. The deputy returned to
the emperor better informed of the heresiarch's impiety and malice, and
the zeal, virtue, and prudence of St. Alexander: and having given him a
just and faithful account of the matter, convinced him of the necessity
of a general council, as the only remedy adequate to the growing evil,
and capable of restoring peace to the church. St. Alexander had already
sent him the same advice in several letters.[3] That prince,
accordingly, by letters of respect, invited the bishops to Nice, in
Bithynia, and defrayed their expenses. They assembled in the imperial
palace of Nice, on the 19th of June, in 325, being three hundred and
eighteen in number, the most illustrious prelates of the church, among
whom were many glorious confessors of the faith. The principal were our
saint, St. Eustathius, patriarch of Antioch, St. Macarius of Jerusalem,
Cecilian, archbishop of Carthage, St. Paphnutius, St. Potamon, St. Paul
of Neocesarea, St. James of Nisibis, &c. St. Sylvester could not come in
person, by reason of his great age; but he sent his legates, who
presided in his name.[4] The emperor Constantine entered the council
without guards, nor would he sit till he was desired by the bishops,
says Eusebius.[5] Theodoret says,[6] that he asked the bishops' leave
before he would enter.

The blasphemies of Arius, who was himself present, were canvassed for
several days. Marcellus of Ancyra, and St. Athanasius, whom St.
Alexander had brought with him, and whom he treated with the greatest
esteem, discovered all the impiety they contained, and confuted the
Arians with invincible strength. The heretics, fearing the indignation
of the council, used a great deal of dissimulation in admitting the
Catholic terms. The fathers, to exclude all their subtleties, declared
the Son consubstantial to the {473} Father, which they inserted in the
profession of their faith, called the Nicene creed, which was drawn up
by Osius, and to which all subscribed, except a small number of Arians.
At first they were seventeen, but Eusebius of Cæsarea received the creed
the day following, as did all the others except five, namely, Eusebius
of Nicomedia, Theognis of Nice, Marie of Chalcedon, Theonas and Secundus
of Lybia, the two bishops who had first joined Arius. Of these also
Eusebius, Marie, and Theognis conformed through fear of banishment. The
Arian historian Philostorgius[7] pretends to excuse his heroes, Eusebius
of Nicomedia and Theognis, by saying they inserted an iota, and
signed[8] like in substance, instead of of the same substance;[9] a
fraud in religion which would no way have excused their hypocrisy.
Arius, Theonas, and Secundus, with some Egyptian priests, were banished
by the order of Constantine, and Illyricum was the place of their exile.
The council received Meletius and his schismatical adherents upon their
repentance; but they afterwards relapsed into their schism, and part of
them joined the Arians. The council added twenty canons of discipline,
and was closed about the 25th of August.[10] Constantine gave all the
prelates a magnificent entertainment, and dismissed them with great
presents to their respective sees. St. Alexander, after this triumph of
the faith, returned to Alexandria; where, after having recommended St.
Athanasius for his successor, he died in 326, on the 26th of February,
on which day he is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology.

       *       *       *       *       *

A true disciple of Christ, by a sincere spirit of humility and distrust
in himself, is, as it were, naturally inclined to submission to all
authority appointed by God, in which he finds his peace, security, and
joy. This happy disposition of his soul is his secure fence against the
illusions of self-sufficiency and blind pride, which easily betrays men
into the most fatal errors. On the contrary, pride is a spirit of revolt
and independence: he who is possessed with this devil is fond of his own
conceits, self-confident, and obstinate. However strong the daylight of
evidence may be in itself, such a one will endeavor to shut up all the
avenues of light, though some beams force themselves into his soul to
disturb his repose, and strike deep the sting of remorse: jealousy and a
love of opposition foster the disorder, and render it incurable. This is
the true portraiture of Arius, and other heresiarchs and firebrands of
the universe. Can we sufficiently detest jealousy and pride, the fatal
source of so great evils? Do we not discover, by fatal symptoms, that we
ourselves harbor this monster in our breasts? Should the eye be jealous
that the ear hears, and disturb the functions of this or the other
senses, instead of regarding them as its own and enjoying their mutual
advantage and comfort, what confusion would ensue!

Footnotes:
1.  Theodoret, l. 1, c. {}. Socrates, l. 1, c. 5.
2.  L. de Adv. Chr., p. 635.
3.  Rufinus (l. 1, Hist. c. 1) says, that the council was assembled by
    the advice of the priests. Ex sacerdotum sententia. And the third
    council of Constantinople attributes convocation to St. Sylvester as
    much as to the emperor. Constantinus et Sylvester magnam in Nicea
    synodum congregabant. Conc. Constantinopolitanum tertium, Act. 18,
    p. 1049, t. 6. Conc.
4.  This is acknowledged by the oriental bishops, assembled at
    Constantinople, in 552, (t. 5, Conc. pp. 337, 338.) The legates were
    Vito, or Victor, and Vincent, two Roman priests, to whom the pope
    joined Osius, bishop of Cordova, as being the most renowned prelate
    of the West, and highly esteemed by the emperor. Ipse etiam Osius ex
    Hispanis nominis et famæ celebritate insignis, qui Sylvestri
    episcoli maximæ Romæ locum obtinebat, una cum Romanis presbyteris
    Vitone et Vincentio adfuit; says Gelasius of Cyzicus. (Hist. Conc.
    Nicen. l. 2, c. 5, t. 2. Conc, p. 155.) The same is affirmed by pope
    Adrian, (t. 6, Conc. p. 1810.) In all the editions of this council,
    Osius with the two priests. Vito and Vincent, is first named among
    the subscribers. Socrates also names them first, and before the
    patriarchs. Osius Episc. Cordubæ, ita credo, ut sup. dictum est.
    Vito et Vincentius presbyteri urbis Romæ. Egypti Alexander Episc.
    Antiochiæ Eustathius, &c. (Socr. l. 1, c.13.) It is then false what
    Blondel (de la primantè de l'Eglise, p. 1195) pretends, that St.
    Eustathius of Antioch presided. He is indeed called, by Facundus,
    (l. 8, c. 1, & l. 11, c. 1.) the first of the council; and by
    Nicephorus, (Chronol. p. 146,) the chief of the bishops, because he
    was the first among the orientals; for St. Alexander of Egypt was
    certainly before him in rank. Theodoret (l. 1, c. 6) says, he sat
    the first on the right hand in the assembly. And it appears from
    Eusebius, that the pope's legates and the patriarch of Alexandria
    sat at the head on the left side. This might be the more honorable
    on several accounts, as being on the right to those that came in. It
    is certain that the pope's legate presided in the council of
    Chalcedon where they, in the same manner, sat first on the left
    above the patriarch of Alexandria, and the patriarch of Antioch was
    placed on the right.
5.  L. 3. de vit. Constant. c. 10.
6.  L. 1, c. 7.
7.  L. 1, c. 9.
8.  [Greek: Homoiusios].
9.  [Greek: Homousious].
10. The Arabic canons are falsely ascribed to the Nicene council, being
    collected out of other ancient synods.

ST. PORPHYRIUS, BISHOP OF GAZA, CONFESSOR

From his life, written with great accuracy by his faithful disciple
Mark. See Fleury, t. 5. Tillemont, t. 10. Chatelain, p. 777. In the
king's library at Paris is a Greek MS. life Of St. Porphyrius, (abridged
from that of Mark,) which has never been translated.

A.D. 420.

PORPHYRIUS, a native of Thessalonica in Macedonia, was of a noble and
wealthy family. The desire of renouncing the world made him leave his
{474} friends and country at twenty-five years of age, in 378, to pass
into Egypt, where he consecrated himself to God in a famous monastery in
the desert of Sceté. After five years spent there in the penitential
exercises of a monastic life, he went into Palestine to visit the holy
places of Jerusalem. After this he took up his abode in a cave near the
Jordan, where he passed other five years in great austerity, till he
fell sick, when a complication of disorders obliged him to leave that
place and return to Jerusalem. There he never failed daily to visit
devoutly all the holy places, leaning on a staff, for he was too weak to
stand upright. It happened about the same time that Mark, an Asiatic,
and the author of his life, came to Jerusalem with the same intent,
where he made some stay. He was much edified at the devotion with which
Porphyrius continually visited the place of our Lord's resurrection, and
the other oratories. And seeing him one day labor with great pain in
getting up the stairs in the chapel built by Constantine, he ran to him
to offer him his assistance, which Porphyrius refused, saying: "It is
not just that I who am come hither to beg pardon for my sins, should be
eased by any one: rather let me undergo some labor and inconvenience
that God, beholding it, may have compassion on me." He, in this
condition, never omitted his usual visits of piety to the holy places,
and daily partook of the mystical table, that is, of the holy sacrament.
And as to his distemper, so much did he contemn it, that he seemed to be
sick in another's body and not in his own. His confidence in God always
supported him. The only thing which afflicted him was, that his fortune
had not been sold before this for the use of the poor. This he
commissioned Mark to do for him, who accordingly set out for
Thessalonica, and in three months' time returned to Jerusalem with money
and effects to the value of four thousand five hundred pieces of gold.
When the blessed man saw him, he embraced him with tears of joy for his
safe and speedy return. But Porphyrius was now so well recovered, that
Mark scarce knew him to be the same person; for his body had no signs of
its former decay, and his face looked full, fresh, and painted with a
healthy red. He, perceiving his friend's amazement at his healthy looks,
said to him with a smile, "Be not surprised, Mark, to see me in perfect
health and strength, but admire the unspeakable goodness of Christ, who
can easily cure what is despaired of by men." Mark asked him by what
means he had recovered. He replied: "Forty days ago, being in extreme
pain, I made a shift to reach Mount Calvary, where, fainting away, I
fell into a kind of trance or ecstasy, during which I seemed to see our
Saviour on the cross, and the good thief in the same condition near him.
I said to Christ,_ Lord, Remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom_:
whereupon he ordered the thief to come to my assistance, who, raising me
off the ground on which I lay, bade me go to Christ. I ran to him, and
he, coming off his cross, said to me: _Take this wood_ (meaning his
cross) _into thy custody_. In obedience to him, methought I laid it on
my shoulders, and carried it some way. I awaked soon after, and have
been free from pain ever since, and without the least appearance of my
having ever ailed any thing." Mark was so edified with the holy man's
discourse and good example, that he became more penetrated with esteem
and affection for him than ever, which made him desirous of living
always with him in order to his own improvement; for he seemed to have
attained to a perfect mastery over all his passions: he was endued at
the same time with a divine prudence, an eminent spirit of prayer, and
the gift of tears. Being also well versed in the holy scriptures and
spiritual knowledge, and no stranger to profane learning, he confounded
all the infidels and heretics who attempted to dispute with him. As to
the money and effects which Mark had brought him, he distributed all
among the necessitous in Palestine and Egypt, so {475} that, in a very
short time, he had reduced himself to the necessity of laboring for his
daily food. He therefore learned to make shoes and dress leather, while
Mark, being well skilled in writing, got a handsome livelihood by
copying books, and to spare. He therefore desired the saint to partake
of his earnings. But Porphyrius replied, in the words of St. Paul: _He
that doth not work let him not eat_. He led this laborious and
penitential life till he was forty years of age, when the bishop of
Jerusalem ordained him priest, though much against his will, and
committed to him the keeping of the holy cross: this was in 393. The
saint changed nothing in his austere penitential life, feeding only upon
roots and the coarsest bread, and not eating till after sunset, except
on Sundays and holidays, when he ate at noon, and added a little oil and
cheese: and on account of a great weakness of stomach, he mingled a very
small quantity of wine in the water he drank. This was his method of
living till his death. Being elected bishop of Gaza, in 396, John, the
metropolitan and archbishop of Cæsarea, wrote to the patriarch of
Jerusalem to desire him to send over Porphyrius, that he might consult
him on certain difficult passages of scripture. He was sent accordingly,
but charged to be back in seven days. Porphyrius, receiving this order,
seemed at first disturbed, but said: "God's will be done." That evening
he called Mark, and said to him: "Brother Mark, let us go and venerate
the holy places and the sacred cross, for it will be long before we
shall do it again." Mark asked him why he said so. He answered: Our
Saviour had appeared to him the night before, and said: "Give up the
treasure of the cross which you have in custody, for I will marry you to
a wife, poor indeed and despicable, but of great piety and virtue. Take
care to adorn her well; for, however contemptible she may appear, she is
my sister." "This," said he, "Christ signified to me last night: and I
fear, in consequence, my being charged with the sins of others, while I
labor to expiate my own; but the will of God must be obeyed." When they
had venerated the holy places and the sacred cross, and Porphyrius had
prayed long before it, and with many tears, he shut up the cross in its
golden case, and delivered the keys to the bishop; and having obtained
his blessing, he and his disciple Mark set out the next day, with three
others, among whom was one Barochas, a person whom the saint had found
lying in the street almost dead, and had taken care of, cured, and
instructed; who ever after served him with Mark. They arrived the next
day, which was Saturday, at Cæsarea. The archbishop obliged them to sup
with him. After spiritual discourses they took a little sleep, and then
rose to assist at the night service. Next morning the archbishop bid the
Gazæans lay hold on St. Porphyrius, and, while they held him, ordained
him bishop. The holy man wept bitterly, and was inconsolable for being
promoted to a dignity he judged himself so unfit for. The Gazæans,
however, performed their part in endeavoring to comfort him, and, having
assisted at the Sunday office, and stayed one day more at Cæsarea, they
set out for Gaza, lay at Diospolis, and, late on Wednesday night,
arrived at Gaza, much harassed and fatigued. For the heathens living in
the villages near Gaza, having notice of their coming, had so damaged
the roads in several places, and clogged them with thorns and logs of
wood, that they were scarce passable. They also contrived to raise such
a smoke and stench, that the holy men were in danger of being blinded or
suffocated.

There happened that year a very great drought, which the pagans ascribed
to the coming of the new Christian bishop, saying that their god Marnas
had foretold that Porphyrius would bring public calamities and disasters
on their city. In Gaza stood a famous temple of that idol, which the
emperor Theodosius the Elder had commanded to be shut up, but not
demolished, {476} on account of its beautiful structure. The governor
afterwards had permitted the heathens to open it again. As no rain fell
the two first months after St. Porphyrius's arrival, the idolaters, in
great affliction, assembled in this temple to offer sacrifices, and make
supplications to their god Marnas, whom they called the Lord of rains.
These they repeated for seven days, going also to a place of prayer out
of the town; but seeing all their endeavors ineffectual, they lost all
hopes of a supply of what they so much wanted. A dearth ensuing, the
Christians, to the number of two hundred and eighty, women and children
included, after a day's fast, and watching the following night in
prayer, by the order of their holy bishop, went out in procession to St.
Timothy's church, in which lay the relics of the holy martyr St. Meuris,
and of the confessor St. Thees, singing hymns of divine praise. But at
their return to the city they found the gates shut against them, which
the heathens refused to open. In this situation the Christians, and St.
Porphyrius above the rest, addressed almighty God with redoubled fervor
for the blessing so much wanted; when in a short time, the clouds
gathering, as at the prayers of Elias, there fell such a quantity of
rain that the heathens opened their gates, and, joining them, cried out
"Christ alone is God: He alone has overcome." They accompanied the
Christians to the church to thank God for the benefit received, which
was attended with the conversion of one hundred and seventy-six persons,
whom the saint instructed, baptized, and confirmed, as he did one
hundred and five more before the end of that year. The miraculous
preservation of the life of a pagan woman in labor, who had been
despaired of, occasioned the conversion of that family and others, to
the number of sixty-four.

The heathens, perceiving their number decrease, grew very troublesome to
the Christians, whom they excluded from commerce and all public offices,
and injured them all manner of ways. St. Porphyrius, to screen himself
and his flock from their outrages and vexations, had recourse to the
emperor's protection. On this errand he sent Mark, his disciple, to
Constantinople, and went afterwards himself in company with John, his
metropolitan, archbishop of Cæsarea. Here they applied themselves to St.
John Chrysostom, who joyfully received them, and recommended them to the
eunuch Amantius, who had great credit with the empress, and was a
zealous servant of God. Amantius having introduced them to the empress,
she received them with great distinction, assured them of her
protection, and begged their prayers for her safe delivery, a favor she
received a few days after. She desired them in another visit to sign her
and her newborn son, Theodosius the Younger, with the sign of the cross,
which they did. The young prince was baptized with great solemnity, and
on that occasion the empress obtained from the emperor all that the
bishops had requested, and in particular that the temples of Gaza should
be demolished; an imperial edict being drawn up for this purpose and
delivered to Cynegius, a virtuous patrician, and one full of zeal, to
see it executed. They stayed at Constantinople during the feast of
Easter, and at their departure the emperor and empress bestowed on them
great presents. When they landed in Palestine, near Gaza, the Christians
came out to meet them with a cross carried before them, singing hymns.
In the place called Tetramphodos, or Four-ways-end, stood a marble
statue of Venus, on a marble altar, which was in great reputation for
giving oracles to young women about the choice of husbands, but had
often grossly deceived them, engaging them to most unhappy marriages; so
that many heathens detested its lying impostures. As the two bishops,
with the procession of the Christians, and the cross borne before them,
passed through that square, this idol fell down of itself, and was {477}
broken to pieces: whereupon thirty-two men and seven women were
converted.

Ten days after arrived Cynegius, having with him a consular man and a
duke, or general, with a strong guard of soldiers, besides the civil
magistrates of the country. He assembled the citizens and read to them
the emperor's edict, commanding their idols and temples to be destroyed,
which was accordingly executed, and no less than eight public temples in
the city were burnt; namely, those of the Sun, Venus, Apollo,
Proserpine, Hecate, the Hierion, or of the priests, Tycheon, or of
Fortune, and Marnion of Marnas, their Jupiter. The Marnion, in which men
had been often sacrificed, burned for many days. After this, the private
houses and courts were all searched; the idols were everywhere burned or
thrown into the common sewers, and all books of magic and superstition
were cast into the flames. Many idolaters desired baptism; but the saint
took a long time to make trial of them, and to prepare them for that
sacrament by daily instructions. On the spot where the temple of Marnas
had stood, was built the church of Eudoxia in the figure of a cross. She
sent for this purpose precious pillars and rich marble from
Constantinople. Of the marble taken out of the Marnion, St. Porphyrius
made steps and a road to the church, that it might be trampled upon by
men, dogs, swine, and other beasts, whence many heathens would never
walk thereon. Before he would suffer the church to be begun, he
proclaimed a fast, and the next morning, being attended by his clergy
and all the Christians in the city, they went in a body to the place
from the church Irene, singing the Venite exultemus Domino, and other
psalms, and answering to every verse Alleluia, Barochas carrying a cross
before them. They all set to work, carrying stones and other materials,
and digging the foundations according to the plan marked out and
directed by Rufinus, a celebrated architect, singing psalms and saying
prayers during their work. It was begun in 403, when thirty high pillars
arrived from Constantinople, two of which, called Carostiæ, shone like
emeralds when placed in the church. It was five years a building, and
when finished in 408, the holy bishop performed the consecration of it
on Easter-Day with the greatest pomp and solemnity. His alms to the poor
on that occasion seemed boundless, though they were always exceeding
great. The good bishop spent the remainder of his life in the zealous
discharge of all pastoral duties; and though he lived to see the city
clear for the most part of the remains of paganism, superstition, and
idolatry, he had always enough to suffer from such as continued
obstinate in their errors. Falling sick, he made his pious will, in
which he recommended all his dear flock to God. He died in 420, being
about sixty years of age, on the 26th of February, on which day both the
Greeks and Latins make mention of him. The pious author of his life
concludes it, saying: "He is now in the paradise of delight, interceding
for us with all the saints, by whose prayers may God have mercy on us."

ST. VICTOR, OR VITTRE, OF ARCIES, OR ARCIS,

IN CHAMPAGNE, ANCHORET AND CONFESSOR, IN THE SEVENTH AGE.

HE was of noble parentage in the diocese of Troyes in Champagne educated
under strict discipline in learning and piety, and a saint from his
cradle. In his youth, prayer, fasting, and alms-deeds were his chief
delight, and, embracing an ecclesiastical state, he took orders; but the
love of heavenly contemplation being always the prevalent inclination in
his soul he {478} preferred close retirement to the mixed life of the
care of souls. In this choice the Holy Ghost was his director, for he
lived in continual union with God by prayer and contemplation, and
seemed raised above the condition of this mortal life, and almost as if
he lived without a body. God glorified him by many miracles; but the
greatest seems to have been the powerful example of his life. We have
two pious panegyrics made upon this saint by St. Bernard, who says:[1]
"Now placed in heaven, he beholds God clearly revealed to him, swallowed
up in joy, but not forgetting us. It is not a land of oblivion in which
Victor dwells. Heaven doth not harden or straiten hearts, but it maketh
them more tender and compassionate it doth not distract minds, nor
alienate them from us: it doth not diminish, but it increaseth affection
and charity: it augmenteth bowels of pity. The angels, although they
behold the face of their Father, visit, run, and continually assist us;
and shall they now forget us who were once among us, and who once
suffered themselves what they see us at present laboring under? No: _I
know the just expect me till thou renderest to me my reward_.[2] Victor
is not like that cupbearer of Pharaoh, who could forget his
fellow-captive. He hath not so put on the stole of glory himself, as to
lay aside his pity, or the remembrance of our misery." St. Victor died
at Saturniac, now called Saint-Vittre, two leagues from Arcies in the
diocese of Troyes. A church was built over his tomb at Saturniac; but in
837 his relics were translated thence to the neighboring monastery of
Montier-Ramey, or Montirame, so called from Arremar, by whom it was
founded in 837. It is situated four leagues from Troyes, of the
Benedictin Order, and is still possessed of this sacred treasure. At the
request of these monks, St. Bernard composed an office of St. Victor,
extant in his works, (ep. 312, vet. ed. seu 398, nov. edit.) See the two
sermons of St. Bernard on St. Victor, and his ancient life in
Henschenius and others: from which it appears that this saint never was
a monk, never having professed any monastic Order, though he led an
eremitical life.

Footnotes:
1.  Serm. 2, p. 966.
2.  Ps. cxii. 8.


FEBRUARY XXVII.

ST. LEANDER, BISHOP OF SEVILLE, CONFESSOR.

From St. Isidore of Seville, St. Gregory the Great, and St. Gregory of
Tours, hist l. 5. See Fleury, b. 34, 35, 38. Mabillon, Sæc. Ben. 1.
Ceillier, t. 17.

A.D. 596.

ST. LEANDER was of an illustrious family, and born at Carthagena in
Spain. He had two brothers, St. Fulgentius, bishop of Ecija and
Carthagena, and St. Isidore, our saint's successor in the see of
Seville. He had also one sister, Florentia by name, who had consecrated
herself to God in the state of virginity. He set them an example of that
piety which they faithfully imitated. He entered into a monastery very
young, where he lived many years, and attained to an eminent degree of
virtue and sacred learning. These qualities occasioned his being
promoted to the see of Seville: but his change of condition made little
or no alteration in his method {479} of life, though it brought on him a
great increase of care and solicitude for the salvation of those whom
God had put under his care, as well as for the necessities of the whole
church, that of Spain in particular. This kingdom was then possessed by
the Visigoths, or Western-Goths; who, while Theodoric settled the
Ostrogoths, or Eastern-Goths, in Italy, had passed the Alps, and founded
their kingdom, first in Languedoc, and soon after, about the year 470,
in Spain. These Goths, being for the generality all infected with
Arianism, established this heresy wherever they came; so that when St.
Leander was made bishop, it had reigned in Spain a hundred years. This
was his great affliction: however, by his tears and prayers to God, and
by his most zealous and unwearied endeavors, both at home and abroad, he
became the happy instrument of the conversion of that nation to the
Catholic faith. But he suffered much from king Leovigild on this
account, and was at length forced into banishment; the saint having
converted, among others, Hermenegild, the king's eldest son and heir
apparent. This pious prince his unnatural father put to death the year
following, for refusing to receive the communion from the hands of an
Arian bishop. But, touched with remorse not long after, he recalled our
saint, and falling sick, and finding himself past hopes of recovery, he
sent for St. Leander, whom he had so much persecuted, and recommended to
him his son Recared, whom he left his successor, to be instructed in the
true faith; though out of fear of his people, as St. Gregory laments, he
durst not embrace it himself. His son Recared, by listening to St.
Leander, soon became a Catholic. The king also spoke with so much wisdom
on the controverted points to the Arian bishops, that by the force of
his reasoning, rather than by his authority, he brought them over to own
the truth of the Catholic doctrine; and thus he converted the whole
nation of the Visigoths. He was no less successful in the like pious
endeavors with respect to the Suevi, a people of Spain, whom his father
Leovigild had perverted. It was a subject of great joy to the whole
church to behold the wonderful blessing bestowed by Almighty God on the
labors of our saint, but to none more than St. Gregory the Great, who
wrote to St. Leander to congratulate him on the subject.

This holy prelate was no less zealous in the reformation of manners,
than in restoring the purity of faith; and he planted the seeds of that
zeal and fervor which afterwards produced so many martyrs and saints.
His zeal in this regard appeared in the good regulations set on foot
with this intent in the council of Seville, which was called by him, and
of which he was, as it were, the soul. In 589, he assisted at the third
council of Toledo, of seventy-two bishops, or their deputies, in which
were drawn up twenty-three canons, relating to discipline, to repair the
breaches the Arian heresy had made in fomenting disorders of several
kinds. One of these was, that the Arian clergy cohabited with their
wives; but the council forbade such of them as were converted to do so,
enjoining them a separation from the same chamber, and, if possible,
from the same house.[1] This council commanded also the rigorous
execution of all penitential canons without any abatement. The pious
cardinal D'Aguirre has written a learned dissertation ton this
subject.[2]

St. Leander, sensible of the importance of prayer, which is in a devout
life what a spring is in a watch, or the main wheel in an engine,
labored particularly to encourage true devotion in all persons, but
particularly those of the monastic profession, of which state it is the
very essence and constituent. His letter to his sister Florentina, a
holy virgin, is called his Rule of a Monastic Life. It turns chiefly on
the contempt of the world, and on {480} the exercises of prayer. This
saint also reformed the Spanish liturgy.[3] In this liturgy, and in the
third council of Toledo, in conformity to the eastern churches, the
Nicene creed was appointed to be read at mass, to express a detestation
of the Arian heresy. Other western churches, with the Roman, soon
imitated this devotion. St. Leander was visited by frequent distempers,
particularly the gout, which St. Gregory, who was often afflicted with
the same, writing to him, calls a favor and mercy of heaven. This holy
doctor of Spain died about the year 596, on the 27th of February, as
Mabillon proves from his epitaph. The church of Seville has been a
metropolitan see ever since the third century. The cathedral is the most
magnificent, both as to structure and ornament, of any in all Spain.

       *       *       *       *       *

The contempt of the world which the gospel so strongly inculcates, and
which St. Leander so eminently practised and taught, it the foundation
of a spiritual life; but is of far greater extent than most Christians
conceive, for it requires no less than a total disengagement of the
affections from earthly things. Those whom God raises to perfect virtue,
and closely unites to himself, must cut off and put away every thing
that can be an obstacle to this perfect union. Their will must be
thoroughly purified from all dross of inordinate affections before it
can be perfectly absorbed in his. This they who are particularly devoted
to the divine service, are especially to take notice of. If this truth
was imprinted in the manner that it ought, in the hearts of those who
enrol themselves in the service of the church, or who live in cloisters,
they would be replenished with heavenly blessings, and the church would
have the comfort of seeing apostles of nations revive among her clergy,
and the monasteries again filled with Antonies, Bennets, and Bernards;
whose sanctity, prayers, and example, would even infuse into many others
the true spirit of Christ, amid the desolation and general blindness of
this unhappy age.

Footnotes:
1.  Conc. t. 5, p. 998.
2.  Diss. 3. in Conc. Hisp.
3.  The church of Spain first received the faith from Rome, as pope
    Innocent I. Informs us. (Ep. ad. Decent.) Whence St. Isidore says
    their divine office was instituted by St. Peter, (l. l, c. 15, Eccl.
    Offic.) Their ceremonies and discipline, as of fasting on Saturdays,
    and other rites mentioned in their councils, are Roman. And the
    Roman liturgy was used in Africa beyond Spain. But the Goths used a
    liturgy formed by Ulphilas from the Orientals. St. Leander is said
    to have compiled a liturgy from both, and also from the Gaulish and
    oriental liturgies: St. Isidore and St. Ildefonse perfected it. When
    the Saracens or Arabians became masters of Spain, the Christians of
    that country were called Mixt-Arabs, and their liturgy, Mozarabic.
    In the eleventh and twelfth centuries this liturgy gave place to the
    Roman. Cardinal Ximenes re-established the daily use of the
    Mozarabic in a chapel of the cathedral of Toledo: it is also used in
    the same city by seven old Mozarabic churches, but on the days of
    their patrons only. See Le Brun, liturg. t. 2, p. 272. F. Flores
    thinks the Mozarabic liturgy was that of the Roman and African
    churches retained by St. Leander, without any alteration or mixture
    from the Orientals, except certain very inconsiderable rites. See
    his Spans. Sagrada, t. 3, Diss. de la Missa Antigua de Espagna,
    pp.187, 198, &c. But though it much resembles it, we are assured by
    F. Burriel, the learned Jesuit, in his letter on the literary
    monuments found in Spain, that in some parts there are considerable
    differences. We shall be fully informed of this, also what masses
    were added by St. Ildefonse, and of other curious particulars, when
    we are favored with the collections he has made from the Gothic MSS.
    in Spain on this subject, and the new edition of all the liturgies
    of Christian churches which the Assemani are preparing at Rome in
    fifteen volumes folio. The Mozarabic liturgy has been printed at
    Rome in folio, by the care of F. Leeley, a Scotch Jesuit.

SS. JULIAN, CHRONION, AND BESAS, MM.

WHEN the persecution of Decius filled the city of Alexandria with dread
and terror, many, especially among the nobles, the rich, and those who
held any places in the state, sacrificed to idols, but pale and
trembling, so as to show they had neither courage to die, nor heart to
sacrifice. Several generous soldiers repaired the scandal given by these
cowards. Julian, who was grievously afflicted with the gout, and one of
his servants, called Chronion, were set on the backs of camels, and,
cruelly scourged through the {481} whole city, and at length were
consumed by fire. Besas, a soldier, was beheaded. See St. Dionysius of
Alex. in Eusebius, l, 6, c. 41, ed Val.

ST. THALILÆUS, A CILICIAN

HE lived a recluse on a mountain in Syria, and shut himself up ten years
in an open cage of wood. Theodoret asked him why he had chosen so
singular a practice. The penitent answered: "I punish my criminal body,
that God, seeing my affliction for my sins, may be moved to pardon them,
and to deliver me from, or at least to mitigate the excessive torments
of the world to come, which I have deserved." See Theodoret, Phil. c.
28. John Mosch in the Spiritual Meadow, c. 59, p. 872, relates that
Thalihæus, the Cilician, spent sixty years in an ascetic life, weeping
almost without intermission; and that he used to say to those that came
to him: "Time is allowed us by the divine mercy for repentance and
satisfaction, and wo {sic} to us if we neglect it."

ST. GALMIER, IN LATIN, BALDOMERUS.

HE was a locksmith in Lyons, who lived in great poverty and austerity,
and spent all his leisure moments in holy reading and prayer. He gave
his gains to the poor, and sometimes even his tools. He repeated to
every one: "In the name of the Lord let us always give thanks to God."
Vivencius, abbot of St. Justus, (afterwards archbishop of Lyons,)
admired his devotion in the church, but was more edified and astonished
when he had conversed with him. He gave him a cell in his monastery, in
which the servant of God sanctified himself still more and more by all
the exercises of holy solitude, and by his penitential labor. He died a
subdeacon about the year 650. His relics were very famous for miracles,
and a celebrated pilgrimage, till they were scattered in the air by the
Huguenots, in the sixteenth century. The Roman Martyrology names him on
the day of his death, the 27th of February.

ST. NESTOR, B.M.

EPOLIUS, whom the emperor Decius had appointed governor of Lycia,
Pamphylia, and Phrygia, sought to make his court to that prince by
surpassing his colleagues in the rage and cruelty with which he
persecuted the meek disciples of Christ. At that time Nestor, bishop of
Sida in Pamphylia, (as Le Quien demonstrates, not of Perge, or of
Mandis, or Madigis, as some by mistake affirm,) was distinguished in
those parts for his zeal in propagating the faith, and for the sanctity
of his life. His reputation reached the governor, who sent an Irenarch
to apprehend him. The martyr was conducted to Perge, and there
crucified, in imitation of the Redeemer of the world, whom he preached.
His triumph happened in 250. His Latin Acts, given by the Bollandists,
are to be corrected by those in Greek, found among the manuscript acts
of Saints, honored by the Greeks in the month of February in the king's
library at Paris, Cod. 1010, written in the tenth century.

{482}

ST. ALNOTH, ANCHORET, M.

WEDON, in Northamptonshire, was honored with a palace of Wulphere, king
of Mercia, in the middle of England, and was bestowed by that prince
upon his daughter St. Wereburge, who converted it into a monastery.
Alnoth was the bailiff of St. Wereburge in that country, and the perfect
imitator of her heroic virtues. After her retreat he led an anchoretical
life in that neighborhood, and was murdered by robbers in his solitude.
His relics were kept with veneration in the church of the village of
Stow, near Wedon. Wilson places his festival on the 27th of February, in
the first edition of his English Martyrology, and in the second on the
25th of November. See the life of St. Wereburge, which Camden sent to F.
Rosweide, written, as it seems, by Jocelin. See also Harpsfield, Sæc. 7,
c. 23, and Bollandus, p. 684.


FEBRUARY XXVIII.

MARTYRS, WHO DIED IN THE GREAT PESTILENCE IN ALEXANDRIA.

From Eusebius, Hist. l. 7, c. 21, 22, p. 268.

A.D. 261, 262, 263.

A VIOLENT pestilence laid waste the greatest part of the Roman empire
during twelve years, from 249 to 263. Five thousand persons died of it
in one day in Rome, in 262. St. Dionysius of Alexandria relates, that a
cruel sedition and civil war had filled that city with murders and
tumults; so that it was safer to travel from the eastern to the western
parts of the then known world, than to go from one street of Alexandria
to another. The pestilence succeeded this first scourge, and with such
violence, that there was not a single house in that great city which
entirely escaped it, or which had not some dead to mourn for. All places
were filled with groans, and the living appeared almost dead with fear.
The noisome exhalations of carcasses, and the very winds, which should
have purified the air, loaded with infection and pestilential vapors
from the Nile, increased the evil. The fear of death rendered the
heathens cruel towards their nearest relations. As soon as any of them
had caught the contagion, though their dearest friends, they avoided and
fled from them as their greatest enemies. They threw them half dead into
the streets, and abandoned them without succor; they left their bodies
without burial, so fearful were they of catching that mortal distemper,
which, however, it was very difficult to avoid, notwithstanding all
their precautions. This sickness, which was the greatest of calamities
to the pagans, was but an exercise and trial to the Christians, who
showed, on that occasion, how contrary the spirit of charity is to the
interestedness of self love. During the persecutions of Decius, Gallus,
and Valerian, they durst not appear, but were obliged to keep their
assemblies in solitudes, or in ships tossed on the waves, or in infected
prisons, or the like places, which the sanctity of our mysteries made
venerable. Yet in the {483} time of this public calamity, most of them,
regardless of the danger of their own lives to assisting others,
visited, relieved, and attended the sick, and comforted the dying. They
closed their eyes, carried them on their shoulders, laid them out,
washed their bodies, and decently interred them, and soon after shared
the same fate themselves; but those who survived still succeeded to
their charitable office, which they paid to the very pagans their
persecutors. "Thus," adds St. Dionysius, "the best of our brethren have
departed this life; some of the most valuable, both of priests, deacons,
and laics; and it is thought that this kind of death is in nothing
different from martyrdom." And the Roman Martyrology says, the religious
faith of pious Christians honors them as martyrs.

       *       *       *       *       *

In these happy victims of holy charity we admire how powerfully perfect
virtue, and the assured expectation of eternal bliss, raises the true
Christian above all earthly views. He who has always before his eyes the
incomprehensible happiness of enjoying God in his glory, and seriously
considers the infinite advantage, peace, and honor annexed to his divine
service; he who is inflamed with ardent love of God, and zeal for his
honor, sets no value on any thing but in proportion as it affords him a
means of improving his spiritual stock, advancing the divine honor, and
more perfectly uniting his soul to God by every heroic virtue:
disgraces, dangers, labor, pain, death, loss of goods or friends, and
every other sacrifice here become his gain and his greatest joy. That by
which he most perfectly devotes himself to God, and most speedily and
securely attains to the bliss of possessing him, he regards as his
greatest happiness.

ST. PROTERIUS, PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA, M.

HE was ordained priest by St. Cyril, but opposed Dioscorus, his
successor, on his patronizing Eutyches, and giving into his errors,
notwithstanding his endeavor to gain him to his interest, by making him
archpriest, and entrusting him with the care of his church. Dioscorus
being condemned and deposed by the council of Chalcedon, Proterius was
elected in his room, and was accordingly ordained and installed in 552.
The people of Alexandria, famed for riots and tumults, then divided;
some demanding the return of Dioscorus, others supporting Proterius. The
factious party was headed by two vicious ecclesiastics, Timothy,
surnamed Elurus, and Peter Mongus, whom the saint had canonically
excommunicated. And so great and frequent were the tumults and seditions
they raised against him, that during the whole course of his pontificate
he was never out of danger of falling a sacrifice to the schismatical
party, regardless both of the imperial orders and decisions of the
council of Chalcedon. In the height of one of those tumults, Elurus,
having caused himself to be ordained by two bishops of his faction, that
had been formerly deposed, took possession of the episcopal throne, and
was proclaimed by his party the sole lawful bishop of Alexandria. But
being soon after driven out of the city by the imperial commander, this
so inflamed the Eutychian party, that their barefaced attempts obliged
the holy patriarch to take sanctuary in the baptistery adjoining to the
church of St. Quirinus, where the schismatical rabble breaking in, they
stabbed him on Good-Friday, in the year 557. Not content with this, they
dragged his dead body through the whole city, cut it in pieces, burnt it
and scattered the ashes in the air. The bishops of Thrace, to a letter
to the emperor Loo, soon after his death, declared that they placed him
among {484} the martyrs, and hoped to find mercy through his
intercession. Sanctissimum Proterium in ordine et choro sanctorum
martyrum ponimus, et ejus intercessionibus misericordem et propitium
Deum nobis fieri postulamus. Conc. t. 4, p. 907. His name occurs in the
Greek calendars on the 28th of February.--See Evagrius, Hist. Eccl. l.
2, c. 4. Liberat. Disc. in Breviar. c. 15. Theophanes in Marciano et
Leone. Theodor. Lect. l. 1 F. Cacciari, Diss. in Op. S. Leonia, t. 3.
Henschenius, t. 3, Febr. p. 729.

SS. ROMANUS AND LUPICINUS, ABBOTS.

ROMANUS at thirty-five years of age left his relations, and spent some
time in the monastery of Ainay, (called in Latin Athanacense,) at Lyons,
at the great church at the conflux of the Saone and Rhone, which the
faithful had built over the ashes of the famous martyrs of that city;
for their bodies being burnt by the pagans, their ashes were thrown into
the Rhone, but a great part of them was gathered by the Christians, and
deposited in this place. Romanus, a short time after, took with him the
institutions and conferences of Cassian, and retired into the forests of
mount Iura, between France and Switzerland, and fixed his abode at a
place called Condate, at the conflux of the rivers Bienne and Aliere,
where he found a spot of ground fit for culture, and some trees which
furnished him with a kind of wild fruit. Here he spent his time in
praying, reading, and laboring for his subsistence. Lupicinus, his
brother, came to him some time after in company with others, who were
followed by several more, drawn by the fame of the virtue and miracles
of these two saints. Here they built the monastery of Condate, and,
their numbers increasing, that of Leuconne, two miles distant to the
north, and, on a rock, a nunnery called La Beaume, (now St. Remain de la
Roche,) which no men were allowed ever to enter, and where St. Romanus
chose his burial-place. The brothers governed the monks jointly and in
great harmony, though Lupicinus was more inclined to severity of the
two. He usually resided at Leuconne with one hundred and fifty monks.
The brethren at Condate, when they were enriched with many lands,
changed their diet, which was only bread made of barley and bran, and
pulse dressed often without salt or oil, and brought to table
wheat-bread, fish, and variety of dishes. Lupicinus being informed
hereof by Romanus, came to Condate on the sixth day after this
innovation, and corrected the abuse. The abstinence which he prescribed
his monks was milder than that practised by the oriental monks, and by
those of Lerins, partly because the Gauls were naturally great eaters,
and partly because they were employed in very hard manual labor. But
they never touched fowls or any flesh-meat, and only were allowed milk
and eggs in time of sickness. Lupicinus, for his own part, used no other
bed than a chair or a hard board; never touched wine, and would scarce
ever suffer a drop either of oil or milk to be poured on his pulse. In
summer his subsistence for many years was only hard bread moistened in
cold water, so that he could eat it with a spoon. His tunic was made of
various skins of beasts sewn together, with a cowl: he used wooden
shoes, and wore no stockings unless when he was obliged to go out of the
monastery. St. Romanus died about the year 460, and is mentioned in the
Roman Martyrology on the 28th of February. St. Lupicinus survived him
almost twenty years, and is honored in the Roman Martyrology on the 21st
of March. He was succeeded in the abbacy of Condate by Minaucius, who,
in 480, chose St. Eugendus his coadjutor. See the lives of the two
brothers, SS. Romanus and Lupicinus, and that of St. Eugendus or Oyend,
compile a by a monk of Condate of the same age; St. Gregory of Tours,
{in} {485} de Vitis Patr. c. 1. Mabill. Annal. Ben. l. 1, ad an. 510, t.
1, p. 23. Tillemont, t. 16, p. 142. Bulteau, l. 1.


FEBRUARY XXIX.

ST. OSWALD,

BISHOP OF WORCESTER AND ARCHBISHOP OF YORK.

From his life written by Eadmer; also from Florence of Worcester,
William of Malmesbury, and, above all, the elegant and accurate author
of the history of Ramsey, published by the learned Mr. Gale, p. 385. The
life of this saint, written by Fulcard, abbot of Thorney, in 1068,
Wharton thinks not extant. Mabillon doubts whether it is not that which
we have in Capgrave and Surius. See also Portiforium 8. Oswaldi Archiep.
Eborac. Codex MS. crassus in 8vo. exarates circa annum 1064, in Bennet
College, Cambridge, mentioned by Waneley, Catal. p. 110.

A.D. 992.

ST. OSWALD was nephew to St. Odo, archbishop of Canterbury, and to
Oskitell, bishop first of Dorcester, afterwards of York. He was educated
by St. Odo, and made dean of Winchester; but passing into France, took
the monastic habit at Fleury. Being recalled to serve the church, he
succeeded St. Dunstan in the see of Worcester about the year 959. He
shone as a bright star in this dignity, and established a monastery of
monks at Westberry, a village in his diocese. He was employed by duke
Aylwin in superintending his foundation of the great monastery of
Ramsey, in an island formed by marshes and the river Ouse in
Huntingdonshire, in 972. St. Oswald was made archbishop of York in 974,
and he dedicated the church of Ramsey under the names of the Blessed
Virgin, St. Benedict, and all holy virgins. Nothing of this rich mitred
abbey remains standing except an old gate-house, and a neglected statue
of the founder, Aylwin, with keys and a ragged staff in his hand to
denote his office; for he was cousin to the glorious king Edgar, the
valiant general of his armies, and the chief judge and magistrate of the
kingdom, with the title of alderman of England, and half king, as the
historian of Ramsey usually styles him.[1] {486} St. Oswald was almost
always occupied in visiting his diocese, preaching without intermission
and reforming abuses. He was a great encourager of learning and learned
men. St. Dunstan obliged him to retain the see of Worcester with that of
York. Whatever intermission his function allowed him he spent it at St.
Mary's, a church and monastery of Benedictins, which he had built at
Worcester, where he joined with the monks in their monastic exercises.
This church from that time became the cathedral. The saint, to nourish
in his heart the sentiments of humility and charity, had everywhere
twelve poor persons at his table, whom he served, and also washed and
kissed their feet. After having sat thirty-three years he fell sick at
St. Mary's in Worcester, and having received the extreme unction and
viaticum, continued in prayer, repeating often, "Glory be to the
Father," &c., with which words he expired amidst his monks, on the 29th
of February, 992. His body was taken up ten years after and enshrined,
by Adulph his successor, and was illustrated by miracles. It was
afterwards translated to York, on the 15th of October, which day was
appointed his principal festival.

       *       *       *       *       *

St. Oswald made quick progress in the path of perfect virtue, because he
studied with the utmost earnestness to deny himself and his own will,
listening attentively to that fundamental maxim of the Eternal Truth,
which St. Bennet, of whose holy order he became a bright light, repeats
with great energy. This holy founder declares in the close of his rule,
that, He who desires to give himself up to God, must trample all earthly
things under his feet, renounce every thing that is not God, and die to
all earthly affections, so as to attain to a perfect disengagement and
nakedness of heart, that God may fill and entirely possess it, in order
to establish therein the kingdom of his grace and pure love forever. And
in his prologue he cries out aloud, that he addresses himself only to
him who is firmly resolved in all things to deny his own will, and to
hasten with all diligence to arrive at his heavenly kingdom.

Footnotes:
1.  The titles of honor among our Saxon ancestors were, Etheling, prince
    of the blond: chancellor, assistant to the king in giving judgments:
    alderman, or ealderman, (not earldonnan, as Rapin Thoyras writes
    this word in his first edition,) governor or viceroy. It is derived
    from the word ald or old, like senator in Latin. Provinces, cities,
    and sometimes wapentakes, had their alderman to govern them,
    determine lawsuits, judge criminals, &c. That office gave place to
    the title of earl, which was merely Danish, and introduced by
    Canute. Sheriffe or she-reeve, was the deputy of the alderman,
    chosen by him, sat judge in some courts, and saw sentence executed;
    hence he was called vicecomes. Heartoghan signified, among our Saxon
    ancestors, generals of armies, or dukes. Hengist, in the Saxon
    chronicle, is heartogh; such were the dukes appointed by Constantine
    the Great, to command the forces in the different provinces of the
    Roman empire. These titles began to become hereditary with the
    offices or command annexed under Pepin and Charlemagne, and grew
    more frequent by the successors of these princes granting many
    hereditary fiefs to noblemen, to which they annexed titular
    dignities. Fiefs were an establishment of the Lombards, from whom
    the emperors of Germany, and the kings of France, borrowed this
    custom, and with it the feodal laws, of which no mention is made in
    the Routun code. Titles began frequently to become merely honorary
    about the time of Otho I. in Germany.

    Reeve among the English Saxons was a steward. The bishop's reeve was
    a bishop's steward for secular affairs, attending in his court.
    Thanes, _i.e._, servants, were officers of the crown whom the king
    recompensed with lands, sometimes to descend to their posterity, but
    always to be held of him with some obligation of service, homage, or
    acknowledgment. There were other lords of lands and vassals, who
    enjoyed the title of thanes, and were distinguished from the king's
    thanes. The ealdermen and dukes were all king's thanes, and all
    others who held lands of the king by knight's service in chief, and
    were immediately great tenants of the king's estates. These were the
    greater thanes, and were succeeded by the barons, which title was
    brought in by the Normans, and is rarely found before the Conqueror.
    Mass thanes were those who held lands in fee of the church. Middle
    thanes were such as held very small estates of the king, or parcels
    of lands of the king's greater thanes. They were called by the
    Normans vavassors, and their lands vavassories. They who held lands
    of these, were thanes of the lowest class, and did not rank as
    gentlemen. All thanes disposed of the lands which they held (and
    which were called Blockland) to their heirs, but with the
    obligations due to those of whom they were held. Ceorle (whence our
    word churl) was a countryman or artisan who was a freeman. Those
    ceorles who held lands in leases were called sockmen, and their land
    sockland, of which they could not dispose, being barely tenants.
    Those ceorles who acquired possession of five hides of land with a
    large house, court, and bell to call together their servants, were
    raised to the rank of thanes of the lowest class. A hide of land was
    as much as one plough could till. The villains or slaves in the
    country were laborers, bound to the service of particular persons;
    were all capable of possessing money in property, consequently were
    not strictly slaves in the sense of the Roman law.

    Witan or Wites, (_i. e._ wisemen,) were the magistrates and lawyers.
    Burghwitten signified the magistrates of cities. Some shires (or
    counties) are mentioned before king Alfred; and Asserius speaks of
    earls (or counts) of Somerset, and Devonshire, in the reign of
    Ethelwolph. But Alfred first divided the whole kingdom into shires,
    the shires into tithings, lathes, or wapentacks, the tithings into
    hundreds, and the hundreds into tenths. Each division had a court
    subordinate to those that were superior, the highest in each shire
    being the shire-gemot, or folck-mote, which was held twice a year,
    and in which the bishop or his deputy, and the ealderman, or his
    viceregent, the sheriff, presided. See Seldon on the Titles of
    Honor; Speman's Glossary, ad. noviss. Squires on the Government of
    the English Saxons. Dr. William Howel, in his learned General
    History, t. 5, p. 273, &c. N.B. The titles of earls and hersen were
    first given by Ifwar Widfame, king of Sweden, to two ministers of
    state in 824; on which see many remarks of Olof Delin, in his
    excellent new history of Sweden, c. 5, t. {}, p. {}34.

{487}

_Only Complete and Unabridged Edition with nearly 100 pages of
Chronological and General Index, Alphabetical and Centenary Table, etc._

THE
LIVES
THE FATHERS, MARTYRS,
AND OTHER
PRINCIPAL SAINTS;
COMPILED FROM
ORIGINAL MONUMENTS, AND OTHER AUTHENTIC RECORDS;
ILLUSTRATED WITH THE
REMARKS OF JUDICIOUS MODERN CRITICS AND HISTORIANS
BY THE REV. ALBAN BUTLER
_With the approbation of
MOST REV. M.A. CORRIGAN, D.D.,
Archbishop of New York._

VOL. III.

NEW YORK:
P.J. KENEDY,
PUBLISHER TO THE HOLY SEE,
EXCELSIOR CATHOLIC PUBLISHING HOUSE,
5 BARCLAY STREET.
1903

{488 blank page}
{489}
CONTENTS

MARCH.
1.                                              PAGE
ST. DAVID, Archbishop, Patron of Wales.......... 491
St. Swidbert, or Swibert, the ancient, Bishop
  and Confessor................................. 493
St. Albinus, Bishop of Angers, Confessor........ 494
St. Monan, Martyr............................... 495

2.
Martyrs under the Lombards...................... 496
St. Ceada, or Chad, Bishop and Confessor........ 497
St. Simplicius, Pope and Confessor.............. 498
St. Marnan, Bishop and Confessor................ 499
St. Charles the Good, Earl of Flanders, Martyr.. 500
St. Joavan, or Joevin, Bishop and Confessor..... 501

3.
St. Cunegundes, Empress......................... 501
SS. Marinus and Asterius, or Astyrius, Martyrs.. 503
SS. Emeterius and Chelidonius, Martyrs.......... 503
St. Winwaloe, or Winwaloc, Abbot................ 504
St. Lamalisse, Confessor........................ 506

4.
St. Casimir, Prince of Poland................... 506
St. Lucius, Pope and Martyr..................... 508
St. Adrian, Bishop of St. Andrew's, Martyr...... 509

5.
SS. Adrian and Eubulus, Martyrs................. 510
St. Kiaran, or Kenerin, Bishop and Confessor.... 511
St. Roger, Confessor............................ 512
St. John Joseph of the Cross.................... 512

6.
St. Chrodegang, Bishop of Metz, Confessor....... 519
B. Coleus, Virgin and Abbess.................... 520
St. Fridolin, Abbot............................. 522
St. Baldrede, Bishop of Glasgow, Confessor...... 522
SS. Kyneburge, Kyneswide, and Tibba............. 522
St. Cadroe. Confessor........................... 523

7.
St Thomas of Aquino, Doctor of the Church
  and Confessor................................. 523
SS. Perpetua and Felicitas, &c., Martyrs........ 533
St. Paul, Anchoret.............................. 540

8.
St. John of God, Confessor...................... 541
Venerable John of Avila, Apostle of Andalusia... 542
St. Felix, Bishop and Confessor................. 547
SS. Apollonius, Philemon, &c., Martyrs.......... 548
St. Julian, Archbishop of Toledo, Confessor..... 548
St. Duthak, Bishop of Ross, in Scotland,
  Confessor..................................... 549
St. Rosa, of Viterbo, Virgin.................... 549
St. Senan, Bishop and Confessor.. .............. 549
St. Psalmod, or Saumay, Anchoret................ 550


9.
St. Frances, Widow ............................. 550
Gregory of Nyasa, Bishop and Confessor.......... 552
On the Writings of St. Gregory.................. 553
St. Pacian, Bishop of Barcelona, Confessor...... 557
On the Writings of St. Pacian................... 557
St. Catherine of Bologna, Virgin and Abbess..... 559

10.
SS. The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste................ 560
St. Droctovæus, Abbot........................... 563
St. Mackessoge, or Kessoge, Confessor........... 564

11.
St. Eulogius of Cordova, Priest and Martyr...... 564
St. Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem,
  Confessor..................................... 566
St. Ængus, Bishop and Confessor................. 567
St. Constantine, Martyr......................... 568

12.
St. Gregory the Great, Pope and Confessor....... 568
On the Life of St. Gregory...................... 580
St. Maximilian, Martyr.......................... 581
St. Paul, Bishop of Leon, Confessor............. 581

13.
St. Nicephorus, Patriarch of Constantinople,
  Confessor..................................... 582
St. Euphrasia, Virgin........................... 585
St. Theophanes, Abbot and Confessor............. 587
St. Kennocha, Virgin in Scotland................ 588
St. Gerald, Bishop.............................. 588
St. Mochoemoc, in Latin Pulcherius, Abbot....... 588

14.
St. Maud, or Mathildis, Queen of Germany........ 589
SS. Acepsimas, Bishop, Joseph, Priest, and
  Aithilahas, Deacon, Martyrs................... 591
St. Boniface, Bishop of Ross, Confessor......... 594

15.
St. Abraham, Hermit............................. 594
St. Zachary, Pope and Confessor................. 596

16.
St. Julian, of Cilicia, Martyr.................. 597
St. Finian, surnamed Lobhar, or the Leper....... 598

17.
St. Patrick, Bishop and Confessor, Apostle of
  Ireland....................................... 599
SS. Martyrs of Alexandria....................... 604
St. Joseph of Arimathea......................... 605
St. Gertrude, Virgin and Abbess of Nivelle ..... 605

18
St. Alexander, Bishop of Jerusalem, Martyr...... 606
St. Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem, Confessor... 607

{490}

On the Writings of St. Cyril.................... 614
St. Edward, Ring and Martyr..................... 617
St. Anselm, Bishop of Lucca, Confessor.......... 618
St. Fridian, Bishop of Lucca, Confessor......... 619

19.
St Joseph....................................... 620
St. Alcmund, Martyr............................. 624

20.
St. Cuthbert, Bishop and Confessor.............. 625
St. Wulfran, Archbishop of Seas................. 629

21.
St. Benedict, Abbot............................. 639
St. Serapion, the Sindonite..................... 638
St. Serapion, Abbot of Arsinoe.................. 639
St. Serapion, Bishop of Thmuis in Egypt......... 640
St. Enna, or Endeus, Abbot...................... 641

22.
St. Basil of Ancyra, Priest and Martyr.......... 641
St. Paul, Bishop of Narbonne, Confessor......... 644
St. Lea, Widow.................................. 644
St. Deogratias, Bishop of Carthage, Confessor... 644
St. Catherine of Sweden, Virgin................. 644

23.
St. Alphonsus Turibius, Bishop and Confessor.... 645
SS. Victorian, Proconsul of Carthage. &c.,
  Martyrs....................................... 649
St. Edelwald, Priest and Confessor.............. 650

24.
St. Irenæus, Bishop of Sirmium, Martyr.......... 651
St. Simon, an Infant, Martyr.................... 653
St. William of Norwich, Martyr.................. 653

25.
The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary..... 661
St. Cammin, Abbot............................... 666

26.
St. Ludger, Bishop of Munster, Apostle of
  Saxony........................................ 661
St. Braulio, Bishop of Saragossa, Confessor..... 663

27.
St. John of Egypt, Hermit....................... 664
St. Rupert, or Robert, Bishop and Confessor..... 688

28.
SS. Priscus, Malchus, and Alexander, Martyrs.... 669
St. Sixtus III., Pope........................... 670
St. Gontran, King and Confessor................. 671

29.
SS. Jonas, Barachisius, &c., Martyrs............ 672
SS. Armogastes, Archinimus, and Saturns,
  Martyrs....................................... 674
St. Eustasius, or Eustachius, Abbot............. 675
St. Gundleus, Confessor......................... 673
St. Mark, Bishop and Confessor.................. 675

30.
St. John Climacus, Abbot........................ 677
St. Zozimus, Bishop of Syracuse................. 681
St. Regulus, or Rieul........................... 681

31.
St. Benjamin, Deacon, Martyr.................... 691
St. Acacias, or Achates, Bishop of Antioch in
  Asia Minor, Confessor......................... 683
St. Guy, Confessor.............................. 685

{491}

MARCH I.

SAINT DAVID, ARCHBISHOP,

PATRON OF WALES.

See his life by Giralduc Cambrensis, in Wharton's Anglia Sacra, t. 2;
also Doctor Brown Willis, and Wilkins, Conc. Britain. & Hibern. t. 1.

About the year 544.

ST. DAVID, in Welsh Dewid, was son of Xantus, prince of Ceretice, now
Cardiganshire. He was brought up in the service of God, and, being
ordained priest, retired into the Isle of Wight, and embraced an ascetic
life, under the direction of Paulinus, a learned and holy man, who had
been a disciple of St. Germanus of Auxerre. He is said by the sign of
the cross to have restored sight to his master, which he had lost by old
age, and excessive weeping in prayer. He studied a long time to prepare
himself for the functions of the holy ministry. At length, coming out of
his solitude, like the Baptist out of the desert, he preached the word
of eternal life to the Britons. He built a chapel at Glastenbury, a
place which had been consecrated to the divine worship by the first
apostles of this island. He founded twelve monasteries, the principal of
which was in the vale of Ross,[1] near Menevia, where he formed many
great pastors and eminent servants of God. By his rule he obliged all
his monks to assiduous manual labor in the spirit of penance: he allowed
them the use of no cattle to ease them at their work in tilling the
ground. They were never suffered to speak but on occasions of absolute
necessity, and they never ceased to pray, at least mentally, during
their labor. They returned late in the day to the monastery, to read,
write, and pray. Their food was only bread and vegetables, with a little
salt, and they never drank any thing better than a little milk mingled
with water. After their repast they spent three hours in prayer and
adoration; then took a little rest, rose at cock-crowing, and continued
in prayer till they went out to work. Their habit was of the skins of
beasts. When any one petitioned to be admitted, he waited ten days at
the door, during which time he was tried by harsh words, repeated
refusals, and painful labors, that he might learn to die to himself.
When he was admitted, he left all his worldly substance behind him, for
the monastery never received any thing on the score of admission. All
the monks discovered their most secret thoughts and temptations to their
abbot.

The Pelagian heresy springing forth a second time in Britain, the
bishops, in order to suppress it, held a synod at Brevy, in
Cardiganshire, in 512, or rather in 519.[2] St. David, being invited to
it, went thither, and in that venerable assembly confuted and silenced
the infernal monster by his eloquence,{492} learning, and miracles. On
the spot where this council was held, a church was afterwards built
called Llan-Devi Brevi, or the church of St. David near the river Brevi.
At the close of the synod, St. Dubritius, the archbishop of Caerleon,
resigned his see to St. David, whose tears and opposition were only to
be overcome by the absolute command of the synod, which however allowed
him, at his request, the liberty to transfer his see from Caerleon, then
a populous city, to Menevia, now called St. David's, a retired place,
formed by nature for solitude, being, as it were, almost cut off from
the rest of the island, though now an intercourse is opened to it from
Milford-Haven. Soon after the former synod, another was assembled by St.
David at a place called Victoria, in which the acts of the first were
confirmed, and several canons added relating to discipline which were
afterwards confirmed by the authority of the Roman church; and these two
synods were, as it were, the rule and standard of the British churches.
As for St. David, Giraldus adds, that he was the great ornament and
pattern of his age. He spoke with great force and energy, but his
example was more powerful than his eloquence; and he has in all
succeeding ages been the glory of the British church. He continued in
his last see many years; and having founded several monasteries, and
been the spiritual father of many saints, both British and Irish, died
about the year 544, in a very advanced age. St. Kentigtern saw his soul
borne up by angels into heaven. He was buried in his church of St.
Andrew, which hath since taken his name, with the town and the whole
diocese. Near the church stand several chapels, formerly resorted to
with great devotion: the principal is that of St. Nun, mother of St.
David, near which is a beautiful well still frequented by pilgrims.
Another chapel is sacred to St. Lily, surnamed Gwas-Dewy, that is, St.
David's man; for he was his beloved disciple and companion in his
retirement. He is honored there on the 3d, and St. Nun, who lived and
died the spiritual mother of many religious women, on the 2d of March.
The three first days of March were formerly holidays in South Wales in
honor of these three saints; at present only the first is kept a
festival throughout all Wales. John of Glastenbury[3] informs us, that
in the reign of king Edgar, in the year of Christ 962, the relics of St.
David were translated with great solemnity from the vale of Ross to
Glastenbury, together with a portion of the relics of St. Stephen the
Protomartyr.

       *       *       *       *       *

By singing assiduously the divine praises with pure and holy hearts,
dead to the world and all inordinate passions, monks are styled angels
of the earth. The divine praise is the primary act of the love of God;
for a soul enamored of his adorable goodness and perfections, summons up
all her powers to express the complacency she takes in his infinite
greatness and bliss, and sounds forth his praises with all her strength.
In this entertainment she feels an insatiable delight and sweetness, and
with longing desires aspires after that bliss in which she will love and
praise without intermission or impediment. By each act of divine praise,
the fervor of charity and its habit, and with it every spiritual good
and every rich treasure, is increased in her: moreover, God in return
heaps upon her the choicest blessings of his grace. Therefore, though
the acts of divine praise seem directly to be no more than a tribute or
homage of our affections, which we tender to God, the highest advantages
accrue from these exercises to our souls. St. Stephen of Grandmont was
once asked by a disciple, why we are so frequently exhorted in the
scriptures to bless and praise God, who, being infinite, can receive no
increase from our homages. {493} To which the saint replied: "A man who
blesses and praises God receives from thence the highest advantage
imaginable; for God, in return, bestows on him all his blessings, and
for every word that he repeats in these acts, says: 'For the praises and
blessings which you offer me, I bestow my blessings on you; what you
present to me returns to yourself with an increase which becomes my
liberality and greatness.' It is the divine grace," goes on this holy
doctor, "which first excites a man to praise God, and he only returns to
God his own gift: yet by his continually blessing God, the Lord pours
forth his divine blessings upon him, which are so many new increases of
charity in his soul."

Footnotes:
1.  This denomination was given to the valley from the territory where
    it was situated, which was called Ross. Frequent mention is made of
    this monastery in the acts of several Irish saints, under the name
    of Rosnat or Rosnant.
2.  See Wilkins, Conc. t. 1.
3.  Maximes de S. Etienne de Grandmort, ch. 105, p. 228. Item {}
    Sententuarum S. Stephani Grand. c. {}05, p. 103.

ST. SWIDBERT, OR SWIBERT, THE ANCIENT, B.C.

He was an English monk, educated near the borders of Scotland, and lived
some time under the direction of the holy priest and monk, St. Egbert,
whom he accompanied into Ireland. St. Egbert was hindered himself from
passing into Lower Germany, according to his zealous desire, to preach
the gospel to the infidels: and Wigbert, who first went into Friesland
upon that errand, was thwarted in all his undertakings by Radbod, prince
of that country, and returned home without success. St. Egbert, burning
with an insatiable zeal for the conversion of those souls, which he
ceased not with many tears to commend to God, stirred up others to
undertake that mission. St. Swidbert was one of the twelve missionaries,
who, having St. Willibrord at their head, sailed into Friesland, in 690,
according to the direction of St. Egbert. They landed at the mouth of
the Rhine, as Alcuin assures us, and travelled as high as Utrecht, where
they began to announce to the people the great truths of eternal life.
Pepin of Herstal, mayor of the French palace, had conquered part of
Friesland, eighteen months before, and compelled Radbod, who remained
sovereign in the northern part, to pay an annual tribute. The former was
a great protector and benefactor to these missionaries, nor did the
latter oppose their preaching. St. Swidbert labored chiefly in Hither
Friesland, which comprised the southern part of Holland, the northern
part of Brabant, and the countries of Gueldres and Cleves: for in the
middle age, Friesland was extended from the mouths of the Meuse and the
Rhine, as far as Denmark and ancient Saxony. An incredible number of
souls was drawn out of the sink of idolatry, and the most shameful
vices, by the zeal of St. Swidbert. St. Willibrord was ordained
archbishop of Utrecht by pope Sergius I., at Rome, in 696. St. Swidbert
was pressed by his numerous flock of converts, and by his
fellow-laborers, to receive the episcopal consecration: for this purpose
he returned to England soon after the year 697, where he was consecrated
regionary bishop to preach the gospel to infidels, without being
attached to any see, by Wilfrid, bishop of York, who happened to be then
banished from his own see, and employed in preaching the faith in
Mercia. Either the see of Canterbury was still vacant after the death of
St. Theodorus, or Brithwald, his successor, was otherwise hindered from
performing that ceremony, and St. Swidbert had probably been formerly
known personally to St. Wilfrid, being both from the same kingdom of
Northumberland. Our saint invested with that sacred character, returned
to his flock, and settled the churches which he had founded in good
order: then leaving them to the care of St. Willibrord and his ten
companions, he penetrated further into {494} the country, and converted
to the faith a considerable part of the Boructuarians, who inhabited the
countries now called the duchy of Berg, and the county of La Marck. His
apostolic labors were obstructed by an invasion of the Saxons, who,
after horrible devastations, made themselves masters of the whole
country of the Boructuarians. St. Swidbert, being at length desirous to
prepare himself for his last hour, in retirement, by fervent works of
penance, received of Pepin of Herstal the gift of a small island, formed
by different channels of the Rhine, and another river, called
Keiserswerdt, that is, island of the emperor; werdt, in the language of
that country, signifying an island. Here the saint built a great
monastery, which flourished for many ages, till it was converted into a
collegiate church of secular canons. A town, which was formed round this
monastery, bore long the name of St. Swidbert's Isle, but is now called
by the old name, Keiserswerdt, and is fortified: it is situated on the
Rhine, six miles below Dusseldorp: a channel of the Rhine having changed
its course, the place is no longer an island. St. Swidbert here died in
peace, on the 1st of March, in 713. His feast was kept with great
solemnity in Holland and other parts where he had preached. Henschenius
has given us a panegyric on him, preached on this day by Radbod, bishop
of Utrecht, who died in 917. His relics were found in 1626 at
Keiserswerdt, in a silver shrine, together with those of St. Willeic,
likewise an Englishman, his successor in the government of this abbey;
and are still venerated in the same place, except some small portions
given to other churches by the archbishop of Cologne.[1] See Bede, Hist.
l. 5, c. 10, 12, and the historical collection of Henschenius, l. Mart.
p. 84; Fleury, l. 40; Batavia Sacra; and the Roman Martyrology, in which
his name occurs on this day. His successor, St. Willeic, is commemorated
on the 2d of March, by Wilson, in his English Martyrology, in the first
edition, an. 1608, (though omitted in the second edition, an. 1628,) and
is mentioned among the English saints, by F. Edward Maihew, Trop{}ea
Congregationis Anglicanæ Bened. Rhemis, 1625; and F. Jerom Porter, in
his Flores Sanctorum Angliæ, Scotiæ, et Hiberniæ. Duaci, 1632.

Footnotes:
1.  The acts of St. Swidbert, under the name of Marcellinus, pretended
    to be St. Marchelm, a disciple or colleague of the saint, extant in
    Surius, are a notorious piece of forgery of the fifteenth century.
    We must not, with these false acts and many others, confound St.
    Swidbert of Keiserswerdt with a younger saint of the same name, also
    an Englishman, first bishop of Verden or Ferden, in Westphaly, in
    807, in the reign of Charlemagne; whose body was taken up at Verden,
    together with those of seven bishops his successors, in 1630. St.
    Swidbert the younger is mentioned in some Martyrologies on the 30th
    of April, though many moderns have confounded him with our saint.
    Another holy man, called Swidbert, forty years younger than our
    saint, whom some have also mistaken for the same with him, is
    mentioned by Bede, (l. 4, c. 32) and was abbot of a monastery in
    Cumberland, upon the river Decors, which does not appear to hive
    been standing since the Conquest. See Leland, Collect. t. 2, p. 152,
    and Camden's Britannia; by Gibson, col. 831. Tanner's Notitia Mon.
    p. 73.

ST. ALBINUS, BISHOP OF ANGERS, C.

HE was of an ancient and noble family in Brittany,[1] and from his
childhood was fervent in every exercise of piety. He ardently sighed
after the happiness which a devout soul finds in being perfectly
disengaged from all earthly things. Having embraced the monastic state
at Cincillac, called afterwards Tintillant, a place somewhere near
Angers, he shone a perfect model of virtue, especially of prayer,
watching, universal mortification of the senses, and obedience, living
as if in all things he had been without any will of his own, and his
soul seemed so perfectly governed by the Spirit of Christ as to live
only for him. At the age of thirty-five years, he was chosen {495}
abbot, in 504, and twenty-five years afterwards, bishop of Angers. He
everywhere restored discipline, being inflamed with a holy zeal for the
honor of God. His dignity seemed to make no alteration either in his
mortifications, or in the constant recollection of his soul. Honored by
all the world, even by kings, he was never affected with vanity.
Powerful in works and miracles, he looked upon himself as the most
unworthy and most unprofitable among the servants of God, and had no
other ambition than to appear such in the eyes of others, as he was in
those of his own humility. By his courage in maintaining the law of God
and the canons of the church, he showed that true greatness of soul is
founded in the most sincere humility. In the third council of Orleans,
in 538, he procured the thirtieth canon of the council of Epaoue to be
revived, by which those are declared excommunicated who presume to
contract incestuous marriages in the first or second degree of
consanguinity or affinity. He died on the 1st of March, in 549. His
relics were taken up and enshrined by St. Germanus of Paris, and a
council of bishops, with Eutropius, the saint's successor, at Angers, in
556; and the most considerable part still remains in the church of the
famous abbey of St. Albinus at Angers, built upon the spot where he was
buried, by king Childebert, a little before his relics were enshrined.
Many churches in France, and several monasteries and villages, bear his
name. He was honored by many miracles, both in his life-time and after
his death. Several are related in his life written by Fortunatus, bishop
of Poitiers, who came to Angers to celebrate his festival seven years
after his decease; also by St. Gregory of Tours, (l. de Glor. Confess.
c. 96.) See the Notes of Henschenius on his life.

Footnotes:
1.  It is proved by Leland in his Itinerary, published by Hearne, (t. 3,
    p. 4,) that the ancestors of St. Albinus of Angers came from Great
    Britain, and that two branches of his family flourished long after,
    one in Cornwall, the other in Somersetshire.

ST. MONAN, IN SCOTLAND, M.

ST. ADRIAN, bishop of St. Andrews, trained up this holy man from his
childhood, and when he had ordained him priest, and long employed him in
the service of his own church, sent him to preach the gospel in the isle
of May, lying to the bay of Forth. The saint exterminated superstition
and many other crimes and abuses, and having settled the churches of
that island in good order, passed into the county of Fife, and was there
martyred; being slain with above 6000 other Christians, by an army of
infidels who ravaged that country in 874. His relics were held in great
veneration at Innerny, in Fifeshire, the place of his martyrdom, and
were famous for miracles. King David II. having himself experienced the
effect of his powerful intercession with God, rebuilt his church at
Innerny of stone, to a stately manner, and founded a college of canons
to serve it. See King's calendar, and the manuscript life of this martyr
in the Scottish college at Paris and the Breviary of Aberdeen.

{496}


MARCH II.

MARTYRS UNDER THE LOMBARDS.

From St. Gregory, Dial. l. 3, c. 26, 27. t. 2, p. 337.

SIXTH AGE.

THE Lombards, a barbarous idolatrous nation which swarmed out of
Scandinavia and Pomerania, settled first in the counties now called
Austria and Bavaria; and a few years after, about the middle of the
sixth century, broke into the north of Italy. In their ravages about the
year 597, they attempted to compel forty husbandmen, whom they had made
captives, to eat meats which had been offered to idols. The faithful
servants of Christ constantly refusing to comply, were all massacred.
Such meats might, in some circumstances, have been eaten without sin,
but not when this was exacted out of a motive of superstition. The same
barbarians endeavored to oblige another company of captives to adore the
head of a goat, which was their favorite idol, and about which they
walked, singing, and bending their knees before it; but the Christians
chose rather to die than purchase their lives by offending God. They are
said to have been about four hundred in number. St. Gregory the Great
mentions, that these poor countrymen had prepared themselves for the
glorious crown of martyrdom, by lives employed in the exercises of
devotion and voluntary penance, and by patience in bearing afflictions;
also, that they had the heroic courage to suffer joyfully the most cruel
torments and death, rather than offend God by sin, because his love
reigned in their hearts. "True love," says St. Peter Chrysologus,[1]
"makes a soul courageous and undaunted; it even finds nothing hard,
nothing bitter, nothing grievous; it braves dangers, smiles at death,
conquers all things." If we ask our own hearts, if we examine our lives
by this test, whether we have yet begun to love God, we shall have
reason to be confounded, and to tremble at our remissness and sloth. We
suffer much for the world, and we count labor light, that we may attain
to the gratification of our avarice, ambition, or other passion in its
service, yet we have not fervor to undertake any thing to save our
souls, or to crucify our passions. Here penance, watchfulness over
ourselves, or the least restraint, seems intolerable. Let us begin
sincerely to study to die to ourselves, to disengage our hearts from all
inordinate love of creatures, to raise ourselves above the slavery of
the senses, above the appetites of the flesh and all temporal interest;
and in order to excite ourselves to love God with fervor, let us
seriously consider what God, infinite in goodness and in all
perfections, and whose love for us is eternal and immense, deserves at
our hands; what the joys of heaven are, how much we ought to do for such
a bliss, and what Christ has done to purchase it for us, and to testify
the excess of his love; also what the martyrs have suffered for his
sake, and to attain to the happiness of reigning eternally with him. Let
us animate ourselves with their fervor: "Let us love Christ as they
did," said St. Jerom to the virgin Eustochium, "and every thing that now
appears difficult, will become easy to us." To find this {497} hidden
treasure of divine love we must seek it earnestly; we must sell all
things, that is, renounce in spirit all earthly objects; we must dig a
deep foundation of sincere humility in the very centre of our
nothingness, and must without ceasing beg this most precious of all
gifts, crying out to God in the vehement desire of our hearts. Lord,
when shall I love thee!

Footnotes:
1.  St. Peter Chrysol. Serm. 4.

ST. CEADA OR CHAD, B.C.

HE was brother to St. Cedd, bishop of London, and the two holy priests
Celin and Cymbel, and had his education in the monastery of Lindisfarne,
under St. Aidan. For his greater improvement in sacred letters and
divine contemplation he passed into Ireland, and spent a considerable
time in the company of St. Egbert, till he was called back by his
brother St. Cedd to assist him in settling the monastery of Lestingay,
which he had founded in the mountains of the Deiri, that is, the Woulds
of Yorkshire. St. Cedd being made bishop of London, or of the East
Saxons, left to him the entire government of this house. Oswi having
yielded up Bernicia, or the northern part of his kingdom, to his son
Alcfrid, this prince sent St. Wilfrid into France, that he might be
consecrated to the bishopric of the Northumbrian kingdom, or of York;
but he stayed so long abroad that Oswi himself nominated St. Chad to
that dignity, who was ordained by Wini, bishop of Winchester, assisted
by two British prelates, in 666. Bede assures us that he zealously
devoted himself to all the laborious functions of his charge, visiting
his diocese on foot, preaching the gospel, and seeking out the poorest
and most abandoned persons to instruct and comfort, in the meanest
cottages, and in the fields. When St. Theodorus, archbishop of
Canterbury, arrived in England, in his general visitation of all the
English churches, he adjudged the see of York to St. Wilfrid. St. Chad
made him this answer: "If you judge that I have not duly received the
episcopal ordination, I willingly resign this charge, having never
thought myself worthy of it: but which, however unworthy, I submitted to
undertake in obedience." The archbishop was charmed with his candor and
humility, would not admit his abdication, but supplied certain rites
which he judged defective in his ordination: and St. Chad, leaving the
see of York, retired to his monastery of Lestingay, but was not suffered
to bury himself long in that solitude. Jaruman, bishop of the Mercians,
dying, St. Chad was called upon to take upon him the charge of that most
extensive diocese.[1] He was the fifth bishop of the Mercians, and first
fixed that see at Litchfield, so called from a great number of martyrs
slain and buried there under Maximianus Herculeus; the name signifying
the field of carcasses. Hence this city bears for its arms a landscape,
covered with the bodies of martyrs. St. Theodorus considering St. Chad's
old age, and the great extent of his diocese, absolutely forbade him to
make his visitations on foot, as he used to do at York. When the
laborious duties of his charge allowed him to retire, he enjoyed God in
solitude with seven or eight monks, whom he had settled in a place near
his cathedral. Here he gained new strength and fresh graces for the
discharge of his functions; he was so strongly affected with the fear of
the divine judgments, that as often as it thundered he went to the
church and prayed prostrate all the time the storm continued, in
remembrance of the dreadful day in which Christ will come to judge the
world. By the bounty of king Wulfere, he founded a monastery at a place
called Barrow, in the province {498} of Lindsay, (in the northern part
of Lincolnshire,) where the footsteps of the regular life begun by him
remained to the time of Bede. Carte conjectures that the foundation of
the great monastery of Bardney, in the same province, was begun by him.
St. Chad governed his diocese of Litchfield, two years and a half, and
died in the great pestilence on the 2d of March, in 673. Bede gives the
following relation of his passage. "Among the eight monks whom he kept
with him at Litchfield, was one Owini, who came with queen Ethelred,
commonly called St. Audry, from the province of the East Angles, and was
her major-domo, and the first officer of her court, till quitting the
world, clad in a mean garment, and carrying an axe and a hatchet in his
hand, he went to the monastery of Lestingay, signifying that he came to
work, and not to be idle; which he made good by his behavior in the
monastic state. This monk declared, that he one day heard a joyful
melody of some persons sweetly singing, which descended from heaven into
the bishop's oratory, filled the same for about half an hour, then
mounted again to heaven. After this, the bishop opening his window, and
seeing him at his work, bade him call the other seven brethren. When the
eight monks were entered his oratory, he exhorted them to preserve peace
and religiously observe the rules of regular discipline; adding, that
the amiable guest who was wont to visit their brethren, had vouchsafed
to come to him that day, and to call him out of this world. Wherefore he
earnestly recommended his passage to their prayers, and pressed them to
prepare for their own, the hour of which is uncertain, by watching,
prayer, and good works." The bishop fell presently into a languishing
distemper, which daily increased, till, on the seventh day, having
received the body and blood of our Lord, he departed to bliss, to which
he was invited by the happy soul of his brother St. Cedd, and a company
of angels with heavenly music. He was buried in the church of St. Mary,
in Litchfield; but his body was soon after removed to that of St. Peter,
in both places honored by miraculous cures, as Bede mentions. His relics
were afterwards translated into the great church which was built in
1148, under the invocation of the B. Virgin and St. Chad, which is now
the cathedral, and they remained them till the change of religion. See
Bede, l. 3, c. 28, l. 4, c. 2 and 3.

Footnotes:
1.  The first bishop of the Mercians was Diuma, a Scot; the second,
    Keollach, of the same nation: the third, Trumhere, who had been
    abbot of Gethling in the kingdom of the Northumbrians: the fourth
    Jaruruan.

ST. SIMPLICIUS, POPE, C.

HE was the ornament of the Roman clergy under SS. Leo and Hilarius, and
succeeded the latter in the pontificate in 497. He was raised by God to
comfort and support his church amidst the greatest storms. All the
provinces of the Western empire, out of Italy, were fallen into the
hands of barbarians, infected for the greatest part with idolatry or
Arianism. The ten last emperors, during twenty years, were rather
shadows of power than sovereigns, and in the eighth year of the
pontificate of Simplicius, Rome itself fell a prey to foreigners.
Salvian, a learned priest of Marseilles in 440, wrote an elegant book On
Divine Providence, in which he shows that these calamities were a just
chastisement of the sins of the Christians; saying, that if the Goths
were perfidious, and the Saxons cruel, they were however both remarkable
for their chastity; as the Franks were for humanity, though addicted to
lying: and that though these barbarians were impious, they had not so
perfect a knowledge of sin, nor consequently were so criminal as those
whom God chastised by them. The disorders of the Roman state paved the
way for this revolution. Excessive taxes were levied in the most
arbitrary ways. The governors oppressed the people at discretion, and
many were obliged to take shelter among the barbarians: for the Bagaude,
{499} Franks, Huns, Vandals, and Goths raised no taxes upon their
subjects: on which account nations once conquered by them were afraid of
falling again under the Roman yoke, preferring what was called slavery,
to the empty name of liberty. Italy, by oppressions and the ravages of
barbarians, was left almost a desert without inhabitants; and the
imperial armies consisted chiefly of barbarians, hired under the name of
auxiliaries, as the Suevi, Alans, Heruli, Goths, and others. Those soon
saw their masters were in their power. The Heruli demanded one third of
the lands of Italy, and, upon refusal, chose for their leader Odoacer,
one of the lowest extraction, but a tall, resolute, and intrepid man,
then an officer in the guards, and an Arian heretic, who was proclaimed
king at Rome in 476. He put to death Orestes, who was regent of the
empire for his son Augustulus, whom the senate had advanced to the
imperial throne. The young prince had only reigned eight months, and his
great beauty is the only thing mentioned of him. Odoacer spared his
life, and appointed him a salary of six thousand pounds of gold, and
permitted him to live at full liberty near Naples. Pope Simplicius was
wholly taken up in comforting and relieving the afflicted, and in sowing
the seeds of the Catholic faith among the barbarians. The East gave his
zeal no less employment and concern. Zeno, son and successor to Leo the
Thracian, favored the Eutychians. Basiliscus his admiral, who, on
expelling him, usurped the imperial throne in 476, and held it two
years, was a most furious stickler for that heresy. Zeno was no
Catholic, though not a stanch Eutychian: and having recovered the
empire, published, in 482, his famous decree of union, called the
Henoticon, which explained the faith ambiguously, neither admitting nor
condemning the council of Chalcedon. Peter Cnapheus, (that is, the
Dyer,) a violent Eutychian, was made by the heretics patriarch of
Antioch; and Peter Mongus, one of the most profligate of men, that of
Alexandria. This latter published the Henoticon, but expressly refused
to anathematize the council of Chalcedon; on which account the rigid
Eutychians separated themselves from his communion, and were called
Acephali, or, without a head. Acacias, the patriarch of Constantinople,
received the sentence of St. Simplicius against Cnapheus, but supported
Mongus against him and the Catholic church, promoted the Henoticon, and
was a notorious changeling, double-dealer, and artful hypocrite, who
often made religion serve his own private ends. St. Simplicius at length
discovered his artifices, and redoubled his zeal to maintain the holy
faith which he saw betrayed on every side, while the patriarchal sees of
Alexandria and Antioch were occupied by furious wolves, and there was
not one Catholic king in the whole world. The emperor measured every
thing by his passions and human views. St. Simplicius having sat fifteen
years, eleven months, and six days, went to receive the reward of his
labors, in 483. He was buried in St. Peter's on the 2d of March. See his
letters: also the historians Evagrius, Theophanes, Liberatus, and
amongst the moderns, Baronius, Henschenius, Ceillier, t. 15, p. 123.

ST. MARNAN, B.C.

To his holy prayers Aidan, king of the Scots, ascribed a wonderful
victory which he gained over Ethelfrid, the pagan king of the
Northumbrian English; and by his councils Eugenius IV., who succeeded
his father Aidan in the kingdom soon after this battle, treated all the
prisoners with the utmost humanity and generosity, by which they were
gained to the Christian faith. The Northumbrian princes, Oswald and
Oswi, were instructed in our holy religion, and grounded in its spirit
by St. Marnan, {500} who died in Annandale in the year 620. His head was
kept with singular devotion at Moravia, and was carried in processions
attended by the whole clan of the Innis's, which from the earliest times
was much devoted to this saint. See the Breviary of Aberdeen, Buchanan,
l. 5, in Aidano et Eugenio Regibus, and MS. Memoirs in the Scottish
college at Paris. St. Marnan is titular saint of the church of
Aberkerdure upon the river Duvern, formerly much frequented out of
devotion to his relics kept there.

ST. CHARLES THE GOOD, EARL OF FLANDERS, M.

HE was the son of St. Canutus, king of Denmark, and of Alice of
Flanders, who, after the death of his father, carried him, then an
infant, into Flanders, in 1086. His cousin-german Baldwin the Seventh,
earl of Flanders, dying without issue in 1119, left him his heir by
will, on account of his extraordinary valor and merit. The young earl
was a perfect model of all virtues, especially devotion, charity, and
humility. Among his friends and courtiers, he loved those best who
admonished him of his faults the most freely. He frequently exhausted
his treasury on the poor, and often gave the clothes off his back to be
sold for their relief. He served them with his own hands, and
distributed clothes and bread to them in all places where he came. It
was observed that in Ipres he gave away, in one day, no less than seven
thousand eight hundred loaves. He took care for their sake to keep the
price of corn and provisions always low, and he made wholesome laws to
protect them from the oppressions of the great. This exasperated
Bertulf, who had tyrannically usurped the provostship of St. Donatian's
in Bruges, to which dignity was annexed the chancellorship of Flanders,
and his wicked relations, the great oppressors of their country. In this
horrible conspiracy they were joined by Erembald, castellan or chief
magistrate of the territory of Bruges, with his five sons, provoked
against their sovereign because he had repressed their unjust violences
against the noble family De Straten. The holy earl went every morning
barefoot to perform his devotions early before the altar of the Blessed
Virgin in St. Donatian's church. Going thither one day, he was informed
of a conspiracy, but answered; "We are always surrounded by dangers, but
we belong to God. If it be his will, can we die in a better cause than
that of justice and truth?" While he was reciting the penitential psalms
before the altar, the conspirators rushing in, his head was cloven by
Fromold Borchard, nephew to Bertulf, in 1124. He was buried in St.
Christopher's church at Bruges, not in that of St. Donatian, as
Pantoppidan proves. Borchard was broke alive on the wheel, and Bertulf
was hung on a rack at Ipres, and exposed on it to be torn by furious
dogs, and at length was stoned to death by beggars while he remained on
that engine. St. Charles's shrine was placed by an order of Charles
Philip Rodoan, fourth bishop of Bruges, in 1606, in the chapel of the
blessed Virgin, and ever since the year 1610 a high mass in honor of the
Trinity is sung on his festival. See the life of this good earl by
Walter, archdeacon of Terouenne, and more fully by Gualbert, syndic of
Bruges, and by Ælnoth a monk of Canterbury and Danish missionary at that
time. See also Molanus and Miræus in their martyrologies; Henschenius,
p. 158; Robertus de Monte a Append, ad. Chronicon Sigeberti ad an. 1127;
Jac. Maierus, Annal. Flandriæ, l. 4, pp. 45, 46. Likewise Ericus
Pantoppidanus in his Gesta Danorum extra Daniam. Hafniæ, 1740 t. 2, sec.
1, c. 5, sec. 32, p. 398.

{501}

ST. JOAVAN, OR JOEVIN, B.C.

This saint was a fervent disciple of St. Paul of Leon, in Great Britain,
his own country, accompanied him into Armorica, led an anchoretical life
near him in the country of Ack, and afterwards in the isle of Baz. That
great saint chose him coadjutor in his bishopric, when he retired a
little before his death. St. Joavan survived him only one year. He is
titular saint of two parish churches in the diocese of St. Paul of Leon,
&c. See Lobineau, Vies des Saints de la Bretagne, p. 71, from the
breviary and tradition of that church, though the life of St. Jovian,
copied by Albert the Great. &c., deserves no regard.

MARCH III.

ST. CUNEGUNDES, EMPRESS.

From her life written by a canon of Bamberg, about the year 1152: also
the Dissertation of Henschenius, p. 267.

A.D. 1040.

ST. CUNEGUNDES was the daughter of Sigefride, the first count of
Luxemburgh, and Hadeswige his pious wife. They instilled into her from
her cradle the most tender sentiments of piety, and married her to St.
Henry, duke of Bavaria, who, upon the death of the emperor Otho III.,
was chosen king of the Romans, and crowned at Mentz on the 6th of June,
1002. She was crowned at Paderborn on St. Laurence's day, on which
occasion she made great presents to the churches of that city. In the
year 1014 she went with her husband to Rome, and received the imperial
crown with him from the hands of Pope Benedict VIII. She had, by St.
Henry's consent before her marriage, made a vow of virginity.
Calumniators afterwards accused her to him of freedoms with other men.
The holy empress, to remove the scandal of such a slander, trusting in
God the protector of innocence, in proof of hers, walked over red-hot
ploughshares without being hurt. The emperor condemned his too
scrupulous fears and credulity, and made her ample amends. They lived
from that time in the strictest union of hearts conspiring to promote in
every thing God's honor, and the advancement of piety.

Going once to make a retreat in Hesse, she fell dangerously ill, and
made a vow to found a monastery, if she recovered, in a place then
called Capungen, now Kaffungen, near Cassel, in the diocese of
Paderborn, which she executed in a stately manner, and gave it to nuns
of the Order of St. Benedict. Before it was finished St. Henry died, in
1024. She earnestly recommended his soul to the prayers of others,
especially to her dear nuns, and expressed her longing desire of joining
them. She had already exhausted her treasures and her patrimony in
founding bishoprics and monasteries, and in relieving the poor. Whatever
was rich or magnificent she thought better suited churches than her
palace. She had therefore little now left to give. {502} But still
thirsting to embrace perfect evangelical poverty, and to renounce all to
serve God without obstacle, on the anniversary day of her busband's
death, 1025, she assembled a great number of prelates to the dedication
of her church of Kaffungen; and after the gospel was sung at mass,
offered on the altar a piece of the true cross, and then put off her
imperial robes, and clothed herself with a poor habit: her hair was cut
off, and the bishop put on her a veil, and a ring as the pledge of her
fidelity to her heavenly spouse. After she was consecrated to God in
religion, she seemed entirely to forget that she had been empress, and
behaved as the last in the house, being persuaded that she was so before
God. She feared nothing more than what ever could bring to her mind the
remembrance of her former dignity. She prayed and read much, worked with
her hands, abhorred the least appearance of worldly nicety, and took a
singular pleasure in visiting and comforting the sick. Thus she passed
the fifteen last years of her life, never suffering the least preference
to be given her above anyone in the community. Her mortifications at
length reduced her to a very weak condition, and brought on her last
sickness. Her monastery and the whole city of Cassel were grievously
afflicted at the thought of their approaching loss; she alone appeared
without concern, lying on a coarse hair-cloth, ready to give up the
ghost, while the prayers of the agonizing were read by her side.
Perceiving they were preparing a cloth fringed with gold to cover her
corpse after her death, she changed color and ordered it to be taken
away; nor could she be at rest till she was promised she should be
buried as a poor religious in her habit. She died on the 3d of March,
1040. Her body was carried to Bamberg, and buried near that of her
husband. The greatest part of her relics still remains in the same
church. She was solemnly canonized by Innocent III. in 1200. The author
of her life relates many miracles wrought at the tomb, or by the
intercession of this holy virgin and widow.

       *       *       *       *       *

Few arrive at any degree of perfection amongst those who aspire after
virtue, because many behave as if they placed it barely in multiplying
exercises of piety and good works. This costs little to self-love, which
it rather feeds by entertaining a secret vanity, or self-complacency, in
those who are not very careful in watching over their hearts. It is a
common thing to see persons who have passed forty or fifty years in the
constant practice of penance and all religious exercises, and the use of
the most holy sacraments, still subject to habitual imperfections, and
venial disorders, incompatible with a state of sanctity or perfection.
They give marks of sudden resentment, if they happen to be rebuked or
despised: are greedy of the esteem of others, take a secret satisfaction
in applause, love too much their own ease and conveniences, and seek
those things which flatter self-love. How much are these souls their own
enemies by not giving themselves to God without reserve, and taking a
firm resolution to labor diligently in watching over themselves, and
cutting off all irregular attachments, and purifying their hearts! The
neglect of this fosters many habitual little disorders and venial sins,
which incredibly obstruct the work of our sanctification, and the
advancement of the kingdom of divine grace in our souls. These little
enemies wilfully caressed, weaken our good desires, defile even our
spiritual actions with a thousand imperfections, and stop the abundant
effusion with which the Holy Ghost is infinitely desirous to communicate
himself to our souls, and to fill them with his light, grace, peace, and
holy joy. The saints, by the victory over themselves, and by making it
their principal study to live in the most perfect disengagement and
purity of heart, offered to God, even in their smallest actions, pure
and full sacrifices of love, praise, and obedience. If we desire to
cultivate this purity of heart, we {503} must carefully endeavor to
discover the imperfections and disorders of their souls, especially such
as are habitual, and strenuously labor to root them out. Secondly, we
must keep our senses under a strict guard, and accustom them to
restraint by frequent denials. Thirdly, we must live as much as may be
in a habit of recollection, and the practice of the divine presence,
and, after any dissipating affairs, return eagerly to close retirement
for some short time. Fourthly, we must, with perfect simplicity, lay
open our whole interior to our spiritual director, and be most
solicitous to do this, with particular candor and courage, in things in
which we are tempted to use any kind of duplicity or dissimulation.
Lastly, we must propose to ourselves, in all our thoughts and actions,
the most perfect accomplishment of the will of God, and study to square
our whole lives by this great rule, watching in all we do with
particular care against motives of vanity, pride, sensuality, interest,
and aversions, the great enemies to purity of intention.

SS. MARINUS AND ASTERIUS, OR ASTYRIUS, 1131.

ST. MARINUS was a person remarkable both for his wealth and family at
Cæsarea in Palestine, about the year 272, and was in course to succeed
to the place of a centurion, which was vacant, and about to obtain it;
when another came up and said, that according to the laws Marinus could
not have that post, on account of his being a Christian. Achæus, the
governor of Palestine, asked Marinus if he was a Christian; who answered
in the affirmative: whereupon the judge gave him three hours space to
consider whether he would abide by his answer, or recall it. Theotecnus,
the bishop of that city, being informed of the affair, came to him, when
withdrawn from the tribunal, and taking him by the hand led him to the
church. Here, pointing to the sword which he wore, and then to a book of
the gospels, asked him which of the two he made his option. Marinus, in
answer to the query, without the least hesitation, stretched out his
right hand, and laid hold of the sacred book. "Adhere steadfastly then
to God," says the bishop, "and he will strengthen you, and you shall
obtain what you have chosen. Depart in peace." Being summoned again
before the judge, he professed his faith with greater resolution and
alacrity than before, and was immediately led away just as he was, and
beheaded. St. Asterius, or Astyrius, a Roman senator, in great favor
with the emperor, and well known to all on account of his high birth and
great estate, being present at the martyrdom of St. Marinus, though he
was richly dressed, took away the dead body on his shoulders, and having
sumptuously adorned it, gave it a decent burial. Thus far the acts in
Ruinart. Rufinus adds, that he was beheaded for this action. See Eus.
Hist. l. 7, c. 15, 16, 17.

SS. EMETERIUS, &c., MM.

COMMONLY CALLED MADIR, AND CHELIDONIUS

THEY were soldiers of distinguished merit in the Roman army in Spain,
and suffered martyrdom at Calahorra, but it is not known in what
persecution. Their courage and cheerfulness seemed to increase with
their sharpest torments, and to them fires and swords seemed sweet and
agreeable. Prudemius says, that the persecutors burned the acts of their
martyrdom, envying us the history of so glorious a triumph. He adds,
that their festival was kept in Spain with great devotion by all ranks
of people; that strangers {504} came in devout pilgrimages to visit
their relics, praying to these patrons of the world; and that none
poured forth their pure prayers to them who were not heard and their
tears dried up: "For," says he, "they immediately hear every petition,
and carry it to the ear of the eternal king." See Prudentius, de Coro,
hymn 1.

ST. WINWALOE, OF WINWALOC, ABBOT.

FRAGAN or Fracan, father of this saint, was nearly related to Cathoun,
one of the kings or princes of Wales, and had by his wife Gwen three
sons, Guethenoc, Jacut, and Winwaloe, whom they bound themselves by vow
to consecrate to God from his birth, because he was their third son. The
invasions of the Saxons, and the storms which soon after overwhelmed his
own country, obliged him to seek a harbor in which he might serve God in
peace. Riwal had retired a little before, with many others, from Wales
into Armorica, and had been there kindly received; several Britons, who
had followed the tyrant Maximus, having settled in that country long
before. Fragan therefore transported his whole family, about the middle
of the fifth century, and fixed his habitation at a place called from
him to this day, Ploufragan, situated on the river Gouct, which ancient
British and Gaulish word signifies blood. All accounts of our saint
agree that his two elder brothers were born in Great Britain, but some
place the birth of St. Winwaloe, and of his sister Creirvie, much
younger than him, in Armorica. The pious parents brought up their
children in the fear of God, but out of fondness delayed to place
Winwaloe in a monastery, till he was now grown up. At length, touched by
God, the father conducted him to the monastery of St. Budoc, in the isle
of Laurels,[1] now called Isleverte, or Green Island, not far from the
isle of Brehat. St. Budoc was an abbot in Great Britain, eminent for
piety and learning, and flying from the swords of the Saxons, took
refuge among his countrymen in Armorica, and in this little island
assembled several monks, and opened a famous school for youth. Under his
discipline Winwaloe made such progress, that the holy abbot appointed
him superior over eleven monks, whom he sent to lay the foundation of a
new monastery. They travelled through Domnonea, or the northern coast of
Brittany, and finding a desert island near the mouth of the river Aven,
now called Chateaulin, they built themselves several little huts or
cells. From these holy inhabitants the name of Tibidy, that is, House of
Prayers, was given to that island, which it still retains. This place is
exposed to so violent winds and storms, that after three years St.
Winwaloe and his community abandoned it, and built themselves a
monastery on the continent, in a valley sheltered from the winds, called
Landevenech, three leagues from Brest, on the opposite side of the bay.
Grallo, count of Cornouailles, in which province this abbey is situated,
in the diocese of Quimper-Corentin, gave the lands, and was at the
expense of the foundation of this famous monastery. St. Winwaloe, from
the time he left his father's house, never wore any other garments but
what were made of the skins of goats, and under these a hair shirt; day
and night, winter and summer, his clothing was the same. In his
monastery neither wheat-bread nor wine was used, but for the holy
sacrifice of the mass. No other drink was allowed to the community but
water, which was sometimes boiled with a small decoction of certain wild
herbs. The monks ate only coarse barley-bread, boiled herbs and roots,
or barley-meal and herbs mixed, except on Saturdays and Sundays, on
which {505} they were allowed cheese and shellfish, but of these the
saint never tasted himself. His coarse barley-bread he always mingled
with ashes, and their quantity he doubled in Lent, though even then it
must have been very small, only to serve for mortification, and an
emblem of penance. In Lent he took his refreshment only twice a week;
his bed was composed of the rough bark of trees or of sand, with a stone
for his pillow. From the relaxation in the rule of abstinence on
Saturdays, it is evident that this monastic rule, which was the same in
substance with that received in other British, Scottish; and Irish
monasteries, was chiefly borrowed from Oriental rules, Saturday being a
fast-day according to the discipline of the Roman church. This rule was
observed at Landevenech, till Louis le Débonnaire, for the sake of
uniformity, caused that of St. Benedict to be introduced there in 818.
This house was adopted into the congregation of St. Maur, in 1636. St.
Winwaloe was sensible that the spirit of prayer is the soul of a
religious state, and the comfort and support of all those who are
engaged in it: as to himself, his prayer, either mental or vocal, was
almost continual, and so fervent, that he seemed to forget that he lived
in a mortal body. From twenty years of age, till his death he never sat
in the church, but always prayed either kneeling or standing unmoved, in
the same posture, with his hands lifted up to heaven, and his whole
exterior bespoke the profound veneration with which he was penetrated.
He died on the 3d of March, about the year 529, in a very advanced age.
His body was buried in his own church, which he had built of wood, on
the spot upon which the abbatial house now stands. These relics were
translated into the new church when it was built, but during the ravages
of the Normans they were removed to several places in France, and at
length into Flanders. At present the chief portions are preserved at
Saint Peter's, at Blaudinberg, at Ghent, and at Montreuil in Lower
Picardy, of which he is titular patron. In Picardy, he is commonly
called St. Vignevaley, and more commonly Walovay; in Brittany, Guignole,
or more frequently Vennole; in other parts of France, Guingalois; in
England, Winwaloe or Winwaloc. His name occurs in the English litany of
the seventh age, published by Mabillon.[2] He is titular saint of St.
Guingualoe, a priory at Chateau du Loir, dependent on Marmoutier at
Tours, and of several churches and parishes in France. His father, St.
Fragan, is titular saint of a parish in the diocese of St. Brieuc,
called Plou-Fragan, of which he is said to have been lord, and of
another in the diocese of Leon, called St. Frogan; also, St. Gwen his
mother, of one in the same diocese called Ploe-Gwen, and of another in
that of Quimper. In France she is usually called St. Blanche, the
British word Gwen signifying Blanche or White. His brothers are honored
in Brittany, St. Guethenoc, on the 5th of November, and St. Jacut or
James, on the 8th of February and the 3d of March; the latter is patron
of the abbey of St. Jagu, in the diocese of Dol. St. Balay, or Valay,
chief patron of the parish of Plou-balai, in the diocese of St. Malo,
and a St. Martin, are styled disciples of St. Winwaloe, and before their
monastic profession were lords of Rosmeur, and Ros-madeuc. Some other
disciples of our saint are placed in the calendars of several churches
in Brittany, as St. Guenhael his successor, St. Idunet or Yonnet, St.
Dei, &c. See the ancient life of St. Winwaloe, the first of the three
given by Bollandus and Henschenius; that in Surius and Cressy not being
genuine. See also Baillet and Lobineau, Lives of the Saints of Brittany,
pp. 43 and 48.

Footnotes:
1.  Laureaca.
2.  Mabil. in Analect.

{506}

ST. LAMALISSE, C.

HE flourished in great sanctity in the isle of Aran, on the west of
Scotland, in the seventh century, and from him a neighboring small
island is called to this day St. Lamalisse's Isle. See MS. memoirs in
the Scottish College at Paris.


MARCH IV.

ST. CASIMIR, PRINCE OF POLAND.

From his life compiled by Zachary Ferrier, legate of Leo X., in Poland,
thirty-six years after his death; and an authentic relation of his
miracles, with many circumstances of his life, by Gregory Swiecicki,
canon of Vilna; also the commentary of Henschenius, p. 337.

A D. 1483

ST. CASIMIR was the third among the thirteen children of Casimir III.,
king of Poland, and of Elizabeth of Austria, daughter to the emperor
Albert II., a most virtuous woman, who died in 1505. He was born in
1458, on the 5th of October. From his childhood he was remarkably pious
and devout. His preceptor was John Dugloss, called Longinus, canon of
Cracow, a man of extraordinary learning and piety, who constantly
refused all bishoprics, and other dignities of the church and state,
which were pressed upon him. Uladislas, the eldest son, was elected king
of Bohemia, in 1471, and became king of Hungary in 1490. Our saint was
the second son: John Albert, the third son, succeeded the father in the
kingdom of Poland in 1492; and Alexander, the fourth son, was called to
the same in 1501. Casimir and the other princes were so affectionately
attached to the holy man who was their preceptor, that they could not
bear to be separated from him. But Casimir profited most by his pious
maxims and example. He consecrated the flower of his age to the
exercises of devotion and penance, and had a horror of that softness and
magnificence which reign in courts. His clothes were very plain, and
under them be wore a hair shirt. His bed was frequently the ground, and
he spent a considerable part of the night in prayer and meditation,
chiefly on the passion of our Saviour. He often went out in the night to
pray before the church-doors; and in the morning waited before them till
they were opened to assist at matins. By living always under a sense of
the divine presence he remained perpetually united to, and absorbed in,
his Creator, maintained an uninterrupted cheerfulness of temper, and was
mild and affable to all. He respected the least ceremonies of the
church: every thing that tended to promote piety was dear to him. He was
particularly devout to the passion of our blessed Saviour, the very
thought of which excited him to tears, and threw him into transports of
love. He was no less piously affected towards the sacrifice of the
altar, at which he always assisted with such reverence and attention
that he seemed in raptures. And as a mark of his singular devotion to
the Blessed Virgin, he composed, or at least frequently recited, the
long hymn that bears his name, a copy of {507} which was, by his desire,
buried with him. His love for Jesus Christ showed itself in his regard
for the poor, who are his members, to whose relief he applied whatever
he had, and employed his credit with his father, and his brother
Uladislas, king of Bohemia, to procure them succor. His compassion made
him feel in himself the afflictions of every one. The Palatines and
other nobles of Hungary, dissatisfied with Matthias Corvin, their king,
son of the great Huniades, begged the king of Poland to allow them to
place his son Casimir on the throne. The saint, not then quite fifteen
years of age, was very unwilling to consent; but in compliance with his
father's will he went, at the head of an army of twenty thousand men, to
the frontiers, in 1471. There, hearing that Matthias had formed an army
of sixteen thousand men to defend him, and that all differences were
accommodated between him and his people, and that pope Sixtus IV. had
sent an embassy to divert his father from that expedition, he joyfully
returned, having with difficulty obtained his father's consent so to do.
However, as his dropping this project was disagreeable to the king his
father, not to increase his affliction by appearing before him, he did
not go directly to Cracow, but retired to the castle of Dobzki, three
miles from that city, where he continued three months in the practice of
penance. Having learned the injustice of the attempt against the king of
Hungary, in which obedience to his father's command prevailed upon him
to embark when he was very young, he could never be engaged to resume it
by a fresh pressing invitation of the Hungarians, or the iterated orders
and entreaties of his father. The twelve years he lived after this, he
spent in sanctifying himself in the same manner as he had done before.
He observed to the last an untainted chastity, notwithstanding the
advice of physicians who excited him to marry, imagining, upon some
false principle, this to be a means necessary to preserve his life.
Being wasted with a lingering consumption, he foretold his last hour,
and having prepared himself for it by redoubling his exercises of piety,
and receiving the sacraments of the church, he made a happy end at
Vilna, the capital of Lithuania, on the 4th of March, 1482, being twenty
three years and five months old. He was buried in the church of St.
Stanislas. So many were the miracles wrought by his intercession, that
Swiecicki, a canon of Vilna, wrought a whole volume of them from good
memoirs, in 1604. He was canonized by pope Leo X., whose legate in
Poland, Zachary Ferrier, wrote the saint's life. His body and all the
rich stuffs it was wrapped in, were found quite entire, and exhaling a
sweet smell one hundred and twenty years after his death,
notwithstanding the excessive moisture of the vault. It is honored in a
large rich chapel of marble, built on purpose in that church. St.
Casimir is the patron of Poland, and several other places, and is
proposed to youth as a particular pattern of purity. His original
picture is to be seen in his chapel in St. Germain des Prez in Paris,
built by John Casimir, king of Poland, the last of the family of Waza,
who, renouncing his crown, retired to Paris, and died abbot of St.
Germain's, in 1668.

       *       *       *       *       *

What is there on earth which can engage the affections of a Christian,
or be the object of his ambition, in whose soul God desires to establish
his kingdom? Whoever has conceived a just idea of this immense happiness
and dignity, must look upon all the glittering bubbles of this world as
empty and vain, and consider every thing in this life barely as it can
advance or hinder the great object of all his desires. Few arrive at
this happy and glorious state, because scarce any one seeks it with his
whole heart, and has the courage sincerely to renounce all things and
die to himself: and this precious jewel cannot be purchased upon any
other terms. The kingdom {508} of God can only be planted in a soul upon
the ruins of self-love: so long as this reigns, it raises insuperable
obstacles to the perfect establishment of the empire of divine love. The
amiable Jesus lives in all souls which he animates by his sanctifying
grace, and the Holy Ghost dwells in all such. But in most of these how
many worldly maxims and inclinations diametrically opposite to those of
our most holy heavenly king, hold their full sway! how many secret
disorders and irregular attachments are cherished! how much is found of
self-love, with which sometimes their spiritual exercises themselves are
infected! The sovereign king of men and their merciful Redeemer is
properly said to reign only in those souls which study effectually, and
without reserve, to destroy in their affections whatever is opposite to
his divine will, to subdue all their passions, and to subject all their
powers to his holy love. Such fall not into any venial sins with full
deliberation, and wipe away those of frailty into which they are
betrayed, by the compunction and penance in which they constantly live,
and by the constant attention with which they watch daily over
themselves. They pray with the utmost earnestness that God deliver them
from all the power of the enemy, and establish in all their affections
the perfect empire of his grace and love; and to fulfil his will in the
most perfect manner in all their actions, is their most earnest desire
and hearty endeavor. How bountifully does God reward, even in this life,
those who are thus liberal towards him! St. Casimir, who had tasted of
this happiness, and learned truly to value the heavenly grace, loathed
all earthly pomp and delights. With what joy ought not all Christians,
both rich and poor, to be filled when they hear: The kingdom of God is
within you! With what ardor ought they not to devote themselves to make
God reign perfectly in their hearts! How justly did St. Casimir prefer
this pursuit to earthly kingdoms!

ST. LUCIUS, POPE AND MARTYR.

From Eus. l. 7. c. 2 and St. Cyprian's letters. See Tillem. t. 4. p.
118. Pagi, Ceillier, t. 3, p. 118, and Pearson, Annal. Cyprian. pp. 31,
33.

A.D. 253.

ST. Lucius was a Roman by birth, and one of the clergy of that church
under SS. Fabian and Cornelius. This latter being crowned with
martyrdom, in 252, St. Lucius succeeded him in the pontificate. The
emperor Gallus having renewed the persecution of his predecessor Decius,
at least in Rome, this holy pope was no sooner placed in the chair of
St. Peter, but he was banished with several others, though to what place
is uncertain. "Thus," says St. Dionysius of Alexandria, "did Gallus
deprive himself of the succor of heaven, by expelling those who every
day prayed to God for his peace and prosperity." St. Cyprian wrote to
St. Lucius to congratulate him both on his promotion, and for the grace
of suffering banishment for Christ. Our saint had been but a short time
in exile, when he was recalled, with his companions, to the incredible
joy of his people, who went out of Rome in crowds to meet him. St.
Cyprlan wrote him a second letter of congratulation on this occasion.[1]
He says, "He had not lost the dignity of martyrdom because he had the
will, as the three children in the furnace, though preserved by God from
death: this glory added a new dignity to his priesthood, that a bishop
assisted at God's altar, who exhorted his flock to martyrdom by his own
example as well as by his words. By giving such graces to his pastors,
God showed where his true church was: for he denied {509} the like glory
of suffering to the Novatian heretics. The enemy of Christ only attacks
the soldiers of Christ: heretics he knows to be already his own, and
passes them by. He seeks to throw down those who stand against him." He
adds, in his own name and that of his colleagues: "We do not cease in
our sacrifices and prayers (in sacrificiis et orationibus nostris) to
God the Father, and to Christ his Son, our Lord, giving thanks and
praying together, that he who perfects all may consummate in you the
glorioius crown of your confession, who perhaps has only recalled you
that your glory might not be hidden; for the victim, which owes his
brethren an example of virtue and faith, ought to be sacrificed in their
presence."[2]

St. Cyprian, in his letter to pope Stephen, avails himself of the
authority of St. Lucius against the Novatian heretics, as having decreed
against them, that those who were fallen were not to be denied
reconciliation and communion, but to be absolved when they had done
penance for their sin. Eusebius says, he did not sit in the pontifical
chair above eight months; and he seems, from the chronology of St.
Cyprian's letters, to have sat only five or six, and to have died on the
4th of March, in 253, under Gallus, though we know not in what manner.
The most ancient calendars mention him on the 5th of March, others, with
the Roman, on the 4th, which seems to have been the day of his death, as
the 5th that of his burial. His body was found in the Catacombs, and
laid in the church of St. Cecily in Rome, where it is now exposed to
public veneration by the order of Clement VIII.

Footnotes:
1.  Ep. 58 Pamelio.--61. Fello, p. 272.
2.  Ep. 67 Pamelio.--68. Fello, in Ed. Oxo.

ST. ADRIAN, BISHOP OF ST. ANDREWS M.,

IN SCOTLAND.

WHEN the Danes, in the ninth century, made frequent descents upon the
coast of Scotland, plundered several provinces, and massacred great part
of the inhabitants, this holy pastor often softened their fury, and
converted several among them to Christ. In a most cruel invasion of
these pirates, he withdrew into the isle of May, in the bay of the river
Forth; but the barbarians plundering also that island, discovered him
there, and slew him with another bishop named Stalbrand, and a great
number of others: the Aberdeen Breviary says six thousand six hundred.
This massacre happened in the reign of Constantine II., in the year 874.
A great monastery was built of polished stone in honor of St. Adrian, in
the isle of May, the church of which, enriched with his relics, was a
place of great devotion. See bishop Lesley, Hist. l. 5. Breviar.
Aberdon. and Chronica Skonensia.

{510}

SS. ADRIAN. AND EUBULUS, OF PALESTINE.

MARTYRS.

From Eusebius's History of the Martyrs of Palestine, c. 11, p. 341.

A.D. 309.

IN the seventh year of Dioclesian's persecution, continued by Galerius
Maximianus, when Firmilian, the most bloody governor of Palestine, had
stained Cæsarea with the blood of many illustrious martyrs, Adrian and
Eubulus came out of the country called Magantia to Cæsarea, in order to
visit the holy confessors there. At the gates of the city they were
asked, as others were, whither they were going, and upon what errand.
They ingenuously confessed the truth, and were brought before the
president, who ordered them to be tortured, and their sides to be torn
with iron hooks, and then condemned them to be exposed to wild beasts.
Two days after, when the pagans at Cæsarea celebrated the festival of
the public Genius, Adrian was exposed to a lion, and not being
dispatched by that beast, but only mangled, was at length killed by the
sword. Eubulus was treated in the same manner, two days later. The judge
offered him his liberty if he would sacrifice to idols; but the saint
preferred a glorious death, and was the last that suffered in this
persecution at Cæsarea, which had now continued twelve years under three
successive governors, Flavian, Urban, and Firmilian. Divine vengeance
pursuing the cruel Firmilian, he was that same year beheaded for his
crimes, by the emperor's order, as his predecessor Urban had been two
years before.

       *       *       *       *       *

It is in vain that we take the name of Christians, or pretend to follow
Christ, unless we carry our crosses after him. It is in vain that we
hope to share in his glory, and in his kingdom, if we accept not the
condition.[1] We cannot arrive at heaven by any other road but that
which Christ held, who bequeathed his cross to all his elect as their
portion and inheritance in this world. None can be exempted from this
rule, without renouncing his title to heaven. Let us sound our own
hearts, and see if our sentiments are conformable to these principles of
the holy religion which we profess. Are our lives a constant exercise of
patience under all trials, and a continual renunciation of our senses
and corrupt inclinations, by the practice of self-denial and penance?
Are we not impatient under pain or sickness, fretful under
disappointments, disturbed and uneasy at the least accidents which are
disagreeable to our nature, harsh and peevish in reproving the faults of
others, and slothful and unmortified in endeavoring to correct our own?
What a monstrous contradiction is it to call ourselves followers of
Christ, yet to live irreconcilable enemies to his cross! We can never
separate Christ from his cross, on which he sacrificed himself for us,
that he might unite us on it eternally to himself. Let us courageously
embrace it, and he will be our comfort and support, as he was of his
martyrs.

Footnotes:
1.  Matt. xvi. 24. Luke xxiv. 26.

{511}

ST. KIARAN, OR KENERIN, B.C.

CALLED BY THE BRITONS, PIRAN.

AMONG the Irish saints who were somewhat older than St. Patrick, the
first and most celebrated is St. Kiaran, whom the Irish style the
first-born of their saints. According to some he was a native of the
country of Ossory, according to others, of Cork. Usher places his birth
about the year 352. Having received some imperfect information about the
Christian faith, at thirty years of age he took a journey to Rome, that
he might be instructed in its heavenly doctrine, and learn faithfully to
practise its precepts. He was accompanied home by four holy clerks, who
were all afterwards bishops; their names are, Lugacius, Columban, Lugad,
and Cassan. The Irish writers suppose him to have been ordained bishop
at Rome; but what John of Tinmouth affirms, seems far more probable,
that he was one of the twelve whom St. Patrick consecrated bishops in
Ireland to assist him in planting the gospel in that island. For his
residence, he built himself a cell in a place encompassed with woods,
near the water of Fuaran, which soon grew into a numerous monastery. A
town was afterwards built there called Saigar, now from the saint
Sier-keran. Here he converted to the faith his family, and whole clan,
which was that of the Osraigs, with many others. Having given the
religious veil to his mother, whose name was Liadan, he appointed her a
cell or monastery near his own, called by the Irish Ceall Lidain. In his
old age, being desirous to prepare himself for his passage to eternity
in close retirement., he passed into Cornwall, where he led an
eremitical life, near the Severn sea, fifteen miles from Padstow.
Certain disciples joined him, and by his words and example formed
themselves to a true spirit of Christian piety and humility. In this
place he closed his mortal pilgrimage by a happy death: a town upon the
spot is to this day called from him St. Piran's in the Sands, and a
church is there dedicated to God in his memory, where was formerly a
sanctuary near St. Mogun's church, upon St. Mogun's creek.[1] See John
of Tinmouth, Usher, &c., collected by Henschenius: also Leland's
Collections, published by Hearne, t. 3, pp. 10 and 174.

Footnotes:
1.  A great number of other Irish saints retired to Cornwall, where many
    towns and churches still retain their names. Thus St. Burian's is so
    called from an Irish virgin called Buriana, to whose church and
    college here king Athelstan, in 936, granted the privilege of
    sanctuary. See Leland. Collect t. 3, pp. 7, 8.

ST. IA,

WAS daughter to an Irish nobleman, and a disciple of St. Barricus; Iä
and Erwine, and many others, came out of Ireland into Cornwall, and
landed at Pendinas, a stony rock and peninsula. At her request Dinan, a
lord of the country, built there a church, since called St. Iës,
eighteen miles from St. Piran's in the Sands, on the Severn. St
Carantoke's is two miles above St. Piran's. Iës stands two miles from
Lannant; St. Erth is a parish church two miles above Lannant. St. Cua and
St. Tedy's parishes are situated in the same part. St. Lide's island,
where her tomb was formerly visited by the whole country, still retains
her name. See the life of St. Ia quoted by Leland, Coll. t. 3, p. 11.

ST. BREACA, V.

SHE was born in Ireland on the borders of Leinster and Ulster, and
consecrated herself to God in a religious state under the direction of
St. Bridget, who built for her a separate oratory, and afterwards a
monastery, in a place since called the field of Breaca. She afterwards
passed into Cornwall in company with abbot Sinnin, a disciple of St.
Patrick, Maruan, a monk, Germoch, or Gemoch, king Elwen, Crewenna, and
Helen. St. Breaca landed at Revyer, otherwise called Theodore's castle,
situated on the eastern bank of the river Hayle, long since, as it
seems, swallowed up by the sands on the coast of the northern sea of
Cornwall. Tewder, a Welshman, slew part of this holy company. St. Breaca
proceeded to Pencair, a hill in Penibro parish, now commonly called St.
Banka. She afterwards built two churches, one at Trene, with the other
at Talmeneth, two mansion places in the parish of Pembro, as is related
in the life of St. Elwin. See Leland's Itinerary, published by Hearne,
p. 5.

ST. GERMOKE'S church is three miles from St. Michael's Mount, by
east-south-east, a mile from the sea. His tomb is yet seen there, and
his chair is shown in the churchyard, and his well a little without the
Churchyard. Leland, ib. p. 6.

ST. MAWNOUN'S church stands at the point of the haven towards Falmouth,
ib. p. 13.

{512}

SAINT ROGER, C.

A DISCIPLE Of St. Francis of Assisio, who received him into his Order in
1216, and sent him into Spain, though Wading calls him a layman. The
spirit of poverty which he professed, he inherited of his holy father in
the most perfect degree, and St. Francis commended his charity above all
his other disciples. The gifts of prophecy and miracles rendered him
illustrious both living and after his death, which happened in 1236. His
head is kept at Villa Franca, in the diocese of Asturia, and his body at
Todi in Italy, where he is honored with a particular office ratified by
Gregory IX. See Wading's Annals, published by Fonseca, at Rome, in 1732,
t. 2, pp. 413, 414, also Henschenius, p. 418. Pope Benedict XIV. granted
to the Franciscans for {his} festival the 5th of March.

ST. JOHN JOSEPH OF THE CROSS.

(SUPPLEMENT _to Butler's Lives of the Saints_--SADLIERS' EDITION.)

St. John Joseph of the Cross was canonized on Trinity Sunday, May
26th, 1839. His biography was written by the reverend postulator who
conducted the process of his canonization, from authentic documents in
his possession, and published at Rome in 1838, in a work
entitled--_Compendio della Vita di Giangiuseppe della Croce_. The
following account of the life of this eminent saint is compiled from
the English translation of the above work, and thought worthy of being
incorporated in this edition of the "Lives of the Saints."

A.D. 1654-1734.

HE was born on the Feast of the Assumption, in the year of our Lord
1654, at the town of Ischia, in the island of that name, belonging to
the kingdom of Naples, of respectable parents, Joseph Calosirto and
Laura Garguilo, and was upon the same day christened Charles Cajetan. He
early discovered the seeds of those virtues that in a special manner
enriched his soul, and sanctified his life in the religious
state,--humility, sweetness, obedience, and an incomparable modesty; and
at the same time manifested a marvellous inclination to silence,
retirement, and prayer. Wherefore, even in childhood, he made choice of
a room in the most secluded quarter of the house, and therein fitting up
a little altar to Our blessed Lady, (on whose great festival he had the
happiness to be born, and towards whom, through life, he cherished a
tender and filial devotion,) he spent his whole time in study and pious
exercises. Here, too, he early manifested his attachment to the cross,
sleeping upon a narrow hard bed, and fasting on appointed days during
the week; and as he mortified the flesh betimes, so also he checked all
pride, by wearing constantly mean clothes, notwithstanding his birth and
station, in despite of remonstrances and reproach. His horror of sin was
equal to his love of virtue, so that his mind, from the first dawn of
reason, shrunk like a delicate plant from the very shadow of guilt, and
was all-imbued with zeal for God's glory. Idleness, levity, vanity, and
falsehood, even in trivial matters, were censured by him as faults
severely reprehensible. And when his efforts to check sin drew upon him
the hostility of others, he was so far from losing patience, that he
therein only discovered a fresh opportunity of practising virtue.
Towards the poor he overflowed with tenderness, reserving for them the
choicest portion of his meals, and devoting to their use the
pocket-money he received.

The sanctity of his boyhood merited for him the grace of a divine call
to a state of holiness; and feeling an interior movement to quit the
world, he {513} sedulously sought counsel from the Father of lights, as
to the manner in which he should obey this inspiration. For this end he
redoubled his ordinary devotions and mortifications; performed a novena
to the Holy Ghost, and threw himself upon the tender patronage and
powerful intercession of Our Lady. God hearkened to his fervent appeal;
for his providence so disposed that at this period the renowned servant
of God, Father John da San Bernardo, a Spanish Alcantarine, came into
the country of our saint, with the view of establishing his order in the
kingdom of Naples. The mean habit and devout demeanor of this holy man
and his companions, touched and won the heart of Joseph; he desired to
imitate what he beheld, and doubted not but the desire came from God.
Wherefore he journeyed to Naples, that he might impart to the fathers of
the order his inclination; and they, having prudently considered his
vocation, admitted him to the novitiate. He manifested so much ardor,
that the superiors deemed it fitting to clothe him with the habit before
the usual time had expired. This happy consummation of his wishes took
place before he had completed his sixteenth year. He adopted the name of
John Joseph of the Cross, and on the feast of St. John the Baptist, in
the year of our Lord 1671, he completed his edifying novitiate, and took
the solemn vows of his order; whose holy founder, St. Francis of Asisi,
and St. Peter of Alcantara, he proposed to himself as models.

In obedience to the express desire of his superior, our saint submitted
to receive the dignity of the priesthood, and was appointed to hear
confessions; in which task he displayed a profound theological learning,
which he had acquired solely at the foot of the cross. But, carried
onward by an ardent love of the cross, whose treasures he more and more
discovered as he advanced in the dignity and functions of the sacred
ministry, he resolved to establish in the wood adjoining his convent a
kind of solitude, where, after the manner of the ancient Fathers of the
Desert, he might devote himself entirely to grayer and penitential
austerities, and give to the Church an illustrious and profitable
example of the sacerdotal spirit exercised in a perfect degree. There
was found in the wood a pleasant fountain, whose waters healed the sick;
and hard by he erected a little church, and round about it, at
intervals, five small hermitages, wherein, with his companions, he
renewed the austere and exalted life of the old anchorites, and advanced
greatly in spirituality. And in order that no care or worldly thought
might ruffle the sublime tranquillity of this contemplative life, the
convent had charge of daily supplying the holy solitary with food.

But the superiors, who knew the rich treasure they possessed in our
saint, when he had attained the age of twenty-four, chose him for master
of the novices; in which new office, so far from allowing himself the
smallest dispensation, he was foremost in setting the example of a
scrupulous observance of every rule; assiduous in his attendance in
choir, constant in silence, in prayer, and recollection. He was careful
to instil into the hearts of those under his charge an ardent love of
Our Lord Jesus, and a desire of imitating him; as also a special
veneration for, and tender attachment to His blessed mother.

From Naples, where he was employed as master of the novices, our saint
was transferred to Piedimonte, and invested with the office of guardian.
The zeal which this new and more responsible charge called for, was
surpassed only by the profound humility its exercise demanded. Ever a
rigid enforcer of the rule, he was careful to make his enactments
agreeable to others, by being the first to observe them himself. The
beneficial result of such conduct was soon made manifest, for he thereby
won the hearts of all the religious, who under him, advanced with rapid
strides towards the most heroic {514} perfection. Still his humble and
gentle spirit sighed to be disburdened of so heavy a charge; and having,
after two years, obtained the desired release, turned its charitable
energies to the direction of souls, the assistance and alleviation of
the dying and distressed, and the conversion of sinners.

When he was released from his post of guardian, it was only to reassume
that of master of the novices, which be held for four successive years,
and exercised partly in Naples, and partly in Piedimonte. But now
succeeded the accustomed visitation of crosses, to be afterwards
followed by an increase of grace and supernatural favors; an alternation
which checkered the whole course of his life. He was summoned to his
native country, Ischia, to order to discharge the painful duty of filial
affection, and receive the last sighs of his dying mother. Her death
ensued, full of hope, and calm, in the presence of her beloved; and,
stifling the swelling emotions of sensible grief, this incomparable son
followed her remains to the church, and offered up for her soul the
sacrifice of propitiation. Who shall adequately conceive his feelings
during the celebration of that mass? Was his grief less filial, less
poignant, because it was reasonable and Christian? and because, instead
of breaking into wild laments and barren demonstrations, it remained
pent up in the recesses of his strong heart, and left free play and
exercise to calm judgment and the salutary measures of Christian
charity? Christian fortitude requires that we should bear up against the
stroke of death not despondingly, because inevitable, but firmly and
cheerfully, because it is the season of better hope, whereby we plant
the ensign of salvation upon the grave. This will be no unnatural check
to those emotions, which it is so great and yet so painful a consolation
to indulge. They will flow no less freely, and far more profitably, when
the calls of religion have first been satisfied. Was St. Bernard a
violator of the sentiments of humanity, when he followed with tearless
eyes and calm countenance the body of his brother to the grave,
assisting at all the offices of religion, and officiating thereat
himself? Was that great heart insensible, when its uncontrollable grief
burst out in the midst of a discourse on other topics, into an
impassioned address to his departed brother, and a magnificent tribute
to the virtues of this partner of his soul and affections? Or does not
such an instance of Christian fortitude and magnanimity favorably
contrast with the pusillanimous and almost heathen despondency and
desolation which overwhelm many at the sight or news of death, even as
the Catholic faith--warm, generous, and confident--cheers beyond that
cold and gloomy creed, that bids farewell to hope at the brink of the
grave?

In the provincial chapter of 1690, he was appointed to the office of
definitor, in addition to that which he already held. The difficulties
of these two functions, requiring a union of the virtues of the active
and contemplative life, our saint marvellously and happily surmounted.
But now an event happened which well-nigh extinguished the institute to
which he belonged, in Italy, and which gave occasion to an illustrious
evidence of his exceeding utility to the order. The Spanish
Alcantarines, having some differences with the Italian, procured from
the apostolic see their dismemberment from the latter, who, being thus
abandoned, recurred to our saint for succor. Suffering himself to be
overcome by their entreaties, he undertook the advocacy of their cause
with the pontiff, and succeeded, in a congregation held in 1702, in
changing the sentiments of the cardinals and bishops, previously
disposed to their suppression; so that on the day after the feast of St.
Thomas the Apostle, a decree was issued by which the order was
established in Italy under the form of a province. A chapter was
convoked, in which the arduous task of government was, by the unanimous
voice of {515} all, forced upon the humility of our saint, who,
surmounting incredible hardships and obstacles, had at length the
satisfaction of seeing the necessary means provided, and the order
firmly established. Before the chapter-general of the order met, he was
named definitor by the provincial chapter; but on his remonstrances at
being thus so often compelled to assume offices, in spite of his
repugnance, he at length obtained a papal brief, exempting him from all
charges, and annulling even his active and passive vote in the chapter.
During the course of the year 1722, another brief made over to the
Alcantarines the convent of St. Lucy, in Naples, and thither our saint
retired, never afterwards to be brought out into the public light, which
he so much shunned, but left to edify his brethren during the remainder
of his life, and to build up the fabric of those extraordinary virtues,
of which we shall now proceed to give a sketch.

Faith, like the keystone of the arch, is that which gives the fabric of
Christian virtue solidity and stability. Of the attachment of our saint
to this necessary virtue, it would be superfluous to say any thing, as
his whole life was a speaking evidence of that attachment, as well as of
the eminent degree in which it pleased God to enable him to appreciate
its consoling mysteries. But he was content to thank God for having
admitted him to the truth, without rashly or profanely lifting the veil
of the sanctuary, and scrutinizing that which is within. He was
persuaded that the attempt to fathom the secrets of God, or to measure
his designs, would prove as hopeless as it would be impious, and
therefore he bowed to the truths of faith with implicit submission. From
this attachment of our saint to the virtue of faith, proceeded his zeal
to instruct the ignorant in the mysteries of religion, as well as the
force, fervor, and clearness, with which he expounded the sublime dogmas
of the Trinity and Incarnation, and even of predestination and grace;
the gift he possessed of quieting doubts respecting faith; and finally,
that constant exercise of the presence of God which he practised
uninterruptedly, and constantly recommended, saying: "Whoever walks
always in God's presence, will never commit sin, but will preserve his
innocence and become a great saint."

Hope in God rendered our saint of even temper in the midst of the
various contradictions he experienced in establishing his order in
Italy. He used to say to his companions, when they were dismayed by the
persecutions they suffered, "Let us hope in God, and doubtless we shall
be comforted:" and to the distressed who flocked to him, "God is a
tender father, who loves and succors all;" or, "Doubt not; trust in God,
He will provide." Hence his heart enjoyed a peace which no sufferings
could molest, and which did not desert him even when he lay under the
stroke of apoplexy that terminated in his death. For his hope was based
upon the Catholic principle, that God, who destined him for an eternal
kingdom, would not refuse the succors necessary to attain it. Still,
though his hopes, through the merits of our Lord's blessed passion, knew
no bounds, yet was he tremblingly sensible of the guilt of sin, and the
awful character of God's judgments; whence were derived that intense
grief with which sin inspired him, and that astonishing humility which
led him to bewail unceasingly his want of correspondence to divine
grace, to proclaim himself everywhere a sinner, and implore the prayers
of others.

To complete the crown of theological virtues, charity in both its
branches pre-eminently characterized our saint. This divine virtue
burned so warmly in his heart, as to be transfused through his features,
over which it spread a superhuman and celestial glow, and gave to his
discourse a melting tenderness. "Were there neither heaven nor hell," he
would say, "still would I ever wish to love God, who is a father so
deserving of our love." Or: {516} "Let us love our Lord, love him verily
and indeed, for the love of God is a great treasure. Blessed is he that
loveth God."

Our saint, who so ardently loved God, whom he saw not, was not without
bowels of tenderness for his neighbor, whom he beheld. It was the
constant practice of his life to feed the poor; and when he was
superior, he ordered that no beggar should be dismissed from the convent
gate without relief: in time of scarcity he devoted to their necessities
his own portion, and even that of the community, relying upon Providence
to supply their wants; and when he was only a private monk, he earnestly
recommended this charity to the superiors.

But it was towards the sick that his charity displayed itself. He used
to attend the infirm in his convent with unwearied assiduity; nor was he
less anxious to serve those who were without, but generously sought them
out, and visited them, even during the most inclement seasons. And as
God maketh his sun to shine upon the wicked as well as the good, so our
saint would not exclude even his enemies from the boundless range of his
charity. For one who had insulted him he once labored strenuously to
procure some advantageous post; and being warned that the man was his
enemy, he replied, "that therefore he was under the greater obligation
of serving him." Besides these general virtues, he possessed in the
highest degree those which belonged to his religious state, especially a
prompt and implicit obedience to all commands, however painful or
difficult. That obedience which he practised himself, he was careful to
enforce upon others, which his office of superior made it his duty, for
he justly regarded this virtue as essential to a religious. Nor was his
love of poverty less remarkable. A rouge seat and a table, a bed,
consisting of two narrow planks, with two sheep-skins and a wretched
woollen coverlet, a stool to rest his wounded legs upon, these, with his
breviary, formed the whole furniture of his cell. And although the order
allowed each one to possess two habits, yet during the forty-six years
that he was a member of it, he never had any other than that which he
put on in the novitiate. But it was in his vigilant guard over chastity,
that our saint was most remarkable. His unremitting mortifications, his
extreme modesty, and perpetual watchfulness over all his senses,
preserved him from the slightest breath of contamination. Never during
the sixty years of his life was he known to look any one not of his own
sex in the face. His every word and action bespoke purity, and inspired
the love thereof. Our saint, so solidly grounded in this virtue, was not
without its only sure foundation,--humility. He delighted in performing
menial offices in the convent, and when the task allotted to him was
finished, he was anxious to fulfil that of others. Hence he also avoided
all posts and honor, as much as was consistent with his vow of
obedience. When he journeyed through Italy as provincial, he would not
make himself known at the inns, where he lodged, lest any distinction
should be paid him. To the same cause may be ascribed his unwillingness
to revisit his native country, his aversion to being in company with the
great, when their spiritual affairs did not require it, his not
accepting the invitations of the viceroy and his consort to the palace;
his calling himself, as he was wont, the greatest sinner in the whole
world, ungrateful to God for his benefits, a worm on the face of the
earth; his custom of frequently kissing the hands of priests; his
unwillingness to declare his opinion in council; his care to break off
every discourse touching upon his birth or connections; his gratitude to
God for enlightening those who disparaged him; his never being
scandalized at the sins of others, how great soever; and finally, his
never evincing the smallest resentment at any insult or injury. He was
studious to conceal and dissemble the great gifts of miracles and
prophecy with which God favored {517} him; ascribing the miracles he
performed to the faith of those in whose behalf they were wrought, or to
the intercession of the saints. Not unfrequently he desired those whom
he restored to health, to take some certain medicine, that the cure
might be attributed to a mere natural remedy; and with regard to his
prophecies, which were numerous, he affected to judge from analogy and
experience. To the numerous penitential austerities enjoined by his
order, he added as many more as an ingenious self-denial could devise.
Silent as long as possible, when he spoke, it was in a low voice.
Bareheaded in all seasons, he wore under his rough and heavy habit
divers hair-shirts and chains, which he was careful to vary to keep the
sense of torment ever fresh. Besides, he used the discipline to a severe
degree; and when, at the age of forty, his superior obliged him to wear
sandals, he placed between them and his feet a quantity of small nails;
but the most tremendous instrument of torture, which he devised against
himself, was a cross about a foot in length, set with rows of sharp
nails, which he fastened tight over his shoulders, so as to open there a
wound which never afterwards closed. In sooth, these things would appear
incredible, did we not remember that St. John Joseph of the Cross had
taken up the instrument of our Lord Jesus's blessed passion, and was
miraculously supported under its weight. If we are not blessed with
equal strength, still we are all capable of enduring much more than is
demanded of us for gaining heaven. Is not the life of a worldling more
irksome and more painful than that of a mortified religious man? How
many heart-burnings, and aching heads, and palled appetites, and
disordered faculties, and diseased frames, could bear out this
assertion,--that the way to heaven would be easy on the score of
mortification, if men could consent to sacrifice to virtue but one half
what they sacrifice to feed their passions?

It was usual for our saint to be absorbed and rapt in heavenly ecstasies
and visions. In this state he was lost to all that passed around him;
seeing, hearing, and feeling nothing, he stood like a statue of marble,
and when he was awakened, his countenance glowed like a burning coal. In
a condition so closely resembling that of the blessed, he was, from time
to time, made a partaker of their glories. Thus, during prayer a halo of
light often encircled his head; and, during mass, a supernatural
brightness overspread his countenance. In the practice of every virtue,
and in the enjoyment of sublime graces, our saint passed the days of his
pilgrimage, glorifying God and giving alms and doing good, until it
pleased the Lord to close his career on earth, not without a previous
forewarning as to the time and circumstances of his death. In the year
when it occurred, his nephew writing to him from Vienna, that he would
return home in May, he sent back answer that he would not then find him
living. And only a week before his departure, discoursing with his
brother. Francis, he said, "I have never asked a boon of you till now;
do me the charity to pray to Almighty God for me, next Friday, do you
hear? mind, do not forget." It was the very day he died. Two days before
his last mortal attack, accosting Vincent of Laines, "We shall never,"
said he, "meet on earth again." Now, upon the last day of February,
after hearing mass, and receiving communion with extraordinary fervor,
he betook himself to his room, to deliver to the crowds that resorted to
him his last paternal admonitions. He continued without interruption
till mid-day, and at that hour precisely, turning to the lay-brother
that assisted him, said, "Shortly a thunderclap will lay me prostrate on
the ground, you will have to raise me thence, but this is the last I
shall experience." Accordingly, at two hours and a half after sunset, an
apoplectic stroke threw him on the ground. At first the nature of his
disease was mistaken. It was thought that over-fatigue had brought on
giddiness but the next day {518} the symptoms manifested themselves
alarmingly, and spread in defiance of remedies. Yet though he was thus,
to all appearances, senseless during the five days that he survived,
doubtless his soul was occupied in interior ecstasies and profound
contemplation; as indeed his countenance, his lips, and gestures,
expressive of the tenderest devotion, indicated. His eyes, generally
shut, opened frequently to rest upon the mild image of Our Lady, whose
picture was opposite him. Sometimes, too, he turned them towards his
confessor, as if demanding absolution, according to what had been
previously concerted between them. A pressure of the eyes and an
inclination of the head were also perceptible, and he was seen to strike
his breast when he received, for the last time, the sacramental
absolution from the hands of the superior. At length the morning dawned,
which was to witness the passage of our saint from this vale of tears
and land of sorrow to a better life. It was Friday, the 5th of March, a
day yet unoccupied in the calendar, as if purposely left for him. He had
spent the previous night in unceasing fervent acts of contrition,
resignation, love, and gratitude, as his frequent beating of his breast,
lifting his hands towards heaven, and blessing himself, testified.
Before the morning was far advanced, turning to the lay-brother that
attended him, as if awoke out of an ecstasy, he said, "I have but a few
moments to live." Hereupon the lay-brother ran in all speed to give
notice to the superior, who, with the whole community, at that moment in
choir, hastened to the cell of the dying man. The recommendation of a
departing soul was recited with an abundance of tears. The
father-guardian perceiving he was in his agony, imparted to him the last
sacramental absolution; which he, bowing his head to receive, instantly
raised it again; opened, for the last time, his eyes, now swimming in
joy, and inebriated with heavenly delight; fixed them, just as they were
closing, with a look of ineffable tenderness, upon the image of Out
blessed Lady, and composing his lips to a sweet smile, without farther
movement or demonstration, ceased to breathe.

Thus expired, without a struggle, John Joseph of the Cross, the mirror
of religious life, the father of the poor, the comforter of the
distressed, and the unconquerable Christian hero: but when death came to
pluck him from the tree he dropped like a ripe fruit, smiling, into his
hands: or, even as a gentle stream steals unperceived into the ocean, so
calmly that its surface is not fretted with a ripple, his soul glided
into eternity. To die upon the field of battle, amidst the shouts of
victory, in presence of an admiring throng, surrounded by the badges of
honor and respect, bequeathing to history a celebrated name, may merit
the ambition of the world; or to perish in some noble cause, buoyed up
by enthusiasm, conscious worth, and the certainty of having the sympathy
and applause of all from whom meed is valuable, may make even
selfishness generous, and cowardice heroic, but to suffer during life
the lingering martyrdom of the cross; and then to expire, not suddenly,
but like a taper, burnt out; to fall like a flower, not in its prime and
beauty but gradually shedding its leaves and perfume, and bearing its
fibres to the last, till it droops and lies exhaled and prostrate in the
dust; is a death too pure, too self-devoted, too sublime, for any but
the annals of Christian heroism to supply. And assuredly a day will come
when the conqueror's crown shall not be brighter than the Christian's
halo, nor the patriot's laurel-branch bear richer foliage than the palms
of Paradise, which the humblest denizen of heaven shall carry. A day
will come that will give to all their proper measure and dimensions; yet
even before that day shall God glorify those who have died the peaceful
death of the just, by embalming their memory and rendering their tombs
and relics illustrious, so that, for the one who shall have heard of the
hero, thousands shall bless and invoke the Saint.

{519}

       *       *       *       *       *

He alone is a perfect Christian who is crucified to the world, and to
whom the world is crucified, and who glorieth in nothing save the cross
of out Lord Jesus. Nor without embracing the cross at least in heart and
affection, can any one belong to the religion of Christ. Upon entering
life we are marked with the cross; through the various vicissitudes
thereof our every step is encountered by it--go whithersoever thou wilt
and thou shalt find it impossible to escape the cross--and it
accompanies us even unto death and the grave. For a Christian dieth
pressing the cross to his lips; and the cross is engraven upon his tomb
that it may bear witness of his faith and hope. But if Our Lord has
said, in general terms, "Whosoever will be my disciple, let him take up
his cross and follow me;" and if it be true that through many
tribulations it is necessary to enter into the kingdom of heaven, then
are all without exception called upon to assume this burden. It is not
strange, then, that saints should have delighted to blend their names
with the cross wherewith their hearts were so closely entwined; or that
men, after their departure to glory, should have designated them by the
title of that whereof they were so deeply enamored.


MARCH VI.

ST. CHRODEGANG, BISHOP OF METZ, CONFESSOR.

From Paul the Deacon, l. 2 de Gest. Longob. c. 16. Henschenius, p. 453.
Mabill. Annal. Ben. l. 22, t. 2, & Act. SS. Ord. Ben. t. 4, p. 184.
Ceillier, t. 18, p. 176. His life, published by George Von Eckart, Hist
Francie Orient. t. 1, p. 912. Also Meurisse, Hist. des Evêques de Metz,
l. 2.

A.D. 766.

THIS saint, nobly born in Brabant, then called Hasbain, was educated in
the abbey of St. Tron, and for his great learning and virtue was made
referendary, chancellor of France, and prime minister, by Charles
Martel, mayor of the French palace, in 737. He was always meanly clad
from his youth; he macerated his body by fasting, watching, and
hair-cloths, and allowed his senses no superfluous gratifications of any
kind. His charity to all in distress seemed to know no bounds; he
supported an incredible number of poor, and was the protector and father
of orphans and widows. Soon after the death of Charles Martel, he was
chosen bishop of Metz, in 742. Prince Pepin, the son and successor of
Charles, uncle to our saint by his mother, Landrada, would not consent
to his being ordained, but on the condition that he should still
continue at the helm of the state. Chrodegang always retained the same
sweetness, humility, recollection, and simplicity in his behavior and
dress. He constantly wore a rough hair-shirt under his clothes, spent
good part of the night in watching, and usually at his devotions watered
his cheeks with tears. Pope Stephen III. being oppressed by the
Lombards, took refuge in France. Chrodegang went to conduct him over the
Alps, and king Pepin was no sooner informed that he had passed these
mountains in his way to France, but he sent Charles, his eldest son, to
accompany him to Pont-yon, in Champagne, where the king was to receive
him. The pope being three miles distant from that city, the king came to
meet him, and having joined him, alighted from his horse, and prostrated
himself, as did the queen, his children, and the lords of his court; and
the king walked some time by the side of his horse to do him honor. The
pope {520} retired to the monastery of St. Deny's; and king Pepin, in
the year 754, sent St. Chrodegang on an embassy to Astulph, king of the
Lombards, praying him out of respect to the holy apostles not to commit
any hostilities against Rome, nor to oblige the Romans to superstitions
contrary to their laws, and to restore the towns which he had taken from
the holy see; but this embassy was without effect. The saint, in 755,
converted the chapter of secular canons of his cathedral into a regular
community, in which he was imitated by many other churches. He composed
for his regular canons a rule, consisting of thirty-four articles. In
the first he lays down humility for the foundation of all the rest.[1]
He obliged the canons to confess at least twice a year to the bishop,
before the beginning of Advent and Lent.[2] But these churches, even
that of Metz, have again secularized themselves. The saint built and
endowed the monasteries of St. Peter, that of Gorze, and a third in the
diocese of Worms, called Lorsh or Laurisham. He died on the 6th of
March. in 766, and was buried at Gorze, to which by his will, which is
still extant, he demised several estates. He is named in the French,
German, and Belgic Martyrologies.

       *       *       *       *       *

The zeal of St. Chrodegang in restoring the primitive and apostolic
spirit in the clergy, particularly their fervor and devotion in the
ministry of the altar, is the best proof of his ardor to advance the
divine honor. To pay to Almighty God the public homage of praise and
love, in the name of the whole church, is a function truly angelical.
Those, who by the divine appointment are honored with this sublime
charge, resemble those glorious heavenly spirits who always assist
before the throne of God. What ought to be the sanctity of their lives!
how pure their affections, how perfectly disengaged from all inordinate
attachments to creatures, particularly how free from the least filth of
avarice, and every other vice! All Christians have a part in this
heavenly function.

Footnotes:
1.  Ch. 14.
2.  See the other regulations abridged in Fleury, &c., the entire rule
    published genuine in {Le Cointe Amaise} t. 5, and in the later
    editions of the councils{}.

B. COLETTE, VIRGIN AND ABBESS.

From her life, written by her confessor, Peter de Vaux. See Helyot,
Hist. des Ord. Relig. t. 7, p. 96. Miraeus and Barbaza, Vies des Saints
du Tiers Ordre de St. François, t. 2, p. 51.

A.D. 1447.

COLETTE BOILET, a carpenter's daughter, was born at Corbie, in Picardy,
in 1380. Her parents, out of devotion to St. Nicholas, gave her the name
of Colette, the diminutive of Nicholas. She was brought up in the love
of humiliations and austerities. Her desire to preserve her purity
without the least blemish made her avoid as much as possible all
company, even of persons of her own sex, unless it was sometimes to draw
them from the love of the world by her moving discourses, which were
attended with a singular blessing from almighty God. Humility was her
darling virtue; and her greatest delight seemed to be in seeing herself
contemned. She was so full of confusion at her own miseries and
baseness, and was so contemptible in her own eyes, that she was ashamed
to appear before any one, placed herself far below the greatest sinners,
and studied by all sorts of humiliations to prevent the least motion of
secret pride or self-conceit in her heart. She served the poor and the
sick with an affection that charmed and comforted them. She lived in
strict solitude in a small, poor, abandoned apartment in {521} her
father's house, and spent her time there in manual labor and prayer.
Being very beautiful, she begged of God to change her complexion, and
her face became so pale and thin, that she could scarce be known for the
same person. Yet a certain majesty of virtue, shining in her
countenance, gave her charms conducive to the edification of others by
the sweetness, modesty, and air of piety and divine love discernible in
her looks. Her parents, who, though poor, were virtuous, and exceeding
charitable, according to their abilities, and great peacemakers among
their neighbors, seeing her directed by the Spirit of God, allowed her
full liberty in her devotions. After their death she distributed the
little they left her among the poor, and retired among the Beguines,
devout societies of women, established in several parts of Flanders,
Picardy, and Lorrain, who maintain themselves by the work of their
hands, leading a middle kind of life between the secular and religious,
but make no solemn vows. Not finding this way of life austere enough,
she, by her confessor's advice, took the habit of the third order of St.
Francis, called the Penitents; and, three years after, that of the
mitigated Clares or Urbanists, with the view of reforming that order,
and reducing it to its primitive austerity. Having obtained of the abbot
of Corbie a small hermitage, she spent in it three years in
extraordinary austerity, near that abbey. After this, in order to
execute the project she had long formed of re-establishing the primitive
spirit and practice of her order, she went to the convent at Amiens, and
from thence to several others. To succeed in her undertaking, it was
necessary that she should be vested with proper authority: to procure
which she made a journey to Nice in Provence, to wait on Peter de Luna,
who, in the great schism, was acknowledged pope by the French under the
name of Benedict XIII., and happened then to be in that city. He
constituted her superioress-general of the whole order of St. Clare,
with full power to establish in it whatever regulations she thought
conducive to God's honor and the salvation of others. She attempted to
revive the primitive rule and spirit of St. Francis in the convents of
the diocese of Paris, Beauvais, Noyon, and Amiens; but met with the most
violent opposition, and was treated as a fanatic. She received all
injuries with joy, and was not discouraged by human difficulties. Some
time after she met with a more favorable reception in Savoy, and her
reformation began to take root there, and passed thence into Burgundy,
France, Flanders, and Spain. Many ancient houses received it, that of
Besanzon being the first, and she lived to erect seventeen new ones.
Several houses of Franciscan friars received the same. But Leo X., in
1517, by a special bull, united all the different reformations of the
Franciscans under the name of Observantines: and thus the distinction of
Colettines is extinct. So great was her love for poverty, in imitation
of that of Christ, that she never put on so much as sandals, going
always barefoot, and would have no churches or convents but what were
small and mean. Her habit was not only of most coarse stuff, but made of
above a hundred patches sewed together. She continually inculcated to
her nuns the denial of their own wills in all things, as Christ, from
his first to his last breath, did the will of his heavenly Father:
saying, that all self-will was the broad way to hell. The sacred passion
of Christ was the subject of her constant meditation. On Fridays, from
six in the morning till six at night, she continued in this meditation,
without eating or doing any other thing, but referring all her thoughts
and affections to it with a flood of tears; also during the Holy-Week,
and whenever she assisted at mass: she often fell into ecstasies when
she considered it. She showed a particular respect to the holy cross;
but, above all, to Christ present in the blessed eucharist, when she
appeared in raptures of adoration and love. She often purified her
conscience by sacramental confession before she heard mass, to {522}
assist thereat with the greater purity of soul. Her zeal made her daily
to pour forth many fervent prayers for the conversion of sinners, and
also for the souls in purgatory, often with many tears. Being seized
with her last sickness in her convent at Ghent, she received the
sacraments of the church, foretold her death, and happily expired in her
sixty-seventh year, on the 6th of March, in 1447. Her body is exposed to
veneration in the church of that convent called Bethleem, in Ghent. She
was never canonized, nor is she named in the Roman Martyrology: but
Clement VIII., Paul V., Gregory XIII., and Urban VIII., have approved of
an office in her honor for the whole Franciscan order, and certain
cities. Her body was taken up at Ghent, in 1747, and several miracles
wrought on the occasion were examined by the ordinary of the place, who
sent the process and relation of them to Rome.

ST. FRIDOLIN, A.

HE was an Irish or Scotch abbot, who, leaving his own country, founded
several monasteries in Austria, Burgundy, and Switzerland: the last was
that of Sekingen, in an isle in the Rhine, now one of the four forest
towns belonging to the house of Austria. In this monastery he died, in
538. He is the tutelar patron of the Swiss canton of Glaris, who carry
in their coat of arms his picture in the Benedictin habit, though he was
not of that order. See Molanus, Addit. ad Usuard; Pantaleon,
Prosopographiæ Vir. Illustr. German. ad an. 502; King in Calend Wion,
Lignum Vitæ, l. 3.

ST. BALDREDE, BISHOP OF GLASGOW, C.

HE was immediate successor of St. Mungo, in that see, established many
nunneries in Scotland, and died in the province of Laudon, about the
year 608. His relics were very famous in many churches in Scotland. See
Adam King, in Calend., and the historians Boetius, Major, Leslie, &c.

SS. KYNEBURGE, KYNESWIDE, AND TIBBA.

THE two first were daughters of Penda, the cruel pagan king of Mercia,
and sisters to three successive Christian kings, Peada, Wulfere, and
Ethelred, and to the pious prince Merowald. Kyneburge, as Bede informs
us,[1] was married to Alefrid, eldest sort of Oswi, and in his father's
life-time king of Bernicia. They are said to have lived in perpetual
continency. By his death she was left a widow in the bloom of life, and,
renouncing the world, governed a nunnery which she built; or, according
to others, found built by her brother Wulfere, in a moist fenny place,
on the confines of the counties of Huntingdon and Northampton, then
called Dormundcaster, afterwards, from her, Kyneburgecaster, now Caster.
The author of her life in Capgrave says, that she lived here a mirror of
all sanctity, and that no words can express the bowels of charity with
which she cherished the souls which served God under her care; and how
watchful she was over their comportment, and how zealous in instructing
and exhorting them; and with what floods of tears she implored for them
the divine grace and mercy. She had a wonderful compassion for the poor,
and strongly exhorted her royal brothers {523} to alms-giving and works
of mercy. Kyneswide and Kynedride (though many confounded the latter
with St. Kyneburge) were also daughters of Penda, left very young at his
death. By an early consecration of their virginity to God, they devoted
themselves to his service, and both embraced a religious state.
Kyneswide took the holy veil in the monastery of Dormundcaster.

The bodies of these saints were translated to Peterborough, where their
festival was kept on the 6th of March, together with that of Saint
Tibba, a holy virgin, their kinswoman, who, having spent many years in
solitude and devotion, passed to glory on the 13th of December. Camden
informs us, that she was honored with particular devotion at Rihal, a
town near the river Wash, in Rutlandshire. See Ingulphus, Hist. p. 850;
Will. of Malmesbury l. 4, de Pontif. p. 29; Capgrave and Harpsfield,
sæc. 7, c. 23.

Footnotes:
1.  Bede Hist. l. 3, c. 21.
2.  Camdem in Rutlandshire.

ST. CADROE, C.

HE was a noble Scotsman, son of count (or rather laird) Fokerstrach, and
travelling into France, he took the monastic habit at Saint Bennet's on
the Loire. He afterwards reformed the monastery of St. Clement, at Metz,
in 960, and died in a visit which he made to Adelaide, mother of the
emperor Otho I., at Neristein, about the year 975. His relics are kept
at St. Clement's, at Metz, and he is honored on the 6th of March. See
Mabillon, sec. 5, Ben. p. 480, and sec. 6, p. 28; Henschenius; and
Calmet, Hist. de Lor. l. 19, n. 67, p. 1011.


MARCH VII.

ST. THOMAS OF AQUINO,

DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH AND CONFESSOR.

From his life written by Bartholomew of Lucca, some time the saint's
confessor: also another life compiled for his canonization by William of
Tocco, prior of Benevento, who had been personally acquainted with the
saint, &c. See F. Touron, in his life of St. Thomas, in quarto, Paris,
1737.

A.D. 1274.

THE counts of Aquino, who have flourished in the kingdom of Naples these
last ten centuries, derive their pedigree from a certain Lombard prince.
They were allied to the kings of Sicily and Aragon, to St. Lewis of
France, and many other sovereign houses of Europe. Our saint's
grandfather having married the sister of the emperor Frederick I., he
was himself grand nephew to that prince, and second cousin to the
emperor Henry VI., and in the third degree to Frederick II.[1] His
father, Landulph, was count of Aquino, and lord of Loretto and
Belcastro: his mother Theodora was daughter to the count of Theate. The
saint was born towards the end of the year 1226. St. Austin observes,[2]
that the most tender age is subject to various passions, {524} as of
impatience, choler, jealousy, spite, and the like, which appear to
children: no such thing was seen in Thomas. The serenity of his
countenance, the constant evenness of his temper, his modesty and
sweetness, were sensible marks that God prevented him with his early
graces. The count of Aquino conducted him to the abbey of Mount Cassino,
when he was but five years old, to be instructed by those good monks in
the first principles of religion and learning; and his tutors soon saw
with joy the rapidity of his progress, his great talents, and his happy
dispositions to virtue. He was but ten years of age when the abbot told
his father that it was time to send him to some university. The count,
before he sent him to Naples, took him for some months to see his mother
at his seat at Loretto, the place which, about the end of that century,
grew famous for devotion to our Lady. Thomas was the admiration of the
whole family. Amidst so much company, and so many servants, he appeared
always as much recollected, and occupied on God, as he had been in the
monastery; he spoke little, and always to the purpose: and he employed
all his time in prayer, or serious and profitable exercises. His great
delight seemed to be to intercede for, and to distribute, his parents'
plentiful alms among the poor at the gate, whom he studied by a hundred
ingenious contrivances to relieve. He robbed himself of his own victuals
for that purpose; which his father having discovered, he gave him leave
to distribute things at discretion, which liberty he made good use of
for the little time he stayed. The countess, apprehensive of the dangers
her son's innocence might be exposed to in an academy, desired that he
should perform his studies with a private preceptor under her own eyes;
but the father, knowing the great advantages of emulation and mutual
communication in studies, was determined to send him to Naples, where
the emperor Frederick II., being exasperated against Bologna, had
lately, in 1224, erected a university, forbidding students to resort to
any other in Italy. This immediately drew thither great numbers of
students, and with them disorder and licentiousness, like that described
by St. Austin in the great schools of Carthage.[3] Thomas soon perceived
the dangers, and regretted the sanctuary of Mount Cassino: but by his
extraordinary watchfulness, he lived here like the young Daniel in the
midst of Babylon; or Toby in the infidel Ninive. He guarded his eyes
with an extreme caution, shunned entirely all conversation with any
woman whatever, and with any young men whose steady virtue did not
render him perfectly secure as to their behavior. While others went to
profane diversions, he retired into some church or into his closet,
making prayer and study his only pleasure. He learned rhetoric under
Peter Martin and philosophy under Peter of Hibernia, one of the most
learned men of his age, and with such wonderful progress, that he
repeated the lessons more clearly than the master had explained them yet
his greater care was to advance daily in the science of the saints, by
holy prayer, and all good works. His humility concealed them; but his
charity and fervor sometimes betrayed his modesty, and discovered them,
especially in his great alms, for which ne deprived himself of almost
all things, and in which he was careful to hide from his left-hand what
his right did.

The Order of St. Dominick, who had been dead twenty-two years, then
abounded with men full of the spirit of God. The frequent conversations
Thomas had with one of that body, a very interior holy man, filled his
heart with heavenly devotion and comfort, and inflamed him daily with a
more ardent love of God, which so burned in his breast that at his
prayers his countenance seemed one day, as it were, to dart rays of
light, and he conceived {525} a vehement desire to consecrate himself
wholly to God in that Order. His tutor perceived his inclinations and
informed the count of the matter who omitted neither threats nor
promises to defeat such a design. But the saint, not listening to flesh
and blood in the call of heaven, demanded with earnestness to be
admitted into the Order, and accordingly received the habit in the
convent of Naples, in 1243, being then seventeen years old. The countess
Theodora his mother, being informed of it, set out for Naples to
disengage him, if possible, from that state of life. Her son, on the
first news of her journey, begged his superiors to remove him, as they
did first to the convent of St. Sabina in Rome, and soon after to Paris,
out of the reach of his relations. Two of his brothers, Landulph and
Reynold, commanders in the emperor's army in Tuscany, by her direction
so well guarded all the roads that he fell into their hands, near
Acqua-pendente{?}. They endeavored to pull off his habit, but he
resisted them so violently that they conducted him in it to the seat of
his parents, called Rocca-Secca. The mother, overjoyed at their success,
made no doubt of overcoming her son's resolution. She endeavored to
persuade him that to embrace such an Order, against his parents' advice,
could not be the call of heaven; adding all manner of reasons, fond
caresses, entreaties, and tears. Nature made her eloquent and pathetic.
He appeared sensible of her affliction, but his constancy was not to be
shaken. His answers were modest and respectful, but firm, in showing his
resolution to be the call of God, and ought consequently to take place
of all other views whatsoever, even for his service any other way. At
last, offended at his unexpected resistance, she expressed her
displeasure in very choleric words, and ordered him to be more closely
confined and guarded, and that no one should see him but his two
sisters. The reiterated solicitations of the young ladies were a long
and violent assault. They omitted nothing that flesh and blood could
inspire on such an occasion, and represented to him the danger of
causing the death of his mother by grief. He on the contrary spoke to
them in so moving a manner, on the contempt of the world, and the love
of virtue, that they both yielded to the force of his reasons for his
quitting the world, and, by his persuasion, devoted themselves to a
sincere practice of piety.

This solitude furnished him with the most happy opportunity for holy
contemplation and assiduous prayer. Some time after, his sisters
conveyed to him some books, viz., a Bible, Aristotle's logics, and the
works of the Master of the Sentences. During this interval his two
brothers, Landulph and Reynold, returning home from the army, found
their mother in the greatest affliction, and the young novice triumphant
in his resolution. They would needs undertake to overcome him, and began
their assault by shutting him up in a tower of the castle. They tore in
pieces his habit on his back, and after bitter reproaches and dreadful
threats they left him, hoping his confinement, and the mortifications
every one strove to give him, would shake his resolution. This not
succeeding, the devil suggested to these two young officers a new
artifice for diverting him from pursuing his vocation. They secretly
introduced one of the most beautiful and most insinuating young
strumpets of the country into his chamber, promising her a considerable
reward in case she could draw him into sin. She employed all the arms of
Satan to succeed in so detestable a design. The saint, alarmed and
affrighted at the danger, profoundly humbled himself, and cried out to
God most earnestly for his protection; then snatching up a firebrand
struck her with it, and drove her out of his chamber. After this
victory, not moved with pride, but blushing with confusion for having
been so basely assaulted, he fell on his knees and thanked God for his
merciful preservation, consecrated to him anew his chastity, and
redoubled his prayers, and the earnest cry of his {526} heart with sighs
and tears, to obtain the grace of being always faithful to his promises.
Then falling into a slumber, as the most ancient historians of his life
relate,[4] he was visited by two angels, who seemed to gird him round
the waist with a cord so tight that it awaked him, and made him to cry
out. His guards ran in, but he kept his secret to himself. It was only a
little before his death that he disclosed this incident to F. Reynold,
his confessor, adding that he had received this favor about thirty years
before, from which time he had never been annoyed with temptations of
the flesh; yet he constantly used the utmost caution and watchfulness
against that enemy, and he would otherwise have deserved to forfeit that
grace. One heroic victory sometimes obtains of God a recompense and
triumph of this kind. Our saint having suffered in silence this
imprisonment and persecution upwards of a twelvemonth, some say two
years, at length, on the remonstrances of Pope Innocent IV. and the
emperor Frederick, on account of so many acts of violence in his regard,
both the countess and his brothers began to relent. The Dominicans of
Naples being informed of this, and that his mother was disposed to
connive at measures that might be taken to procure his escape, they
hastened in disguise to Rocca-Secca, where his sister, knowing that the
countess no longer opposed his escape, contrived his being let down out
of his tower in a basket. He was received by his brethren in their arms,
and carried with joy to Naples. The year following he there made his
profession, looking on that day as the happiest of his whole life in
which he made a sacrifice of his liberty that he might belong to God
alone. But his mother and brothers renewed their complaints to Pope
Innocent IV., who sent for Thomas to Rome, and examined him on the
subject of his vocation to the state of religion, in their presence; and
having received entire satisfaction on this head, the pope admired his
virtue, and approved of his choice of that state of life, which from
that time he was suffered to pursue in peace. Albertus Magnus teaching
then at Cologne, the general, John the Teutonic, took the saint with him
from Rome to Paris, and thence to Cologne. Thomas gave all his time,
which was not employed in devotion and other duties, to his studies,
retrenching part of that which was allowed for his meals and sleep, not
out of a vain passion, or the desire of applause, but for the
advancement of God's honor and the interests of religion, according to
what he himself teaches.[5] His humility made him conceal his progress
and deep penetration, insomuch that his schoolfellows thought he learned
nothing, and on account of his silence, called him The dumb Ox, and the
Great Sicilian Ox. One of them even offered to explain his lessons to
him, whom he thankfully listened to without speaking, though he was then
capable of teaching him. They who know how much scholars and masters
usually seek to distinguish themselves, and display their science, will
give to so uncommon an humility its due praise. But the brightness of
his genius, his quick and deep penetration and learning were at last
discovered, in spite of all his endeavors to conceal them: for his
master Albertus, having propounded to him several questions on the most
knotty and obscure points, his answers, which the duty of obedience
extorted, astonished the audience; and Albertus, not able to contain his
joy and admiration, said, "We call him the dumb ox, but he will give
such a bellow in learning as will be heard all over the world." This
applause made no impression on the humble saint. He continued the same
in simplicity, modesty, silence, and recollection, because his heart was
the same; equally insensible to praises and humiliations, full of
nothing but of God and his own insufficiency, never reflecting on his
own qualifications, or on what was the opinion of others concerning him.
In his first year, {527} under Albertus Magnus, he wrote comments on
Aristotle's Ethics. The general chapter of the Dominicans, held at
Cologne in 1245, deputed Albertus to teach at Paris, in their college of
St. James, which the university had given them; and it is from that
college they are called in France Jacobins. St. Thomas was sent with him
to continue his studies there. His school exercises did not interrupt
his prayer. By an habitual sense of the divine presence, and devout
aspirations, he kept his heart continually raised to God; and in
difficult points redoubled with more earnestness his fervor in his
prayers than his application to study. This he found attended with such
success, that he often said that he had learned less by books than
before his crucifix, or at the foot of the altar. His constant attention
to God always filled his soul with joy, which appeared in his very
countenance, and made his conversation altogether heavenly. His humility
and obedience were most remarkable in all things. One day while he read
at table, the corrector, by mistake, bid him read a word with a false
quantity, and he readily obeyed, though he knew the error. When others
told him he ought notwithstanding to have given it the right
pronunciation, his answer was, "It matters not how a word is pronounced,
but to practise on all occasions humility and obedience is of the
greatest importance." He was so perfectly mortified, and dead to his
senses, that he ate without reflecting either on the kind or quality of
his food, so that after meals he often knew not what he had been eating.

In the year 1248, being twenty-two years of age, he was appointed by the
general chapter to teach at Cologne, together with his old master
Albertus, whose high reputation he equalled in his very first lessons.
He then also began to publish his first works, which consist of comments
on the Ethics, and other philosophical works of Aristotle. No one was
more courteous and affable, but it was his principle to shun all
unnecessary visits. To prepare himself for holy orders he redoubled his
watchings, prayer, and other spiritual exercises. His devotion to the
blessed Sacrament was extraordinary. He spent several hours of the day
and part of the night before the altar, humbling himself in acts of
profound adoration, and melting with love in contemplation of the
immense charity of that Man-God, whom he there adored. In saying mass he
seemed to be in raptures, and often quite dissolved in tears; a glowing
frequently appeared in his eyes and countenance which showed the ardor
with which his heart burned within him. His devotion was most frequent
during the precious moments after he had received the divine mysteries;
and after saying mass he usually served at another, or at least heard
one. This fire and zeal appeared also in his sermons at Cologne, Paris,
Rome, and in other cities of Italy. He was everywhere heard as an angel;
even the Jews ran of their own accord to hear him, and many of them were
converted. His zeal made him solicitous, in the first place, for the
salvation of his relations. His example and exhortations induced them to
an heroic practice of piety. His eldest sister consecrated herself to
God in St. Mary's, at Capua, and died abbess of that monastery: the
younger, Theodora, married the count of Marsico, and lived and died in
great virtue; as did his mother. His two brothers, Landulph and Reynold,
became sincere penitents; and having some time after left the emperor's
service, he, in revenge, burnt Aquino, their seat, in 1250, and put
Reynold to death; the rest were obliged to save themselves by a
voluntary banishment, but were restored in 1268. St. Thomas, after
teaching four years at Cologne, was sent, in 1252, to Paris. His
reputation for perspicuity and solidity drew immediately to his school a
great number of auditors.[6] St. Thomas, with great reluctancy,
compelled by holy obedience {528} consented to be admitted doctor, on
the 23d of October, in 1257, being then thirty-one years old. The
professors of the university of Paris being divided about the question
of the accidents remaining really, or only in appearance, in the blessed
sacrament of the altar, they agreed, in 1258, to consult our saint. The
young doctor, not puffed up by such an honor, applied himself first to
God by prayer, then he wrote upon that question the treatise still
extant, and, carrying it to the church, laid it on the altar. The most
ancient author of his life assures us, that while the saint remained in
prayer on that occasion, some of the brethren who were present, saw him
raised a little above the ground.[7]

The holy king, St. Louis, had so great an esteem for St. Thomas, that he
consulted him in affairs of state, and ordinarily informed him, the
evening before, of any affair of importance that was to be treated of in
council, that he might be the more ready to give advice on the point.
The saint avoided the honor of dining with the king as often as be could
excuse himself: and, when obliged to assist at court, appeared there as
recollected as in his convent. One day at the king's table, the saint
cried out: "The argument is conclusive against the Manichees."[8] His
prior, being with him, bade him remember where he was. The saint would
have asked the king's pardon, but that good prince, fearing he should
forget the argument that had occurred to his mind, caused his secretary
to write it down for him. In the year 1259 St. Thomas assisted at the
thirty-sixth general chapter of his order, held at Valenciennes, which
deputed him, in conjunction with Albertus Magnus and three others, to
draw up rules for studies, which are still extant in the acts of that
chapter. Returning to Paris, he there continued his lectures. Nothing
was more remarkable than his meekness on all occasions. His temper was
never ruffled in the heat of any dispute, nor by any insult. It was
owing to this sweetness, more than to his invincible force of reasoning,
that he brought a young doctor to retract on the spot a dangerous
opinion, which he was maintaining a second time in his thesis. In 1261,
Urban IV. called St. Thomas to Rome, and, by his order, the general
appointed him to teach here. His holiness pressed him with great
importunity to accept of some ecclesiastical dignity,{529} but he knew
how much safer it is to refuse than to accept a bishopric. The pope,
however, obliged him always to attend his person. Thus it happened that
the saint taught and preached in all the towns where that pope ever
resided, as in Rome, Viterbo, Orvieto, Fondi, and Perugia. He also
taught at Bologna, Naples, &c.[9]

The fruits of his preaching were no less wonderful than those of his
pen. While he was preaching, on Good Friday, on the love of God for man,
and our ingratitude to him, his whole auditory melted into tears to such
a degree that he was obliged to stop several times, that they might
recover themselves. His discourse on the following Sunday, concerning
the glory of Christ, and the happiness of those who rise with him by
grace, was no less pathetic and affecting. William of Tocco adds, that
as the saint was coming out of St. Peter's church the same day, a woman
was cured of the bloody flux by touching the hem of his garment. The
conversion of two considerable Rabbins seemed still a greater miracle.
St. Thomas had held a long conference with them at a casual meeting in
cardinal Richard's villa, and they agreed to resume it the next day. The
saint spent the foregoing night in prayer, at the foot of the altar. The
next morning these two most obstinate Jews came to him of their own
accord, not to dispute, but to embrace the faith, and were followed by
many others. In the year 1263, the Dominicans held their fortieth
general chapter in London; St. Thomas assisted at it, and obtained soon
after to be dismissed from teaching. He rejoiced to see himself reduced
to the state of a private religious man. Pope Clement IV. had {530} such
a regard for him, that, in 1265, among other ecclesiastical preferments,
he made him an offer of the archbishopric of Naples, but could not
prevail with him to accept of that or any other. The first part of his
theological Summ St. Thomas composed at Bologna: he was called thence to
Naples. Here it was that, according to Tocco and others, Dominick
Caserte beheld him, while in fervent prayer, raised from the ground, and
heard a voice from the crucifix directed to him in these words: "Thou
hast written well of me, Thomas: what recompense dost thou desire?" He
answered: "No other than thyself, O Lord."[10]

From the 6th of December, in 1273, to the 7th of March following, the
day of his death, he neither dictated nor wrote any thing on theological
matters. He from that time laid aside his studies, to fix his thoughts
and heart entirely on eternity, and to aspire with the greatest ardor
and most languishing desires to the enjoyment of God in perfect love.
Pope Gregory X. had called a general council, the second of Lyons, with
the view of extinguishing the Greek schism, and raising succors to
defend the holy land against the Saracens. The ambassadors of the
emperor Michael Palaeologus, together with the Greek prelates, were to
assist at it. The council was to meet on the 1st of May, in 1274. His
holiness, by brief directed to our saint, ordered him to repair thither,
and to prepare himself to defend the Catholic cause against the Greek
schismatics. Though indisposed, he set out from Naples about the end of
January. His dear friend, F. Reynold of Piperno, was appointed his
companion, and ordered to take care that he did not neglect himself,
which the saint was apt to do. St. Thomas on the road called at the
castle of Magenza, the seat of his niece, Francisca of Aquino, married
to the count of Cecan. Here his distemper increased, which was attended
with a loss of appetite. One day he said, to be rid of their
importunities, that he thought he could eat a little of a certain fish
which he had formerly eaten in France, but which was not easily to be
found in Italy. Search however was made, and the fish procured; but the
saint refused to touch it, in imitation of David on the like occasion.
Soon after his appetite returned a little, and his strength with it; yet
he was assured that his last hour was at hand. This however did not
hinder him from proceeding on his journey, till, his fever increasing,
he was forced to stop at Fossa-Nuova, a famous abbey of the Cistercians,
in the diocese of Terracina, where formerly stood the city called Forum
Appii. Entering the monastery, he went first to pray before the Blessed
Sacrament, according to his custom. He poured forth his soul with
extraordinary fervor, in the presence of Him who noto called him to his
kingdom. Passing thence into the cloister, which he never lived to go
out of, he repeated these words:[11] _This is my rest for ages without
end_. He was lodged in the abbot's apartment, where he lay ill for near
a month. The good monks treated him with uncommon veneration and esteem,
and as if he had been an angel from heaven. They would not employ any of
their servants about him, but chose to serve him themselves in the
meanest offices, as in cutting or carrying wood for him to burn, &c. His
patience, humility, constant recollection, and prayer, were equally
their astonishment and edification.

The nearer he saw himself to the term of all his desires, the entering
into the joy of his Lord, the more tender and inflamed were his longings
after death. He had continually in his mouth these words of St.
Austin,[12] "Then shall I truly live, when I shall be quite filled with
you alone, and your love; {531} now I am a burden to myself, because I
am not entirely full of you." In such pious transports of heavenly love,
he never ceased sighing after the glorious day of eternity. The monks
begged he would dictate an exposition of the book of Canticles, in
imitation of St. Bernard. He answered: "Give me St. Bernard's spirit,
and I will obey." But at last, to renounce perfectly his own will, he
dictated the exposition of that most mysterious of all the divine books.
It begins: Solomon inspiratus: It is not what his erudition might have
suggested, but what love inspired him with in his last mordents, when
his pure soul was hastening to break the chains of mortality, and drown
itself in the ocean of God's immensity, and in the delights of
eternity.[13] The holy doctor at last finding himself too weak to
dictate any more, begged the religious to withdraw, recommending himself
to their prayers, and desiring their leave to employ the few precious
moments he had to live with God alone. He accordingly spent them in
fervent acts of adoration, praise, thanksgiving, humility, and
repentance. He made a general confession of his whole life to F.
Reynold, with abundance of tears for his imperfections and sins of
frailty; for in the judgment of those to whom he had manifested his
interior, he had never offended God by any mortal sin. And he said to F.
Reynold, before his death, that he thanked God with his whole heart for
having prevented him with his grace, and always conducted him as it were
by the hand, and preserved him from any known sin that destroys charity
in the soul; adding, that this was purely God's mercy to which he was
indebted for his preservation from every sin which he had not
committed.[14] Having received absolution in the sentiments of the most
perfect penitent, he desired the Viaticum. While the abbot and community
were preparing to bring it, he begged to be taken off his bed, and laid
upon ashes spread upon the floor. Thus lying on the ground, weak in body
but vigorous in mind, he waited for the priest with tears of the most
tender devotion. When he saw the host in the priest's hand, he said: "I
firmly believe that Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, is present in
this august sacrament. I adore you, my God and my Redeemer: I receive
You, the price of my redemption, the Viaticum of my pilgrimage; for
whose honor I have studied, labored, preached, and taught. I hope I
never advanced any tenet as your word, which I had not learned from you.
If through ignorance I have done otherwise, I revoke every thing of that
kind, and submit all my writing, to the judgment of the holy Roman
church." Then recollecting himself, after other acts of faith,
adoration, and love, he received the holy Viaticum; but remained on the
ashes till he had finished his thanksgiving. Growing still weaker, amid
his transports of love, he desired extreme unction, which he received,
answering himself to all the prayers. After this he lay in peace and
joy, as appeared by the serenity of his countenance; and he was heard to
pronounce these aspirations: "Soon, soon will the God of all comfort
complete his mercies on me, and fill all my desires. I shall shortly be
satiated in him, and drink of the torrent of his delights: be inebriated
from the abundance of his house, and in him who is the source of life, I
shall behold the true light." Seeing all in tears about him, he
comforted them, saying: Death was his gain and his joy. F. Reynold said
he had hoped to see him triumph over the adversaries of the church in
the council of Lyons, and placed in a rank in which he might do it some
signal service. The saint answered: "I have begged of God, as the
greatest favor, to die a simple religious man, and I now thank him for
it. It is a {532} greater benefit than he has granted to many of his
holy servants, that he is pleased to call me out of this world so early,
to enter into his joy; wherefore grieve not for me, who am overwhelmed
with joy." He returned thanks to the abbot and monks of Fossa-Nuova for
their charity to him. One of the community asked him by what means we
might live always faithful to God's grace. He answered: "Be assured that
he who shall always walk faithfully in his presence, always ready to
give him an account of all his actions, shall never be separated from
him by consenting to sin." These were his last words to men, after which
he only spoke to God in prayer, and gave up the ghost, on the 7th of
March, in 1274, a little after midnight: some say in the fiftieth year
of his age. But Ptolemy of Lucca, and other contemporary authors, say
expressly in his forty-eighth, which also agrees with his whole history.
He was very tall, and every way proportioned.

The concourse of people at the saint's funeral was extraordinary:
several monks of that house, and many other persons, were cured by his
relics and intercession, of which many instances, juridically proved,
are mentioned by William of Tocco, in the bull of his canonization, and
other authors. The Bollandists give us other long authentic relations of
the like miracles continued afterwards, especially in the translation of
those holy relics. The University of Paris sent to the general and
provincial of the Dominicans a letter of condolence upon his death,
giving the highest commendations to the saint's learning and sanctity,
and begging the treasure of his holy body. Naples, Rome, and many other
universities, princes, and Orders, contended no less for it. One of his
hands, uncorrupt, was cut off in 1288, and given to his sister, the
countess Theodora, who kept it in her domestic chapel of San Severino.
After her death it was given to the Dominicans' convent of Salerno.
After several contestations, pope Urban V., many years after his death,
granted his body to the Dominicans to carry to Paris or Toulouse, as
Italy already possessed the body of St. Dominick at Bologna. The sacred
treasure was carried privately into France, and received at Thoulouse in
the most honorable mariner: one hundred and fifty thousand people came
to meet and conduct it into the city, having at their head Louis duke of
Anjou, brother to king Charles V., the archbishops of Thoulouse and
Narbonne, and many bishops, abbots, and noblemen. It rests now in the
Dominican's church at Thoulouse, in a rich shrine, with a stately
mausoleum over it, which reaches almost up to the roof of the church,
and hath four faces. An arm of the saint was at the same time sent to
the great convent of the Dominicans at Paris, and placed in St. Thomas's
chapel in their church, which the king declared a royal chapel. The
faculty of theology meets to assist at a high mass there on the
anniversary festival of the saint. The kingdom of Naples, after many
pressing solicitations, obtained, in 1372, from the general chapter held
at Thoulouse, a bone of the other arm of St. Thomas. It was kept in the
church of the Dominicans at Naples till 1603, when the city being
delivered from a public calamity by his intercession, it was placed in
the metropolitan church among the relics of the other patrons of the
country. That kingdom, by the briefs of Pius V. in 1567, and of Clement
VIII. in 1603, confirmed by Paul V., honors him as a principal patron.
He was solemnly canonized by pope John XXII. in 1323. Pope Pius V., in
1567, commanded his festival and office to be kept equal with those of
the four doctors of the western church.

       *       *       *       *       *

Many in their studies, as in other occupations, take great pains to
little purpose, often to draw from them the poison of vanity or error;
or at least to drain their affections, and rather to nourish pride and
other vices in the heart than to promote true virtue. Sincere humility
and simplicity of heart {533} are essential conditions for the
sanctification of studies, and for the improvement of virtue by them.
Prayer must also both go before and accompany them. St. Thomas spoke
much to God by prayer, that God might speak to him by enlightening his
understanding in his reading and studies; and he received in this what
he asked in the other exercise. This prodigy of human wit, this
unparalleled genius, which penetrated the most knotty difficulties in
all the sciences, whether sacred or profane, to which he applied
himself, was accustomed to say that he learned more at the foot of the
crucifix than in books. We ought never to set ourselves to read or study
any thing without having first made our morning meditation, and without
imploring in particular the divine light in every thing we read; and
seasoning our studies by frequent aspirations to God in them, and by
keeping our souls in an humble attention to his presence. In intricate
difficulties, we ought more earnestly, prostrate at the foot of a
crucifix, to ask of Christ the resolution of our doubts. We should thus
receive, in the school of so good a master, that science which makes
saints, by giving, with other sciences, the true knowledge of God and
ourselves, and purifying and kindling in the will the fire of divine
love with the sentiments of humility and other virtues. By a little use,
fervent aspirations to God will arise from all subjects in the driest
studies, and it will become easy, and as it were natural in them, to
raise our heart earnestly to God, either despising the vain pursuits, or
detesting the vanity, and deploring the blindness of the world, or
aspiring after heavenly gifts, or begging light, grace, or the divine
love. This is a maxim of the utmost importance in an interior or
spiritual life, which otherwise, instead of being assisted, is entirely
overwhelmed and extinguished by studies, whether profane or sacred, and
in its place a spirit of self-sufficiency, vanity, and jealousy is
contracted, and the seeds of all other spiritual vices secretly sown.
Against this danger St. Bonaventure warns all students strongly to be
upon their guard, saying, "If a person repeats often in his heart, Lord,
when shall I love thee? he will feel a heavenly fire kindled in his soul
much more than by a thousand bright thoughts or fine speculations on
divine secrets, on the eternal generation of the Word, or the procession
of the Holy Ghost."[15] Prayer and true virtue even naturally conduce to
the perfection of learning, in every branch; for purity of the heart,
and the disengagement of the affections from all irregular passions,
render the understanding clear, qualify the mind to judge impartially of
truth in its researches, divest it of many prejudices, the fatal sources
of errors, and inspire a modest distrust to a person's own abilities and
lights. Thus virtue and learning mutually assist and improve each other.

Footnotes:
1.  St. Thomas was born at Belcastro: on his ancient illustrious
    pedigree and its branches, which still flourish in Calabria, see
    Barrius, de Antiquitate et Situ Calabriæ, with the notes of Thomas
    Aceti, l. 4, c. 2, p. 288, &c, where he refutes the Bollandists, who
    place his birth at Aquino in Campania, on the border of that
    province.
2.  L. 1, Conf. c. 7.
3.  Conf. l. 5, c. 3.
4.  Gul. Tocco. Bern. Guid. Antonin. Malvend.
5.  Footnote: 2. 2dæ, q. 188, a. 5.
6.  The manner of teaching then was not, as it is generally at present,
    by dictating lessons, which the scholars write, but it was according
    to the practice that still obtains in some public schools, as in
    Padua, &c. The master delivered his explanation like an harangue;
    the scholars retained what they could, and often privately took down
    short notes to help their memory. Academical degrees were then also
    very different from what they now are; being conferred on none but
    those who taught. To be Master of Arts, a man must have studied six
    years at least, and be twenty-one years old. And to be qualified for
    teaching divinity, he must have studied eight years more, and be at
    least thirty-five years old. Nevertheless, St. Thomas, by a
    dispensation of the university, on account of his distinguished
    merit, was allowed to teach at twenty-five. The usual way was for
    one named bachelor to explain the Master of the Sentences for a year
    in the school of some doctor, upon whose testimony, after certain
    rigorous public examinations, and other formalities, the bachelor
    was admitted in the degree of licentiate; which gave him the license
    of a doctor, to teach or hold a school himself. Another year, which
    was likewise employed in expounding the Master of the Sentences,
    completed the degree of doctor, which the candidate received from
    the chancel for of the university, and then opened a school in form,
    with a bachelor to teach under him. In 1253, St. Thomas began to
    teach as licentiate; but a stop was put to his degrees for some
    time, by a violent disagreement between the regulars, principally
    Dominicans and Franciscans, and the university which had at first
    admitted them into their body, and even given the Dominicans a
    college. In these disputes St. Thomas was not spared, but he for a
    long time had recourse to no other vindication of himself than that
    of modesty and silence. On Palm Sunday he was preaching in the
    Dominican's church of St. James, when a beadle coming in commanded
    silence, and read a long written invective against him and his
    colleagues. When he had done, the saint, without speaking one word
    to justify himself or his Order, continued his sermon with the
    greatest tranquillity and unconcern of mind. William de Saint-Amour,
    the most violent among the secular doctors, published a book, On the
    dangers of the latter Times, a bitter invective against the
    mendicant Orders, which St. Louis sent to pope Alexander IV. SS.
    Thomas and Bonaventure were sent into Italy to defend their Orders.
    And to confute that book, St. Thomas published his nineteenth
    Opusculum, with an Apology for the mendicant Orders, showing they
    lay under no precept that all should apply themselves to manual
    labor, and that spiritual occupations were even preferable. The
    pope, upon this apology, condemned the book, and also another,
    called the Eternal Gospel, in defence of the error of the abbot
    Joachim. who had advanced that the church was to have an end, and be
    succeeded by a new church which should be formed perfectly according
    to the Spirit: this heresy, and the errors of certain other
    fanatics, were refuted by our saint at Rome. In his return to Paris,
    a violent storm terrified all the mariners and passengers; only
    Thomas appeared without the least fear, and continued in quiet
    prayer till the tempest had ceased. William de Saint-Amour being
    banished Paris, peace was restored in the university.
7.  Gul. Tocco.
8.  Conclusum est contra Manichæos.
9.  The works of St. Thomas are partly philosophical, partly
    theological; with some comments on the holy scriptures, and several
    treatises of piety. The elegance of Plato gave his philosophy the
    greater vogue among the Gentiles; and the most learned of the
    Christian fathers were educated is the maxims or his school. His
    noble sentiments on the attributes of the Deity, particularly his
    providence, and his doctrine on the rewards and punishments in a
    future state, seemed favorable to religion. Nor can it be doubted
    but he had learned, in his travels in Egypt and Phoenicia, many
    traditional truths delivered down from the patriarchal ages, before
    the corruptions of idolatry. On the other hand, the philosophy of
    Aristotle was much less in request among the heathens, was silent as
    to all traditional truths, and contained some glaring errors, which
    several heretics of the first ages adopted against the gospel. On
    which account he is called by Tertullian the patriarch of heretics,
    and his works were procribed by a council of Paris, about the year
    1209. Nevertheless it must be acknowledged, by all impartial judges,
    that Aristotle was the greatest and most comprehensive genius of
    antiquity, and perhaps of any age: and he was the only one that had
    laid down complete rules, and explained the laws of reasoning, and
    had given a thorough system of philosophy. Boetius had penetrated
    the depth of his genius, and the usefulness of his logic; yet did
    not redress his mistakes. Human reasoning is too weak without the
    light of revelation; and Aristotle, by relying too much on it fell
    into the same gross errors. Not only many ancient heretics, but also
    several in the twelfth and thirteenth ages, as Peter Aballard, the
    Albigenses, and other heretics, made a bad use of his philosophy.
    But above all, the Saracens of Arabaia and Spain wrote with
    incredible subtilty on his principles. St. Thomas opposed the
    enemies of truth with their own weapons, and employed the philosophy
    of Aristotle in defence of the faith, in which he succeeded to a
    miracle. He discerned and confuted his errors, and set in a clear
    and new light the great truths of reason which that philosopher had
    often wrapt up in obscurity. Thus Aristotle, who had been called the
    terror of Christians, in the hands of Thomas became orthodox, and
    furnished faith with new arms against idolatry and atheism. For this
    admirable doctor, though he had only a bad Latin translation of the
    works of that philosopher, has corrected his errors, and shown that
    his whole system of philosophy, as far as it is grounded in truth,
    is subservient to divine revelation. This he has executed through
    the nicest metaphysical speculations, in the five first volumes of
    his works. He everywhere strikes out a new track for himself; and
    enters into the most secret recesses of this shadowy region; so as
    to appear new even on known and beaten subjects. For his writings
    are original efforts of genius and reflection, and every point he
    handles in a manner that makes it appear new. If his speculations
    are sometimes spun fine, and his divisions run to niceties, this was
    the fault of the age in which he lived, and of the speculative
    refining geniuses of the Arabians, whom he had undertaken to pursue
    and confute throughout their whole system. His comments on the four
    books of the Master of the Sentences contain a methodical course of
    theology, and make the sixth and seventh volumes of his works; the
    tenth, eleventh, and twelfth give us his Summ, Or incomparable
    abridged body of divinity, though this work he never lived to
    finish. Among the fathers, St. Austin is principally his guide; so
    that the learned cardinals, Norris and Aguirre, call St. Thomas his
    most faithful Interpreter. He draws the rules of practical duties
    and virtues principally from the morals of St. Gregory on Job. He
    compassed his Summ against the Gentiles, at the request of St.
    Raymund of Pennafort, to serve the preachers in Spain in converting
    the Jews and Saracens to the faith. He wrote comments on most parts
    of the holy scriptures, especially on the epistles of St. Paul, in
    which latter he seemed to outdo himself. By the order of pope Urban
    IV., he compiled the office of the blessed sacrament, which the
    church uses to this day, on the feast and during the Octave of
    Corpus-Christi. His Opuscula, or lesser treatises, have in view the
    confutation of the Greek schismatics and several heresies; or
    discuss various points of philosophy and theology; or are comments
    on the creed, sacraments, decalogue, Lord's prayer, and Hail Mary.
    In his treatises on piety he reduces the rules of an interior life
    to these two gospel maxims: first. That we must strenuously labor by
    self-denial and mortification to extinguish in our hearts all the
    sparks of pride, and the inordinate love of creatures; secondly,
    That by assiduous prayer, meditation, and doing the will of God in
    all things, we must kindle his perfect love in our souls. (Opusc. 17
    & 18; His works are printed in nineteen volumes folio.)
10. Bene scripsisti de me, Thoma: quam mercedem addipies? Non aliam,
    nisi te Domine.
11. Psalm cxxxi. 14.
12. Conf. l. 10, c. 28.
13. There is another commentary on the same book which sometimes bears
    his name, and begins: Sonet vox tua in auribus meis: which was not
    the work of this saint, but of Hayme{}, bishop of Halberstadt. See
    Echard, t. 1, p. 323. Touron, p. 714. Le Long. Bibl. Sacra. n. 766.
14. Tibi debo et quod non feci. St. Au{}.
15. St. Bonav. l. de Mystica Theol. a. ult.

SS. PERPETUA, AND FELICITAS, MM.

WITH THEIR COMPANIONS.

From their most valuable genuine acts, quoted by Tertullian, l. de
anima, c. 55, and by St. Austin, serm. {}, 283, 294. The first part of
these acts, which reaches to the eve of her martyrdom, was written by
St. Perpetua. The vision of St. Saturus was added by him. The rest was
subjoined by an eye-witness of their death. See Tillemont, t. 3, p. 139.
Ceillier, t. 2, p. 213. These acts have been often republished; but are
extant, most ample and correct, in Ruinart. They were publicly read in
the churches of Africa, as appears from St. Austin, Serm. 180. See them
vindicated from the suspicion of Montanism, by O{}, Vindicæ Act. SS.
Perpetuæ et Felicitatis.

A. D 203.

A VIOLENT persecution being set on foot by the emperor Severus, in 202,
reached Africa the following year; when, by order of Minutius
Timinianus, {534} (or Firminianus,) five catechumens were apprehended at
Carthage for the faith: namely, Rovocatus, and his fellow-slave
Felicitas, Saturninus, and Secundulus, and Vibia Perpetua. Felicitas was
seven months gone with child; and Perpetua had an infant at her breast,
was of a good family, twenty-two years of age, and married to a person
of quality in the city. She had a father, a mother, and two brothers;
the third, Dinocrates, died about seven years old. These five martyrs
were joined by Saturus, probably brother to Saturninus, and who seems to
have been their instructor: he underwent a voluntary imprisonment,
because he would not abandon them. The father of St. Perpetua, who was a
pagan, and advanced in years, loved her more than all his other
children. Her mother was probably a Christian, as was one of her
brothers, the other a catechumen. The martyrs were for some days before
their commitment kept under a strong guard in a private house: and the
account Perpetua gives of their sufferings to the eve of their death, is
as follows: "We were in the hands of our persecutors, when my father,
out of the affection he bore me, made new efforts to shake my
resolution. I said to him: 'Can that vessel, which you see, change its
name?' He said: 'No.' I replied: 'Nor can I call myself any other than I
am, that is to say, a Christian.' At that word my father in a rage fell
upon me, as if he would have pulled my eyes out, and beat me: but went
away in confusion, seeing me invincible: after this we enjoyed a little
repose, and in that interval received baptism. The Holy Ghost, on our
coming out of the water, inspired me to pray for nothing but patience
under corporal pains. A few days after this we were put into prison: I
was shocked at the horror and darkness of the place;[1] for till then I
knew not what such sort of places were. We suffered much that day,
chiefly on account of the great heat caused by the crowd, and the
ill-treatment we met with from the soldiers. I was moreover tortured
with concern, for that I had not my infant. But the deacons, Tertius and
Pomponius, who assisted us, obtained, by money, that we might pass some
hours in a more commodious part of the prison to refresh ourselves. My
infant being brought to me almost famished, I gave it the breast. I
recommended him afterwards carefully to my mother, and encouraged my
brother; but was much afflicted to see their concern for me. After a few
days my sorrow was changed into comfort, and my prison itself seemed
agreeable. One day my brother said to me: 'Sister, I am persuaded that
you are a peculiar favorite of Heaven: pray to God to reveal to you
whether this imprisonment will end in martyrdom or not, and acquaint me
of it.' I, knowing God gave me daily tokens of his goodness, answered,
full of confidence, 'I will inform you to-morrow.' I therefore asked
that favor of God, and had this vision. I saw a golden ladder which
reached from earth to the heavens; but so narrow, that only one could
mount it at a time. To the two sides were fastened all sorts of iron
instruments, as swords, lances, hooks, and knives; so that if any one
went up carelessly he was in great danger of having his flesh torn by
those weapons. At the foot of the ladder lay a dragon of an enormous
size, who kept guard to turn back and terrify those that endeavored to
mount it. The first that went up was Saturus, who was not apprehended
with us, but voluntarily surrendered himself afterwards on our account:
when he was got to the top of the ladder, he turned towards me and said:
'Perpetua, I wait for you; but take care lest the dragon bite you.' I
answered: 'In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, he shall not hurt me.'
Then the dragon, as if afraid of me, gently lifted his head from under
the ladder, and I, having got upon the first step, set my foot upon his
head. Thus I mounted to the top, and there {535} I saw a garden of an
immense space, and in the middle of it a tall man sitting down dressed
like a shepherd, having white hair. He was milking his sheep, surrounded
with many thousands of persons clad in white. He called me by my name,
bid me welcome, and gave me some curds made of the milk which he had
drawn: I put my hands together and took and ate them; and all that were
present said aloud, Amen. The noise awaked me, chewing something very
sweet. As soon as I had related to my brother this vision, we both
concluded that we should suffer death.

"After some days, a rumor being spread that we were to be examined, my
father came from the city to the prison overwhelmed with grief:
'Daughter,' said he, 'have pity on my gray hairs, have compassion on
your father, if I yet deserve to be called your father; if I myself have
brought you up to this age: if you consider that my extreme love of you,
made me always prefer you to all your brothers, make me not a reproach
to mankind. Have respect for your mother and your aunt; have compassion
on your child that cannot survive you; lay aside this resolution, this
obstinacy, lest you ruin us all: for not one of us will dare open his
lips any more if any misfortune befall you.' He took me by the hands at
the same time and kissed them; he threw himself at my feet in tears, and
called me no longer daughter, but, my lady. I confess, I was pierced
with sharp sorrow when I considered that my father was the only person
of our family that would not rejoice at my martyrdom. I endeavored to
comfort him, saying: 'Father, grieve not; nothing will happen but what
pleases God; for we are not at our own disposal.' He then departed very
much concerned. The next day, while we were at dinner, a person came all
on a sudden to summon us to examination. The report of this was soon
spread, and brought together a vast crowd of people into the
audience-chamber. We were placed on a sort of scaffold before the judge,
who was Hilarian, procurator of the province, the proconsul being lately
dead. All who were interrogated before me confessed boldly Jesus Christ.
When it came to my turn, my father instantly appeared with my infant. He
drew me a little aside, conjuring me in the most tender manner not to be
insensible to the misery I should bring on that innocent creature to
which I had given life. The president Hilarian joined with my father and
said: 'What! will neither the gray hairs of a father you are going to
make miserable, nor the tender innocence of a child, which your death
will leave an orphan, move you? Sacrifice for the prosperity of the
emperor.' I replied, 'I will not do it.' 'Are you then a Christian?'
said Hilarian. I answered: 'Yes, I am.' As my father attempted to draw
me from the scaffold, Hilarian commanded him to be beaten off, and he
had a blow given him with a stick, which I felt as much as if I had been
struck myself, so much was I grieved to see my father thus treated in
his old age. Then the judge pronounced our sentence, by which we were
all condemned to be exposed to wild beasts. We then joyfully returned to
our prison; and as my infant had been used to the breast, I immediately
sent Pomponius, the deacon, to demand him of my father, who refused to
send him. And God so ordered it that the child no longer required to
suck, nor did my milk incommode me." Secundulus, being no more
mentioned, seems to have died in prison before this interrogatory.
Before Hilarian pronounced sentence, he had caused Saturus, Saturninus,
and Revocatus, to be scourged; and Perpetua and Felicitas to be beaten
on the face. They were reserved for the shows which were to be exhibited
for the soldiers in the camp, on the festival of Geta, who had been made
Cæsar tour years before by his father Severus, when his brother
Caracalla was created Augustus.

St. Perpetua relates another vision with which she was favored, as
follows: "A few days after receiving sentence, when we were all together
in {536} prayer, I happened to name Dinocrates, at which I was
astonished, because I had not before had him in my thoughts; and I that
moment knew that I ought to pray for him. This I began to do with great
fervor and sighing before God; and the same night I had the following
vision: I saw Dinocrates coming out of a dark place, where there were
many others, exceeding hot and thirsty; his face was dirty, his
complexion pale, with the ulcer in his face of which he died at seven
years of age, and it was for him that I had prayed. There seemed a great
distance between him and me, so that it was impossible for us to come to
each other. Near him stood a vessel full of water, whose brim was higher
than the statue of an infant: he at tempted to drink, but though he had
water he could not reach it. This mightily grieved me, and I awoke. By
this I knew my brother was in pain, but I trusted I could by prayer
relieve him: so I began to pray fer him, beseeching God with tears, day
and night, that he would grant me my request; as I continued to do till
we were removed to the damp prison: being destined for a public show on
the festival of Cæsar Geta. The day we were in the stocks[2] I had this
vision: I saw the place, which I had beheld dark before, now luminous;
and Dinocrates, with his body very clean and well clad, refreshing
himself, and instead of his wound a scar only. I awoke, and I knew he
was relieved from his pain.[3]

"Some days after, Pudens, the officer who commanded the guards of the
prison, seeing that God favored us with many gifts, had a great esteem
of us, and admitted many people to visit us for our mutual comfort. On
the day of the public shows my father came to find me out, overwhelmed
with sorrow. He tore his beard, he threw himself prostrate on the
ground, cursed his years, and said enough to move any creature; and I
was ready to die with sorrow to see my father in so deplorable a
condition. On the eve of the shows I was favored with the following
vision. The deacon Pomponius methought, knocked very hard at the
prison-door, which I opened to him. He was clothed with a white robe,
embroidered with innumerable pomegranates of gold. He said to me:
'Perpetua, we wait for you, come along.' He then took me by the hand
and, led me through very rough places into the middle of the
amphitheatre, and said: 'Fear not.' And, leaving me, said again: 'I will
be with you in a moment, and bear a part with you in your pains.' I was
wondering the beasts were not let out against us, when there appeared a
very ill-favored Egyptian, who came to encounter me with others. But
another beautiful troop of young men declared for me, and anointed me
with oil for the combat. Then appeared a man of prodigious stature, in
rich apparel, having a wand in his hand like the masters of the
gladiators, and a green bough on which hung golden apples. Having
ordered silence, he said that the bough should be my prize, if I
vanquished {537} the Egyptian--but that if he conquered me, he should
kill me with a sword. After a long and obstinate engagement, I threw him
on his face, and trod upon his head. The people applauded my victory
with loud acclamations. I then approached the master of the
amphitheatre, who gave me the bough with a kiss, and said: 'Peace be
with you, my daughter.' After this I awoke, and found that I was not so
much to combat with wild beasts as with the devils." Here ends the
relation of St. Perpetua.

St. Saturus had also a vision which he wrote himself. He and his
companions were conducted by a bright angel into a most delightful
garden, in which they met some holy martyrs lately dead, namely,
Jocundus, Saturninus, and Artaxius, who had been burned alive for the
faith, and Quintus, who died in prison. They inquired after other
martyrs of their acquaintance, say the acts, and were conducted into a
most stately place, shining like the sun: and in it saw the king of this
most glorious place surrounded by his happy subjects, and heard a voice
composed of many, which continually cried: "Holy, holy, holy." Saturus,
turning to Perpetua, said: "You have here what you desired." She
replied: "God be praised. I have more joy here than ever I had in the
flesh." He adds, Going out of the garden they found before the gate, on
the right hand, their bishop of Carthage, Optatus, and on the left,
Aspasius, priest of the same church, both of them alone and sorrowful.
They fell at the martyr's feet, and begged they would reconcile them
together, for a dissension had happened between them. The martyrs
embraced them, saying: "Are not you our bishop, and you a priest of our
Lord? It is our duty to prostrate ourselves before you." Perpetua was
discoursing with them; but certain angels came and drove hence Optatus
and Aspasius; and bade them not to disturb the martyrs, but be
reconciled to each other. The bishop Optatus was also charged to heal
the divisions that reigned among several of his church. The angels,
after these reprimands, seemed ready to shut the gates of the garden.
"Here," says he, "we saw many of our brethren and martyrs likewise. We
were fed with an ineffable odor, which delighted and satisfied us." Such
was the vision of Saturus. The rest of the acts were added by an
eye-witness. God had called to himself Secondulus in prison. Felicitas
was eight months gone with child, and as the day of the shows
approached, she was inconsolable lest she should not be brought to bed
before it came; fearing that her martyrdom would be deferred on that
account, because women with child were not allowed to be executed before
they were delivered: the rest also were sensibly afflicted on their part
to leave her alone in the road to their common hope. Wherefore they
unanimously joined in prayer to obtain of God that she might be
delivered against the shows. Scarce had they finished their prayer, when
Felicitas found herself in labor. She cried out under the violence of
her pain: one of the guards asked her, if she could not bear the throes
of childbirth without crying out, what she would do when exposed to the
wild beasts. She answered: "It is I that suffer what I now suffer; but
then there will be another in me that will suffer for me, because I
shall suffer for him." She was then delivered of a daughter, which a
certain Christian woman took care of, and brought up as her own child.
The tribune, who had the holy martyrs in custody, being informed by some
persons of little credit, that the Christians would free themselves out
of prison by some magic enchantments, used them the more cruelly on that
account, and forbade any to see them. Thereupon Perpetua said to him:
"Why do you not afford us some relief, since we are condemned by Cæsar,
and destined to combat at his festival? Will it not be to your honor
that we appear well fed?" At this the tribune trembled and blushed, and
ordered them to be used with more humanity, and their friends to be
admitted to see them. Pudens, {538} the keeper of the prison, being
already converted, secretly did them all the good offices in his power.
The day before they suffered they gave them, according to custom, their
last meal, which was called a free supper, and they ate in public. But
the martyrs did their utmost to change it into an Agape, or Love-feast.
Their chamber was full of people, whom they talked to with their usual
resolution, threatening them with the judgments of God, and extolling
the happiness of their own sufferings. Saturus, smiling at the curiosity
of those that came to see them, said to them, "Will not to-morrow
suffice to satisfy your inhuman curiosity in our regard? However you may
seem now to pity us, to-morrow you will clap your hands at our death,
and applaud our murderers. But observe well our faces, that you may know
them again at that terrible day when all men shall be judged." They
spoke with such courage and intrepidity, as astonished the infidels, and
occasioned the conversion of several among them.

The day of their triumph being come, they went out of the prison to go
to the amphitheatre. Joy sparkled in their eyes, and appeared in all
their gestures and words. Perpetua walked with a composed countenance
and easy pace, as a woman cherished by Jesus Christ, with her eyes
modestly cast down: Felicitas went with her, following the men, not able
to contain her joy. When they came to the gate of the amphitheatre the
guards would have given them, according to custom, the superstitious
habits with which they adorned such as appeared at these sights. For the
men, a red mantle, which was the habit of the priests of Saturn: for the
women, a little fillet round the head, by which the priestesses of Ceres
were known. The martyrs rejected those idolatrous ceremonies; and, by
the mouth of Perpetua, said, they came thither of their own accord on
the promise made them that they should not be forced to any thing
contrary to their religion. The tribune then consented that they might
appear in the amphitheatre habited as they were. Perpetua sung, as being
already victorious; Revocatus, Saturninus, and Saturus threatened the
people that beheld them with the judgments of God: and as they passed
over against the balcony of Hilarian, they said to him: "You judge us in
this world, but God will judge you to the next." The people, enraged at
their boldness, begged they might be scourged, which was granted. They
accordingly passed before the Venatores,[4] or hunters, each of whom
gave them a lash. They rejoiced exceedingly in being thought worthy to
resemble our Saviour in his sufferings. God granted to each of them the
death they desired; for when they were discoursing together about what
kind of martyrdom would be agreeable to each, Saturninus declared that
be would choose to be exposed to beasts of several sorts in order to the
aggravation of his sufferings. Accordingly he and Revocatus, after
having been attacked by a leopard, were also assaulted by a bear.
Saturus dreaded nothing so much as a bear, and therefore hoped a leopard
would dispatch him at once with his teeth. He was then exposed to a wild
boar, but the beast turned upon his keeper, who received such a wound
from him that he died in a few days after, and Saturus was only dragged
along by him. Then they tied the martyr to the bridge near a bear, but
that beast came not out of his lodge, so that Saturus, being sound and
not hurt, was called upon for a second encounter. This gave him an
opportunity of speaking to Pudens, the jailer that had been converted.
The martyr encouraged him to constancy in the faith, and said to him:
"You see I have not yet been hurt by any beast, as I desired and
foretold; believe then steadfastly in Christ; I am going where you will
{539} see a leopard with one bite take away my life." It happened so,
for a leopard being let out upon him, covered him all over with blood,
whereupon the people jeering, cried out, "He is well baptized." The
martyr said to Pudens, "Go, remember my faith, and let our sufferings
rather strengthen than trouble you. Give me the ring you have on your
finger." Saturus, having dipped it in his wound, gave it him back to
keep as a pledge to animate him to a constancy in his faith, and fell
down dead soon after. Thus he went first to glory to wait for Perpetua,
according to her vision. Some with Mabillon,[5] think this Pudens is the
martyr honored in Africa, on the 29th of April.

In the mean time, Perpetua and Felicitas had been exposed to a wild cow;
Perpetua was first attacked, and the cow having tossed her up, she fell
on her back. Then putting herself in a sitting posture, and perceiving
her clothes were torn, she gathered them about her in the best manner
she could, to cover herself, thinking more of decency than her
sufferings. Getting up, not to seem disconsolate, she tied up her hair,
which was fallen loose, and perceiving Felicitas on the ground much hurt
by a toss of the cow, she helped her to rise. They stood together,
expecting another assault from the beasts, but the people crying out
that it was enough, they were led to the gate Sanevivaria, where those
that were not killed by the beasts were dispatched at the end of the
shows by the confectores. Perpetua was here received by Rusticus, a
catechumen, who attended her. This admirable woman seemed just returning
to herself out of a long ecstasy, and asked when she was to fight the
wild cow. Being told what had passed, she could not believe it till she
saw on her body and clothes the marks of what she had suffered, and knew
the catechumen. With regard to this circumstance of her acts, St. Austin
cries out, "Where was she when assaulted and torn by so furious a wild
beast, without feeling her wounds, and when, after that furious combat,
she asked when it would begin? What did she, not to see what all the
world saw? What did she enjoy who did not feel such pain. By what love,
by what vision, by what potion was she so transported out of herself,
and as it were divinely inebriated, to seem without feeling in a mortal
body?" She called for her brother, and said to him and Rusticus,
"Continue firm in the faith, love one another, and be not scandalized at
our sufferings." All the martyrs were now brought to the place of their
butchery. But the people, not yet satisfied with beholding blood, cried
out to have them brought into the middle of the amphitheatre, that they
might have the pleasure of seeing them receive the last blow. Upon this,
some of the martyrs rose up, and having given one another the kiss of
peace, went of their own accord into the middle of the arena; others
were dispatched without speaking, or stirring out of the place they were
in. St. Perpetua fell into the hands of a very timorous and unskilful
apprentice of the gladiators, who, with a trembling hand, gave her many
slight wounds, which made her languish a long time. Thus, says St.
Austin, did two women, amidst fierce beasts and the swords of
gladiators, vanquish the devil and all his fury. The day of their
martyrdom was the 7th of March, as it is marked in the most ancient
martyrologies, and in the Roman calendar as old as the year 354,
published by Bucherins. St. Prosper says they suffered at Carthage,
which agrees with all the circumstances. Their bodies were in the great
church of Carthage, in the fifth age, as St. Victor[6] informs us. Saint
Austin says, their festival drew yearly more to honor their memory in
their church, than curiosity had done to their martyrdom. They are
mentioned in the canon of the Mass.

Footnotes:
1.  The prisons of the ancient Romans, still to be seen in many old
    amphitheatres, &c., are dismal holes: having at most one very small
    aperture for light, just enough to show day.
2.  These stocks, called Nervus, were a wooden machine with many holes,
    in which the prisoners' feet were fastened and stretched to great
    distances, as to the fourth or fifth holes, for the increase of
    their torment. St. Perpatua remarks, they were chained, and also set
    in this engine during their stay in the camp prison, which seems to
    have been several days, in expectation of the day of the public
    show.
3.  By the conclusions which St. Perpetua was led to make from her two
    visions, it evidently appears, that the church, in that early age,
    believed the doctrine of the expiation of certain sins after death,
    and prayed for the faithful departed. This must be allowed, even
    though it should be pretended that her visions were not from God.
    But neither St. Austin, nor any other ancient father, ever
    entertained the least suspicion on that head. Nor can we presume
    that the goodness of God would permit one full of such ardent love
    at him to be imposed upon in a point of this nature. The Oxonian
    editor of these acts knew not what other answer to make to this
    ancient testimony, than that St. Perpetua seems to have been
    Montanist (p. 14.) But this unjust censure Oodwell (Diss. Cypr. A.
    n. 8, p. 15) and others have confuted. And could St. Austin, with
    the whole Catholic church, have ranked a Montanist among the most
    illustrious martyrs? That father himself, in many places of his
    works, clearly explains the same doctrine of the Catholic faith,
    concerning a state of temporary sufferings in the other world, and
    conformably to it speaks of these visions. (L. de Orig. Animæ, l. 1,
    c. 10, p. 343, and l. 4, c. 18, p. 401, t. 10, &c.) He says, that
    Dinocrates must have received baptism, but afterwards sinned,
    perhaps by having been seduced by his pagan father into some act of
    superstition, or by lying, or by some other faults of which children
    in that tender age may be guilty. Illus ætatis pueri at mentiri et
    verum iniqui, at confiteri et negare jam possum. Lib. 1. c. 10. See
    Orsi Diss. de Actis SS. Perpetuæ et Felicitatis. Florentiæ 1738, {}.
 4. Pro ordine venatorum. Venatores, is the name given to those that
    were armed to encounter the beast; who put themselves in ranks, with
    whips in their hands, and each of them gave a last to the Bestiarii,
    or those condemned to the beasts, whom they obliged to pass naked
    before them in the middle of the pit of arena.
5.  Analect. t. 3, p. 403.
6.  Victor, l. 1, p. 4.

{540}

ST. PAUL. ANCHORET.

FROM his ignorance of secular learning, and his extraordinary humility,
he was surnamed the Simple. He served God in the world to the age of
sixty, in the toils of a poor and laborious country life. The
incontinency of his wife contributed to wean his soul from all earthly
ties. Checks and crosses which men meet with in this life are great
graces. God's sweet providence sows our roads with thorns, that we may
learn to despise the vanity, and hate the treachery of the world. "When
mothers would wean their children," says St. Austin, "they anoint their
breasts with aloes, that the babe, being offended at the bitterness, may
no more seek the nipple." Thus has God in his mercy filled the world
with sorrow and vexation; but woe to those who still continue to love
it! Even in this life miseries will be the wages of their sin and folly,
and their eternal portion will be the second death. Paul found true
happiness because he converted his heart perfectly from the world to
God. Desiring to devote himself totally to his love, he determined to
betake himself to the great St. Antony. He went eight days' journey into
the desert, to the holy patriarch, and begged that he would admit him
among his disciples, and teach him the way of salvation. Antony harshly
rejected him, telling him he was too old to bear the austerities of that
state. He therefore bade him return home, and follow the business of his
calling, and sanctify it by the spirit of recollection and assiduous
prayer. Having said this he shut his door: but Paul continued fasting
and praying before his door, till Antony, seeing his fervor, on the
fourth day opened it again, and going out to him, after several trials
of his obedience, admitted him to the monastic state, and prescribed him
a rule of life; teaching him, by the most perfect obedience, to crucify
in himself all attachment to his own will, the source of pride; by the
denial of his senses and assiduous hard labor, to subdue his flesh; and
by continual prayer at his work, and at other times, to purify his
heart, and inflame it with heavenly affections.[1] He instructed him how
to pray, and ordered him never to eat before sunset, nor so much at a
meal as entirely to satisfy hunger. Paul, by obedience and humility,
laid the foundation of an eminent sanctity in his soul, which being dead
to all self-will and to creatures, soared towards God with great fervor
and purity of affections.

Among the examples of his ready obedience, it is recorded, that when he
had wrought with great diligence in making mats and hurdles, praying at
the same time without intermission, St. Antony disliked his work, and
bade him undo it and make it over again. Paul did so, without any
dejection in his countenance, or making the least reply, or even asking
to eat a morsel of bread, though he had already passed seven days
without taking any refreshment. After this, Antony ordered him to
moisten in water four loaves of six ounces each; for their bread in the
deserts was exceeding hard and dry. When their refection was prepared,
instead of eating, he bade Paul sing psalms with him, then to sit down
by the loaves, and at night, after praying together, to take his rest.
He called him up at midnight to pray with him: this exercise the old man
continued with great cheerfulness till three o'clock in the afternoon
the following day. After sunset, each ate one loaf, and Antony asked
Paul if he would eat another. "Yes, if you do," said Paul; "I am a
monk," said Antony; "And I desire to be one," replied the disciple;
whereupon they arose, sung twelve psalms, and recited twelve other {541}
prayers. After a short repose, they both arose again to prayer at
midnight. The experienced director exercised his obedience by frequent
trials, bidding him one day, when many monks were come to visit him to
receive his spiritual advice, to spill a vessel of honey, and then to
gather it up without any dust. At other times he ordered him to draw
water a whole day and pour it out again; to make baskets and pull them
to pieces; to sew and unsew his garments, and the like.[2] What
victories over themselves and their passions might youth and others,
&c., gain! what a treasure of virtue might they procure, by a ready and
voluntary obedience and conformity of their will to that of those whom
Providence bath placed over them! This they would find the effectual
means to crush pride, and subdue their passions. But obedience is of
little advantage, unless it bend the will itself, and repress all wilful
interior murmuring and repugnance. When Paul had been sufficiently
exercised and instructed in the duties of a monastic life, St. Antony
placed him in a cell three miles from his own, where he visited him from
time to time. He usually preferred his virtue to that of all his other
disciples, and proposed him to them as a model. He frequently sent to
Paul sick persons, or those possessed by the devil, whom he was not able
to cure; as not having received the gift; and by the disciple's prayers
they never failed of a cure. St. Paul died some time after the year 330.
He is commemorated both by the Greeks and Latins, on the 7th of March.
See Palladius, Rufinus, and Sozomen, abridged by Tillemont, t. 7, p.
144. Also by Henschenius, p. 645.

Footnotes:
1.  Pallad. Lausiac. c. 28, p. 942. Rufin. Vit. Patr. c. 31. Sozom. l.
    1, c. 13.
2.  Rufin. & Pallad. loc. cit.


MARCH VIII.

ST. JOHN OF GOD, C.

FOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF CHARITY.

From his life, written by Francis de Castro, twenty-five years after his
death, abridged by Vaillet, p. 98, and F. Helyot, Hist. des Ordres
Relig. t. 4. p. 131.

A.D. 1550

ST. JOHN, surnamed of God, was born in Portugal, in 1495. His parents
were of the lowest rank in the country, but devout and charitable. John
spent a considerable part of his youth in service, under the mayoral or
chief shepherd of the count of Oropeusa in Castile, and in great
innocence and virtue. In 1522, he listed himself in a company of foot
raised by the count, and served in the wars between the French and
Spaniards; as he did afterwards in Hungary, against the Turks, while the
emperor Charles V. was king of Spain. By the licentiousness of his
companions, he by degrees lost his fear of offending God, and laid aside
the greatest part of his practices of devotion. The troop which he
belonged to being disbanded, he went into Andalusia in 1536, where he
entered the service of a rich lady near Seville, in quality of shepherd.
Being now about forty years of age, stung with remorse for his past
misconduct, he began to entertain very serious thoughts of a change of
life, and doing penance for his sins. He accordingly employed the
greatest part of his time, both by day and night, in the exercises {542}
of prayer and mortification, bewailing almost continually his
ingratitude towards God, and deliberating how he could dedicate himself
in the most perfect manner to his service. His compassion for the
distressed moved him to take a resolution of leaving his place, and
passing into Africa, that he might comfort and succor the poor slaves
there, not without hopes of meeting with the crown of martyrdom. At
Gibraltar he met with a Portuguese gentleman condemned to banishment,
and whose estate had also been confiscated by king John III. He was then
in the hands of the king's officers, together with his wife and
children, and on his way to Ceuta, in Barbary, the place of his exile.
John, out of charity and compassion, served him without any wages. At
Ceuta, the gentleman falling sick with grief and the change of air, was
soon reduced to such straits as to be obliged to dispose of the small
remains of his shattered fortune for the family's support. John, not
content to sell what little stock he was master of to relieve them, went
to day-labor at the public works, to earn all he could for their
subsistence. The apostacy of one of his companions alarmed him; and his
confessor telling him that his going in quest of martyrdom was an
illusion, he determined to return to Spain. Coming back to Gibraltar,
his piety suggested to him to turn pedler, and sell little pictures and
books of devotion, which might furnish him with opportunities of
exhorting his customers to virtue. His stock increasing considerably, he
settled in Granada, where he opened a shop, in 1538, being then
forty-three years of age.

The great preacher and servant of God, John D'Avila, {543} Apostle of
Andalusia, preached that year at Granada, on St. Sebastian's day, which
is there kept as a great festival. John, having heard his sermon, was so
affected with it, that, melting into tears, he filled the whole church
with his cries and lamentations; detesting his past life, beating his
breast, {544} and calling aloud for mercy. Not content with this, he ran
about the streets like a distracted person, tearing his hair, and
behaving in such a manner that he was followed everywhere by the rabble
with sticks and stones, and came home all besmeared with dirt and blood.
He then gave away all he had in the world, and having thus reduced
himself to absolute poverty, that he might die to himself, and crucify
all the sentiments of the old man, he began again to counterfeit the
madman, running about the streets as before, till some had the charity
to take him to the venerable John D'Avila, covered with dirt and blood.
The holy man, full of the Spirit of God, soon discovered in John the
motions of extraordinary graces, spoke to him in private, heard his
general confession, and gave him proper advice, and promised his
assistance ever after. John, out of a desire of the greatest
humiliations, returned soon after to his apparent madness and
extravagances. He was, thereupon, taken up and put into a madhouse, on
supposition of his being disordered in his senses, where the severest
methods were used to bring him to himself, all which he underwent in the
spirit of penance, and by way of atonement for the sins of his past
life. D'Avila, being informed of his conduct, came to visit him, and
found him reduced almost to the grave by weakness, and his body covered
with wounds and sores; but his soul was still vigorous, and thirsting
with the greatest ardor after new sufferings and humiliations. D'Avila
however told him, that having now been sufficiently exercised in that so
singular a method of penance and humiliation, he advised him to employ
himself for the time to come in something more conducive to his own and
the public good. His exhortation had its desired effect; and he grew
instantly calm and sedate, to the great astonishment of his keepers. He
continued, however, some time longer in the hospital, serving the sick,
but left it entirely on St. Ursula's day, in 1539. This his
extraordinary conduct is an object of our admiration, not of our
imitation: in this saint it was the effect of the fervor of his
conversion, his desire of humiliation, and a holy hatred of himself and
his past criminal life. By it he learned in a short time perfectly to
die to himself and the world; which prepared his soul for the graces
which God afterwards bestowed on him. He then thought of executing his
design of doing something for the relief of the poor; and, after a
pilgrimage to our Lady's in Guadaloupa, to recommend himself and his
undertaking to her intercession, in a place celebrated for devotion to
her, he began by selling wood in the market-place, to feed some poor by
the means of his labor. Soon after he hired a house to harbor poor sick
persons in, whom he served and provided for with an ardor, prudence,
economy, and vigilance, that surprised the whole city. This was the
foundation of the order of charity, in 1540, which, by the benediction
of heaven, has since been spread all over Christendom. John was occupied
all day in serving his patients: in the night he went out to carry in
new objects of charity, rather than to seek out provisions for them; for
people, of their own accord, brought him in all necessaries for his
little hospital. The archbishop of Granada, taking notice of so
excellent an establishment, and admiring the incomparable order observed
in it, both for the spiritual and temporal care of the poor, furnished
considerable sums to increase it, and favored it with his protection.
This excited all persons to vie with each other in contributing to it.
Indeed the charity, patience, and modesty of St. John, and his wonderful
care and foresight, engaged every one to admire and favor the institute.
The bishop of Tuy, president of the royal court of judicature in
Granada, having invited the holy man to dinner, put {545} several
questions to him, to all which he answered in such a manner, as gave the
bishop the highest esteem of his person. It was this prelate that gave
him the name of John of God, and prescribed him a kind of habit, though
St. John never thought of founding a religious order: for the rules
which bear his name were only drawn up in 1556, six years after his
death; and religious vows were not introduced among his brethren before
the year 1570.

To make trial of the saint's disinterestedness, the marquis of Tarisa
came to him in disguise to beg an alms, on pretence of a necessary
lawsuit, and he received from his hands twenty-five ducats, which was
all he had. The marquis was so much edified by his charity, that,
besides returning the sum, he bestowed on him one hundred and fifty
crowns of gold, and sent to his bospital every day, during his stay at
Granada, one hundred and fifty loaves, four sheep, and six pullets. But
the holy man gave a still more illustrious proof of his charity when the
hospital was on fire; for he carried out most of the sick on his own
back: and though he passed and repassed through the flames, and stayed
in the midst of them a considerable time, he received no hurt. But his
charity was not confined to his own hospital: he looked upon it as his
own misfortune if the necessities of any distressed person in the whole
country had remained unrelieved. He therefore made strict inquiry into
the wants of the poor over the whole province, relieved many in their
own houses, employed in a proper manner those that were able to work,
and with wonderful sagacity laid himself out every way to comfort and
assist all the afflicted members of Christ. He was particularly active
and vigilant in settling and providing for young maidens in distress to
prevent the danger to which they are often exposed, of taking bad
courses. He also reclaimed many who were already engaged in vice: for
which purpose he sought out public sinners, and holding a crucifix in
his hand, with many tears exhorted them to repentance. Though his life
seemed to be taken up in continual action, he accompanied it with
perpetual prayer and incredible corporal austerities. And his tears of
devotion, his frequent raptures, and his eminent spirit of
contemplation, gave a lustre to his other virtues. But his sincere
humility appeared most admirable in all his actions, even amid the
honors which he received at the court of Valladolid, whither business
called him. The king and princes seemed to vie with each other who
should show him the greatest courtesy, or put the largest alms in his
hands; whose charitable contributions he employed with great prudence in
Valladolid itself, and the adjacent country. Only perfect virtue could
stand the test of honors, amid which he appeared the most humble.
Humiliations seemed to be his delight: these he courted and sought, and
always underwent them with great alacrity. One day, when a woman called
him hypocrite, and loaded him with invectives, he gave her privately a
piece of money, and desired her to repeat all she had said in the
market-place.

Worn out at last by ten years' hard service in his hospital, he fell
sick. The immediate occasion of his distemper seemed to be excess of
fatigue in saving wood and other such things for the poor in a great
flood, in which, seeing a person in danger of being drowned, he swam in
his long clothes to endeavor to rescue him, not without imminent hazard
of his own life: but he could not see his Christian brother perish
without endeavoring at all hazards to succor him. He at first concealed
his sickness, that he might not be obliged to diminish his labors and
extraordinary austerities; but in the mean time he carefully revised the
inventories of all things belonging to his hospital, and inspected all
the accounts. He also reviewed all the excellent regulations which he
had made for its administration, the distribution of {546} time, and the
exercises of piety to be observed in it. Upon a complaint that he
harbored idle strollers and bad women, the archbishop sent for him, and
laid open the charge against him. The man of God threw himself prostrate
at his feet, and said: "The Son of God came for sinners, and we are
obliged to promote their conversion, to exhort them, and to sigh and
pray for them. I am unfaithful to my vocation because I neglect this;
and I confess that I know no other bad person in my hospital but myself;
who, as I am obliged to own with extreme confusion, am a most base
sinner, altogether unworthy to eat the bread of the poor." This he spoke
with so much feeling and humility that all present were much moved, and
the archbishop dismissed him with respect, leaving all things to his
discretion. His illness increasing, the news of it was spread abroad.
The lady Anne Ossorio was no sooner informed of his condition, but she
came in her coach to the hospital to see him. The servant of God lay in
his habit in his little cell, covered with a piece of an old coat
instead of a blanket, and having under his head, not indeed a stone, as
was his custom, but a basket, in which he used to beg alms in the city
for his hospital. The poor and sick stood weeping round him. The lady,
moved with compassion, dispatched secretly a message to the archbishop,
who sent immediately an order to St. John to obey her as he would do
himself, during his illness. By virtue of this authority she obliged him
to leave his hospital. He named Anthony Martin superior in his place,
and gave moving instructions to his brethren, recommending to them, in
particular, obedience and charity. In going out he visited the blessed
sacrament, and poured forth his heart before it with extraordinary
fervor; remaining there absorbed in his devotions so long, that the lady
Anne Ossorio caused him to be taken up and carried into her coach, in
which she conveyed him to her own house. She herself prepared with the
help of her maids, and gave him with her own hands, his broths and other
things, and often read to him the history of the passion of our
Redeemer. He complained that while our Saviour, in his agony, drank
gall, they gave him, a miserable sinner, broths. The whole city was in
tears; all the nobility visited him; the magistrates came to beg he
would give his benediction to their city. He answered, that his sins
rendered him the scandal and reproach of their country; but recommended
to them his brethren, the poor, and his religious that served them. At
last, by order of the archbishop, he gave the city his dying
benediction. His exhortations to all were most pathetic. His prayer
consisted of most humble sentiments of compunction and inflamed
aspirations of divine love. The archbishop said mass in his chamber,
heard his confession, gave him the viaticum and extreme unction, and
promised to pay all his debts, and to provide for all his poor. The
saint expired on his knees, before the altar, on the 8th of March, in
1550, being exactly fifty-five years old. He was buried by the
archbishop at the head of all the clergy, both secular and regular,
accompanied by all the court, noblesse, and city, with the utmost pomp.
He was honored by many miracles, beatified by Urban VIII. in 1630, and
canonized by Alexander VIII. in 1690. His relics were translated into
the church of his brethren in 1664. His order of charity to serve the
sick was approved of by pope Pius V. The Spaniards have their own
general: but the religious in France and Italy obey a general who
resides at Rome. They follow the rule of St. Austin.

       *       *       *       *       *

One sermon perfectly converted one who had been long enslaved to the
world and his passions, and made him a saint. How comes it that so many
sermons and pious books produce so little fruit in our souls? It is
altogether owing to our sloth and wilful hardness of heart, that we
receive God's {547} omnipotent word in vain, and to our most grievous
condemnation. The heavenly seed can take no root in hearts which receive
it with indifference and insensibility, or it is trodden upon and
destroyed by the dissipation and tumult of our disorderly affections, or
it is choked by the briers and thorns of earthly concerns. To profit by
it, we must listen to it with awe and respect, in the silence of all
creatures, in interior solitude and peace, and must carefully nourish it
in our hearts. The holy law of God is comprised in the precept of divine
love; a precept so sweet, a virtue so glorious and so happy, as to carry
along with it its present incomparable reward. St. John, from the moment
of his conversion, by the penitential austerities which he performed,
was his own greatest persecutor; but it was chiefly by heroic works of
charity that he endeavored to offer to God the most acceptable sacrifice
of compunction, gratitude, and love. What encouragement has Christ given
us in every practice of this virtue, by declaring, that whatever we do
to others he esteems as done to himself! To animate ourselves to fervor,
we may often call to mind what St. John frequently repeated to his
disciples, "Labor without intermission to do all the good works in your
power, while time is allowed you." His spirit of penance, love, and
fervor he inflamed by meditating assiduously on the sufferings of
Christ, of which he often used to say: "Lord, thy thorns are my roses,
and thy sufferings my paradise."

Footnotes:
1.  The venerable John of Avila, or Avilla, who may be called the father
    of the most eminent saints that flourished in Spain in the sixteenth
    century, was a native of the diocese of Toledo. At fourteen years of
    age he was sent to Salamanca, and trained up to the law. From his
    infancy he applied himself with great earnestness to prayer, and all
    the exercises of piety and religion; and he was yet very young when
    he found his inclinations strongly bent towards an ecclesiastical
    state in order to endeavor by his tears and labors to kindle the
    fire of divine love in the hearts of men. From the university his
    parents called him home, but were surprised and edified to see the
    ardor with which he pursued the most heroic practices of Christian
    perfection; which, as they both feared God, they were afraid in the
    least to check, or damp his fervor. His diet was sparing, and as
    coarse as he could choose, without an appearance of singularity or
    affectation; he contrived to sleep on twigs, which he secretly laid
    on his bed, wore a hair shirt, and used severe disciplines. What was
    most admirable in his conduct, was the universal denial of his will,
    by which he labored to die to himself, added to his perfect
    humility, patience, obedience, and meekness, by which he subjected
    his spirit to the holy law of Christ. All his spare time was devoted
    to prayer, and he approached very frequently the holy sacraments. In
    that of the blessed Eucharist he began to find a wonderful relish
    and devotion, and he spent some hours in preparing himself to
    receive it with the utmost purity of heart and fervor of love he was
    able to bring to that divine banquet. In the commerce of the world
    he appeared so much out of his element, that he was sent to the
    university of Alcala, where he finished his studies in the same
    manner he had began them, and bore the first prize in philosophy and
    his other classes. F. Dominic Soto, the learned Dominican professor,
    who was his master, conceived for him the warmest affection and the
    highest esteem, and often declared how great a man he doubted not
    this scholar would one day become. Peter Guerrera, who was
    afterwards archbishop of Toledo, was also from that time his great
    admirer, and constant friend. Both his parents dying about that
    time, John entered into holy orders. On the same day on which he
    said his first mass, instead of giving an entertainment according to
    the custom, he provided a dinner for twelve poor persons, on whom he
    waited at table, and whom he clothed at his own expense, and with
    his own hands. When he returned into his own country, he sold his
    whole estate, for he was the only child and heir of his parents: the
    entire price he gave to the poor, reserving nothing for himself
    besides an old suit of mean apparel, desiring to imitate the
    apostles, whom Christ forbade to carry either purse or scrip. Taking
    St. Paul for his patron and model, he entered upon the ministry of
    preaching, in which sublime function his preparation consisted not
    merely in the study and exercise of oratory, and in a consummate
    knowledge of faith, and of the rules of Christian virtue, but much
    more in a perfect victory over himself and his passions, the entire
    disengagement of his heart and affections from the world and all
    earthly things, an eminent spirit of humility, tender charity, and
    inflamed zeal for the glory of God, and the sanctification of souls.
    He once said to a young clergyman, who consulted him by what method
    he could learn the art of preaching with fruit, that it was no other
    than that of the most ardent love of God. Of this he was himself a
    most illustrious example. Prayer, and an indefatigable application
    to the duties of his ministry, divided his whole time; and such was
    his thirst of the salvation of souls, that the greatest labors and
    dangers were equally his greatest gain and pleasure; he seemed even
    to gather strength from the former, and confidence and courage from
    the latter. His inflamed sermons, supported by the admirable example
    of his heroic virtue, and the most pure maxims of the gospel,
    delivered with an eloquence and an unction altogether divine, from
    the overflowings of a heart burning with the most ardent love of
    God, and penetrated with the deepest sentiments of humility and
    compunction, had a force which the most hardened hearts seemed not
    able to withstand. Many sacred orators preach themselves rather than
    the word of God, and speak with so much art and care, that their
    hearers consider more how they speak than what they say. This true
    minister of the gospel never preached or instructed others without
    having first, for a considerable time, begged of God with great
    earnestness to move both his tongue and the hearts of his hearers:
    he mounted the pulpit full of the most sincere distrust in his own
    abilities and endeavors, and contempt of himself; and with the most
    ardent thirst of the salvation of the souls of all his hearers. He
    cast his nets, or rather sowed the seed, of eternal life. The Holy
    Ghost, who inspired and animated his soul, seemed to speak by the
    organ of his voice; and gave so fruitful a blessing to his words,
    that wonderful were the conversions he everywhere wrought. Whole
    assemblies came from his sermons quite changed, and their change
    appeared immediately in their countenances and behavior. He never
    ceased to exhort those that were with him by his inflamed
    discourses, and the absent by his letters. A collection of these,
    extant in several languages, is a proof of his elo quence,
    experimental science of virtue, and tender and affecting charity.
    The ease with which he wrote them without study, shows how richly
    his mind was stored with an inexhausted fund of excellent motives
    and reflections on every subject matter of piety, with what
    readiness he disposed those motives in an agreeable methodical
    manner, and with what unction he expressed them, insomuch that his
    style appears to be no other than the pure language of his heart,
    always bleeding for his own sins and those of the world. So various
    are the instructions contained in these letters, that any one may
    find such as are excellently suited to his particular circumstances,
    whatever virtue he desires to obtain, or vice to shun, and under
    whatever affliction he seeks for holy advice and comfort. It was
    from the school of an interior experienced virtue that he was
    qualified to be so excellent a master. This spirit of all virtues he
    cultivated in his soul by their continual exercise. Under the
    greatest importunity of business, besides his office and mass, with
    a long preparation and thanksgiving, he never failed to give to
    private holy meditation two hours, when he first rose in the
    morning, from three till five o'clock, and again two hours in the
    evening before he took his rest, for which he never allowed himself
    more than four hours of the night, from eleven till three o'clock.
    During the time of his sickness, towards the latter end of his life,
    almost his whole time was devoted to prayer, he being no longer able
    to sustain the fatigue of his functions. His clothes were always
    very mean, and usually old; his food was such as he bought in the
    streets, which wanted no dressing, as herbs, fruit, or milk; for he
    would never have a servant. At the tables of others he ate sparingly
    of whatever was given him, or what was next at hand. He exceedingly
    extolled, and was a true lover of holy poverty, not only as it is an
    exercise of penance, and cuts off the root of many passions, but
    also as a state dear to those who love our divine Redeemer, who was
    born, lived, and died, in extreme poverty. Few persons ever appeared
    to be more perfectly dead to the world than this holy man. A certain
    nobleman, who was showing him his curious gardens, canals, and
    buildings, expressed his surprise to see that no beauties and
    wonders of art and nature could fix his attention or raise his
    curiosity. The holy man replied, "I trust confess that nothing of
    this kind gives me any satisfaction because my heart takes no
    pleasure in them." This holy man was so entirely possessed with God,
    and filled with the love of invisible things, as to loathe all
    earthly things, which seemed not to have a direct and immediate
    tendency to them. He preached at Seville, Cordova, Granada, Baeza,
    and over the whole country of Andalusia. By his discourses and
    instructions, St. John of God, St. Francis of Borgia, St. Teresa,
    Lewis of Granada, and many others, were moved, and assisted to lay
    the deep foundation of perfect virtue to which the divine grace
    raised them. Many noblemen and ladies were directed by him in the
    paths of Christian perfection, particularly the Countess of Feria
    and the Marchioness of Pliego, whose conduct, first in a married
    state, and afterwards in holy widowhood, affords most edifying
    instances of heroic practices and sentiments of all virtues. This
    great servant of God taught souls to renounce and cast away that
    false liberty by which they are the worst of slaves under the
    tyranny of their passions, and to take up the sweet chains of the
    divine love which gives men a true sovereignty, not only over all
    other created things, but also over themselves. He lays down in his
    works the rules by which he conducted so many to perfect virtue,
    teaching us that we must learn to know both God and ourselves, not
    by the lying glass of self-love, but by the clear beam of truth:
    ourselves, that we may see the depth of our miseries, and fly with
    all our might from the cause thereof, which is our pride, and other
    sins: God, that we may always tremble before his infinite majesty,
    may believe his unerring truth, may hope for a share in his
    inexhausted mercy, and may vehemently love that incomprehensible
    abyss of goodness and charity. These lessons he lays down with
    particular advice how to subside our passions. In his treatise on
    the Audi filia, or on those words of the Holy Ghost, Psa. xliv,
    _Hear me, daughter, bend thine ear, forget thy house,_ &c. The
    occasion upon which he composed this book was as follows: Donna
    Soncha Carilla, daughter of Don Lewis Fernandez of Cordoba, lord of
    Guadalcazar, a young lady of great beauty and accomplishments, was
    called to court to serve in quality of lady of honor to the queen.
    Her father furnished her with an equipage, and every thing suitable;
    but before her journey, she went to cast herself at the feet of
    Avila, and make her confession. She afterwards said he reproved her
    sharply for coming to the sacred tribunal of penance too richly
    attired, and in a manner not becoming a penitent whose heart was
    broken with compunction. What else passed in their conference is
    unknown; but coming from the church, she begged to be excused from
    going to court, laid aside all sumptuous attire, and gave herself up
    entirely to recollection and penance. Thus she led a retired most
    holy life in her father's house till she died, most happily, about
    ten years after. Her pious director wrote this book for her
    instruction in the practice of an interior life, teaching her how
    she ought to subdue her passions, and vanquish temptations,
    especially that of pride; also by what means she was to labor to
    obtain the love of God, and all virtues. He dwells at length on
    assiduous meditation, on the passion of Christ, especially on the
    excess of love with which he suffered so much for us. His other
    works, and all the writers who speak of this holy man, bear
    testimony to his extraordinary devotion towards the passion of
    Christ. From this divine book he learned the perfect spirit of all
    virtues, especially a desire of suffering with him and for him. Upon
    this motive he exhorts us to give God many thanks when he sends us
    an opportunity of enduring some little, that by our good use of this
    little trial, our Lord nay be moved to give us strength to suffer
    more, and may send us more to undergo. Envy raising him enemies, he
    was accused of shutting heaven to the rich, and upon that senseless
    slander thrown into the prison of the inquisition at Seville. This
    sensible disgrace and persecution he bore with incredible sweetness
    and patience, and after he was acquitted, returned only kindnesses
    to his calumniators. In the fiftieth year of his age he began to be
    afflicted with the stone, frequent fevers, and a complication of
    other painful disorders: under the sharpest pains he used often to
    repeat this prayer, "Lord. increase my sufferings, but give me also
    patience." Once, in a fit of exquisite pain, he begged our Redeemer
    to assuage it: and that instant he found it totally removed, and he
    fell into a gentle slumber. He afterwards reproached himself as
    guilty of pusillanimity. It is not to be expressed how much he
    suffered from sickness during the seventeen last years of his life.
    He died with great tranquillity and devotion, on the 10th of May,
    1569. The venerable John of Avila was a man powerful in words and
    works, a prodigy of penance, the glory of the priesthood, the
    edification of the church by his virtues, its support by his zeal,
    its oracle by his doctrine. A profound and universal genius, a
    prudent and upright director, a celebrated preacher, the apostle of
    Andalusia, a man revered by all Spain, known to the whole Christian
    world. A man of such sanctity and authority, that princes adopted
    his decisions, the learned were improved by his enlightened
    knowledge, and St. Teresa regarded him as her patron and protector,
    consulted him as her master, and followed him as her guide and
    model. See the edifying life of the venerable John of Avila, written
    by F. Lewis of Granada; also by Lewis Munnoz: and the abstract
    prefixed by Arnauld d' Andilly to the French edition of his works in
    folio, at Paris, in 1673.

ST. FELIX, B.C.

HE was a holy Burgundian priest, who converted and baptized Sigebert,
prince of the East-Angles, during his exile in France, whither he was
forced to retire, to secure himself from the insidious practices of his
relations. Sigebert being called home to the crown of his ancestors,
invited out of France his spiritual father St. Felix, to assist him in
bringing over his idolatrous subjects to the Christian faith: these were
the inhabitants of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire. Our saint being
ordained bishop by Honorius, archbishop of Canterbury, and deputed by
him to preach to the East-Angles, was surprisingly successful in his
undertaking, and made almost a thorough conversion of that country. The
most learned and most Christian king, Sigebert, as he is styled by Bede,
concurred with him in all things, and founded churches, monasteries, and
schools. From those words of Bede, that "he set up a school for youth,
in which Felix furnished him with masters," some have called him the
founder of the university of Cambridge. St. Felix established schools at
Felixstow; Cressy adds at Flixton or Felixton. King Sigebert, after two
years, resigned his crown to Egric, his cousin, and became a monk at
Cnobersburgh, now Burgh-castle, in Suffolk, which monastery he had
founded for St. Fursey. Four years after this, the people dragged him
out of his retirement by main force, and conveyed him into the army, to
defend them against the cruel king Penda, who had made war upon the
East-Angles. He refused to bear arms, as inconsistent with the monastic
profession; and would have nothing but a wand in his hand. Being slain
with Egric in 642, he was honored as a martyr in the English calendars,
on the 27th of September, and in the Gallican on the 7th of August.
Egric was succeeded by the good king Annas, the father of many saints;
as, SS. Erconwald, bishop; Ethelrede, Sexburge, Ethelburge, and
Edilburge, abbesses; and Withburge. He was slain fighting against the
pagans, after a reign of nineteen years, and buried at Blitheburg: his
remains were afterwards removed to St. Edmond's-bury. St. Felix
established his see at Dumraoc, now Dunwich, in Suffolk, and governed it
seventeen years, dying in {548} 646. He was buried at Dunwich; but his
relics were translated to the abbey of Ramsey, under king Canutus. See
Bede, l. 2, Malmesbury; Wharton, t. 1, p. 403.[1]

Footnotes:
1.  Dunwich was formerly a large city, with fifty-two religious houses
    in it, but was gradually swallowed up by the sea. The remains of the
    steeples are still discoverable, under water, about five miles from
    the shore. See Mr. Gardiner's History and Antiquities of Dunwich.
    4to. in 1754.

SS. APOLLONIUS, PHILEMON, &c., MARTYRS.

APOLLONIUS was a zealous holy anchoret, and was apprehended by the
persecutors at Antinous in Egypt. Many heathens came to insult and
affront him while in chains; and among others one Philemon, a musician,
very famous, and much admired by the people. He treated the martyr as an
impious person and a seducer, and one that deserved the public hatred.
To his injuries the saint only answered, "My son, may God have mercy on
thee, and not lay these reproaches to thy charge." This his meekness
wrought so powerfully on Philemon, that he forthwith confessed himself a
Christian. Both were brought before the judge whom Metaphrastes and
Usuard call Arian, and who had already put to death SS. Asclas, Timothy,
Paphnutius, and several other martyrs: after making them suffer all
manner of tortures, he condemned them to be burnt alive. When the fire
was kindled about them, Apollonius prayed: "Lord, deliver not to beasts
the souls who confess thee; but manifest thy power." At that instant a
cloud of dew encompassed the martyrs, and put out the fire. The judge
and people cried out at this miracle: "The God of the Christians is the
great and only God." The prefect of Egypt being informed of it, caused
the judge and the two confessors to be brought, loaded with irons, to
Alexandria. During the journey, Apollonius, by his instructions,
prevailed so far upon those who conducted him, that they presented
themselves also to the judge with their prisoners, and confessed
themselves likewise to be Christians. The prefect, finding their
constancy invincible, caused them all to be thrown into the sea, about
the year 311. Their bodies were afterwards found on the shore, and were
all put into one sepulchre. "By whom," says Rufinus, "many miracles are
wrought to the present time, and the vows and prayers of all are
received, and are accomplished. Hither the Lord was pleased to bring me,
and to fulfil my requests." See Rufinus, Vit. Patr l. 2, c. 19, p. 477.
Palladius Lausiac. c. 65, 66.

ST. JULIAN, ARCHBISHOP OF TOLEDO, C.

HE presided in the fourteenth and fifteenth councils of Toledo. King
Wemba, falling sick, received penance and the monastic habit from his
hands, and recovering, lived afterwards a monk. St. Julian has left us a
History of the Wars of king Wemba, a book against the Jews, and three
books On Prognostics, or on death, and the state of souls after death.
He teaches that love, and a desire of being united to God, ought to
extinguish in us the natural fear of death: that the saints in heaven
pray for us, earnestly desire our happiness, and know our actions,
either in God whom they behold, and in whom they discover all truth
which it concerns them to know; or by the angels, the messengers of God
on earth: but that the damned do not ordinarily know what passes on
earth, because they neither see God nor converse with our angels. He
says that prayers for the dead are thanksgivings for the good, a
propitiation for the souls in purgatory, but {549} no relief to the
damned. He was raised to the see of Toledo in 680, and died in 690. See
Ildefonse of Toledo, Append. Hom. Illustr.

ST. DUTHAK, BISHOP OF ROSS, IN SCOTLAND, C

HIS zeal and labors in preaching the word of God, his contempt of
himself, his compassion for the poor and for sinners, his extreme love
of poverty, never reserving any thing for himself, and the extraordinary
austerity of his life, to which he had inured himself from his
childhood, are much extolled by the author of his life. The same writer
assures us, that he was famous for several miracles and predictions, and
that he foretold an invasion of the Danes, which happened ten years
after his death, in 1263, in the reign of Alexander III., when, with
their king Achol, they were defeated by Alexander Stuart,
great-grandfather to Robert, the first king of that family. This victory
was ascribed to the intercession of St. Andrew and St. Duthak. Our
saint, after longing desires of being united to God, passed joyfully to
bliss, in 1253. His relics, kept in the collegiate church of Thane, in
the county of Ross, were resorted to by pilgrims from all parts of
Scotland. Lesley, the pious bishop of Ross, (who, after remaining four
years in prison with queen Mary, passed into France, was chosen
suffragan of Rouen, by cardinal Bourbon, and died at Brussels, in 1591,)
had an extraordinary devotion to this saint, the chief patron of his
diocese. See Lesley, Descript. Scot. p. 27, and the MS. life of St.
Duthak, compiled by a Scottish Jesuit, nephew by the mother to bishop
Lesley, and native of that diocese. See also King in Calend.

ST. ROSA, OF VITERBO, VIRGIN.

FROM her childhood she addicted herself entirely to the practice of
mortification and assiduous prayer; she was favored with the gift of
miracles, and an extraordinary talent of converting the most hardened
sinners. She professed the third rule of St. Francis, living always in
the house of her father in Viterbo, where she died in 1261. See Wading's
Annals, and Barbaza, Vies des SS. du Tiers Ordre, t. 2, p. 77.

ST. SENAN, B.C.

HE was born in the country of Hy-Conalls, in Ireland, in the latter part
of the fifth century, was a disciple of the abbots Cassidus and Natal,
or Naal: then travelled for spiritual improvement to Rome, and thence
into Britain. In this kingdom he contracted a close friendship with St.
David. After his return he founded many churches in Ireland, and a great
monastery in Inis-Cathaig, an island lying at the mouth of the river
Shannon, which he governed, and in which he continued to reside after he
was advanced to the episcopal dignity. The abbots, his successors for
several centuries, were all bishops, till this great diocese was divided
into three, namely, of Limerick, Killaloe, and Ardfert. St. Senan died
on the same day and year with St. David; but was honored in the Irish
church on the 8th of March. A town in Cornwall bears the name of St.
Senan. See his acts in Colgan, p. 602.

{550}

ST. PSALMOD, OR SAUMAY, ANCRORET.

HE was born in Ireland, and, retiring into France, led an eremitical
life at Limousin, where he acquired great reputation for his sanctity
and miracles. He died about 589. See the Martyrology of Evreux.


MARCH IX.

ST. FRANCES, WIDOW, FOUNDRESS OF THE COLLATINES.

Abridged from her life by her confessor Canon. Mattiotti; and that by
Magdalen Dell'A{}ara, superioress of the Oblates, or Coliatines. Helyot,
Hist. des Ordr. Mon. t. 6, p. 208.

A.D. 1440.

ST. FRANCES was born at Rome in 1384. Her parents, Paul de Buxo and
Jacobella Rofredeschi, were both of illustrious families. She imbibed
early sentiments of piety, and such was her love of purity from her
tender age, that she would not suffer her own father to touch even her
hands, unless covered. She had always an aversion to the amusements of
children, and loved solitude and prayer. At eleven years of age she
desired to enter a monastery, but, in obedience to her parents, was
married to a rich young Roman nobleman, named Laurence Ponzani, in 1396.
A grievous sickness showed how disagreeable this kind of life was to her
inclinations. She joined with it her former spirit; kept herself as
retired as she could, shunning feastings and public meetings. All her
delight was in prayer, meditation, and visiting churches. Above all, her
obedience and condescension to her husband was inimitable, which engaged
such a return of affection, that for forty years which they lived
together, there never happened the least disagreement; and their whole
life was a constant strife and emulation to prevent each other in mutual
complaisance and respect. While she was at her prayers or other
exercises, if called away by her husband, or the meanest person of her
family, she laid all aside to obey without delay, saying: "A married
woman must, when called upon, quit her devotions to God at the altar, to
find him in her household affairs." God was pleased to show her the
merit of this her obedience; for the authors of her life relate, that
being called away four times in beginning the same verse of a psalm in
our Lady's office, returning the fifth time, she found that verse
written in golden letters. She treated her domestics not as servants,
but as brothers and sisters, and future co-heirs in heaven; and studied
by all means in her power to induce them seriously to labor for their
salvation. Her mortifications were extraordinary, especially when, some
years before her husband's death, she was permitted by him to inflict on
her body what hardships she pleased. She from that time abstained from
wine, fish, and dainty meats, with a total abstinence from flesh, unless
in her greatest sicknesses. Her ordinary diet was hard and mouldy bread.
She would procure secretly, out of the pouches of the beggars, their dry
crusts in exchange for better bread. When she {551} fared the best, she
only added to bread a few unsavory herbs without oil, and drank nothing
but water, making use of a human skull for her cup. She ate but once a
day, and by long abstinence had lost all relish of what she took. Her
garments were of coarse serge, and she never wore linen, not even in
sickness. Her discipline was armed with rowels and sharp points. She
wore continually a hair shirt, and a girdle of horse-hair. An iron
girdle had so galled her flesh, that her confessor obliged her to lay it
aside. If she inadvertently chanced to offend God in the least, she
severely that instant punished the part that had offended; as the
tongue, by sharply biting it, &c. Her example was of such edification,
that many Roman ladies having renounced a life of idleness, pomp, and
softness, joined her in pious exercises, and put themselves under the
direction of the Benedictin monks of the congregation of Monte-Oliveto,
without leaving the world, making vows, or wearing any particular habit.
St. Frances prayed only for children that they might be citizens of
heaven, and when she was blessed with them, it was her whole care to
make them saints.

It pleased God, for her sanctification, to make trial of her virtue by
many afflictions. During the troubles which ensued upon the invasion of
Rome by Ladislas, king of Naples, and the great schism under pope John
XXIII. at the time of opening the council of Constance, in 1413, her
husband, with his brother-in-law Paulucci, was banished Rome, his estate
confiscated, his house pulled down, and his eldest son, John Baptist,
detained a hostage. Her soul remained calm amidst all those storms: she
said with Job: "_God hath given, and God hath taken away._ I rejoice in
these losses, because they are God's will. Whatever he sends I shall
continually bless and praise his name for." The schism being
extinguished by the council of Constance, and tranquillity restored at
Rome, her husband recovered his dignity and estate. Some time after,
moved by the great favors St. Frances received from heaven, and by her
eminent virtue, he gave her full leave to live as she pleased; and he
himself chose to serve God in a state of continency. He permitted her in
his own life-time to found a monastery of nuns, called Oblates, for the
reception of such of her own sex as were disposed to embrace a religious
life. The foundation of this house was in 1425. She gave them the rule
of St. Benedict, adding some particular constitutions of her own, and
put them under the direction of the congregation of the Olivetans. The
house being too small for the numbers that fled to this sanctuary from
the corruption of the world, she would gladly have removed her community
to a larger house; but not finding one suitable, she enlarged it, in
1433, from which year the founding of the Order is dated. It was
approved by pope Eugenius IV. in 1437. They are called Collatines,
perhaps from the quarter of Rome in which they are situated; and
Oblates, because they call their profession an oblation, and use in it
the word offero, not profiteer. St. Frances could not yet join her new
family; but as soon as she had settled her domestic affairs, after the
death of her husband, she went barefoot, with a cord about her neck, to
the monastery which she had founded, and there, prostrate on the ground,
before the religious, her spiritual children, begged to be admitted. She
accordingly took the habit on St. Benedict's day, in 1437. She always
sought the meanest employments in the house, being fully persuaded she
was of all the most contemptible before God; and she labored to appear
as mean in the eyes of the world as she was in her own. She continued
the same humiliations, and the same universal poverty, though soon after
chosen superioress of her congregation. Almighty God bestowed on her
humility, extraordinary graces, and supernatural favors, as frequent
visions, raptures, and the gift of prophecy. She enjoyed the familiar
conversation of her angel-guardian, as her life and the process of her
canonization {552} attest. She was extremely affected by meditating on
our Saviour's passion, which she had always present to her mind. At mass
she was so absorbed in God as to seem immoveable, especially after holy
communion: she often fell into ecstasies of love and devotion. She was
particularly devout to St. John the Evangelist, and above all to our
Lady, under whose singular protection she put her Order. Going out to
see her son John Baptist, who was dangerously sick, she fell so ill
herself that she could not return to her monastery at night. After
having foretold her death, and received the sacraments, she expired on
the 9th of March, in the year 1440, and of her age the fifty-sixth. God
attested her sanctity by miracles: she was honored among the saints
immediately after her death, and solemnly canonized by Paul V. in 1608.
Her shrine in Rome is most magnificent and rich: and her festival is
kept as a holyday in the city, with great solemnity. The Oblates make no
solemn vows, only a promise of obedience to the mother-president, enjoy
pensions, inherit estates, and go abroad with leave. Their abbey in Rome
is filled with ladies of the first rank.

In a religious life, in which a regular distribution of holy employments
and duties takes up the whole day, and leaves no interstices of time for
idleness, sloth, or the world, hours pass in these exercises with the
rapidity of moments, and moments by fervor of the desires bear the value
of years. There is not an instant in which a soul is not employed for
God, and studies not with her whole heart to please him. Every step,
every thought and desire, is a sacrifice of fidelity, obedience, and
love offered to him. Even meals, recreation, and rest, are sanctified by
this intention; and from the religious vows and habitual purpose of the
soul of consecrating herself entirely to God in time and eternity, every
action, as St. Thomas teaches, renews and contains the fervor and merit
of this entire consecration, of which it is a part. In a secular life, a
person by regularity in the employment of his time, and fervor in
devoting himself to God in all his actions and designs, may in some
degree enjoy the same happiness and advantage. This St. Frances
perfectly practised, even before she renounced the world. She lived
forty years with her husband without ever giving him the least occasion
of offence; and by the fervor with which she conversed of heaven, she
seemed already to have quitted the earth, and to have made paradise her
ordinary dwelling.

ST. GREGORY OF NYSSA, B.C.

HE was younger brother to St. Basil the Great; was educated in polite
and sacred studies, and married to a virtuous lady. He afterwards
renounced the world, and was ordained lector; but was overcome by his
violent passion for eloquence to teach rhetoric. St. Gregory Nazianzen
wrote to him in the strongest terms, exhorting him to renounce that
paltry or ignoble glory, as he elegantly calls it.[1] This letter
produced its desired effect. St. Gregory returned to the sacred ministry
in the lower functions of the altar: after some time he was called by
his brother Basil to assist him in his pastoral duties, and in 372 was
chosen bishop of Nyssa, a city of Cappadocia, near the Lesser Armenia.
The Arians, who trembled at his name, prevailed with Demosthenes, vicar
or deputy-governor of the province, to banish him. Upon the death of the
Arian emperor, Valens, in 378, St. Gregory was restored to his see by
the emperor Gratian. Our holy prelate was chosen by his colleagues to
redress the abuses and dissensions which heresy had introduced {553} in
Arabia and Palestine. He assisted at the council of Constantinople in
381, and was always regarded as the centre of the Catholic communion in
the East. Those prelates only who joined themselves to him, were looked
upon as orthodox. He died about the year 400, probably on the 10th of
January, on which the Greeks have always kept his festival: the Latins
honor his memory on the 9th of March. The high reputation of his
learning and virtue procured him the title of Father of the Fathers, as
the seventh general council testifies. His sermons are the monuments of
his piety; but his great penetration and learning appear more in his
polemic works, especially in his twelve books against Eunomius. See his
life collected from his works, St. Greg. Nazianzen, Socrates, and
Theodoret, by Hermant, Tillemont, t. 9, p. 561; Ceillier, t. 8, p. 200.
Dr. Cave imagines, that St. Gregory continued to cohabit with his wife
after he was bishop. But St. Jerom testifies that the custom of the
eastern churches did not suffer such a thing. She seems to have lived to
see him bishop, and to have died about the year 384; but she professed a
state of continency: hence St. Gregory Nazianzen, in his short eulogium
of her, says, she rivalled her brothers-in-law who were in the
priesthood, and calls her sacred, or one consecrated to God; probably
she was a deaconess.

Footnotes:
1.  [Greek: {apstzên eaostzian}], Naz. {}.


APPENDIX

ON

THE WRITINGS OF ST. GREGORY OF NYSSA.

ST. GREGORY OF NYSSA wrote many learned works extant in three volumes in
folio, published by the learned Jesuit, Fronto le Duc, at Paris, an.
1615 and 1638. They are eternal monuments of this father's great zeal,
piety, and eloquence. Photius commends his diction, as surpassing that
of all other rhetoricians, in perspicuity, elegance, and a pleasing turn
of expression, and says, that in the beauty and sweetness of his
eloquence, and the copiousness of his arguments in his polemic works
against Eunomius, he far outwent the rest who handled the same subjects.
He wrote many commentaries on holy scripture. The first is his
Hexæmeron, or book on the six days' work of the creation of the world.
It is a supplement to his brother Basil's work on the same subject, who
had omitted the obscurer questions, above the reach of the vulgar, to
whom he preached. Gregory filled up that deficiency, at the request of
many learned men, with an accuracy that became the brother of the great
Basil. He shows in this work a great knowledge of philosophy. He
finishes it by saying, The widow that offered her two mites did not
hinder the magnificent presents of the rich, nor did they who offered
skins, wood, and goats' hair towards the tabernacle, hinder those who
could give gold, silver, and precious stones. "I shall be happy," says
he, "if I can present hairs; and shall rejoice to see others add
ornaments of purple, or gold tissue." His book, On the Workmanship of
Man, may be looked upon as a continuation of the former, though it was
written first. He shows it was suitable that man, being made to command
in quality of king all this lower creation, should find his palace
already adorned, and that other things should be created before he
appeared who was to be the spectator of the miracles of the Omnipotent.
His frame is so admirable, his nature so excellent, that the whole
Blessed Trinity proceeds as it were by a council, to his formation. He
is a king, by his superiority and command over all other creatures by
his gift of reason; is part spiritual, by which he can unite himself to
God; part material, by which he has it in his power to use and even
enslave himself to creatures. Virtue is his purple garment, immortality
his sceptre, and eternal glory his crown. His resemblance to his Creator
consist in the soul only, that is, in its moral virtues and God's grace;
which divine resemblance men most basely efface in themselves by sin. He
speaks of the dignity and spiritual nature of the soul, and the future
resurrection of the body, and concludes with an anatomical description
of it, which shows him to have been well skilled in medicine, and in
that branch of natural philosophy, for that age. The two homilies on the
words, _Let us make man_, are falsely ascribed to him. When {554}
desired by one Cæsarius to prescribe him rules of a perfect virtue, he
did this by his Life of Moses, the pattern of virtue. He closes it with
this lesson, that perfection consists not in avoiding sin for fear of
torments, as slaves do, nor for the hope of recompense, as mercenaries
do; but in "fearing, as the only thing to be dreaded, to lose the
friendship of God; and in having only one desire, viz., of God's
friendship, in which alone man's spiritual life consists. This is to be
obtained by fixing the mind only on divine and heavenly things." We have
next his two treatises, On the Inscriptions of the Psalms, and An
Exposition of the sixth Psalm, full of allegorical and moral
instructions. In the first of these, extolling the divine sentiments and
instructions of those holy prayers, he says, that all Christians learned
them, and thought that time lost in which they had them not in their
mouths: even little children and old men sung them; all in affliction
found them their comfort sent by God those who travelled by land or sea,
those who were employed in sedentary trades; and the faithful of all
ages, sexes, and conditions, sick and well, made the Psalms their
occupation. These divine canticles were sung by them in all times of
joy, in marriages and festivals; by day, and in the night vigils, &c.
His eight homilies, On the three first Chapters of Ecclesiastes, are an
excellent moral instruction and literal explication of that book. He
addressed his fifteen homilies, On the Book of Canticles, which he had
preached to his flock, to Olympias, a lady of Constantinople, who, after
twenty months' marriage, being left a widow, distributed a great estate
to the church and poor, a great part by the hands of our saint, whom she
had settled an acquaintance with in a journey he had made to the
imperial city. St. Gregory extols the excellency of that divine book,
not to be read but by pure hearts, disengaged from all love of
creatures, and free from all corporeal images. He says the Holy Ghost
instructs us by degrees; by the book of Proverbs to avoid sin; by
Ecclesiastes to draw our affections from creatures; by this of Canticles
he teaches perfection, which is pure charity. He explains it mystically.
He has five orations On the Lord's Prayer. In the first, he elegantly
shows the universal, indispensable necessity of prayer, which alone
unites the heart to God, and preserves it from the approach of sin.
Every breath we draw ought also to be accompanied with thanksgiving, as
it brings us innumerable benefits from God, which we ought continually
to acknowledge. But we must only pray for spiritual, not temporal
things. In the second, he shows that none can justly call God Father,
who remain in sin, without desires of repentance, and who consequently
bear the ensigns of the devil. Resemblance with God is the mark of being
his son; that title further obliges us to have our minds and hearts
always in heaven. By the next we pray that God alone may reign in us,
and his will be ever done by us; and that the devil or self-love never
have any share in our hearts or actions. By the fourth we ask bread,
_i.e._, absolute necessaries, not dainties, not riches, or any thing
superfluous, or for the world, and even bread only for today, without
solicitude for to-morrow, which perhaps will never come: all irregular
desires and all occasions of them must be excluded. "The serpent is
watching at your heel, but do you watch his head: give him no admittance
into your mind: from the least entrance he will draw in after him the
foldings of his whole body. If Eve's counsellor persuades you that any
thing looks beautiful and tastes sweet, if you listen you are soon drawn
into gluttony, and lust, and avarice, &c." The fifth petition he thus
paraphrases, "I have forgiven my debtors, do not reject your suppliant.
I dismissed my debtor cheerful and free. I am your debtor, send me not
away sorrowful. May my dispositions, my sentence prevail with you. I
have pardoned, pardon: I have showed compassion, imitate your servant's
mercy. My offences are indeed far more grievous; but consider how much
you excel in all good. It is just that you manifest to sinners a mercy
suiting your infinite greatness. I have given proof of mercy in little
things, according to the capacity of my nature; but your bounty is not
to be confined by the narrowness of my power, &c." His eight sermons, On
the Eight Beatitudes, are written in the same style. What he says in
them on the motives of humility, which he thinks is meant by the first
beatitude, of poverty of spirit, and on meekness, proves how much his
heart was filled with those divine virtues.

Besides what we have of St. Gregory on the holy scripture, time has
preserved us many other works of piety of this father. His discourse
entitled, On his Ordination, ought to be called, On the Dedication. It
was spoken by him in the consecration of a magnificent church, built by
Rufin, (præfect of the prætorium,) ann. 394, at the Borough of the Oak,
near Chalcedon. His sermon, On loving the Poor, is a pathetic
exhortation to alms, from the last sentence on the wicked for a neglect
of that duty. "At which threat," he says, "I am most vehemently
terrified, and disturbed in mind." He excites to compassion for the
lepers in particular, who, under their miseries, are our brethren, and
it is only God's favor that has preserved us sound rather than them; and
who knows what we ourselves may become? His dialogue Against Fate was a
disputation with a heathen philosopher, who maintained a destiny or
overruling fate in all things. His canonical epistle to Letoius, bishop
of Melitine, metropolis of Armenia, has a place among the canons of
penance in the Greek church, published by Beveridge. He condemns
apostacy to perpetual penance, deprived of the sacraments till the
article of death: if only extorted by torments, for nine years; the same
law for witchcraft; nine years for simple fornication; eighteen for
adultery; twenty-seven for {555} murder, or for rapine. But he permits
the terms to be abridged in cases of extraordinary fervor. Simple theft
he orders to be expiated by the sinner giving all his substance to the
poor; if he has none, to work to relieve them.

His discourse against those who defer baptism, is an invitation to
sinners to penance, and chiefly of catechumens to baptism, death being
always uncertain. He is surprised to see an earthquake or pestilence
drive all to penance and to the font: though an apoplexy or other sudden
death may as easily surprise men any night of their lives. He relates
this frightful example. When the Nomades Scythians plundered those
parts, Archias, a young nobleman of Comanes, whom he knew very well, and
who deferred his baptism, fell into their hands, and was shot to death
by their arrows, crying out lamentably, "Mountains and woods, baptize
me; trees and rocks, give me the grace of the sacrament." Which
miserable death more afflicted the city than all the rest of the war.
His sermons, Against Fornication, On Penance, On Alms, On Pentecost, are
in the same style. In that against Usurers, he exerts a more than
ordinary zeal, and tells them: "Love the poor. In his necessity he has
recourse to you to assist his misery, but by lending him on usury you
increase it; you sow new miseries on his sorrows, and add to his
afflictions. In appearance you do him a pleasure, but in reality ruin
him, like one who, overeome by a sick man's importunities, gives him
wine, a present satisfaction, but a real poison. Usury gives no relief,
but makes your neighbor's want greater than it was. The usurer is no way
profitable to the republic, neither by tilling the ground, by trade,
&c.; yet idle at home, would have all to produce to him; hates all he
gains not by. But though you were to give alms of these unjust
exactions, they would carry along with them the tears of others robbed
by them. The beggar that receives, did he know it, would refuse to be
fed with the flesh and blood of a brother; with bread extorted by
rapine, from other poor. Give it back to him from whom you unjustly took
it. But to hide their malice, they change the name usury into milder
words, calling it interest or moderate profit, like the heathens, who
called their furies by the soft name Eumenides." He relates that a rich
usurer of Nyssa, so covetous as to deny himself and children
necessaries, and not to use the bath to save three farthings, dying
suddenly, left his money all hid and buried where his children could
never find it, who by that means were all reduced to beggary. "The
usurers answer me," says he, "then we will not lend; and what will the
poor do? I bid them give, and exhort to lend, but without interest; for
he that refuses to lend, and he that lends at usury, are equally
criminal;" viz. if the necessity of another be extreme. His sermon On
the Lent Fast displays the advantage of fasting for the health of both
body and soul; he demands these forty days' strenuous labor to cure all
their vices, and insists on total abstinence from wine at large, and
that weakness of constitution and health is ordinarily a vain pretence.
Saint Gregory's great Catechistical Discourse is commended by Theodoret,
(dial. 2 & 3;) Leontius, (b. 3;) Enthymius, (Panopl. p. 215;) Germanus,
patr. of Constantinople, (in Photius, cod. 233, &c.) The last lines are
an addition. In the fortieth chapter he expounds to the catechumens the
mysteries of the Unity and Trinity of God, and the Incarnation: also the
two sacraments of baptism and the body of Christ, in which latter
Christ's real body is mixed with our corruptible bodies, to bestow on us
immortality and grace.

In his book upon Virginity he extols its merit and dignity.

St. Gregory was much scandalized in his journey to Jerusalem to see
contentions reign in that holy place; yet he had the comfort to find
there several persons of great virtue, especially three very devout
ladies, to whom he afterwards wrote a letter, in which he says, (t. 3,
pp. 655, 656:) "When I saw those holy places, I was filled with a joy
and pleasure which no tongue can express." Soon after his return, he
wrote a short treatise on those who go to Jerusalem, (t. 3. app. p. 72,)
in which he condemns pilgrimages, when made an occasion of sloth,
dissipation of mind, and other dangers; and observes that they are no
part of the gospel precepts. Dr. Cave (p. 44) borrows the sophistry of
Du Moulin to employ this piece against the practice of pilgrimages; but
in part very unjustly, as Gretser (not. in Notas Molinei) demonstrates.
Some set too great a value on pilgrimages, and made them an essential
part of perfection: and by them even many monks and nuns exchanged their
solitude into a vagabond life. These abuses St. Gregory justly reproves.
What he says, that he himself received no good by visiting the holy
places, must be understood to be a Miosis, or extenuation to check the
monks' too ardent passion for pilgrimages, and only means, the presence
of those holy places, barely of itself, contributes nothing to a man's
sanctification: but he does not deny it to be profitable by many devout
persons uniting together in prayer and mortification, and by exciting
hearts more powerfully to devotion. "Movemur locis ipsis in quibus eorum
quos admiramur aut diligimus adsunt vestigia," said Atticas in Cicero.
"Me quidem illæ ipsæ nostræ Athenæ, non tam operibus magnificis
exquisitisque antiquorum artibus delectant, quam recordatione summorum
virorum, ubi quis habitare, ubi sedere, ubi disputare sit, solitus,
studiuseque eorum sepulchra contemplor." Much more must the sight of the
places of Christ's mysteries stir up our sentiments and love. Why else
did St. Gregory go over Calvary, Golgotha, Olivet, Bethlehem? What was
the unspeakable (spiritual, certainly, not corporal) pleasure he was
filled with at their sight? a real spiritual {556} benefit, and that
which is sought by true pilgrims. Does he not relate and approve the
pilgrimages of his friend, the monk Olympius? Nor could he be ignorant
of the doctrice and practice of the church. He must know in the third
century that his countryman Alexander, a bishop in Cappadocia,
admonished by divine oracle, went to Jerusalem to pray, and to visit the
holy places, &c., as Eusebius relates; (Hist. lib. 6, cap. 11, p. 212,)
and that this had been always the tradition and practice; "Longum est
nuns ab ascensu Domini usque ad præsentem diem per singulas ætates
currere, qui episcoporum, qui martyrum, qui eloquentium in doctrine
ecclesiastica, virorum venerint Hierosolymam, putantes se minus
religionis, minus habere scientiæ, nec summam ut dicitur manum accepisse
virtutum, nisi in illis Christum adorassent locis de quibus primum
Evangelium de patibulo coruscaverat." St. Jerom, in ep. Paulæ et
Eustochii ad Marcellam, (T. 4, p. 550, ed. Ben) As for the abuses which
St. Gregory censures, they are condemned in the canon law, by all
divines and men of sound judgment. If with Benedict XIV. we grant this
father reprehended the abuses of pilgrimages, so as to think the
devotion itself not much to be recommended, this can only regard the
circumstances of many who abuse them, which all condemn. He could not
oppose the torrent of other fathers, and the practice of the whole
church. And his devotion to holy places, relics, &c. is evident in his
writings, and in the practice of St. Macrina and his whole family.

His discourse On the Resurrection is the dialogue he had with his sister
St. Macrina the day before her death. His treatise On the Name and
Profession of a Christian, was written to show no one ought to bear that
name, who does not practise the rules of this profession, and who has
not its spirit, without which, a man may perform exterior duties, but
will upon occasions betray himself, and forget his obligation. When a
mountebank at Alexandria had taught an ape dressed in woman's clothes to
dance most ingeniously, the people took it for a woman, till one threw
some almonds on the stage; for then the beast could no longer contain,
but tearing off its clothes, went about the stage picking up its dainty
fruit, and showed itself to be an ape. Occasions of vain-glory,
ambition, pleasure, &c., are the devil's baits and prove who are
Christians, and who hypocrites and dissemblers under so great a name,
whose lives are an injury and blasphemy against Christ and his holy
religion. His book On Perfection teaches, that that life is most perfect
which resembles nearest the life of Christ in humility and charity, and
in dying to all passions and to the love of creatures that in which
Christ most perfectly lives, and which is his best living image, which
appears in a man's thoughts, words, and actions; for these show the
image which is imprinted on the soul. But there is no perfection which
is not occupied in continually advancing higher. His book On the
Resolution of Perfection to the monks, shows perfection to consist in
every action being referred to God, and done perfectly conformable to
his will in the spirit of Christ. St. Gregory had excommunicated certain
persons, who instead of repenting, fell to threats and violence. The
saint made against them his sermon, entitled, Against those who do not
receive chastisement submissively; in which, after exhorting them to
submission, he offers himself to suffer torments and death, closing it
thus: "How can we murmur to suffer, who are the ministers of a God
crucified? yet under all you inflict, I receive your insolences and
persecutions as a father and mother do from their dearest children, with
tenderness." In the discourse On Children dying without Baptism, he
shows that such can never enjoy God; yet feel not the severe torments of
the rest of the damned. We have his sermons On Pentecost, Christ's
Birth, Baptism, Ascension, and On his Resurrection, (but of these last
only the first, third, and fourth are St. Gregory's) and two On St.
Stephen, three On the forty Martyrs: the lives of St. Gregory
Thaumaturgus, St. Theodorus, St. Ephrem, St. Meletius, and his sister,
St. Macrina: his panegyric on his brother St. Basil the Great, the
funeral oration of Pulcheria, daughter to the Emperor Theodosius, six
years old, and that of his mother, the empress Flaccilla, who died soon
after her at the waters in Thrace. St. Gregory was invited to make these
two discourses, in 385, when he was at Constantinople. We have only five
of St. Gregory's letters in his works. Zacagnius has published fourteen
others out of the Vatican library. Caraccioli of Pisa, in 1731, has
given us seven more with tedious notes.

Saint Gregory surpasses himself in perspicuity and strength of
reasoning, in his polemic works against all the chief heretics of his
time. His twelve books against Eunomius, were ever most justly valued
above the rest. St. Basil had refuted that heresiarch's apology; nor
durst he publish any answer till after the death of that eloquent
champion of the faith. Then the Apology of his Apology began to creep
privately abroad. St. Gregory got at last a copy, and wrote his twelve
excellent books, in which he vindicates St. Basil's memory, and gives
many secret histories of the base Eunomius's life. He proves against him
the Divinity and Consubstantiality of God the Son. Though he employs the
scripture with extraordinary sagacity, he says, tradition, by succession
from the apostles, is alone sufficient to condemn heretics. (Or. 3,
contra Eunom. p. 123.) We have his treatise To Ablavius, that there are
not three gods. A treatise On Faith also against the Arians. That On
Common Notions is an explication of the terms used about the Blessed
Trinity. We have his Ten Syllogisms against the Manichees, proving that
evil cannot be a God. The heresy {557} of the Apollinarists beginning to
be broached, St. Gregory wrote to Theophilus patriarch of Alexandria,
against them, showing there is but one Person in Christ. But his great
work against Apollinaris is his Antirretic, quoted by Leontius, the
sixth general council, &c. Only a fragment was printed in the edition of
this father's works; but it was published from MSS. by Zacagnius,
prefect of the Vatican Library, in 1698. He shows in it that the
Divinity could not suffer, and that there must be two natures in Christ,
who was perfect God and perfect man. He proves also, against
Apollinaris, that Christ had a human soul with a human understanding.
His book of Testimonies against the Jews is another fruit of his zeal.

St. Gregory so clearly establishes the Procession of the Holy Ghost from
the Son, that some Greeks, obstinate in that heresy, erased out of his
writings the words _out of_, as they confessed in a council at
Constantinople, in 1280. He expressly condemned Nestorianism before it
was broached, and says, "No one dare call the holy Virgin and mother of
God, mother of man." (Ep. ad Eustath. p. 1093.) He asserts her virginity
in and after the birth of Christ. (Or. contr. Ennom. p. 108, and Serm.
in natale Christi, p. 776.) He is no less clear for transubstantiation
in his great catechistical discourse (c. 37, pp. 534, 535,) for the
sacrifice and the altar. Or in Bapt. Christi, p. 801. Private confession
of sins is plain from his epistle to Letoius, (p. 954,) in which he
writes thus: "Whoever secretly steals another man's goods, if he
afterwards discovers his sins by declaration to the priest, his heart
being changed, he will cure his wound, giving what he has to the poor."
This for occult theft, for which no canonical penance was prescribed. He
inculcates the authority of priests of binding and loosing before God,
(Serm. do Castig. 746, 747,) and calls St. Peter "prince of the
apostolic choir," (Serm. 2, de Sancto Stephano edito a Zacagnio, p.
339,) and (ib. p. 343,) "the head of the apostles;" and adds, "In
glorifying him all the members of the church are glorified, and that it
is founded on him." He writes very expressly and at length on the
invocation of saints, and says they enjoy the beatific vision
immediately after death, in his sermons on St. Theodorus, on the Forty
Martyrs, St. Ephrem, St. Meletius, &c.

ST. PACIAN, BISHOP OF BARCELONA, C.

WAS a great ornament of the church in the fourth century. He was
illuustrious by birth, and had been engaged in marriage in the world.
His son Dexter was raised to the first dignities in the empire, being
high chamberlain to the emperor Theodosius, and præfectus-prætorio under
Honorius. St. Pacian having renounced the world, was made bishop in 373.
St. Jerom, who dedicated to him his Catalogue of illustrious men, extols
his eloquence and learning, and more particularly the chastity and
sanctity of his life. We have his Exhortation to Penance, and three
letters to Sympronianus, a Novatian nobleman, on Penance, and on the
name of Catholic; also a sermon on Baptism. See St. Jerom, Catal. Vir.
Illust. c. 106, p. 195 t 4: Ceillier, t. 6; Tillem. t. 8.

APPENDIX

ON

THE WRITINGS OF ST. PACIAN OF BARCELONA.

WHEN he was made bishop of Barcelona, in 373, there lived in the
neighborhood of that city one Sympronian, a man of distinction, whom the
bishop calls brother and lord, who was a Donatist, and also engaged in
the heresy of the Novatians, who, following the severity of the
Montanists, denied penance and pardon for certain sins. He sent St.
Pacian a letter by a servant, in which he censured the church for
allowing repentance to all crimes, and for taking the title of Catholic.
St. Pacian answers him in three learned letters.

In the first he sums up the principal heresies from Simon Magus to the
Novatians and asks Sympronian, which he will choose to stand by:
entreats him to examine the true church with docility and candor, laying
aside all obstinacy, the enemy to truth. He says {558} the name Catholic
comes from God, and is necessary to distinguish the dove, the undivided
virgin church, from all sects which are called from their particular
founders. This name we learned from the holy doctors, confessors, and
martyrs. "My name," says he, "is Christian, my surname Catholic: the one
distinguishes me, the other points me out to others." "Christianus mihi
nomen est; Catholicus veto cognomen: illud me nuncupat, istud ostendit;
hoc probor, inde significor." He says that no name can be more proper to
express the church, which is all obedient to Christ, and one and the
same through the whole world. "As to penance," says he, "God grant it be
necessary to none of the faithful; that none after baptism fall into the
pit of death--but accuse not God's mercy, who has provided a remedy even
for those that are sick. Does the infernal serpent continually carry
poison, and has not Christ a remedy? Does the devil kill, and cannot
Christ relieve? Fear sin, but not repentance. Be ashamed to be in
danger, not to be delivered out of it. Who will snatch a plank from one
lost by shipwreck? Who will envy the healing of wounds?" He mentions the
parables of the lost drachma, the lost sheep, the prodigal son, the
Samaritan, and God's threats, adding: "God would never threaten the
impenitent, if he refused pardon. But you'll say, only God can do this.
It is true; but what he does by his priests, is his power. What is that
he says to his apostles? Whatsoever you shall bind, &c., Mat. xvi. Why
this, if it was not given to men to bind and to loosen? Is this given
only to the apostles? Then it is only given to them to baptize, to give
the Holy Ghost, (in confirmation,) to cleanse the sins of infidels,
because all this was commanded to no other than to the apostles. If
therefore the power of baptism and of chrism, (confirmation,) which are
far greater gifts, descended from the apostles to bishops; the power of
binding and loosing also came to them." He concludes with these words:
"I know, brother, this pardon of repentance is not promiscuously to be
given to all, nor to be granted before the signs of the divine will, or
perchance the last sickness; with great severity and strict scrutiny,
after many groans, and shedding of tears; after the prayers of the whole
church. But pardon is not denied to true repentance, that no one prevent
or put by the judgment of Christ." St. Pacian answers his reply by a
second letter, that remedies seem often bitter, and says, "How can you
be offended at my catalogue of heresies, unless you was a heretic? I
congratulate with you for agreeing upon our name Catholic, which if you
denied, the thing itself would cry out against you." St. Pacian denies
that St. Cyprian's people were ever called Apostatics or Capitoline, or
by any name but that of Catholics, which the Novatians, with all their
ambition for it, could never obtain, nor ever be known but by the name
of Novatians. He says, the emperors persecuted the Novatians of their
own authority, not at the instigation of the church. "You say I am
angry," says he, "God forbid. I am like the bee which sometimes defends
its honey with its sting." He vindicates the martyr St. Cyprian, and
denies that Novatian ever suffered for the faith; adding, that "if he
had, he could not have been crowned, because he was out of the church,
out of which, no one can be a martyr. Etsi occisus, non tamen coronatus:
quidni? Extra Ecclesiæ pacem, extra concordiam, extra eam matrem cujus
portio debet esse, qui martyr est. Si charitatem non habeam, nihil sum.
1 Cor. xiii." In his third letter he confutes the Novatian error: that
the church could not forgive mortal sin after baptism. "Moses, St. Paul,
Christ, express tender charity for sinners; who then broached this
doctrine? Novatian. But when? Immediately from Christ? No; almost three
hundred years after him: since Decius's reign. Had he any prophets to
learn it from? any proof of his revelation? had he the gift of tongues?
did he prophesy? could he raise the dead? for he ought to have some of
these to introduce a new gospel. Nay, St. Paul (Gal. i.) forbids a
novelty in faith to be received from an angel. You will say, Let us
dispute our point. But I am secure; content with the succession and
tradition of the church, with the communion of the ancient body. I have
sought no arguments." He assents that the church is holy, and more than
Sympronian had given it: but says it cannot perish by receiving sinners.
The good have always lived amidst the wicked. It is the heretic who
divides it, and tears it, which is Christ's garment, asunder. The church
is diffused over the whole world, and cannot be reduced to one little
portion, or as it were chained to a part, as the Novatians, whose
history he touches upon. Sympronian objected, that Catholic bishops
remitted sin. St. Pacian answers, "Not I, but only God, who both blots
out sin in baptism, and does not reject the tears of penitents. What I
do is not in my own name, but in the Lord's. Wherefore, whether we
baptize, or draw to penance, or give pardon to penitents, we do it by
Christ's authority. You must see whether Christ can do it, and did
it--Baptism is the sacrament of our Lord's passion; the pardon of
penitents is the merit of confession. All can obtain that, because it is
the gratuitous gift of God, but this labor is but of a small number who
rise after a fall, and recover by tears, and by destroying the flesh."
The saint shows the Novatians encourage sin by throwing men into
despair; whereas repentance heals and stops it. Christ does not die a
second time indeed for the pardon of sinners, but he is a powerful
Advocate interceding still to his Father for sinners. Can he forsake
those he redeemed at so dear a rate? Can the devil enslave, and Christ
not absolve his servants? He alleges St. Peter denying Christ after he
had been baptized, St. {559} Thomas incredulous, even after the
resurrection; yet pardoned by repentance. He answers his objections from
scripture, and exhorts him to embrace the Catholic faith; for the true
church cannot be confined to a few, nor be new. "If she began before
you, if she believed before you, if she never left her foundation, and
was never divorced from her body, she must be the spouse; it is the
great and rich house of all. God did not purchase with his blood so
small a portion, nor is Christ so poor. The church of God dilates its
tabernacles from the rising to the setting of the sun."

Next to these three letters we have his excellent Paraenesis, or
exhortation to penance. In the first part he reduces the sins subjected
to courses of severe public penance by the canons to three, idolatry,
murder, and impurity; and shows the enormity of each. In the second he
addresses himself to those sinners, who out of shame, or for fear of the
penances to be enjoined, did not confess their crimes. He calls them
shamefully timorous and bashful to do good, after having been bold and
impudent to sin, and says, "And you do not tremble to touch the holy
mysteries, and to thrust your defiled soul into the holy place, in the
sight of the angels, and before God himself, as if you were innocent."
He mentions Oza lain for touching the ark, (2 Kings vi.,) and the words
of the apostle, (1 Cor. xi.,) adding, "Do not you tremble when you hear,
he shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord? One guilty of the
blood of a man would not rest, and can he escape who has profaned the
body of the Lord? What do you do by deceiving the priest, or hiding part
of your load? I beseech you no longer to cover your wounded conscience.
Rogo vos etiam pro periculo men, per illum Dominum quem occulta non
fallunt, desinite vulneratam tegere conscientiam. Men sick are not
backward to show their sores to physicians, and shall the sinner be
afraid or ashamed to purchase eternal life by a momentary confusion?
Will he draw back his wounds from the Lord, who is offering his hand to
heal them? Peccator timebit? peccator erubeseet perpetuam vitam præsenti
pudore mercari? et offerenti manus Domino vulnera male tecta subducet?"
In his third part he speaks to those who confessed their sins entirely,
but feared the severity of the penance. He compares these to dying men
who should not have the courage to take a dose which would restore their
health, and says, "This is to cry out, behold I am sick, I am wounded;
but I will not he cured." He deplores their delicacy, and proposes to
them king David's austere penance. He describes thus the life of a
penitent. "He is to weep in the sight of the church, to go meanly clad,
to mourn, to fast, to prostrate himself, to renounce the bath, and such
delights. If invited to a banquet, he is to say, such things are for
those who have not had the misfortune to have sinned; I have offended
the Lord, and am in danger of perishing forever: what have I to do with
feasts? Ista felicibus: ego deliqui in Dominum, et periclitor in æternum
perire: quo mihi epulas qui Dominum læsi? You must moreover sue for the
prayers of the poor, of the widows, of the priest, prostrating yourself
before them, and of the whole church; to do every thing rather than to
perish. Omnia prius tentare ne pereas." He presses sinners to severe
penance, for fear of hell, and paints a frightful image of it from the
fires of Vesuvius and ætna. His treatise or Sermon On Baptism, is an
instruction on original sin, and the effects of this sacrament, by which
we are reborn, as by chrism or confirmation we receive the Holy Ghost by
the hands of the bishop. He adds a moving exhortation that, being
delivered from sin, and having renounced the devil, we no more return to
sin; such a relapse after baptism being much worse. "Hold, therefore,
strenuously," says he, "what you have received, preserve it faithfully;
sin no more; keep yourselves pure and spotless for the day of out Lord."
Besides these three books, he wrote one against the play of the stag,
commended by St. Jerom, but now lost. The heathens had certain infamous
diversions with a little stag at the beginning of every year, mentioned
by St. Ambrose, (in Ps. 141,) and by Nilus, (ep. 81.) It seems from the
sermons, 129, 130, in the appendix to St. Augustine's, (t. 5,) that it
consisted of masquerades, dressed in the figures of wild beasts. Some
Christians probably joined in them. St. Pacian's zeal dictated that book
against it, but the effect it produced at that time, seemed chiefly to
make many more curious and more eager to see that wicked play, as St.
Pacian himself says in the beginning of his exhortation to penance. The
beauty of this holy doctor's writings can only be dis covered by reading
them. His diction is elegant, his reasoning just and close, and his
thoughts beautiful: he is full of unction when he exhorts to virtue, and
of strength when he attacks vice.

ST. CATHERINE OF BOLOGNA, VIRGIN,

ABBESS OF THE POOR CLARES IN THAT CITY.

SHE was born of noble parentage at Bologna, in 1413. Early ardent
sentiments of piety seemed to have prevented in her the use of reason.
{560} At twelve years of age she was placed in quality of a young maid
of honor in the family of the princess Margaret, daughter to Nicholas of
Est, marquis of Ferrara. Two years after, upon the marriage of that
princess, she found means to recover her liberty, and entered herself in
a community of devout ladies of the Third Order of St. Francis, at
Ferrara, who soon after formed themselves into a regular monastery, and
adopted the austere rule of St. Clare. A new nunnery of Poor Clares
being founded at Bologna, St. Catherine was chosen first prioress, and
sent thither by Leonarda, abbess of the monastery of Corpus Christi, in
which she had made her religions profession at Ferrara. Catherine's
incredible zeal and solitude for the souls of sinners made her pour
forth prayers and tears, almost without intermission, for their
salvation. She always spoke to God, or of God, and bore the most severe
interior trials with an heroic patience and cheerfulness. She looked
upon it as the greatest honor to be in any thing the servant of the
spouses of Christ, and desired to be despised by all, and to serve all
in the meanest employments. She was favored with the gifts of miracles
and prophecy: but said she had been sometimes deceived by the devil. She
died on the 9th of March, 1453, in the fiftieth year of her age. Her
body is still entire, and shown in the church of her convent through
bars and glass, sitting richly covered, but the hands, face, and feet
naked. It was seen and described by Henschenius, Lassels, and other
travellers. Her name was inserted in the Roman Martyrology by Clement
VIII., in 1592. The solemnity of her canonization was performed by
Clement XI., though the bull was only published by Benedict XIII., in
1724.[1] A book of her revelations was printed at Bologna, in 1511. She
also left notes in her prayer-book of certain singular favors which she
had received from God. These revelations were published and received
their dress from another hand, which circumstance is often as great a
disadvantage in such works as if an illiterate and bold transcriber were
to copy, from a single defective manuscript, Lycophron, or some other
obscure author, which he did not understand. St. Catherine wrote some
treatises in Italian, others in Latin, in which language she was well
skilled. The most famous of her works is the book entitled, On the Seven
Spiritual Arms. See her life in Bollandus, written by F. Paleotti, fifty
years after her death.

Footnotes:
1.  Bullar. Roman. t. 13, p. 87.


MARCH X.

THE FORTY MARTYRS OF SEBASTE.

From St. Basil's Homily on their festival, Hom. 20, t. 1, p. 453, and
three discourses of St. Gregory of Nyssa, t. 2, p. 203, t. 3, pp. 499,
504, followed by St. Ephrem. ed. Vatic. Gr. and Let. t. 2, p. 341. St.
Gaudeatis, St. Chrysostom, quoted by Photius. See Tillemont, t. 5, p.
518. Ruinart, p. 523. Ceillier, t. 4, l. 62 Jos. Assemani in Cal. Univ.
ad 11 Martii, t. 6, p. 172.

A.D. 320.

THESE holy martyrs suffered at Sebaste, in the Lesser Armenia, under the
emperor Licinius, in 320. They were of different countries, but enrolled
in the same troop; all in the flower of their age, comely, brave, and
robust, and were become considerable for their services. St. Gregory of
Nyssa and Procopius say, they were of the thundering legion, so famous
{561} under Marcus Aurelius for the miraculous rain and victory obtained
by their prayers. This was the twelfth legion, and then quartered in
Armenia. Lysias was duke or general of the forces, and Agricola the
governor of the province. The latter having signified to the army the
orders of the emperor Licinius, for all to sacrifice, these forty went
boldly up to him, and said they were Christians, and that no torments
should make them ever abandon their holy religion. The judge first
endeavored to gain them by mild usage; as by representing to them the
dishonor that would attend their refusal to do what was required, and by
making them large promises of preferment and high favor with the emperor
in case of compliance. Finding these methods of gentleness ineffectual,
he had recourse to threats, and these the most terrifying, if they
continued disobedient to the emperor's order, but all in vain. To his
promises they answered, that he could give them nothing equal to what he
would deprive them of: and to his threats, that his power only extended
over their bodies, which they had learned to despise when heir souls
were at stake. The governor, finding them all resolute, caused them to
be torn with whips, and their sides to be rent with iron hooks. After
which they were loaded with chains, and committed to jail.

After some days, Lysias, their governor, coming from Cæsarea to Sebaste,
they were re-examined, and no less generously rejected the large
promises made them than they despised the torments they were threatened
with. The governor, highly offended at their courage, and that liberty
of speech with which they accosted him, devised an extraordinary kind of
death; which being slow and severe, he hoped would shake their
constancy. The cold in Armenia is very sharp, especially in March, and
towards the end of winter, when the wind is north, as it than was; it
being also at that time a severe frost. Under the walls of the town
stood a pond, which was frozen so hard that it would bear walking upon
with safety. The judge ordered the saints to be exposed quite naked on
the ice.[1] And in order to tempt them the more powerfully to renounce
their faith, a warm bath was prepared at a small distance from the
frozen pond, for any of this company to go to, who were disposed to
purchase their temporal ease and safety on that condition. The martyrs,
on hearing their sentence, ran joyfully to the place, and without
waiting to be stripped, undressed themselves, encouraging one another in
the same manner as is usual among soldiers in military expeditions
attended with hardships and dangers; saying, that one bad night would
purchase them a happy eternity.[2] They also made this their joint
prayer: "Lord, we are forty who are engaged in this combat; grant that
we may be forty crowned, and that not one be wanting to this sacred
number." The guards in the mean time ceased not to persuade them to
sacrifice, that by so doing they might be allowed to pass to the warm
bath. But though it is not easy to form a just idea of the bitter pain
they must have undergone, of the whole number only one had the
misfortune to be overcome; who, losing courage, went off from the pond
to seek the relief in readiness for such as were disposed to renounce
their faith: but as the devil usually deceives his adorers, the apostate
no sooner entered the warm water but he expired. This misfortune
afflicted the martyrs; but they were quickly comforted by seeing his
place and their number miraculously filled up. A sentinel was warming
himself near the bath, having been posted there to observe if any of the
martyrs were inclined to submit. While he was attending, he had a vision
of blessed spirits descending from heaven on the martyrs, and
distributing, {562} as from their king, rich presents, and precious
garments, St. Ephrem adds crowns, to all these generous soldiers, one
only excepted, who was their faint-hearted companion, already mentioned.
The guard, being struck with the celestial vision and the apostate's
desertion, was converted upon it; and by a particular motion of the Holy
Ghost, threw off his clothes, and placed himself in his stead among the
thirty-nine martyrs. Thus God heard their request, though in another
manner than they imagined: "Which, ought to make us adore the
impenetrable secrets of his mercy and justice," says St. Ephrem, "in
this instance, no less than in the reprobation of Judas, and the
election of St. Matthias."

In the morning the judge ordered both those that were dead with the
cold, and those that were still alive, to be laid on carriages, and cast
into a fire. When the rest were thrown into a wagon to be carried to the
pile, the youngest of them (whom the acts call Melito) was found alive;
and the executioners, hoping he would change his resolution when he came
to himself, left him behind. His mother, a woman of mean condition, and
a widow, but rich in faith, and worthy to have a son a martyr, observing
this false compassion, reproached the executioners; and when she came up
to her son, whom she found quite frozen, not able to stir, and scarce
breathing, he looked on her with languishing eyes, and made a little
sign with his weak hand to comfort her. She exhorted him to persevere to
the end, and, fortified by the Holy Ghost, took him up, and put him with
her own hands into the wagon with the rest of the martyrs, not only
without shedding a tear, but with a countenance full of joy, saying,
courageously: "Go, go, son, proceed to the end of this happy journey
with thy companions, that thou mayest not be the last of them that shall
present themselves before God." Nothing can be more inflamed or more
pathetic than the discourse which St. Ephrem puts into her mouth, by
which he expresses her contempt of life and all earthly things, and her
ardent love and desire of eternal life. This holy father earnestly
entreats her to conjure this whole troop of martyrs to join in imploring
the divine mercy in favor of his sinful soul.[3] Their bodies were
burned, and their ashes thrown into the river; but the Christians
secretly carried off, or purchased part of them with money. Some of
these precious relies were kept at Cæsarea, and St. Basil says of them:
"Like bulwarks, they are our protection against the inroads of
enemies."[4] He adds, that every one implored their succor, and that
they raised up those that had fallen, strengthened the weak, and
invigorated the fervor of the saints. SS. Basil and Emmelia, the holy
parents of St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Peter of
Sebaste, and St. Macrina, procured a great share of these relics.[5] St.
Emmelia put some of them in the church she built near Anneses, the
village where they resided. The solemnity with which they were received
was extraordinary, and they were honored by miracles, as St. Gregory
relates. One of these was a miraculous cure wrought on a lame soldier,
the truth of which he attests from his own knowledge, both of the fact
and the person, who published it everywhere. He adds: "I buried the
bodies of my parents by the relics of these holy martyrs, that in the
resurrection they may rise with the encouragers of their faith; for I
know they have great power with God, of which I have seen clear proofs
and undoubted testimonies." St. Gaudentius, bishop of Brescia, writes in
his sermon on these martyrs: "God gave me a share of these venerable
relics and granted me to found this church in their honor."[6] He says,
that the two nieces of St. Basil, both abbesses, gave them to him as
{563} he passed by Cæsarea, in a journey to Jerusalem; which venerable
treasure they had received from their uncle. Portions of their relics
were also carried to Constantinople, and there honored with great
veneration, as Sozomen[7] and Procopius[8] have recorded at large, with
an account of several visions and miracles, which attended the
veneration paid to them in that city.

       *       *       *       *       *

Though we are not all called to the trial of martyrdom, we are all bound
daily to fight and to conquer too. By multiplied victories which we gain
over our passions and spiritual enemies, by the exercise of meekness,
patience, humility, purity, and all other virtues, we shall render our
triumph complete, and attain to the crown of bliss. But are we not
confounded at our sloth in our spiritual warfare, when we look on the
conflicts of the martyrs? "The eloquence of the greatest orators, and
the wisdom of the philosophers were struck dumb: the very tyrants and
judges stood amazed, and were not able to find words to express their
admiration, when they beheld the faith, the cheerfulness and constancy
of the holy martyrs in their sufferings. But what excuse shall we allege
in the tremendous judgment, who, without meeting with such cruel
persecution and torments, are so remiss and slothful in maintaining the
spiritual life of our souls, and the charity of God! What shall we do in
that terrible day, when the holy martyrs, placed near the throne of God,
with great confidence shall display their glorious scars, the proofs of
their fidelity? What shall we then show? shall we produce our love for
God? true faith? a disengagement of our affections from earthly things?
souls freed from the tyranny of the passions? retirement and peace of
mind? meekness? alms-deeds and compassion? holy and pure prayer? sincere
compunction? watching and tears? Happy shall he be whom these works
shall attend. He shall then be the companion of the martyrs, and shall
appear with the same confidence before Christ and his angels. We beseech
you, O most holy martyrs, who cheerfully suffered torments and death for
his love, and are now more familiarly united to him, that you intercede
with God for us slothful and wretched sinners, that he bestow on us the
grace of Christ, by which we may be enlightened and enabled to love
him."[9]

Footnotes:
1.  The acts and the greater part of the writers of their lives, suppose
    that they were to stand in the very water. But this is a
    circumstance which Tillemont, Badlet, Ruinart, Ceillier and others,
    correct from St. Basil and St. Gregory of Nyssa.
2.  St. Gregory of Nyssa says, that they endured three days and three
    nights, this lingering death, which carried off their limbs one
    after another.
3.  S. Ephrem, Or. in 40 Mart. t. 2, Op. Gr. and Lat. p. 354, ed. Nov.
    Vatic. an. 1743.
4.  St. Basil, Or. 20, 459.
5.  St. Greg. Nyss. Or. 3, de 40 Mart. t. 2, pp. 212, 213.
6.  S. Gaud. Bris. Serm. 17, de 40 Mart.
7.  L. 9, c. 1, 2.
8.  L. 1, de ædific. Justinian, c. 7.
9.  S. Ephrem in Homil. in SS. Martyres, Op Gr. and Lat. ed. Vat. an
    174{} t. 2, p. 341.

ST. DROCTOVÆUS, ABBOT.

KING CHILDEBERT having built at Paris a famous abbey in honor of St.
Vincent; this saint, who was a native of the diocese of Autun, had been
educated under St. Germanus, abbot of St. Symphorian's at Autun, and was
a person eminent for his learning and extraordinary spirit of
mortification and prayer, was appointed the second, according to
Duplessis, according to others, the first abbot of this house, since
called St. Germain-des-Prez, in which he died about the year 580. His
body is kept in that abbey, and he is honored by the church on the 10th
of March. His original life being lost, Gislemar, a Benedictin monk of
this house, in the ninth age, collected from tradition and scattered
memoirs that which we have in Bollandus and more accurately in Mabillon.

Footnotes:
1.  Duplessis' Annales de Paris, pp. 60, 68.

{564}

ST. MACKESSOGE, OR KESSOGE, C.

BISHOP IN THE PROVINCES OF LEVIN AND BOIN, IN SCOTLAND.

BY his instructions and counsels the pious king Congal II. governed with
extraordinary prudence, zeal, and sanctity. This saint was illustrious
for miracles, and died in 560. A celebrated church in that country still
bears the title of St. Kessoge-Kirk. The Scots, for their cry in battle,
for some time used his name, but afterwards changed it for that of St.
Andrew. They sometimes painted St. Kessoge in a soldier's habit, holding
a bow bent with an arrow in it. See the Aberdeen Breviary, the chronicle
of Pasley, (a great monastery of regular canons in the shire of
Renfrew,) Florarium, and Buchanan, l. 5.


MARCH XI.

ST. EULOGIUS OF CORDOVA, P.M.

From his authentic life by Alvarus, his intimate friend, and from his
works, Bibl. Patr. t 9. See Acts Sanct. t. 7. Fleury, b. 48. p. 57.

A.D. 859.

ST. EULOGIUS was of a senatorian family of Cordova, at that time the
capital of the Moors or Saracens, in Spain. Those infidels had till then
tolerated the Christian religion among the Goths, exacting only a
certain tribute every new moon. Our saint was educated among the clergy
of the church of St. Zoilus, a martyr, who suffered at Cordova, with
nineteen others, under Dioclesian, and is honored on the 27th of June.
Here he distinguished himself by his virtue and learning; and being made
priest, was placed at the head of the chief ecclesiastical school in
Spain, which then flourished at Cordova. He joined assiduous watchings,
fasting, and prayer, to his studies: and his humility, mildness, and
charity, gained him the affection and respect of every one. He often
visited the monasteries for his further instruction in virtue, and
prescribed rules of piety for the use of many fervent souls that desired
to serve God. Some of the Christians were so indiscreet as openly to
inveigh against Mahomet, and expose the religion established by him.
This occasioned a bloody persecution at Cordova, in the 29th year of
Abderrama III., the eight hundred and fiftieth year of Christ.
Reccafred, an apostate bishop, declared against the martyrs: and, at his
solicitation, the bishop of Cordova, and some others, were imprisoned,
and many priests, among whom was St. Eulogius, as one who encouraged the
martyrs by his instructions. It was then that he wrote his Exhortation
to Martyrdom,[1] addressed to the virgins Flora and Mary, who were
beheaded the 24th of November, in 851. These virgins promised to pray as
soon as they should be with God, that their fellow-prisoners might be
restored to their liberty. Accordingly, St. Eulogius and the rest were
enlarged six days after their death. In the year 852, several suffered
the like martyrdom, {565} namely, Gumisund and Servus-Dei: Aurelius and
Felix, with their wives: Christopher and Levigild: Rogel and Servio-Deo.
A council at Cordova, in 852, forbade any one to offer himself to
martyrdom. Mahomet succeeded his father upon his sudden death by an
apoplectic fit; but continued the persecution, and put to death, in 853,
Fandila, a monk, Anastasius, Felix, and three nuns, Digna, Columba, and
Pomposa. St. Eulogius encouraged all these martyrs to their triumphs,
and was the support of that distressed flock. His writings still breathe
an inflamed zeal and spirit of martyrdom. The chief are his history of
these martyrs, called the Memorial of the Saints, in three books; and
his Apology for them against calumniators, showing them to be true
martyrs, though without miracles.[2] His brother was deprived of his
place, one of the first dignities of the kingdom. St. Eulogius himself
was obliged by the persecutors to live always, after his releasement,
with the treacherous bishop Reccafred, that wolf in sheep's clothing.
Wherefore he refrained from saying mass, that he might not communicate
with that domestic enemy.

The archbishop of Toledo dying in 858, St. Eulogius was canonically
elected to succeed him; but there was some obstacle that hindered him
from being consecrated; though he did not outlive his election two
months. A virgin, by name Leocritia, of a noble family among the Moors,
had been instructed from her infancy in the Christian religion by one of
her relations, and privately baptized. Her father and mother perceiving
this, used her very ill, and scourged her day and night to compel her to
renounce the faith. Having made her condition known to St. Eulogius and
his sister Anulona, intimating that she desired to go where she might
freely exercise her religion, they secretly procured her the means of
getting away from her parents, and concealed her for some time among
faithful friends. But the matter was at length discovered, and they were
all brought before the cadi. Eulogius offered to show the judge the true
road to heaven, and to demonstrate Mahomet to be an impostor. The cadi
threatened to have him scourged to death. The martyr told him his
torments would be to no purpose; for he would never change his religion.
Whereupon the cadi gave orders that he should be carried to the palace,
and presented before the king's council. One of the lords of the council
took the saint aside, and said to him: "Though the ignorant unhappily
run headlong to death, a man of your learning and virtue ought not to
imitate their folly. Be ruled by me, I entreat you: say but one word,
since necessity requires it: you may afterwards resume your own
religion, and we will promise that no inquiry shall be made after you."
Eulogius replied, smiling: "Ah! if you could but conceive the reward
which waits for those who persevere in the faith to the end, you would
renounce your temporal dignity in exchange for it." He then began boldly
to propose the truths of the gospel to them. But to prevent their
hearing him, the council condemned him immediately to lose his head. As
they were leading him to execution, one of the eunuchs of the palace
gave him a blow on the face for having spoken against Mahomet: he turned
the other cheek, and patiently received a second. He received the stroke
of death out of the city-gates, with great cheerfulness, on the 11th of
March, 859. St. Leocritia was beheaded four days after him, and her body
thrown into the river Boetis, or Guadalquivir, but taken out by the
Christians. The Church honors both of them on the days of their
martyrdom.

       *       *       *       *       *

If we consider the conduct of Christ towards his Church, which he
planted {566} at the price of his precious blood, and treats as his most
beloved spouse, we shall admire a wonderful secret in the adorable
councils of his tender providence. This Church, so dear to him, and so
precious in his eyes, he formed and spread under a general, most severe,
and dreadful persecution. He has exposed it in every age to frequent and
violent storms, and seems to delight in always holding at least some
part or other of it in the fiery crucible. But the days of its severest
trials were those of its most glorious triumphs. Then it shone above all
other periods of time with the brightest examples of sanctity, and
exhibited both to heaven and to men on earth the most glorious
spectacles and triumphs. Then were formed in its bosom innumerable most
illustrious heroes of all perfect virtue, who eminently inherited, and
propagated in the hearts of many others, the true spirit of our
crucified Redeemer. The same conduct God in his tender mercy holds with
regard to those chosen souls which he destines to raise, by special
graces, highest in his favor. When the counsels of divine Providence
shall be manifested to them in the next life, then they shall clearly
see that their trials were the most happy moments, and the most precious
graces of their whole lives. In sickness, humiliations, and other
crosses, the poison of self-love was expelled from their hearts, their
affections weaned from the world, opportunities were afforded them of
practising the most heroic virtues, by the fervent exercise of which
their souls were formed in the school of Christ, and his perfect spirit
of humility, meekness, disengagement, and purity of the affections,
ardent charity, and all other virtues, in which true Christian heroism
consists. The forming of the heart of one saint is a great and sublime
work, the masterpiece of divine grace, the end and the price of the
death of the Son of God. It can only be finished by the cross on which
we were engendered in Christ, and the mystery of our predestination is
accomplished.

Footnotes:
1.  Documentum martyrii, t. 9. Bibl. Patr. p. 699.
2.  Some objected to these martyrs, that they were not honored with
    frequent miracles as those had been who suffered in the primitive
    ages.

ST. SOPHRONIUS, PATRIARCH OF JERUSALEM, C.

HE was a native of Damascus, and made such a progress in learning that
he obtained the name of the Sophist. He lived twenty years near
Jerusalem, under the direction of John Moschus, a holy hermit, without
engaging himself in a religious state. These two great men visited
together the monasteries of Egypt, and were detained by St. John the
Almoner, at Alexandria, about the year 610, and employed by him two
years in extirpating the Eutychians, and in reforming his diocese. John
Moschus wrote there his Spiritual Meadow, which he dedicated to
Sophronius. He made a collection in that book of the edifying examples
of virtue which he had seen or heard of among the monks, and died
shortly after at Rome. Athanasius, patriarch of the Jacobites or
Eutychians, in Syria, acknowledged two distinct natures in Christ, the
divine and the human; but allowed only one will. This Demi-Eutychianism
was a glaring inconsistency; because the will is the property of the
nature. Moreover, Christ sometimes speaks of his human will distinct
from the divine, as in his prayer in his agony in the garden. This
Monothelite heresy seemed an expedient whereby to compound with the
Eutychians. The emperor Heraclius confirmed it by an edict called
Ecthesis, or the Exposition, declaring that there is only one will in
Christ, namely, that of the Divine Word: which was condemned by pope
John IV. Cyrus, bishop of Phasis, a virulent Monothelite, was by
Heraclius preferred to the patriarchate of Alexandria, in 629. St.
Sophronius, falling at his feet, conjured him not to publish his
erroneous articles--but in vain. He therefore {567} left Egypt, and came
to Constantinople, where he found Sergius, the crafty patriarch, sowing
the same error in conjunction with Theodorus of Pharan. Hereupon he
travelled into Syria, where, in 634, he was, against his will, elected
patriarch of Jerusalem.

He was no sooner established in his see, than he assembled a council of
all the bishops of his patriarchate, in 634, to condemn the Monothelite
heresy, and composed a synodal letter to explain and prove the Catholic
faith This excellent piece was confirmed in the sixth general council.
St. Sophronius sent this learned epistle to pope Honorius and to
Sergius. This latter had, by a crafty letter and captious expressions,
persuaded pope Honorius to tolerate a silence as to one or two wills in
Christ. It is evident from the most authentic monuments, that Honorius
never assented to that error, but always adhered to the truth.[1]
However, a silence was ill-timed, and though not so designed, might be
deemed by some a kind of connivance; for a rising heresy seeks to carry
on its work under ground without noise: it is a fire which spreads
itself under cover. Sophronius, seeing the emperor and almost all the
chief prelates of the East conspire against the truth, thought it his
duty to defend it with the greater zeal. He took Stephen, bishop of
Doria, the eldest of his suffragans, led him to Mount Calvary, and there
adjured him by Him who was crucified on that place, and by the account
which he should give him at the last day, "to go to the apostolic see,
where are the foundations of the holy doctrine, and not to cease to pray
till the holy persons there should examine and condemn the novelty."
Stephen did so, and stayed at Rome ten years, till he saw it condemned
by pope Martin I. in the council of Lateran, in 649. Sophronius was
detained at home by the invasion of the Saracens. Mahomet had broached
his impostures at Mecca, in 608, but being rejected there, fled to
Medina, in 622. Aboubeker succeeded him in 634 under the title of
Caliph, or vicar of the prophet. He died after a reign of two years.
Omar, his successor, took Damascus in 636, and after a siege of two
years, Jerusalem, in 638. He built a mosque in the place of Solomon's
temple, and because it fell in the night, the Jews told him it would not
stand unless the cross of Christ, which stood on Mount Calvary, was
taken away: which the Caliph caused to be done.[2] Sophronius, in a
sermon on the exaltation of the cross, mentions the custom of taking the
cross out of its case at Mid-Lent to be venerated.[3] Photius takes
notice that his works breathe an affecting piety, but that the Greek is
not pure. They consist of his synodal letter, his letter to pope
Honorius, and a small number of scattered sermons. He deplored the
abomination of desolation set up by the Mahometans in the holy place.
God called him out of those evils to his kingdom on the 11th of March,
639, or, as Papebroke thinks,[4] in 644. See the council of Lateran, t.
6, Conc. Fleury, b. 37, 38, and Le Quien, Oriens Christ. t. 3, p. 264.

Footnotes:
1.  See Nat. Alexander, Sæc. 7. Wittasse and Tourneiy Tr. de Incarn.
2.  Theophanes, p. 284.
3.  In medio jejunii, adorationis gratiâ proponi solet vitale lignun
    venerandæ crucis. Sophr. Serro. in Excalt. Crucis. Bibl. Patr. t. 12
    p. 214, e. apud Gretser, t. 2 de Cruce, p. 88.
4.  Papebr. Tr. prælim. ad t. 3 Maii n. 144, p. 32

ST. ÆNGUS, B.C.

THIS saint is distinguished by the surname of Kele-De, that is,
Worshipper of God; which began in his time to be the denomination of
monks to the Scottish language, commonly called Culdees. He was born in
Ireland, in the eighth century, of the race of the Dalaradians, kings of
Ulster. In his youth, renouncing all earthly pretensions, he chose
Christ for his inheritance, {568} embracing a religious state in the
famous monastery of Cluain-Edneach in East-Meath. Here he became so
great a proficient both in learning and sanctity, that no one in his
time could be found in Ireland that equalled him in reputation for every
kind of virtue, and for sacred knowledge. To shun the esteem of the
world, he disguised himself, and going to the monastery of Tamlâcht,
three miles from Dublin, lived there seven years unknown, in the quality
of a lay brother, performing all the drudgery of the house, appearing
fit for nothing but the vilest employs, while his interior by perfect
love and contemplation was absorbed in God. Being at length discovered,
he some time after returned to Cluain-Edneach, where the continual
austerity of his life, and his constant application to God in prayer,
may be more easily admired than imitated. He was chosen abbot, and at
length raised to the episcopal dignity: for it was usual then in Ireland
for eminent abbots in the chief monasteries to be bishops. He was
remarkable for his devotion to the saints, and he left both a longer and
a shorter Irish Martyrology, and five other books concerning the saints
of his country, contained in what the Irish call Saltair-na-Rann. He
died about the year 824, not at Cluain-Edneach, but at Desert Ænguis,
which became also a famous monastery, and took its name from him. See
his acts in Colgan, p. 579.

ST. CONSTANTINE, M.

HE is said to have been a British king, who, after the death of his
queen, resigned the crown to his son, and became a monk in the monastery
of St. David. It is added that he afterwards went into North Britain,
and joined St. Columba in preaching the gospel among the Picts, who then
inhabited a great part of what is now called Scotland. He founded a
monastery at Govane, near the river Cluyd, converted all the land of
Cantire to the faith of Christ, and died a martyr by the hands of
infidels, towards the end of the sixth century. He was buried in his
monastery of Govane, and divers churches were erected in Scotland, under
his invocation. But it seems most probable that the Scottish martyr is
not the same person with the British king. Colgan supposes him to have
been an Irish monk, who had lived in the community of St. Carthag, at
Rathane.

Footnotes:
1.  See the MS. Lives of Scottish Saints, compiled by a Jesuit, who was
    nephew of bishop Lesley, kept in the Scottish College at Paris.
    Several Scottish historians give the title of saint to Constantine
    III. king of the Scots, who, forsaking his crown and the world,
    entered himself among the Culdees, to religious ma at St. Andrew's,
    in 946.


MARCH XII.

ST. GREGORY THE GREAT, POPE, C.

From his works, Bede, and Paul, deacon of Monte Cassino, towards the end
of the eighth century. His life in four books, by John deacon of Rome in
the ninth age, is full of mistakes, as Baronius observes. See his
history, compiled in French by Dom Dionysius of Sainte-Marthe,
superior-general of the Maurist monks, printed at Rouen in 4to. 1697,
and more accurately in Latin by the same author, in the 4to. tome of
this father's works, in 1705. See also Fleury, b. 34, 35, 36. Mabillon,
Annal. Bened. l. 6, t. 1. Ceillier, t. 17, p. 128. F. Wietrowski, S.J.
Historia de rebus in Pontificatu, S. Gregorii M. gestis, in fol.
Gradonici, S. Gregorius, M. Pontifex, a criminationibus Oudini
vindicatus, and Hieron. Muzio in Coro Pontifcale.

A.D. 604.

ST. GREGORY, from his illustrious actions and extraordinary virtues,
surnamed the Great, was born at Rome, about the year 540. Gordlanus, his
{569} father, enjoyed the dignity of a senator, and was very wealthy;
but after the birth of our saint, renounced the world, and died
Regionarius, that is, one of the seven cardinal deacons who took care of
the ecclesiastical districts of Rome. His mother, Sylvia, consecrated
herself to God in a little oratory near St. Paul's. Our saint was called
Gregory, which in Greek implies a watchman, as Vigilius and Vigilantius
in Latin. In his youth he applied himself, with unabated diligence, to
the studies of grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy; and after these first
accomplishments, to the civil law and the canons of the church, in which
he was perfectly skilled. He was only thirty-four years old when, in
574, he was made, by the emperor Justin the Younger, pretor, or governor
and chief magistrate of Rome. By this dignity he was the chief judge of
the city; his pomp and state differed little from that of a consul, and
he was obliged to wear the Trabea, which was a rich robe of silk,
magnificently embroidered, and sparkling with precious stones: a garment
only allowed to the consuls and pretor. But he could say, with Esther,
that his heart always detested the pride of the world. From his infancy
he loved and esteemed only heavenly things, and it was his chief delight
to converse with holy monks, or to be retired in his closet, or in the
church at his devotions. After the death of his father, he built and
endowed six monasteries in Sicily out of the estates which he had in
that island, and founded a seventh in his own house in Rome, which was
the famous monastery of St. Andrew, on the hill Scaurus,[1] now
possessed by the Order of Camaldoli. The first abbot of this house was
Hilarion, the second Valentinus, under whom St. Gregory himself took the
monastic habit, in 575, he being thirty-five years old. In this
retirement, Gregory applied himself with that vigor to fasting and the
study of the sacred writings, that he thereby contracted a great
weakness in his stomach, and used to fall into fits of swooning if he
did not frequently eat. What gave him the greatest affliction was his
not being able to fast on an Easter-Eve, a day on which, says John the
deacon, every one, not even excepting little children, are used to fast.
His great desire of conforming to the universal practice on that day
occasioned his applying to a monk of eminent sanctity, named
Eleutherius, with whom having prayed, and besought God to enable him to
fast at least on that sacred day, he found himself on a sudden so well
restored, that he not only fasted that day, but quite forgot his
illness, as he himself relates.[2]

It was before his advancement to the see of Rome, or even to the
government of his monastery, that he first, as Paul the deacon
testifies, projected the conversion of the English nation. This great
blessing took its rise from the following occasion.[3] Gregory happened
one day to walk through the market, and here taking notice that certain
youths of fine features and complexion were exposed to sale, he inquired
what countrymen they were, and was answered, that they came from
Britain. He asked if the people of that country were Christians or
heathens, and was told they were still heathens. Then Gregory, fetching
a deep sigh, said: "It was a lamentable consideration that the prince of
darkness should be master of so much beauty, and have so comely persons
in his possession: and that so fine an outside should have nothing of
God's grace to furnish it within."[4] This incident {570} made so great
an impression upon him, that he applied himself soon after to pope
Benedict I., and earnestly requested that some persons might be sent to
preach Christianity in Britain. And not finding any one disposed to
undertake that mission, he made an offer of himself for the service,
with the pope's consent and approbation. Having obtained leave, he
privately set forward on his journey, in company with several monks of
his own monastery. But when his departure was known, the whole city was
in an uproar, and the people ran in a body to the pope, whom they met
going to St. Peter's church. They cried out to him in the utmost
consternation: "Apostolical father, what have you done? In suffering
Gregory to go away, you have destroyed Rome: you have undone us, and
offended St. Peter." At these pressing instances the pope dispatched
messengers to recall him and the saint being overtaken by them on the
third day, was obliged, though with great reluctance, to return to Rome.
Not long after, the same pope, according to John the deacon, and the
Benedictins, or, as Paul the deacon and Baronius say, his successor
Pelagius II., made him one of the seven deacons of the church at Rome,
who assisted the pope. Pelagius II. sent him to Constantinople in
quality of Apocrisiarius, or Nuncio of the holy see, to the religious
emperor Tiberius, by whom the saint was received and treated with the
highest distinction. This public employment did not make him lay aside
the practices of a monastic life, in order to which he had taken with
him certain monks of his house, with whom he might the better continue
them, and by their example excite himself to recollection and prayer. At
the request of St. Leander, bishop of Seville, whom he saw at
Constantinople, he wrote in that city his thirty-five books of Morals
upon Job, giving chiefly the moral and allegorical interpretations of
that sacred book, in such a manner as to reduce into one body the most
excellent principles of morality, and also of an interior life, of both
which this admirable work hath been ever since regarded as the great
storehouse and armory. Out of it St. Isidore, St. Thomas, and other
masters of those holy sciences have chiefly drawn their sublime maxims.
Mauritius having married the daughter of Tiberius, in 582, who had the
empire for her dowry, St. Gregory was pitched upon to stand godfather to
his eldest son. Eutychius was at that time patriarch of
Constantinople.[5] This prelate, having suffered for the faith under
Justinian, fell at length into an error, importing, that after the
general resurrection the glorified bodies of the elect will be no longer
palpable, but of a more subtile texture than air. This error he couched
in a certain book which he wrote. St. Gregory was alarmed, and held
several conferences with the patriarch upon that subject, both in
private and before the emperor, and clearly demonstrated from the
scriptures, that the glorified bodies of the saints will be the same
which they had on earth, only delivered from the appendices of
mortality; and that they will be palpable as {571} that of Christ was
after his resurrection.[6] The good bishop being docile and humble,
retracted his mistake and shortly after falling sick, in presence of the
emperor, who had honored him with a visit, taking hold of his skin with
his hand, said: "I profess the belief that we shall all rise in this
very flesh."[7]

Pope Pelagius recalled St. Gregory in 584. He brought with him to Rome
an arm of St. Andrew, and the head of St. Luke, which the emperor had
given him. He placed both these relics in his monastery of St. Andrew,
where the former remains to this day; but the latter has been removed
thence to St. Peter's, where it still continues. The saint with joy saw
himself restored to the tranquillity of his cell, where he eagerly
desired to bury himself with regard to the world, from which he had fled
naked into this secure harbor; because, as he signified to St. Leander,
he saw how difficult a thing it is to converse with the world without
contracting inordinate attachments.[8] Pope Pelagius also made him his
secretary. He still continued to govern his monastery, in which he
showed a remarkable instance of severity. Justus, one of his monks, had
acquired and kept privately three pieces of gold, which he confessed on
his death-bed. St. Gregory forbade the community to attend and pray by
his bedside, according to custom; but could not refuse him the
assistance of a priest, which the council of Nice ordained that no one
should be deprived of at the hour of death. Justus died in great
sentiments of compunction; yet, in compliance with what the monastic
discipline enjoins in such cases, in imitation of what St. Macarius had
prescribed on the like occasion, he ordered his corpse to be buried
under the dunghill, and the three pieces of money to be thrown into the
grave with it. Nevertheless, as he died penitent, he ordered mass to be
daily offered up for him during thirty days.[9] St. Gregory says,[10]
that after the mass of the thirtieth day, Justus, appearing to his
brother Copiosus, assured him that he had been in torments, but was then
released. Pope Pelagius II. dying in the beginning of the great
pestilence, in January, 590, the clergy, senate, and Roman people
unanimously agreed to choose St. Gregory for their bishop, although he
opposed his election with all his power. It was then the custom at the
election of a pope to consult the emperor as the head of the senate and
people. Our saint, trusting to his friendship with Mauritius, to whose
son he stood godfather, wrote to him privately to conjure him not to
approve of this choice. He wrote also with great earnestness to John,
patriarch of Constantinople, and to other powerful friends in that city,
begging them to employ their interest with the emperor for that purpose:
but complains in several letters afterwards that they had all refused to
serve him. The governor of Rome intercepted his letters to the emperor,
and sent others to him, in the name of the senate and people, to the
contrary effect. In the mean time, the plague continued to rage at Rome
with great violence; and, while the people waited for the emperor's
answer, St. Gregory took occasion from their calamities to exhort them
to repentance. Having made them a pathetic sermon on that subject,[11]
he appointed a solemn litany, or procession, in seven companies, with a
{572} priest at the head of each, who were to march from different
churches, and all to meet in that of St. Mary Major; singing Kyrie
Eleison as they went along the streets. During this procession there
died in one hour's time fourscore of those who assisted at it. But St.
Gregory did not forbear to exhort the people, and to pray till such time
as the distemper ceased.[12] During the public calamity, St. Gregory
seemed to have forgot the danger he was in of being exalted to the
pontifical throne; for he feared as much to lose the security of his
poverty as the most avaricious can do to lose their treasures. He had
been informed that his letters to Constantinople had been intercepted;
wherefore, not being able to go out of the gates of Rome, where guards
were placed, he prevailed with certain merchants to carry him off
disguised, and shut up in a wicker basket. Three days he lay concealed
in the woods and caverns, during which time the people of Rome observed
fasts and prayers. Being miraculously discovered,[13] and no longer
able, as he says himself,[14] to resist, after the manifestations of the
divine will, he was taken, brought back to Rome with great acclamations,
and consecrated on the 3d of September, in 590. In this ceremony he was
conducted, according to custom, to the Confession of St. Peter, as his
tomb is called; where he made a profession of his faith, which is still
extant in his works. He sent also to the other patriarchs a synodal
epistle, in which was contained the profession of his faith.[15] In it
he declares, that he received the four general councils as the four
gospels. He received congratulatory letters upon his exaltation; to all
which he returned for answer rather tears than words, in the most
feeling sentiments of profound humility. To Theoctista, the emperor's
sister, he wrote thus:[16] "I have lost the comfort of my calm, and,
appearing to be outwardly exalted, I am inwardly and really fallen.--My
endeavors were to banish corporeal objects from my mind, that I might
spiritually behold heavenly joys. Neither desiring not fearing any thing
in the world, I seemed raised above the earth, but the storm had cast me
on a sudden into alarms and fears: I am come into the depth of the sea,
and the tempest hath drowned me." He adds: "The emperor hath made an ape
to be called a lion; but cannot make him become one." In his letter to
Narses, the patrician, he says:[17] "I am so overcome with grief, that I
am scarce able to speak. My mind is encompassed with darkness. All that
the world thinks agreeable, brings to me trouble and affliction." To St.
Leander he writes: "I remember with tears that I have lost the calm
harbor of my repose, and with many a sigh I look upon the firm land
which I cannot reach. If you love me, assist me with your prayers." He
often invites others to weep with him, and conjures them to pray for
him. John, archbishop of Ravenna, modestly reprehended his cowardice in
endeavoring, by flight, to decline the burden of the pastoral charge. In
answer to his censure, and to instruct all pastors, soon after his
exaltation, he wrote his incomparable book, On the Pastoral Care,
setting forth the dangers, duties, and obligations of that charge, which
he calls, from St. Gregory Nazianzen, the art of arts, and science of
sciences. So great was the reputation of this performance, as soon as it
appeared, that the emperor Mauritius sent to Rome for a copy; and
Anastasius, the holy patriarch of Antioch, translated it into Greek.
Many popes and councils have exhorted and commanded pastors of souls
frequently to read it, and {573} in it, as in a looking glass, to behold
themselves.[18] Our English saints made it always their rule, and king
Alfred translated it into the Saxon tongue. In this book we read a
transcript of the sentiments and conduct of our excellent pastor. His
zeal for the glory of God, and the angelic function of paying him the
constant tribute of praise in the church, moved him, in the beginning of
his pontificate, to reform the church music.[19] Preaching he regarded
as the principal and most indispensable function of every pastor of
souls, as it is called by St. Thomas, and was most solicitous to feed
his flock with the word of God. His forty homilies on the gospels, which
are extant, show that he spoke in a plain and familiar style, and
without any pomp of words, but with a surprising eloquence of the heart.
The same may be said of his twenty-two homilies on Ezekiel, which he
preached while Rome was besieged by the Lombards, in 592. In the
nineteenth he, in profound humility, applies to himself, with tears,
whatever the prophet spoke against slothful mercenary pastors. Paul the
deacon relates, that after the saint's death, Peter the deacon, his most
intimate friend, testified that he had seen in a vision, as an emblem of
the Holy Ghost, a dove appear on his head, applying his bill to his ear
while he was writing on the latter part of Ezekiel.

This great pope always remembered, that, by his station, he was the
common father of the poor. He relieved their necessities with so much
sweetness and affability, as to spare them the confusion of receiving
the alms; and the old men among them he, out of deference, called his
fathers. He often entertained several of them at his own table. He kept
by him an exact catalogue of the poor, called by the ancients matriculæ;
and he liberally provided for the necessities of each. In the beginning
of every month he {574} distributed to all the poor, corn, wine, pulse,
cheese, fish, flesh, and oil: he appointed officers for every street to
send every day necessaries to all the needy sick; before he ate he
always sent off meats from his own table to some poor persons. One day a
beggar being found dead in a corner of a by-street, he is said to have
abstained some days from the celebration of the divine mysteries,
condemning himself of a neglect in seeking the poor with sufficient
care. He entertained great numbers of strangers both at Rome and in
other countries, and had every day twelve at his own table whom his
sacristan invited. He was most liberal in redeeming captives taken by
the Lombards, for which he permitted the bishop of Fano to break and
sell the sacred vessels,[20] and ordered the bishop of Messana to do the
same.[21] He extended his charity to the heretics, whom he sought to
gain by mildness. He wrote to the bishop of Naples to receive and
reconcile readily those who desired it, taking upon his own soul the
danger,[22] lest he should be charged with their perdition if they
should perish by too great severity. Yet he was careful not to give them
an occasion of triumphing by any unreasonable condescension; and much
more not to relax the severity of the law of God in the least
tittle.[23] He showed great moderation to the schismatics of Istria, and
to the very Jews. When Peter, bishop of Terracina, had taken from the
latter their synagogue, St. Gregory ordered it to be restored to them,
saying, they are not to be compelled, but converted by meekness and
charity.[24] He repeated the same orders for the Jews of Sardinia, and
for those of Sicily.[25] In his letters to his vicar in Sicily, and to
the stewards of the patrimony of the Roman church in Africa, Italy, and
other places, he recommends mildness and liberality towards his vassals
and farmers; orders money to be advanced to those that were in distress,
which they might repay by little and little, and most rigorously forbids
any to be oppressed. He carefully computed and piously distributed the
income of his revenues at four terms in the year. In his epistles, we
find him continually providing for the necessities of all churches,
especially of those in Italy, which the wars of the Lombards and other
calamities had made desolate. Notwithstanding his meekness and
condescension, his courage was undaunted, and his confidence in the
divine assistance unshaken amidst the greatest difficulties. "You know
me," says he,[26] "and that I tolerate a long while; but when I have once
determined to bear no longer, I go with joy against all dangers." Out of
sincere humility he styled himself "the basest of men, devoured by sloth
and laziness."[27] Writing to St. Leander, he says,[28] he always
desired to be the contempt of men and the outcast of the people. He
declares,[29] "I am ready to be corrected by all persons, and him only
do I look upon as my friend by whose tongue I learn to wash away the
stains of my mind." He subscribed himself in all his letters, Servant of
the servants of God, which custom has been retained by his successors.
Indeed, what is a pastor or superior but the servant of those for whom
he is to give a rigorous account to God? The works of St. Gregory were
everywhere received with the greatest applause. Marinianus, archbishop
of Ravenna, read his comments on Job to the people in the church. The
saint was afflicted and confounded that his writings should be thought
to deserve a place among the approved works of the fathers; and wrote to
that prelate that his book was not proper for the church, admonishing
him rather to read St. Austin on the psalms.[30] He was no less dead to
himself in his great actions, {575} and all other things. He saw nothing
in himself but imperfections; and subjects of confusion and humiliation.
ST. JOHN CALYBITE, RECLUSE.

It is incredible how much he wrote, and, during the thirteen years that
he governed the church, what great things he achieved for the glory of
God, the good of the church, the reformation of manners, the edification
of the faithful, the relief of the poor, the comfort of the afflicted,
the establishment of ecclesiastical discipline, and the advancement of
piety and religion. But our surprise redoubles upon us, when we remember
his continual bad state of health and frequent sicknesses, and his
assiduity in prayer and holy contemplation; though this exercise it was
that gave always wings to his soul. In his own palace he would allow of
no furniture but what was mean and simple, nor have any attendants near
his person but clergymen or monks of approved virtue, learning, and
prudence. His household was a model of Christian perfection; and by his
care, arts, sciences, and the heroic practice of piety, flourished,
especially in the city of Rome. The state of Christendom was at that
time on every side miserably distracted, and stood in need of a pastor,
whose extraordinary sanctity, abilities, and courage should render him
equal to every great enterprise. And such a one was Gregory. The eastern
churches were wretchedly divided and shattered by the Nestorians, and
the numerous spawn of the Eutychians, all which he repressed. In the
west, England was buried in idolatry, and Spain, under the Visigoths,
was overrun with the Arian heresy. These two flourishing countries owe
their conversion, in a great measure, to his zeal, especially the
former. In Africa he extirpated the Donatists, converted many
schismatics in Istria and the neighboring provinces; and reformed many
grievous abuses in Gaul, whence he banished simony, which had almost
universally infected that church. A great part of Italy was become a
prey to the Lombards,[31] who were partly Arians, partly idolaters. St.
Gregory often stopped the fury of their arms, and checked their
oppressions of the people: by his zeal he also brought over many to the
Catholic faith, and had the comfort to see Agilulph, their king,
renounce the Arian heresy to embrace it. In 592, Romanus, exarch, or
governor of Italy for the emperor, with a view to his own private
interest, perfidiously broke the solemn treaty which he had made with
the Lombards,[32] and took Perugia and several other towns. But the
barbarians, who were much the stronger, revenged this insult with great
cruelty, and besieged Rome itself. St. Gregory neglected nothing to
protect the oppressed, and raised troops for the defence of several
places. At length, by entreaties and great presents, he engaged the
Lombards to retire into their own territories. He reproved the exarch
for his breach of faith, but to no other effect than to draw upon
himself the indignation of the governor and his master. Such were the
extortions and injustices of this and other imperial officers, that the
yoke of the barbarians was lighter than the specious shadow of liberty
under the tyranny of the empire: and with such rigor were the heaviest
taxes levied, that to pay them, many poor inhabitants of Corsica were
forced to sell their own children to the barbarians. These oppressions
cried to heaven for vengeance: and St. Gregory wrote boldly to the {576}
empress Constantina,[33] entreating that the emperor, though he should
be a loser by it, would not fill his exchequer by oppressing his people,
nor suffer taxes to be levied by iniquitous methods, which would be an
impediment to his eternal salvation. He sent to this empress a brandeum,
or veil, which had touched the bodies of the apostles, and assured her
that miracles had been wrought by such relics.[34] He promised to send
her also some dust-filings of the chains of St. Paul; of which relics he
makes frequent mention in his epistles. At Cagliari, a curtain rich Jew,
having been converted to the faith, had seized the synagogue in order to
convert it into a church, and had set up in it an image of the Virgin
Mary and a cross. Upon the complaint of the other Jews, St. Gregory
ordered[35] the synagogue to be restored to them, but that the image and
cross should be first removed with due veneration and respect.[36]
Writing to Theodelinda, queen of the Lombards, he mentions,[37] that he
sent her son, the young king, a little cross, in which was a particle of
the wood of the true Cross, to carry about his neck. Secundinus, a holy
hermit near Ravenna, godfather to this young king, begged of the pope
some devout pictures. St. Gregory, in his answer, says: "We have sent
you two cloths, containing the picture of God our Saviour, and of Mary
the holy Mother of God, and of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, and
one cross: also for a benediction, a key which hath been applied to the
most holy body of St. Peter, the prince of the apostles, that you may
remain defended from the enemy."[38] But when Serenus, bishop of
Marseilles, had broken certain sacred images which some persons lately
converted from idolatry honored with their former idolatrous
superstitions, St. Gregory commended his zeal for suppressing this
abuse, but reproved him for breaking the images.[39] When the archbishop
of Ravenna used the pallium, not only at mass, but also in other
functions, St. Gregory wrote him a severe reprimand, telling him that no
ornament shines so bright on the shoulders of a bishop as
humility.[40][41] He extended his pastoral zeal and solicitude over all
churches; and he frequently takes notice that the care of the churches
of the whole world was intrusted to St. Peter, and his successors in the
see of Rome.[42] This authority he exerted in the oriental
patriarchates. A certain monk having been accused of Manicheism, and
beaten by the order of John the patriarch of Constantinople, appealed to
pope Gregory, who sharply reprimanded the patriarch, exhorting him to
eject a certain wicked young man by whom he suffered himself to be
governed, and to do penance, and telling him: "If you do not keep the
canons, I know not who you are."[43] He absolved the monk, with his
colleague, a priest, re-established them in their monastery, and sent
them back into the East, having received their profession of faith. He
also absolved John, a priest of Chalcedon, who had been unjustly
condemned by the delegates of the Matriarch. This patriarch, John,
surnamed the Faster, usurped the arrogant title of [oe]cumenical, or
universal patriarch. This epithet was only used of a general council
which represents the whole church. In this sense an {577} ecumenical
bishop should mean a bishop who represents the whole church, so that all
other bishops are only his vicars. St. Gregory took the word in that
sense: which would be blasphemy and heresy, and as such he condemned
it.[44] John indeed only meant it in a limited sense for an archbishop
over many, as we call him a general who commands many; but even so it
savored of arrogance and novelty. In opposition to this, St. Gregory
took no other titles than those of humility. Gregoria, a lady of the
bedchamber to the empress, being troubled with scruples, wrote to St.
Gregory, that she should never be at ease till he should obtain of God,
by a revelation, an assurance that her sins were forgiven her. To calm
her disturbed mind, he sent her the following answer.[45] "You ask what
is both difficult and unprofitable. Difficult, because I am unworthy to
receive any revelation: unprofitable, because an absolute assurance of
your pardon does not suit your state till you can no longer weep for
your sins. You ought always to fear and tremble for them, and wash them
away by daily tears. Paul had been taken up to the third heaven, yet
trembled lest he should become a reprobate.--Security is the mother of
negligence."

The emperor forbade any to be admitted in monasteries, who, having been
in office, had not yet given up their accounts, or who were engaged in
the military service. This order he sent to each of the patriarchs, to
be by then notified to all the bishops of their respective districts.
St. Gregory, who was at that time sick, complied with the imperial
mandate, so far as to order the edict to be signified to the western
bishops,[46] as appears from a letter which he wrote to the emperor as
soon as his health was re-established. We learn from another letter,
which he wrote some years after to the bishops of the empire, that, on
this occasion, he exhorted the bishops to comply with the first part,
and as to the second, not to suffer persons engaged in the army to be
admitted among the clergy or to the monastic habit, unless their
vocation had been thoroughly tried for the space of three years, that it
might be evident they were converted from the world, and sought not to
change one kind of secular life for another. He made to Mauritius the
strongest remonstrances against this edict, saying, "It is not agreeable
to God, seeing by it the way to heaven was shut to several; for many
cannot be saved unless they forsake all things." He, therefore,
entreated the emperor to mitigate this law, approving the first article
as most just, unless the monastery made itself answerable for the debts
of such a person received in it. As to the second, he allows that the
motives and sincerity of the conversion of such soldiers are to be
narrowly examined before they ought to be admitted to the monastic
habit. Mauritius, who had before conceived certain prejudices against
St. Gregory, was offended at his remonstrances, and showed his
resentment against him for some years, but at length agreed to the
mitigations of each article proposed by St. Gregory: which the holy
pope, with great pleasure, notified by a letter addressed to the bishops
of the empire.[47]

The emperor Mauritius, having broken his league with the Avari, a
Scythian {578} nation, then settled on the banks of the Danube,[48] was
defeated, and obliged to purchase an ignominious peace. He also refused
to ransom the prisoners they had taken, though they asked at first only
a golden penny a head, and at last only a sixth part, or four farthings;
which refusal so enraged the barbarians, that they put them all to the
sword. Mauritius began then to be stung with remorse, gave large alms,
and prayed that God would rather punish him in this life than in the
next. His prayer was heard. His avarice and extortions had rendered him
odious to all his subjects; and, in 602, he ordered the army to take
winter quarters in the enemy's country, and to subsist on freebooting,
without pay. The soldiers, exasperated at this treatment, chose one
Phocas, a daring ambitious man, to be their leader, and marched to
Constantinople, where he was crowned emperor. Mauritius had made his
escape, but was taken with his family thirty miles out of the city, and
brought back. His five sons were slain before his eyes at Chalcedon: he
repeated all the while as a true penitent these words: "Thou art just, O
Lord, and thy judgments are righteous."[49] When the nurse offered her
own child instead of his youngest, he would not suffer it. Last of all
he himself was massacred, after a reign of twenty years. His empress,
Constantina, was confined with her three daughters, and murdered with
them a few months after. The tyrant was slain by Heraclius, governor of
Africa, after a tottering reign of eight years. When Phocas mounted the
throne, his images were received and set up at Rome: nor could St.
Gregory, for the sake of the public good, omit writing to him letters of
congratulation.[50] In them he makes some compliments to Phocas, which
are not so much praises as respectful exhortations to a tyrant in power,
and wishes of the public liberty, peace, and happiness.[51] The saint
nowhere approved his injustices or tyranny, though he regarded him, like
Jehu, as the instrument of God to punish other sinners. He blamed
Mauritius, but in things truly blameable; and drew from his punishment a
seasonable occasion of wholesome advice which he gave to Phocas, whom
the public safety of all Italy obliged him not to exasperate.

This holy pope had labored many years under a great weakness of his
breast and stomach, and was afflicted with slow fevers, and frequent
fits of the gout, which once confined him to his bed two whole years. On
the 25th of January, 604, he gave to the church of St. Paul several
parcels of land to furnish it with lights: the act of donation remains
to this day engraved on a marble stone in the same church. God called
him to himself on the 12th of March, the same year, about the
sixty-fourth of his age, after he had governed the church thirteen
years, six months, and ten days. His pallium, the reliquary which he
wore about his neck, and his girdle, were preserved long after his
death, when John the deacon wrote, who describes his picture drawn from
the life, then to be seen in the monastery of St. Andrew.[52] His holy
remains rest in the Vatican church. Both the Greek and Latins honor his
name. The council of Clif, or Cloveshove, under archbishop Cuthbert, in
747, commanded his feast to be observed a holyday in all the monasteries
in England; which the council of Oxford, in 1222, {579} extended to the
whole kingdom. This law subsisted till the change of religion.[53]

       *       *       *       *       *

Every superior, who is endued with the sincere spirit of humility and
charity, looks upon himself with this great hope, as the servant of all,
bound to labor and watch night and day, to bear every kind of affront,
to suffer all manner of pains, to do all in his power, to put on every
shape, and sacrifice his own ease and life to procure the spiritual
improvement of the least of those who are committed to his charge. He is
incapable of imperious haughtiness, which alienates the minds of
inferiors, and renders their obedience barely exterior and a forced
hypocrisy. His commands are tender entreaties, and if he is obliged to
extend his authority, this he does with secret repugnance, losing sight
of himself, intent only on God's honor and his neighbor's salvation,
placing himself in spirit beneath all his subjects, and all mankind, and
esteeming himself the last of all creatures. St. Paul, though vested
with the most sublime authority, makes use of terms so mild and so
powerfully ravishing, that they must melt the hardest heart. Instead of
commanding in the name of God, see how he usually expresses himself: "I
entreat you, O Timothy, by the love which you bear me. I conjure you, by
the bowels of Jesus Christ. I beseech you, by the meekness of Christ. If
you love me, do this." And see how he directs us to reprove those who
sin: "If any one should fall, do you who are spiritual remind him in
that spirit of meekness, remembering that you may also fall," and into a
more grievous crime. St. Peter, who had received the keys of the kingdom
of heaven, shed more tears of tender charity than he speaks words. What
heart can be so savage and unnatural, as to refuse to obey him who,
having authority to lay injunctions, and thunder out anathemas, weeps
instead of commanding. If SS. Peter and Paul pour out the water of tears
and mildness, St. John casts darts of fire into the hearts of those whom
he commands. "My little children," says he, "if you love Christ, do
this. I conjure you, by Christ, our good Master, love affectionately,
and this is enough. Love will teach you what to do. The unction of the
Holy Ghost will instruct you." This is the true spirit of governing; a
method sure to gain the hearts of others, and to inspire them with a
love of the precept itself and of virtue. St. Macarius of Egypt was
styled the god of the monks, so affectionately and readily was he obeyed
by them, because he never spoke a word with anger or impatience. Moses
was chosen by God to be the leader and legislator of his people, because
he was the meekest of men: and with what astonishing patience did he
bear the murmurs and rebellions of an ungrateful and stiff-necked
people! David's meekness towards Saul and others purchased him the
crown, and was one of the principal virtues by which he was rendered a
king according to God's own heart. Those who command with imperious
authority show they are puffed up with the empty wind of pride, which
makes them feel an inordinate pleasure in the exercise of power, the
seed of tyranny, and the bane of virtue in their souls. Anger and
impatience, which are more dangerous, because usually canonized under
the name of zeal, demonstrate persons to be very ill-qualified for
governing others, who are not masters of themselves or their own
passions. How few are so crucified to themselves, and so perfectly
grounded in humility, {580} patience, meekness, and charity, that power
and authority infect not their souls with the deadly poison of secret
pride, or in whom no hurry, importunity, or perverseness can extinguish
the spirit of meekness, in which, in all occurrences, they preserve the
same evenness of mind, and the same angelical sweetness of countenance.
Yet with this they are sons of thunder in resisting evil, and in
watching against all the artifices of the most subtle and flattering
passions of sinners, and are firm and inflexible in opposing every step
towards any dangerous relaxation. St. Gregory, by his whole conduct,
sets us an example of this perfect humility and meekness, which he
requires as an essential qualification in every pastor, and in all who
are placed over others.[54] He no less excelled in learning, with which,
he says, that humility must be accompanied, lest the pastor should lead
others astray. But above all other qualities for the pastoral charge, he
requires an eminent gift of prayer and contemplation. Præ cæteris
contemplatione suspensus. Pastor. Cura, part 2, c. 5.

Footnotes:
1.  See Annot. at the end of his life, p. 580 {original footnote has
    incorrect page reference} infra.
2.  Dial. l. 3, c. 33.
3.  Hist. b. 2, c. 1.
4.  Bede adds, that he again asked, what was the name of that nation,
    and was answered, that they were called Angli or Angles. "Right,"
    said he, "for they have angelical faces, and it becomes such to be
    companions with the angels in heaven. What is the name (proceeded
    he) of the province from which they are brought?" It was replied,
    that the natives of that were called Deiri. "Truly Deiri, because
    withdrawn from wrath, and called to the mercy of Christ," said he,
    alluding to the Latin, De irâ Dei eruti. He asked further, "How is
    the king of that province called?" They him that his name was All{}
    and he making an allusion to the word, said: "Alleluiah, the praise
    of God the Creator, must be sung in those parts." Some censure this
    conversation of St. Gregory as a piece of low punning. But the taste
    of that age must be considered. St. Austin found it necessary to
    play sometimes with words to please auditors whose ears had, by
    custom, caught an itch to be sometimes tickled by quibbles to their
    fancy. The ingenious author of the late life of the lord chancellor
    Bacon, thought custom an apology for the most vicious style of that
    great man, of whom he writes: "His style has been objected to as
    full of affectation, full of false eloquence. But that was the vice,
    not of the man, but of the times he lived in; and particularly of a
    court that delighted in the tinsel of wit and learning, in the poor
    ingenuity of punning and quibbling." St. Gregory was a man of a fine
    genius and of true learning: yet in familiar converse might confirm
    to the taste of the age. Far from censuring his wit, or the judgment
    of his historian, we ought to admire his piety, which, from every
    circumstance, even from words, drew allusions to nourish devotion,
    and turn the heart to God. This we observe in other saints, and if
    it be a fault, we might more justly censure on this account the
    elegant epistles of St. Paulinus, or Sulpitius Severus, than this
    dialogue of St. Gregory.
5.  Eutychius had formerly defended the Catholic faith with at zeal
    against the Eutychians and the errors of the emperor Justinian, who,
    though he condemned those heretics, yet adopted one part of their
    blasphemies, asserting that Christ assumed a body which was by its
    own nature incorruptible, not formed of the Blessed Virgin, and
    subject to pain, hunger, or alteration only by a miracle. This was
    called the heresy of the Incorrupticolæ, of which Justinian declared
    himself the abetter; and, after many great exploits to retrieve the
    ancient glory of the empire, tarnished his reputation by persecuting
    the Catholic Church and banishing Eutychius.
6.  St. Greg. Moral. l. 14, c. 76, t. 1, p. 465.
7.  He died in 582 and is ranked by the Greeks among the saints. See the
    Bollandists in vitâ S. Eutychil ad 6 Apr.
8.  Fleury thinks he was chosen abbot before his embassy to
    Constantinople; but Ceillier and others prove, that this only
    happened after his return.
9.  It appears from the life of St. Theodosius the Cenobiarch, from St.
    Ambrose's funeral oration on Valentinian, and other monuments, that
    it was the custom, from the primitive ages, to keep the third,
    seventh, and thirtieth, or sometimes fortieth day after the decease
    of a Christian, with solemn prayers and sacrifices for the departed
    soul. From this fact of St. Gregory, a trental of masses for a soul
    departed are usually called the Gregorian masses, on which see
    Gavant and others.
10. Dial. l. 4, c. 55, p. 465, t. 2.
11. It is inserted by St. Gregory of Tours in his history. Greg. Touron.
    l. 10 c. 1.
12. Some moderns say, an angel was seen sheathing his sword on the
    stately pile of Adrian's sepulchre. But no such circumstance is
    mentioned by St. Gregory of Tours, Bede, Paul, or John.
13. Paul the deacon says, it was by a pillar of light appearing over the
    place where he lay concealed.
14. L. 1, ep. 21, l. 7, ep. 4.
15. L. 1, ep. 25.
16. L. 1, ep. 5, p. 491.
17. L. 1, ep. 6, p. 498.
18. Conc. 3, Touron. can. 3. See Dom Bulteau's Preface to his French
    translation of S. Gregory's Pastoral, printed in 1629.
19. He reformed the Sacramentary, or Missal and Ritual of the Roman
    church. In the letters of SS. Innocent I., Celestine I., and St.
    Leo, we find mention made of a written Roman Order of the mass: in
    this the essential parts were always the same; but accidental
    alterations in certain prayers have been made Pope Gelasius thus
    augmented and revised the liturgy, in 490; his genuine Sacramentary
    was published at Rome by Thomasi, in 1680. In it are mentioned the
    public veneration of the cross on Good Friday, the solemn
    benediction of the holy oils, the ceremonies of baptism, frequent
    invocation of saints, veneration shown to their relics, the
    benediction of holy water, votive masses for travellers, for the
    sick and the dead, masses on festivals of saints, and the like. The
    Sacramentary of St. Gregory, differs from that of Gelasius only in
    some collects or prayers. The conformity between the present church
    office and the ancient appears from this work, and the saint's
    Antiphonarius and Responsorium. The like ceremonies and benedictions
    are found in the apostolic constitutions, and all other ancient
    liturgic writings; out of which Grabe, Hickes, Deacon, and others
    have formed new liturgies very like the present Roman, and several
    of them have restored the idea of a true sacrifice. Dom Menard has
    enriched the Sacramentary of St. Gregory with most learned and
    curious notes.

    Besides his Comments or Morals on the book of Job, which he wrote at
    Constantinople, about the year 582, in which we are not to look for
    an exposition of the text, but an excellent compilation of the main
    principles of morality, and an interior life, we have his exposition
    of Ezekiel, in twenty-two homilies. These were taken in short hand
    as he pronounced them, and were preached by him at Rome, in 592,
    when Ag{}ulph the Lombard was laying waste the whole territory of
    Rome. See l. 2, in Ezech. hom. 6, and Paul the deacon, l. 4, hist.
    Longob. c. 8. The exposition of the text is allegorical, and only
    intended for ushering in {} moral reflections, which are much
    shorter than in the books on Job. His forty homilies on the gospels
    he preached on several solemnities while he was pope. His
    incomparable book, On the Pastoral Care, which is an excellent
    instruction of pastors, and was drawn up by him when he saw himself
    placed in the pontificate, consists of four parts. In the first he
    treats of the dispositions requisite in one who is called to the
    pastoral charge; in the second of duties of a pastor; in the third
    on the instruction which he owes to his flock; and, in the fourth,
    on his obligation of watching over his own heart, and of diligent
    self-examination. In four books of dialogues, between himself and
    his disciple Peter, he recounts the miracles of his own times, upon
    the authority of vouchers, on whose veracity he thought he could
    rely. He so closely adheres to their relations, that the style is
    much lower than in his other writings. See the preface of the
    Benedictin editor on this work. His letters are published in
    fourteen books, and are a very interesting compilation. We have St.
    Gregory's excellent exposition of the Book of Canticles, which
    Ceillier proves to be genuine against Oudin, the apostate, and some
    others. The six books on the first book of Kings are valuable work
    but cannot be ascribed to St. Gregory the Great. The commentary on
    the seven penitential psalms Ceillier thinks to be his work: but it
    seems doubtful. Paterius, a notary, one of St. Gregory's auditors,
    compiled, out of his writings and sermons, several comments on the
    scriptures. Claudius, abbot of Classius, a disciple of our saint,
    did the same. Alulphus, a monk at Tournay, in the eleventh and
    twelfth centuries, made the like compilations from his writings. Dom
    Dionysius of St. Marthe, a Maurist Benedictin monk, favored the world
    with an accurate edition of the works of St. Gregory the Great,
    published at Paris in four volumes folio, in 1705. This has been
    reprinted at Verona and again at Ausburg, in 1758, with the addition
    of the useful anonymous book, De formula Prælatorum.
20. L. 6, Ep. 35.
21. L. 7, Ep. 26.
22. Animæ nostra pericula, l. 1, Ep. 14.
23. L. 1, Ep. 35, &c.
24. L. 1, Ep. 35.
25. L. 7, Ep. 5, l. 12, Ep. 30.
26. L. 4, Ep. 47.
27. Præf. in Dial.
28. L. 9, Ep. 22.
29. L. 2, Ep. 121.
30. L. 12, Ep. 24.
31. The Lombards came originally from Scandinavia, and settled first in
    Pomerania, and afterwards with the Hunns in Pannonia, who had
    remained there when they returned out of Italy under Attila. Narses,
    the patrician, after having governed Italy sixteen years with great
    glory, was recalled by the emperor Justin the Younger. But resenting
    this treatment, he invited the Lombards into that country. Those
    barbarians leaving Pannonia to the Hunns, entered Italy, easily made
    themselves masters of Milan, under their king Alboinus, in 568; and
    extending their dominions, often threatened Rome itself. In the reign
    of Charles the Fat, the Hunns were expelled Pannonia by the Hongres,
    another swarm from the same northern hive, akin to the Hunns, who
    gave to that kingdom the name of Hungary. That the Lombards were so
    called, not from their long swords, as some have pretended, but from
    their long beards, see demonstrated from the express testimony of
    Paul the Deacon, himself a Lombard of Constantine Porphyrogenetta,
    by Jos. Assemani. Hist. Ital. scriptor. t. 1, c. 3, p. 33.
32. Paul Diac. de Gest Longobard. l. 4, c. 8. S. Greg. l. 2, Ep. 46.
33. L. 5. Ep. 41.
34. L. 4, Ep. 30.
35. Sublatâ exinde, quâ par est veneratione, imagine et cruce. L. 9,
Ep. 6, p. 930.
36. L. 9, Ep. 6, p. 930.
37. L. 14, Ep. 12, p. 1270.
38. These words are quoted by Paul the deacon, in the council of Rome,
Conc. t. 6, p. 1462, and pope Adrian I., in his letter to Charlemagne
in defence of holy images.
39. L. 11, Ep. 13.
40. L. 3, Ep. 56; l. 3, Ep. 53; l. 9, Ep. 59; l. 6, Ep. 66; l. 7,
Ep. 19; l. 5, Ep. 20.
41. St. Gregory was always a zealous asserter of the celibacy of the
    clergy, which law he extended also to subdeacons, who had before
    been ranked among the clergy of the Minor orders, (l. 1, ep. 44, l.
    4, Ep. 34.) The Centuriators, Heylin, and others, mention a forged
    letter, under the name of Udalrirus, said to be written to pope
    Nicholas, concerning the heads of children found by St. Gregory in a
    pond. But a smore ridiculous fable was never invented, as is
    demonstrated from many inconsistencies of that forged letter: and
    St. Gregory in his epistles everywhere mentions the law of the
    celibacy of the clergy as ancient and inviolable. Nor was any pope
    Nicholas contemporary with St. Udalricus. See Baronius and Dom de
    {Sainte} Marthe, in his life of St. Gregory.
42. L. 3, Ep. 29; l. 5, Ep. 13.
43. L. 6, Ep. 15, 16, 17.
44. L. 11, Ep. 28; olim 58, p. 1180, &c.
45. L. 7, Ep. 25.
46. Some Protestants slander St. Gregory, as if by this publication of
    the imperial edict he had concurred to what he condemned as contrary
    to the divine law. Dr. Mercier, in his letter in favor of a law
    commanding silence, with regard to the constitution Unigenitus in
    France, in 1759, pretends that this holy pope thought obedience to
    the emperor a duty even in things of a like nature. But Dr. Launay,
    Réponse à la Lettre d'un Docteur de Sorbunne, partie 2, p. 51, and
    Dr. N., Examen de la Lettre d'un Docteur de Sorboune sur la
    nécessité de garder In silence sur la Constitution Unigenitus, p.
    33, t. 1, demonstrate that St. Gregory regarded the matter, as it
    really is, merely as a point of discipline, and nowhere says the
    edict was contrary to the divine law, but only not agreeable to God,
    and tending to prejudice the interest of his greater glory. In
    matters of faith or essential obligation, he calls forth the zeal
    and fortitude of prelates to stand upon their guard as opposing
    unjust laws, even to martyrdom, as the same authors demonstrate.
47. Ep. 55.
48. Theophanes Chronogr.
49. Ps. 118.
50. L. 13, ep. 31, 38.
51. We say the same of the compliments which he paid to the impious
    French queen Brunehault, at which lord Bolingbroke takes offence;
    but a respect is due to persons in power. St. Gregory nowhere
    flatters their vices, but admonishes by compliments those who could
    not be approached without them. Thus did St. Paul address Agrippa
    and Festas, &c. In refusing the sacraments of the church to
    impenitent wicked princes, and in checking their crimes by
    seasonable remonstrances, St. Gregory was always ready to exert the
    zeal of a Baptist: as he opposed the unjust projects of Mauritius,
    so would he have done those of Phocas when in his power.
52. The antiquarian will read with pleasure the curious notes of Angelus
    Rocca, and the {}enedic{ons on} the pictures of St. Gregory and his
    parents, and on this holy pope's pious donations.
53. St. Gregory gave St. Austin a small library which was kept in his
    monastery at Canterbury. Of it there still remain a book of the
    gospels in the Bodleian library, and another in that of
    Corpus-Christi in Cambridge. The other books were psalters, the
    Pastorals, the Passionarium Sanctorium, and the like. See Mr.
    Wauley, in his catalogue of S{} on manuscripts, at the end of Dr.
    Hickes's Thesaurus, p. 172. Many rich vestments, vessels, relics,
    and a pall given by St. Gregory to St. Austin, were kept in the same
    monastery. Their original inventory, drawn up by Thomas of Elmham,
    in the reign of Henry V., is preserved in the Harleian library, and
    published by the learned lady, Mrs. E. Elstob, at the end of a Saxon
    panegyric on St. Gregory.
54. Gregor. M. in l. 1. Reg. c. 16, v. 3 and 9.

ANNOTATION

ON

THE LIFE OF ST. GREGORY.

BARONIUS thinks that his monastery of Saint Andrew's followed the rule
of St. Equitius, because its first abbots were drawn out of his
province, Valeria. On another side, Dom Ma-billon (t. 1. Actor. Sanct. &
t. 2, Analect. and Annal. Bened. l, 6,) maintains that it followed the
rule of St. Benedict, which St. Gregory often commends and prefers to all
other rules. His colleagues, in their life of St. Gregory, Natalis
Alexander, in his Church History, and others, have written to support
the same opinion: who all, with Mabillon, borrow all their arguments
from the learned English Benedictin, Clemens Reynerus, in his
Apostolatus Benedictinorum in Anglia. Others object that St. Gregory in
his epistles ordains many things contrary to the rule of St. Benedict,
and think he who has written so much concerning St. Benedict, would have
mentioned by some epithet the circumstance of being his disciple, and
would have called the rule of that patriarch his own. These antiquaries
judge it most probable that the monastery of St. Andrew had its own rule
prescribed by the first founders, and borrowed from different places:
for this was the ordinary method of most monasteries in the west, till
afterwards the rule of St. Benedict was universally received for better
uniformity and discipline: to which the just commendations of St.
Gregory doubtless contributed.

F. Clement Reyner, in the above-mentioned book, printed at Doway, in
folio, in 1626, displays much erudition in endeavoring to prove that St.
Austin, and the other monks sent by Saint Gregory to convert the
English, professed the order of St. Benedict. Mabillon borrows his
arguments on this subject in his preface to the Acts of the Benedictins,
against the celebrated Sir John Marsham, who, in his long preface to the
Monasticon, sets himself to show that the first English monks followed
rules instituted by their own abbots, often gleaned out of many. Dr.
Hickes confirms this assertion against Mabillon with great erudition,
(Diss. pp. 67, 68,) which is espoused by Dr. Tanner, bishop of St.
Asaph's, in his preface to nis exact Notitia Monastica, by the author of
Biographia Britannica, in the life of Bede, t. 1, p. 656, and by the
judicious William Thomas, in his additions to the new edition of
Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire, (t. 1, p. 157.) These authors
think that the rule of St. Benedict was not generally received by the
English monks before the regulations of St. Dunstan; nor perfectly till
after the Norman conquest. For pope Constantine, in 709, in the bull
wherein he establishes the rule of St. Benedict to be followed in the
abbey of Evesham, says of it: "Which does not prevail in those parts."
"Quæ minus in illis partibus habetur." In 747, Cuthbert archbishop of
Canterbury, in a synod held in presence of Ethelbaid, king of the
Mercians, at Cloveshove, (which town some place in Kent, others more
probably in Mercia, about Reading,) published Monastic Constitutions,
which were {581} followed by the English monks till the time of St.
Dunstan. In these we find no mention of the rule of Saint Benedict; nor
in Bede. The charter of king Ethelbald which mentions the Black monks,
is a manifest forgery. Even that name was not known before the
institution of the Camaldulenses, in 1020, and the Carthusians, who
distinguished themselves by white habits. Dom Mege, in his commentary on
the rule of St. Benedict, shows that the first Benedictins wore white,
not black. John of Glastenbury, and others, published by Hearne, who
call the apostles of the English Black Monks, are too modern, unless
they produce some ancient vouchers. The monastery of Evesham adopted the
rule of Saint Benedict, in 709. St. Bennet Biscop and St. Wilfrid both
improved the monastic order in the houses which they founded, from the
rule of St. Benedict, at least borrowing some constitutions from it. The
devastations of the Danes scarce left a convent of monks standing in
England, except those of Glastenbury and Abingdon, which was their state
in the days of king Alfred, as Leland observes. St. Dunstan, St. Oswald,
and St. Ethelwold, restored the monasteries, and propagated exceedingly
the monastic state. St. Oswald had professed the order of Saint Benedict
in France, in the monastery of Fleury; and, together with the aforesaid
two bishops, he established the same in a great measure in England. St.
Dunstan published a uniform rule for the monasteries of this nation,
entitled, Regularis Concordiæ Anglicæ Nationis, extant in Reyner, and
Spelman, (in Spicilegio ad Eadmerum, p. 145,) in which he adopts, in a
great measure, the rule of St. Benedict, joining with it many ancient
monastic customs. Even after the Norman conquest, the synod of London,
under Lanfranc, in 1075, says the regulations of monks were drawn from
the rule of St. Bennet and the ancient custom of regular places, as
Baronius takes notice, which seems to imply former distinct institutes.
From that time down to the dissolution, all the cathedral priories,
except that of Carlisle, and most of the rich abbeys in England, were
held by monks of the Benedictin order. See Dr. Brown Willis, in his
separate histories of Cathedral Priories, Mitred Abbeys, &c.

ST. MAXIMILIAN, M.

HE was the son of Victor, a Christian soldier in Numidia. According to
the law which obliged the sons of soldiers to serve in the army at the
age of twenty-one years, his measure was taken, that he might be
enrolled in the troops, and he was found to be of due stature, being
five Roman feet and ten inches high,[1] that is, about five feet and a
half of our measure. But Maximilian refused to receive the mark, which
was a print on the band, and a leaden collar about the neck, on which
were engraved the name and motto of the emperor. His plea was, that in
the Roman army superstitions, contrary to the Christian faith, were
often practised, with which he could not defile his soul. Being
condemned by the proconsul to lose his head, he met death with joy in
the year 296. See his acts in Ruinart.

Footnotes:
1.  See Tr. ur la Milice Romaine, t. 1.

ST. PAUL, BISHOP OF LEON, C.

HE was a noble Briton, a native of Cornwall, cousin of St. Samson, and
his fellow-disciple under St. Iltutus. We need no other proof of his
wonderful fervor and progress in virtue, and all the exercises of a
monastic life, than the testimony of St. Iltutus, by whose advice St.
Paul left the monastery to embrace more perfect eremetical life in a
retired place in the same country. Some time after, our saint sailing
from Cornwall, passed into Armorica, and continued the same austere
eremitical life in a small island on the coast of the Osismians, a
barbarous idolatrous people in Armorica, or Little Britain. Prayer and
contemplation were his whole employment, and bread and water his only
food, except on great festivals, on which he took {582} with his bread a
few little fish. The saint, commiserating the blindness of the pagan
inhabitants on the coast, passed over to the continent, and instructed
them in the faith. Withur, count or governor of Bas, and all that coast,
seconded by king Childebert, procured his ordination to the episcopal
dignity, notwithstanding his tears to prevent it. Count Withur, who
resided in the Isle of Bas, bestowed his own house on the saint to be
converted into a monastery; and St. Paul placed in it certain fervent
monks, who had accompanied him from Wales and Cornwall. He was himself
entirely taken up in his pastoral functions, and his diligence in
acquitting himself of every branch of his obligations was equal to his
apprehension of their weight. When he had completed the conversion of
that country, he resigned his bishopric to a disciple, and retired into
the isle of Bas, where he died in holy solitude, on the 12th of March,
about the year 573, near one hundred years old.[1] During the inroads of
the Normans, his relics were removed to the abbey of Fleury, or St.
Bennet's on the Loire, but were lost when the Calvinists plundered that
church. Leon, the ancient city of the Osismians, in which he fixed his
see, takes his name. His festival occurs in the ancient breviary of
Leon, on the 10th of October, perhaps the day of the translation of his
relics. For in the ancient breviary of Nantes, and most others, he is
honored on the 12th of March. See Le Cointe's Annals, the Bollandists on
this day, and Lobineau in the Lives of the Saints of Brittany, from his
acts compiled by a monk of Fleury, about the close of the tenth century.

Footnotes:
1.  St. Paul was ordained priest before he left Great Britain, about the
    year 530. The little island on the coast of Armorica, where he chose
    his first abode in France, was called Medonia, and seems to the
    present Molene, situated between the isle of Ushant and the coast.
    The first oratory which he built on the continent, very near this
    islands seems to be the church called from him Lan-Pol.


MARCH XIII.

ST. NICEPHORUS, C.

PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE

From his life by Ignatius, deacon of Constantinople, afterwards bishop
of Nice, a contemporary author; and from the relation of his banishment
by Theophanes. See Fleury, l. 45, 46, 47. Ceillier, t. 18, p. 487.

A.D. 828.

THEODORUS, the father of our saint, was secretary to the emperor
Constantine Copronymus: but when that tyrant declared himself a
persecutor of the Catholic church, the faithful minister, remembering
that we are bound to obey God rather than man, maintained the honor due
to holy images with so much zeal, that he was stripped of his honors,
scourged, tortured, and banished. The young Nicephorus was from his
cradle animated to the practice of virtue by the domestic example of his
father: and in his education, as his desires of improvement were great,
and the instructions he had very good, the progress he made was as
considerable; till, by the maturity of his age, and of his study, he
made his appearance in the world. When Constantine and Irene were placed
on the imperial throne, and restored the Catholic faith, our saint was
quickly introduced to their notice, and by his merits attained a large
share in their favor. He was by them advanced to his father's {583}
dignity, and, by the lustre of his sanctity, was the ornament of the
court, and the support of the state. He distinguished himself by his
zeal against the Iconoclasts, and was secretary to the second council of
Nice. After the death of St. Tarasius, patriarch of Constantinople, in
806, no one was found more worthy to succeed him than Nicephorus. To
give an authentic testimony of his faith, during the time of his
consecration he held in his hand a treatise which he had written in
defence of holy images, and after the ceremony laid it up behind the
altar, as a pledge that he would always maintain the tradition of the
church. As soon as he was seated in the patriarchal chair, he began to
consider how a total reformation of manners might be wrought, and his
precepts from the pulpit received a double force from the example he set
to others in an humble comportment, and steady uniform practice of
eminent piety.[1] He applied himself with unwearied diligence to all the
duties of the ministry; and, by his zealous labors and invincible
meekness and patience, kept virtue in countenance, and stemmed the tide
of iniquity. But these glorious successes rendered him not so
conspicuous as the constancy with which he despised the frowns of
tyrants, and suffered persecution for the sake of justice.

The government having changed hands, the patrician Leo the Armenian,
governor of Natolia, became emperor in 813, and being himself an
Iconoclast, endeavored both by artifices and open violence to establish
that heresy. He studied in the first place, by crafty suggestions, to
gain over the holy patriarch to favor his design. But St. Nicephorus
answered him: "We cannot change the ancient traditions: we respect holy
images as we do the cross and the book of the gospels." For it must be
observed that the ancient Iconoclasts venerated the book of the gospels,
and the figure of the cross, though by an inconsistency usual in error,
they condemned the like relative honor with regard to holy images. The
saint showed, that far from derogating from the supreme honor of God, we
honor him when for his sake we pay a subordinate respect to his angels,
saints, prophets, and ministers: also when we give a relative inferior
honor to inanimate things which belong to his service, as sacred
vessels, churches, and images. But the tyrant was fixed in his errors,
which he at first endeavored to propagate by stratagems. He therefore
privately encouraged soldiers to treat contemptuously an image of Christ
which was on a great cross at the brazen gate of the city; and thence
took occasion to order the image to be taken off the cross, pretending
he did it to prevent a second profanation. Saint Nicephorus saw the
storm gathering, and spent most of his time in prayer with several holy
bishops and abbots. Shortly after, the emperor, having assembled
together certain Iconoclast bishops in his palace, sent for the
patriarch and his fellow-bishops. They obeyed the summons, but entreated
his majesty to leave the government of the church to its pastors.
Emilian, bishop of Cyzicus, one of their body, said: "If this is an
ecclesiastical affair, let it be discussed in the church, according to
custom, not in the palace." Euthymius, bishop of Sardes said: "For these
eight hundred years past, since the coming of Christ, there have been
always pictures of him, and he has been honored in them. Who shall now
have the boldness to abolish so ancient a tradition?" St. Theodorus, the
Studite, spoke after the bishops, and said to the emperor: "My Lord, do
not disturb the order of the church. God hath placed in it apostles,
prophets, pastors, and teachers.[2] You he hath intrusted with the care
of the state; but leave the church to its pastors." The emperor, {584}
in a rage, drove them from his presence. Sometime after, the Iconoclast
bishops held a pretended council in the imperial palace, and cited the
patriarch to appear before them. To their summons he returned this
answer: "Who gave you this authority? was it the pope, or any of the
patriarchs? In my diocese you have no jurisdiction." He then read the
canon which declares those excommunicated who presume to exercise any
act of jurisdiction in the diocese of another bishop. They, however,
proceeded to pronounce against him a mock sentence of deposition; and
the holy pastor, after several attempts made secretly to take away his
life, was sent by the emperor into banishment. Michael the Stutterer,
who in 820 succeeded Leo in the imperial throne, was engaged in the same
heresy, and also a persecutor of our saint, who died in his exile, on
the 2d of June, in the monastery of St. Theodorus, which he had built in
the year 828, the fourteenth of his banishment, being about seventy
years old. By the order of the empress Theodora, his body was brought to
Constantinople with great pomp, in 848, on the 13th of March, on which
day he is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology.[3]

       *       *       *       *       *

It is by a wonderful effect of his most gracious mercy and singular
love, that God is pleased to visit all his faithful servants with severe
trials, and to purify their virtue in the crucible, that by being
exercised it may be made heroic and perfect. By suffering with patience,
and in a Christian spirit, a soul makes higher and quicker advances in
pure love, than by any other means or by any other good works. Let no
one then repine, if by sickness, persecution, or disgraces, they are
hindered from doing the good actions which they desire, or rendered
incapable of discharging the duties of their station, or of laboring to
convert others. God always knows what is best for us and others: we may
safely commend to him his own cause, and all souls, which are dearer to
him than they can be to us. By this earnest prayer and perfect sacrifice
of ourselves to God, we shall more effectually draw upon ourselves the
divine mercy than by any endeavors of our own. Let us leave to God the
choice of his instruments and means in the salvation of others. As to
ourselves, it is our duty to give him what he requires of us: nor can we
glorify him by any sacrifice either greater or more honorable, and more
agreeable to him, than that of a heart under the heaviest pressure, ever
submissive to him, embracing with love and joy every order of his
wisdom, and placing its entire happiness and comfort in the
accomplishment of his adorable most holy will. The great care of a
Christian in this state, in order to sanctify his sufferings, must be to
be constantly {585} united to God, and to employ his affections in the
most fervent interior exercises of entire sacrifice and resignation, of
confidence, love, praise, adoration, penance, and compunction, which he
excites by suitable aspirations.

Footnotes:
1.  The Confession of Faith which, upon his promotion, he sent to pope
    Leo III., is published by Baronius ad an. 811 and in the seventh
    tome of Labbe's councils, &c. In it the saint gives a clear
    exposition of the principal mysteries of faith, of the invocation of
    saints, and the veneration due to relics and holy images.
2.  Eph. iv. 11.
3.  St. Nicephorus has left us a chronicle from the beginning of the
    world: of which the best editions are that of F. Goar, with the
    chronicle of George Syncellus at Paris, in 1652, and that of Venice
    among the Byzantine historians, in 1729. Also a short history from
    the reign of Mauritius to that of Constantine and Irene, published
    at Paris, in 1616, by F. Petau; and reprinted among the Byzantine
    historians, at Paris, in 1649, and again at Venice, in 1729. The
    style is justly commended by Photius. (col. 66.) The seventeen
    canons of St. Nicephorus are extant in the collection of the
    councils, t. 7, p. 1297, &c. In the second he declares it unlawful
    to travel on Sundays without necessity. Cotelier has published four
    others of this saint, with five of the foregoing, and his letter to
    Hilarion and Eustrasius, containing learned resolutions of several
    cases. (Monum. Græc. t. 3, p. 451.) St. Nicephorus wrote several
    learned tracts against the Iconoclasts, as three Antirrhetics or
    Confutations, &c. Some of these are printed in the Library of the
    Fathers, and F. Combefis's Supplement or Auctuarium, t. 1, in
    Canisius's Lectiones Antiquæ, republished by Basnage, part 2, &c.
    But a great number are only found in MSS. in the libraries of
    England, Paris, and Rome. The saint often urges that the Iconoclasts
    condemned themselves by allowing veneration to the cross, for the
    image of Christ upon the cross is more than the bare cross. In the
    second Antirrhetic he most evidently establishes the real presence
    of the Body of Christ in the Eucharist; which passage is quoted by
    Leo Allatius. (l. 3, de Consens. Ecclesiæ Occident. et Orient. c.
    15, p. 1223.) He does the same almost in the same words, l. de
    Cherubinis a Moyse Factis, c. 7, apud Canis. t. 2, ed. Basm. part 2,
    p. 19, & t. 9, Bibl. Patr. Three Antirrhetics are entitled, against
    Mamonas (i. e. Constantine Copronytnus) and the Iconoclasts. A
    fourth was written by him against Eusebius and Epiphanides to prove
    that Eusebius of Cæsarea was an obstinate Arian, and Epiphanides a
    favorer of Manicheism, and a very different person from St.
    Epiphanius of Salamine. F. Anselm Bauduri, a Benedictin monk of
    Ragusa, undertook at Paris a complete edition of the works of St.
    Nicephorus, in two volumes in folio: but his death prevented the
    publication. His learned Prospectus, dated in the monastery of St.
    Germain-des-Prez, in 1785, is inserted by Fabricius in Biblioth. Gr.
    t. 6, p. 640, and in part by Oudin, de Scrip. t. 2, p. 13.

ST. EUPHRASIA, V.

ANTIGONUS, the father of this saint, was a nobleman of the first rank
and quality in the court of Theodosius the younger, nearly allied in
blood to that emperor, and honored by him with several great employments
in the state. He was married to Euphrasia, a ladv no less illustrious
for her birth and virtue, by whom he had one only daughter and heiress,
called also Euphrasia, the saint of whom we treat. After her birth, her
pious parents, by mutual consent, engaged themselves by vow, to pass the
remainder of their lives in perpetual continence, that they might more
perfectly aspire to the invisible joys of the life to come; and from
that time they lived together as brother and sister, in the exercises of
devotion, alms-deeds, and penance. Antigonus died within a year, and the
holy widow, to shun the importunate addresses of young suitors for
marriage, and the distraction of friends, not long after withdrew
privately, with her little daughter, into Egypt, where she was possessed
of a very large estate. In that country she fixed her abode near a holy
monastery of one hundred and thirty nuns, who never used any other food
than herbs and pulse, which they took only after sunset, and some only
once in two or three days; they wore and slept on sackcloth, wrought
with their hands, and prayed almost without interruption. When sick,
they bore their pains with patience, esteeming them an effect of the
divine mercy, and thanking God for the same: nor did they seek relief
from physicians, except in cases of absolute necessity, and then only
allowed of ordinary general remedies, as the monks of La Trappe do at
this day. Delicate and excessive attention to health nourishes self-love
and immortification,[1] and often destroys that health which it studies
anxiously to preserve. By the example of these holy virgins, the devout
mother animated herself to fervor in the exercises of religion and
charity, to which she totally dedicated herself. She frequently visited
these servants of God, and earnestly entreated them to accept a
considerable annual revenue, with an obligation that they should always
be bound to pray for the soul of her deceased husband. But the abbess
refused the estate, saying: "We have renounced all the conveniences of
the world, in order to purchase heaven. We are poor, and such we desire
to remain." She could only be prevailed upon to accept a small matter to
supply the church-lamp with oil, and for incense to be burned on the
altar.

The young Euphrasia, at seven years of age, made it her earnest request
to her mother, that she might be permitted to serve God in this
monastery. The pious mother, on hearing this, wept for joy, and not long
after presented her to the abbess, who, taking up an image of Christ,
gave it into her hands. The tender virgin kissed it, saying: "By vow I
consecrate myself to Christ." Then the mother led her before an image of
our Redeemer, and lifting up her hands to heaven, said: "Lord Jesus
Christ, receive this child under your special protection. You alone doth
she love and seek: to you doth she recommend herself."[2] Then turning
to her dear daughter, she said: "May God, who laid the foundations of
the mountains, strengthen you always in his holy fear." And leaving her
in the hands of {586} the abbess, she went out of the monastery weeping.
Some time after this she fell sick, and being forewarned of her death,
gave her last instructions to her daughter, in these words: "Fear God,
honor your sisters, and serve them with humility. Never think of what
you have been, nor say to yourself that you are of royal extraction. Be
humble and poor on earth, that you may be rich in heaven." The good
mother soon after slept in peace. Upon the news of her death, the
emperor Theodosius sent for the noble virgin to court, having promised
her in marriage to a favorite young senator. But the virgin wrote him,
with her own hand, the following answer: "Invincible emperor, having
consecrated myself to Christ in perpetual chastity, I cannot be false to
my engagement, and marry a mortal man, who will shortly be the food of
worms. For the sake of my parents, be pleased to distribute their
estates among the poor, the orphans, and the church. Set all my slaves
at liberty, and discharge my vassals and servants, giving them whatever
is their due. Order my father's stewards to acquit my farmers of all
they owe since his death, that I may serve God without let or
hinderance, and may stand before him without the solicitude of temporal
affairs. Pray for me, you and your empress, that I may be made worthy to
serve Christ." The messengers returned with this letter to the emperor,
who shed many tears in reading it. The senators who heard it burst also
into tears, and said to his majesty: "She is the worthy daughter of
Antigonus and Euphrasia, of your royal blood, and the holy offspring of
a virtuous stock." The emperor punctually executed all she desired, a
little before his death, in 395.

St. Euphrasia was to her pious sisters a perfect pattern of humility,
meekness, and charity. If she found herself assaulted by any temptation,
she immediately discovered it to the abbess, to drive away the devil by
that humiliation, and to seek a remedy. The discreet superioress often
enjoined her, on such occasions, some humbling and painful penitential
labor; as sometimes to carry great stones from one place to another;
which employment she once, under an obstinate assault, continued thirty
days together with wonderful simplicity, till the devil being vanquished
by her humble obedience and chastisement of her body, he left her in
peace. Her diet was only herbs or pulse, which she took after sunset, at
first every day, but afterwards only once in two or three, or sometimes
seven days. But her abstinence received its chief merit from her
humility; without which it would have been a fast of devils. She cleaned
out the chambers of the other nuns, carried water to the kitchen, and,
out of obedience, cheerfully employed herself in the meanest drudgery;
making painful labor a part of her penance. To mention one instance of
her extraordinary meekness and humility: it is related, that one day a
maid in the kitchen asked her why she fasted whole weeks, which no other
attempted to do besides the abbess. Her answer was, that the abbess had
enjoined her that penance. The other called her a hypocrite. Upon which
Euphrasia fell at her feet, begging her to pardon and pray for her. In
which action it is hard to say, whether we ought more to admire the
patience with which she received so unjust a rebuke and slander, or the
humility with which she sincerely condemned herself; as if, by her
hypocrisy and imperfections, she had been a scandal to others. She was
favored with miracles both before and after her death, which happened in
the year 410, and the thirtieth of her age. Her name is recorded on this
day in the Roman Martyrology. See her ancient authentic life in
Rosweide, p. 351, D'Andilly, and most correct in the Acta Sanctorum, by
the Bollandists.

Footnotes:
1.  It is severely condemned by St. Bernard, ep. 345, ol. 321, p. 318,
    and serm. 50, in Cant. St. Ambrose serm. 22, in Ps. 118, and by
    Abbot Rance, the reformer of La Trappe.
2.  This passage is quoted by St. John Damascene, Or. 3, de Imagin.

{587}

ST. THEOPHANES, ABBOT, C.

HIS father, who was governor of the isles of the Archipelago, died when
he was only three years old, and left him heir to a very great estate,
under the guardianship of the Iconoclast emperor, Constantine
Copronymus. Amidst the dangers of such an education, a faithful pious
servant instilled into his tender mind the most generous sentiments of
virtue and religion. Being arrived at man's estate, he was compelled by
his friends to take a wife; but on the day of his marriage, he spoke in
so moving a manner to his consort on the shortness and uncertainty of
this life, that they made a mutual vow of perpetual chastity. She
afterwards became a nun, and he for his part built two monasteries in
Mysia; one of which, called Megal-Agre, near the Propontis, he governed
himself. He lived, as it were, dead to the world and the flesh, in the
greatest purity of life, and in the exercises of continual mortification
and prayer. In 787, he assisted at the second council of Nice, where all
admired to see one, whom they had formerly known in so much worldly
grandeur, now so meanly clad, so modest, and so full of self-contempt as
he appeared to be. He never laid aside his hair shirt; his bed was a
mat, and his pillow a stone; his sustenance was hard coarse bread and
water. At fifty years of age, he began to be grievously afflicted with
the stone and nephritic colic; but bore with cheerfulness the most
excruciating pains of his distemper. The emperor Leo, the Armenian, in
814, renewed the persecution against the church, and abolished the use
of holy images, which had been restored under Constantine and Irene.
Knowing the great reputation and authority of Theophanes, he endeavored
to gain him by civilities and crafty letters. The saint discovered the
hook concealed under his alluring baits, which did not, however, hinder
him from obeying the emperor's summons to Constantinople, though at that
time under a violent fit of the stone; which distemper, for the
remaining part of his life, allowed him very short intervals of ease.
The emperor sent him this message: "From your mild and obliging
disposition, I flatter myself you are come to confirm my sentiments on
the point in question with your suffrage. It is your readiest way for
obtaining my favor, and with that the greatest riches and honors for
yourself, your monastery, and relations, which it is in the power of an
emperor to bestow. But if you refuse to comply with my desires in this
affair, you will incur my highest displeasure, and draw misery and
disgrace on yourself and friends." The holy man returned for answer:
"Being now far advanced in years, and much broken with pains and
infirmities, I have neither relish nor inclination for any of these
things which I despised fox Christ's sake in my youth, when I was in a
condition to enjoy the world. As to my monastery and my friends, I
recommend them to God. If you think to frighten me into a compliance by
your threats, as a child is awed by the rod, you only lose your labor.
For though unable to walk, and subject to many other corporeal
infirmities, I trust in Christ that he will enable me to undergo, in
defence of his cause, the sharpest tortures you can inflict on nay weak
body." The emperor employed several persons to endeavor to overcome his
resolution, but in vain: so seeing himself vanquished by his constancy,
he confined him two years in a close stinking dungeon, where he suffered
much from his distemper and want of necessaries. He was also cruelly
scourged, having received three hundred stripes. In 818, he was, removed
out of his dungeon, and banished into the isle of Samothracia, where he
died in seventeen days after his arrival, on the 12th of March. His
relics were honored by many miraculous cures. He has {588} left us his
Chronographia, or short history from the year 824, the first of
Dioclesian, where George Syncellus left off, to the year 813.[1] His
imprisonment did not allow him leisure to polish the style. See his
contemporary life, and the notes of Goar and Combefis, two learned
Dominicans, on his works, printed at Paris, in 1655.

Footnotes:
1.  George Syncellus, (i. e. secretary to the patriarch St. Tarasius,) a
    holy monk, and zealous defender of holy images, was a close friend
    of St. Theophanes, and died about the year 800. In his chronicle are
    preserved excellent fragments of Manetho, the Egyptian, of Julius
    Africanus, Eusebius, &c.

SAINT KENNOCHA, VIRGIN IN SCOTLAND,

IN THE REIGN OF KING MALCOLM II.

FROM her infancy she was a model of humility, meekness, modesty, and
devotion. Though an only daughter, and the heiress of a rich and noble
family, fearing lest the poison which lurks in the enjoyment of
perishable goods should secretly steal into her affections, or the noise
of the world should be a hinderance to her attention to heavenly things
and spiritual exercises, she rejected all solicitations of suitors and
worldly friends, and, in the bloom of life, made an entire sacrifice of
herself to God, by making her religious profession in a great nunnery,
in the county of Fife. In this holy state, by an extraordinary love of
poverty and mortification, a wonderful gift of prayer, and purity or
singleness of heart, she attained to the perfection of all virtues.
Several miracles which she wrought made her name famous among men, and
she passed to God in a good old age, in the year 1007. Several churches
in Scotland bore her name, particularly one near Glasgow, still called
St. Kennoch's Kirk, and another called by an abbreviation of her name
Kyle, in which her relics were formerly kept with singular veneration.
In the Aberdeen Breviary she is honored with a particular prayer. She is
mentioned by Adam King, in his calendar, and an account of her life is
given us in the Chronicle of Scone.

ST. GERALD, BISHOP.

HE was an Englishman, who, passing into Ireland, became a monk in the
abbey of Megeo, or Mayo, founded by Colman of Lindisfarne, for the
English. Gerald was advanced successively to the dignity of abbot and
bishop, and founded the abbey of Elytheria, or Tempul-Gerald in
Connaught, that of Teagh-na-Saxon, and a nunnery which he put under the
care of his sister Segretia. He departed to our Lord in 732, and was
buried at Mayo, where a church dedicated to God under his patronage
remains to this day. See Colgan.

ST. MOCHOEMOC, IN LATIN, PULCHERIUS, ABBOT.

HAVING been educated under St. Comgal, in the monastery of Benchor, he
laid the foundation of the great monastery of Liath-Mochoemoc, around
which a large town was raised, which still bears that name. His happy
death is placed by the chronologists on the 13th of March, in 635. See
Usher's Antiquities in Tab. Chron. and Colgan.

{589}


MARCH XIV.

ST. MAUD, OR MATHILDIS, QUEEN OF GERMANY.

From her life written forty years after her death, by the order of St.
Henry; Acta Sanct. t. 7, p. 361.

A.D. 968.

THIS princess was daughter of Theodoric, a powerful Saxon count. Her
parents, being sensible that piety is the only true greatness, placed
her very young in the monastery of Erford, of which her grandmother
Maud, who had renounced the world in her widowhood, was then abbess.
Here our saint acquired an extraordinary relish for prayer and spiritual
reading; and learned to work at her needle, and to employ all the
precious moments of life in something serious and worthy the great end
of her creation. She remained in that house an accomplished model of all
virtues, till her parents married her to Henry, son of Otho, duke of
Saxony, in 913. Her husband, surnamed the Fowler, from his fondness for
the diversion of hawking, then much in vogue, became duke of Saxony by
the death of his father, in 916; and in 919, upon the death of Conrad,
was chosen king of Germany. He was a pious and victorious prince, and
very tender of his subjects. His solicitude in easing their taxes, made
them ready to serve their country in his wars at their own charges,
though he generously recompensed their zeal after his expeditions, which
were always attended with success. While he by his arms checked the
insolence of the Hungarians and Danes, and enlarged his dominions by
adding to them Bavaria, Maud gained domestic victories over her
spiritual enemies, more worthy of a Christian, and far greater in the
eyes of heaven. She nourished the precious seeds of devotion and
humility in her heart by assiduous prayer and meditation; and, not
content with the time which the day afforded for these exercises,
employed part of the night the same way. The nearer the view was which
she took of worldly vanities, the more clearly she discovered their
emptiness and dangers, and sighed to see men pursue such bubbles to the
loss of their souls; for, under a fair outside, they contain nothing but
poison and bitterness.

It was her delight to visit, comfort, and exhort the sick and the
afflicted, to serve and instruct the poor, teaching them the advantages
of their state from the benedictions and example of Christ; and to
afford her charitable succors to prisoners, procuring them their liberty
where motives of justice would permit it; or at least easing the weight
of their chains by liberal alms; but her chief aim was to make them
shake off their sins by sincere repentance. Her husband, edified by her
example, concurred with her in every pious undertaking which she
projected. After twenty-three years' marriage, God was pleased to call
the king to himself by an apoplectic fit, in 936. Maud, during his
sickness, went to the church to pour forth her soul in prayer for him at
the foot of the altar. As soon as she understood, by the tears and cries
of the people, that he had expired, she called for a priest that was
fasting, to offer the holy sacrifice for his soul; and at the same time
cut off the jewels which she wore, and gave them to the priest, as a
pledge that she renounced from that moment the pomp of the world. She
had three sons; Otho, afterwards emperor; Henry, duke of Bavaria, and
St. Bruno, archbishop of Cologne. Otho was crowned king of Germany in
937, {590} and emperor at Rome in 962, after his victories over the
Bohemians and Lombards. Maud, in the contest between her two elder sons
for the crown, which was elective, favored Henry, who was the younger, a
fault she expiated by severe afflictions and penance. These two sons
conspired to strip her of her dowry, on the unjust pretence that she had
squandered away the revenues of the state on the poor. This persecution
was long and cruel, coming from all that was most dear to her in this
world. The unnatural princes at length repented of their injustice, were
reconciled to her, and restored her all that had been taken from her.
She then became more liberal in her alms than ever, and founded many
churches, with five monasteries; of which the principal were that of
Polden in the duchy of Brunswick, in which she maintained three thousand
monks; and that of Quedlinbourg in the duchy of Saxony.[1] She buried
her husband in this place, and when she had finished the buildings, made
it her usual retreat. She applied herself totally to her devotions, and
to works of mercy. It was her greatest pleasure to teach the poor and
ignorant how to pray, as she had formerly taught her servants. In her
last sickness she made her confession to her grandson William, the
archbishop of Mentz, who yet died twelve days before her, on his road
home. She again made a public confession before the priests and monks of
the place, received a second time the last sacraments, and lying on a
sackcloth with ashes on her head, died on the 14th of March, in 968. Her
body remains at Quedlinbourg. Her name is recorded to the Roman
Martyrology on this day.

       *       *       *       *       *

The beginning of true virtue is most ardently to desire it, and to ask
it of God with the utmost assiduity and earnestness,[2] preferring it
with all the saints to kingdoms and thrones, and considering riches as
nothing in comparison of this our only and inestimable treasure. Fervent
prayer, holy meditation, and reading pious books, are the principal
means by which it is to be constantly improved, and the interior life of
the soul to be strength ened. These are so much the more necessary in
the world than in a religious state, as its poison and distractions
threaten her continually with the greatest danger. Amidst the pomp,
hurry, and amusements of a court, St. Maud gave herself up to holy
contemplation with such earnestness, that though she was never wanting
to any exterior or social duties, her soul was raised above all
perishable goods, dwelt always in heaven, and sighed after that happy
moment which was to break the bonds of her slavery, and unite her to God
in eternal bliss and perfect love. Is it possible that so many
Christians, capable of finding in God their sovereign felicity, should
amuse themselves with pleasures which flatter the senses, with reading
profane books, and seeking an empty satisfaction in idle visits, vain
conversation, news, and sloth, in which they pass those precious hours
which they might employ in exercises of devotion, and in the duties and
serious employments of their station! What trifles do they suffer to
fill their minds and hearts, and to rob them of the greatest of all
treasures! Conversation and visits in the world must only be allowed as
far as they are social duties, must be regulated by charity and
necessity, sanctified by simplicity, prudence, and every virtue,
animated by the spirit of God, and seasoned with a holy unction which
divine grace gives to those whom it perfectly replenishes and possesses.

Footnotes:
1.  The abbess of this latter is the first princess of the empire.
2.  Sap. vii. 6.

{591}

SS. ACEPSIMAS, BISHOP, JOSEPH, PRIEST; AND AITHILAHAS, DEACON, MM.

ST. MARUTHAS closes, with the acts of these martyrs, his history of the
persecution of king Sapor, which raged without intermission during forty
years. The venerable author assures us, that, living in the
neighborhood, he had carefully informed himself of the several
circumstances of their combats from those who were eye-witnesses, and
ushers in his account with the following address: "Be propitious to me,
O Lord, through the prayers of these martyrs--Being assisted by the
divine grace, and strengthened by your protection, O ye incomparable
men, I presume to draw the outlines of your heroic virtue and incredible
torments. But the remembrance of your bitter sufferings covers me with
shame, confusion, and tears, for myself and my sins. O! you who hear
this relation, count the days and the hours of three years and a half,
which they spent in prison, and remember they passed no month without
frequent tortures, no day free from pain, no hour without the threat of
immediate death. The festivals and new moons were black to them by fresh
racks, beatings, clubs, chains, hanging by their limbs, dislocations of
their joints, &c." In the thirty-seventh year of this persecution, a
fresh edict was published, commanding the governors and magistrates to
punish all Christians with racks, scourges, stoning, and every sort of
death, laying to their charge the following articles: "They abolish our
doctrine; they teach men to worship one only God, and forbid them to
adore the sun or fire; they use water for profane washing; they forbid
persons to marry, to be soldiers in the king's armies, or to strike any
one; they permit all sorts of animals to be killed, and they suffer the
dead to be buried; they say that serpents and scorpions were made, not
by the devil, but by God himself."

Acepsimas, bishop of Honita in Assyria, a man above fourscore years old,
but of a vigorous and strong constitution of body, was apprehended, and
conducted in chains to Arbela, before the governor. This judge inquired
how he could deny the divinity of the sun, which all the East adored.
The martyr answered him, expressing his astonishment how men could
prefer a creature to the Creator. By the orders of the governor he was
laid on the ground with his feet bound, and in that posture barbarously
scourged, till his whole body was covered with blood; after which he was
thrown into prison.

In the mean time one Joseph, a holy priest of Bethcatuba, and
Aithilahas, a deacon of Beth-nudra, famed for eloquence, sanctity, and
learning, were brought before the same governor. To his interrogatories,
Joseph answered, that he was a Christian, and had always taught the sun
to be an inanimate creature. The issue was, that he was stretched flat
on the ground, and beaten with thick twigs stripped of the thorns, by
ten executioners who succeeded one another, till his body seemed one
continued wound. At the sight of himself in this condition the martyr
with joy said: "I return you the greatest thanks I am able, Christ, the
Son of God, who have granted me this mercy, and washed me with this
second baptism of my blood, to wipe away my sins." His courage the
persecutors deemed an insult, and redoubled their fury in tearing and
bruising his blessed body. After he was loosened, loaded with heavy
chains, and cast into the same dungeon with Acepsimas, Aithilahas was
called upon. The governor said to him: "Adore {592} the sun, which is a
divinity, eat blood, marry,[1] and obey the king, and you shall live."
The martyr answered: "It is better to die, in order to live eternally."
By the judge's command, his hands were tied under his knees, and his
body fastened to a beam: in this posture it was squeezed and pulled many
ways, and afterwards scourged. His bones were in many places broken or
dislocated, and his flesh mangled. At length, not being able to stand,
he was carried back to prison on men's shoulders. On the next day, they
were all three again brought forth and stretched on the ground, bound
fast with cords, and their legs, thighs, and ribs so squeezed and
strained by stakes, that the noise of the bones breaking filled the
place with horror. Yet to every solicitation of the judge or officers,
their answer was: "We trust in one God, and we will not obey the king's
edicts." Scarce a day passed in which some new torture or other was not
invented and tried upon them.

After they had for three years suffered the hardships of imprisonment
and daily torments, the king coming into Media, the martyrs were brought
before Adarsapor, the chief of all the governors of the East, several
other Satrapes and governors sitting with him in the palace. They were
carried thither, for they were not able to walk, and they scarce
retained the figure of human bodies. The very sight of such spectacles
moved all who saw them to compassion, and many to tears. They
courageously professed themselves Christians, and declared that they
would never abandon their faith. Adarsapor said, he saw by their wounds
what they had already suffered, and used both threats and entreaties to
work them into a compliance with the law. When they begged him to hasten
the execution of his threats, he told them: "Death frees criminals from
pain: but I will render life to you as grievous as a continued death,
that others of your sect may tremble." Acepsimas said: "In vain do you
threaten. God, in whom we trust, will give us courage and constancy." At
this answer, fury flashed in the eyes of Adarsapor, and he swore by the
fortune of king Sapor, that if they did not that instant obey the
edicts, he would sprinkle their gray hairs with their blood, would
destroy their bodies, and would cause their dead remains to be beaten to
powder. Acepsimas said: "To you we resign our bodies, and commend to God
our souls. Execute what you threaten. It is what we desire." The tyrant,
with rage painted in every feature of his countenance, ordered the
venerable old man to be stretched on the ground, and thirty men, fifteen
on each side, to pull and haul him by cords tied to his arms, legs, and
other limbs, so as to dislocate and almost tear them asunder; and two
hangmen in the mean time to scourge his body with so much cruelty, as to
mangle and tear off the flesh in many parts: under which torment the
martyr expired. His body was watched by guards appointed for that
purpose, till after three days it was stolen away by the Christians, and
buried by the care of a daughter of the king of Armenia, who was at that
time a hostage in Media.

Joseph and Aithilahas underwent the same punishment, but came alive out
of the hands of the executioners. The latter said to the judge under his
torments: "Your tortures are too mild, increase them as you please."
Adarsapor, struck with astonishment at their courage, said: "These men
are greedy of torments as if they were banquets, and are fond of a
kingdom that is invisible." He then caused them to be tormented afresh,
so that every part of their bodies was mangled, and their shoulders and
arms disjointed. Adarsapor gave an order that if they did not die of
their torments, they should be carried back into their own country, to
be there put to death. {593} The two martyrs, being not able to sit,
were tied on the backs of beasts, and conveyed with great pain to
Arbela, their guards treating them on the way with no more compassion
than if they had been stones. Jazdundocta, an illustrious lady of the
city Arbela, for a great sum of money, obtained leave of the governor,
that they should be brought to her house, to take a short refreshment.
She dressed their wounds, bathed their bodies with her tears, and was
exceedingly encouraged by their faith and exhortations. The blessed
martyrs were soon taken from her house to prison, where they languished
six months longer. A new governor at length came into that province, the
most savage of men, bringing an edict of the king, commanding that
Christians who were condemned to death, should be stoned by those who
professed the same religion. The news of his arrival drove the
Christians into the woods and deserts, that they might not be compelled
to imbrue their hands in the blood of martyrs. But soldiers there hunted
them like wild beasts, and many were taken. The two confessors were
presented before this new judge. Joseph was hung up by the toes, and
scourged during two hours, in the presence of the judge, who, hearing
him discourse on the resurrection, said: "In that resurrection how do
you design to punish me?" The martyr replied: "We are taught meekness,
to return good for evil, and to pray for enemies." "Well," said the
judge, "then I shall meet with kindness from your hands for the evil
which you here receive from me." To which the martyr answered: "There
will be then no room for pardon or favor: nor will one be able to help
another. I will pray that God may bring you to the knowledge of himself
in this life." The judge said: "Consider these things in the next world,
whither I am going to send you: at present obey the king." The old man
answered: "Death is our desire." The emperor then began to interrogate
Aithilahas, and caused him to be hung up by the heels a long time
together. He was at length taken down, and to move him to a compliance,
he was shown a certain Manichaean heretic who had renounced his religion
for fear of torments, and was killing ants, which those heretics held
unlawful, teaching that insects and beasts have rational souls. The
saint, lying on the ground, was scourged till he fell into a swoon, and
then was hauled aside like a dog. A certain Magian, out of pity, threw a
coat over his wounds to cover his naked body; for which act of
compassion he received two hundred lashes, till he fainted. Thamsapor
arriving at his castle of Beth-Thabala, in that country, the governor
caused the martyrs to be carried before him. They were ordered to eat
the blood of beasts: which they refused to do. One told them, that if
they would eat the juice of red grapes curdled, which the people might
think to be blood, this would satisfy the judges. They answered: "God
forbid we should dissemble our faith." We have elsewhere taken notice
that the Christians then observed in many places the positive temporary
law of the apostles.[2] Thamsapor and the governor, after a short
consultation, condemned both to be stoned to death by the Christians.
Joseph was executed at Arbela. He was put into the ground up to the
neck. The guards had drawn together five hundred Christians to his
execution. The noble lady Jazdundocta was brought thither, and earnestly
pressed to throw but a feather at the martyr, that she might seem to
obey the order of the king. But she resolutely resisted their entreaties
and threats, desiring to die with the servant of God. Many, however,
having the weakness to comply, a shower of stones fell upon the martyr,
which put an end to his life. When he was dead, guards were set to watch
his body; but the Christians found means to steal it away on the third
night, during a {594} dark tempest. St. Aithilahas suffered in the
province of Beth-Nubadra; the lord of that country, who had been a
Christian, by a base apostasy, becoming one of his murderers. St.
Maruthas adds, that angels were heard singing at the place of this
martyrdom, and many miracles wrought. These martyrs suffered in the year
380, the seventieth and last of the reign of Sapor, and the fortieth of
his persecution. They are mentioned by Sozomen,[3] and are named in the
Roman Martyrology on the 22d of April. See their genuine Chaldaic acts,
by St. Maruthas in Assemani, t. 1, p. 171. Act. Martyr. Orient.

Footnotes:
1.  From this, and many other passages, it is clear, that the obligation
    of perpetual chastity was annexed to Holy Orders in the eastern
    churches no less than in the western.
2.  Acts xv. 29.
3.  B. 2, ch. 13.

ST. BONIFACE, BISHOP OF ROSS, IN SCOTLAND, C.

AN ardent zeal for the salvation of souls brought this servant of God
from Italy to North-Britain. Near the mouth of the Tees, where he
landed, he built a church under the invocation of St. Peter, another at
Tellein, three miles from Alect, and a third at Restennet. This last was
served by a famous monastery of regular canons of the order of St.
Austin, when religious houses were abolished in Scotland. St. Boniface,
by preaching the word of God, reformed the manners of the people in the
provinces of Angus, Marris, Buchan, Elgin, Murray, and Ross. Being made
bishop in this last country, he filled it with oratories and churches,
and by planting the true spirit of Christ in the hearts of many, settled
that church in a most flourishing condition. He died about the year 630,
and was buried at Rosmark, the capital of the county of Ross. The
Breviary of Aberdeen mentions that he founded one hundred and fifty
churches and oratories in Scotland, and ascribes many miracles to his
intercession after his death. See that Breviary, and King on this day,
bishop Lesley, l. 4. Hist. Scot. and Hector Boetius, l. 9. Hist.


MARCH XV.

ST. ABRAHAM, HERMIT,

AND HIS NIECE ST. MARY, A PENITENT.

From his life written by his friend, St. Ephrem, Op. t. 2, p. 1, Ed.
nov. Vatic. See other acts of St. Abraham, given in Latin by Lipoman. 29
Oct., and by Surius, 16 March, mentioned in Greek by Lambecius, Bibl.
Vind. t. 8, pp. 255, 260, 266, and by Montfaucon, Bibl. Coislin. p. 211.
Two other kinds of Greek Acts are found among the MSS. at the ahbey of
St. Germain-des Prez, at Paris, Bibl. Coisl. ib. See also Jos. Assemani,
Bibl. Orient. t. 1, pp. 38 and 396, from the Chronicle of Edessa:
likewise Kohlius, Introductio in historiam et rem literariam Sclavorum,
p. 316. Aitonaviæ, A.D. 1729.

About the year 360.

ST. ABRAHAM was born at Chidana, in Mesopotamia, near Edessa, of wealthy
and noble parents, who, after giving him a most virtuous education, were
desirous of engaging him in the married state. In compliance with their
inclinations, Abraham took to wife a pious and noble virgin: but
earnestly desiring to live and die in the state of holy virginity, as
soon as the marriage ceremony and feast were over, having made known his
resolution {595} to his new bride, be secretly withdrew to a cell two
miles from the city Edessa; where his friends found him at prayer after
a search of seventeen days. By earnest entreaties he obtained their
consent, and after their departure walled up the door of his cell,
leaving only a little window, through which he received what was
necessary for his subsistence. He spent his whole time in adoring and
praising God, and imploring his mercy. He every day wept abundantly. He
was possessed of no other earthly goods but a cloak and a piece of
sackcloth which he wore, and a little vessel out of which he both ate
and drank. For fifty years he was never wearied with his austere penance
and holy exercises, and seemed to draw from them every day fresh vigor.
Ten years after he had left the world, by the demise of his parents, he
inherited their great estates, but commissioned a virtuous friend to
distribute the revenues in alms-deeds. Many resorted to him for
spiritual advice, whom he exceedingly comforted and edified by his holy
discourses.

A large country town in the diocese of Edessa remained till that time
addicted to idolatry, and its inhabitants had loaded with injuries and
outrages, all the holy monks and others who had attempted to preach the
gospel to them. The bishop at length cast his eye on Abraham, ordained
him priest, though much against his will, and sent him to preach the
faith to those obstinate infidels. He wept all the way as he went, and
with great earnestness repeated this prayer: "Most merciful God, look
down on my weakness: assist me with thy grace, that thy name may be
glorified. Despise not the works of thine own hands." At the sight of
the town, reeking with the impious rites of idolatry, he redoubled the
torrents of his tears: but found the citizens resolutely determined not
to hear him speak. Nevertheless, he continued to pray and weep among
them without intermission, and though he was often beaten and
ill-treated, and thrice banished by them, he always returned with the
same zeal. After three years the infidels were overcome by his meekness
and patience, and being touched by an extraordinary grace, all demanded
baptism. He stayed one year longer with them to instruct them in the
faith; and on their being supplied with priests and other ministers, he
went back to his cell.

His brother dying soon after his return thither, left an only daughter,
called Mary, whom the saint undertook to train up in a religious life.
For this purpose he placed her in a cell near his own, where, by the
help of his instructions, she became eminent for her piety and penance.
At the end of twenty years she was unhappily seduced by a wolf in
sheep's clothing, a wicked monk, who resorted often to the place under
color of receiving advice from her uncle. Hereupon falling into despair,
she went to a distant town, where she gave herself up to the most
criminal disorders. The saint ceased not for two years to weep and pray
for her conversion. Being then informed where she dwelt, he dressed
himself like a citizen of that town, and going to the inn where she
lived in the pursuit of her evil courses, desired her company with him
at supper. When he saw her alone, he took off his cap which disguised
him, and with many tears said to her: "Daughter Mary, don't you know me?
What is now become of your angelical habit, of your tears and watchings
in the divine praises?" &c.

Seeing her struck and filled with horror and confusion, he tenderly
encouraged her and comforted her, saying that he would take her sins
upon himself if she would faithfully follow his advice, and that his
friend Ephrem also prayed and wept for her. She with many tears returned
him her most hearty thanks, and promised to obey in all things his
injunctions. He set her on his horse, and led the beast himself on foot.
In this manner he conducted her back to his desert, and shut her up in a
cell behind his own. {596} There she spent the remaining fifteen years
of her life in continual tears and the most perfect practices of penance
and other virtues. Almighty God was pleased, within three years after
her conversion, to favor her with the gift of working miracles by her
prayers. And as soon as she was dead, "her countenance appeared to us,"
says St. Ephrem, "so shining, that we understood that choirs of angels
had attended at her passage out of this life into a better." St. Abraham
died five years before her: at the news of whose sickness almost the
whole city and country flocked to receive his benediction. When he had
expired, every one strove to procure for themselves some part of his
clothes, and St. Ephrem, who was an eye-witness, relates, that many sick
were cured by the touch of these relics. SS. Abraham and Mary were both
dead when St. Ephrem wrote, who died himself in 378.[1] St. Abraham is
named in the Latin, Greek, and Coptic calendars, and also St. Mary in
those of the Greeks.

St. Abraham converted his desert into a paradise, because he found in it
his God, whose presence makes Heaven. He wanted not the company of men,
who enjoyed that of God and his angels; nor could he ever be at a loss
for employment, to whom both the days and nights were too short for
heavenly contemplation. While his body was employed in penitential
manual labor, his mind and heart were sweetly taken up in God, who was
to him All in All, and the centre of all his desires and affections. His
watchings were but an uninterrupted sacrifice of divine love, and by the
ardor of his desire, and the disposition of his soul and its virtual
tendency to God, his sleep itself was a continuation of his union with
God, and exercise of loving him. He could truly say with the spouse, _I
sleep, but my heart watcheth_. Thus the Christians, who are placed in
distracting stations, may also do, if they accustom themselves to
converse interiorly with God in purity of heart, and in all their
actions and desires have only his will in view. Such a life is a kind of
imitation of the Seraphims, to whom to live and to love are one and the
same thing. "The angels," says St. Gregory the Great, "always carry
their Heaven about with them wheresoever they are sent, because they
never depart from God, or cease to behold him; ever dwelling in the
bosom of his immensity, living and moving in him, and exercising their
ministry in the sanctuary of his divinity." This is the happiness of
every Christian who makes a desert, by interior solitude, in his own
heart.

Footnotes:
1.  Bollandus, Papebroke, and Pagi, pretend that St. Abraham the hermit
    lived near the Hellespont, and long after St. Ephrem: but are
    clearly confuted by Jos. Assemani, Bibl. Orient. t, l, and Com. In
    Calend. Univ. t. 5. p. 324, ad 29 Oct. The chronicle of Edessa
    assures us that he was a native of Chidana, and was living in the
    year of the Greeks, 667, of Christ, 356.

ST. ZACHARY, POPE, C.

HE succeeded Gregory III., in 741, and was a man of singular meekness
and goodness; and so far from any thought of revenge, that he heaped
benefits on those who had persecuted him before his promotion to the
pontificate. He loved the clergy and people of Rome to that degree, that
he hazarded his life for them on occasion of the troubles which Italy
fell into by the rebellion of the dukes of Spoletto and Benevento
against king Luitprand. Out of respect to his sanctity and dignity, that
king restored to the church of Rome all the places which belonged to it:
Ameria, Horta, Narni, Ossimo, Ancona, and the whole territory of Sabina,
and sent back the captives without ransom. The Lombards were moved to
tears at the devotion with which they heard him perform the divine
service. By a journey to Pavia, {597} he obtained also of Luitprand,
though with some difficulty, peace for the territory of Ravenna, and the
restitution of the places which he had taken from the exarchate. The
zeal and prudence of this holy pope appeared in many wholesome
regulations, which he had made to reform or settle the discipline and
peace of several churches. St. Boniface, the apostle of Germany, wrote
to him against a certain priest, named Virgilius; that he labored to sow
the seeds of discord between him and Odilo, duke of Bavaria, and taught,
besides other errors, that there were other men under the earth, another
sun and moon, and another world.[1] Pope Zachary answered, that if he
taught such an error he ought to be deposed. This cannot be understood
as a condemnation of the doctrine of Antipodes, or the spherical figure
of the earth, as some writers have imagined by mistake. The error here
spoken of is that of certain heretics, who maintained that there was
another race of men, who did not descend from Adam, and were not
redeemed by Christ. Nor did Zachary pronounce any sentence in the case:
for in the same letter he ordered that Virgilius should be sent to Rome,
that this doctrine might be examined. It seems that he cleared himself:
for we find this same Virgilius soon after made bishop of Saltzburgh.[2]
Certain Venetian merchants having bought at Rome many slaves to sell to
the Moors in Africa, St. Zachary forbade such an iniquitous traffic,
and, paying the merchants their price, gave the slaves their liberty. He
adorned Rome with sacred buildings, and with great foundations in favor
of the poor and pilgrims, and gave every year a considerable sum to
furnish oil for the lamps in St. Peter's church. He died in 752, in the
month of March, and is honored in the Roman Martyrology on this day. See
his letters and the Pontificals, t. 6, Conc., also Fleury, l. 42, t. 9,
p. 349.

Footnotes:
1.  Quod alius mundus et alii homines sub terra sunt, seu alius sol et
    luna. (Ep. 10, t 6, Conc. pp. 15, 21, et Bibl. Patr. Inter. Epist.
    S. Bonif.) To imagine different worlds of men upon earth, some not
    descending from Adam, nor redeemed by Christ, is contrary to the
    holy scriptures, and therefore justly condemned as erroneous, as
    Baronius observes, (add. ann. 784, n. 12.)
2.  Many ancient philosophers thought the earth flat, not spherical, and
    believed no Antipodes. Several fathers adopted this vulgar error in
    philosophy, in which faith no way interferes, as St. Austin, (l. 16,
    de Civ. Dei, c. 9,) Bede, (l. 4, de Principiis Philos.,) and Cosmas
    the Egyptian, surnamed Indicopleustes. It is, however, a mistake to
    imagine, with Montfaucon, in his preface to this last-mentioned
    author, that this was the general opinion of Christian philosophers
    down to the fifteenth century. For the learned Philophonus
    demonstrated before the modern discoveries, (de Mundi Creat. l. 3,
    c. 13,) that the greater part of the fathers teach the world to be a
    sphere, as St. Basil, the two SS. Gregories, of Nazianzum and of
    Nyssa, St. Athanasins, &c. And several among them mention Antipodes,
    as St. Hilary, (in Ps. 2, n. 32,) Origen, (l. 2, de princip. c. 3,)
    St. Clement, pope, &c.


MARCH XVI.

ST. JULIAN, OF CILICIA, M.

From the panegyric of St. Chrysostom, t. 2, p. 671. Ed. Ben. Tillem. t.
5, p. 573.

THIS saint was a Cilician, of a senatorian family in Anazarbus, and a
minister of the gospel. In the persecution of Dioclesian he fell into
the hands of a judge, who, by his brutal behavior, resembled more a wild
beast than a man. The president, seeing his constancy proof against the
sharpest torments, hoped to overcome him by the long continuance of his
martyrdom. He caused him to be brought before his tribunal everyday;
sometimes he caressed him, at other times threatened him with a thousand
tortures. For a whole year together he caused him to be dragged as a
malefactor through all the towns of Cilicia, imagining that this shame
and confusion might vanquish {598} him: but it served only to increase
the martyr's glory, and gave him an opportunity of encouraging in the
faith all the Christians of Cilicia by his example and exhortations. He
suffered every kind of torture. The bloody executioners had torn his
flesh, furrowed his sides, laid his bones bare, and exposed his very
bowels to view. Scourges, fire, and the sword, were employed various
ways to torment him with the utmost cruelty. The judge saw that to
torment him longer was laboring to shake a rock, and was forced at
length to own himself conquered by condemning him to death: in which,
however, he studied to surpass his former cruelty. He was then at Ægea,
a town on the sea-coast; and he caused the martyr to be sewed up in a
sack with scorpions, serpents, and vipers, and so thrown into the sea.
This was the Roman punishment for parricides, the worst of malefactors,
yet seldom executed on them. Eusebius mentions, that St. Ulpian of Tyre
suffered a like martyrdom, being thrown into the sea in a leather sack,
together with a dog and an aspick. The sea gave back the body of our
holy martyr, which the faithful conveyed to Alexandria of Cilicia, and
afterwards to Antioch, where St. Chrysostom pronounced his panegyric
before his shrine. He eloquently sets forth how much these sacred relics
were honored; and affirms, that no devil could stand their presence, and
that men by them found a remedy for their bodlily distempers, and the
cure of the evils of the soul.

       *       *       *       *       *

The martyrs lost with joy their worldly honors, dignity, estates,
friends, liberty, and lives, rather than forfeit for one moment their
fidelity to God. They courageously bade defiance to pleasures and
torments, to prosperity and adversity, to life and death, saying, with
the apostle: _Who shall separate us from the love of Jesus Christ?_
Crowns, sceptres, worldly riches, and pleasures, you have no charms
which shall ever tempt me to depart in the least tittle from the
allegiance which I owe to God. Alarming fears of the most dreadful
evils, prisons, racks, fire, and death, in every shape of cruelty, you
shall never shake my constancy. Nothing shall ever separate me from the
love of Christ. This must be the sincere disposition of every Christian.
Lying protestations of fidelity to God cost us nothing: but he sounds
the heart. Is our constancy such as to bear evidence to our sincerity,
that rather than to fail in the least duty to God, we are ready to
resist to blood? and that we are always upon our guard to keep our ears
shut to the voices of those syrens which never cease to lay snares to
our senses?

ST. FINIAN, SURNAMED LOBHAR, OR THE LEPER,

WAS son of Conail, descended from Kian, the son of Alild, king of
Munster. He was a disciple of St. Brendan, and flourished about the
middle of the sixth century. He imitated the patience of Job, under a
loathsome and tedious distemper, from which his surname was given him.
The famous abbey of Innis-fallen, which stood in an island of that name,
in the great and beautiful lake of Lough-Lane in the county of Kerry,
was found ed by our saint.[1] A second, called from him Ardfinnan, he
built in Tipperary; and a third at Cluainmore Madoc, in Leinster, where
he was buried. He died on the 2d of February; but, says Colgan, his
festival is kept on the 16th of March at all the above-mentioned places.
Sir James Ware {599} speaks of two MS. histories of his life. See also
Usher, (Antiq. c. 17,) Colgan, 17 Martii. Mr. Smith, in his natural and
civil history of the county of Kerry, in 1755, p. 127.

Footnotes:
1.  In the monastery of Innis-fallen was formerly kept a chronicle
    called the Annals of Innis-fallen. They contain a sketch of
    universal history, from the creation to the year 430. From that time
    the annalist amply enough prosecutes the affairs of Ireland down to
    the year 1215, when he wrote. They were continued by another hand to
    1320. They are often quoted by Bishop Usher and Sir James Ware. An
    imperfect transcript is kept among the MSS. of the library of
    Trinity college, Dublin. Bishop Nicholson, in his {}ian Historical
    Library, informs us, that the late duke of Chandos had a complete
    copy of them.


MARCH XVII.

SAINT PATRICK, B.C.

APOSTLE OF IRELAND.

The Irish have many lives of their great apostle, whereof the two
principal are, that compiled by Jocelin, a Cistercian monk, in the
twelfth century, who quotes four lives written by disciples of the
saint; and that by Probus, who, according to Bollandus, lived in the
seventh century. But in both are intermixed several injudicious popular
reports. We, with Tillemont, chiefly confine ourselves to the saint's
own writings, his Confession, and his letter to Corotic, which that
judicious critic doubts not to be genuine. The style in both is the
same; he is expressed in them to be the author; the Confession is quoted
by all the authors of his life, and the letter was written before the
conversion of the Franks under king Clovis, in 496. See Tillemont, t.
16, p. 455, and Brininnia Sancta.

A.D. 464.

IF the virtue of children reflects an honor on their parents, much more
justly is the name of St. Patrick rendered illustrious by the
innumerable lights of sanctity with which the church of Ireland, planted
by his labors in the most remote corner of the then known world, shone
during many ages; and by the colonies of saints with which it peopled
many foreign countries; for, under God, its inhabitants derived from
their glorious apostle the streams of that eminent sanctity by which
they were long conspicuous to the whole world. St. Patrick was born in
the decline of the fourth century;[1] and, as he informs us in his
Confession, in a village called Bonaven Taberniæ, which seems to be the
town of Killpatrick, on the mouth of the river Cluyd, in Scotland,
between Dunbriton and Glasgow. He calls himself both a Briton and a
Roman, or of a mixed extraction, and says his father was of a good
family, named Calphurnius, and a denizen of a neigh-boring city of the
Romans, who, not long after, abandoned Britain, in 409. Some writers
call his mother Conchessa, and say she was niece to St. Martin of Tours.
At fifteen years of age he committed a fault, which appears not to have
been a great crime, yet was to him a subject of tears during the
remainder of his life. He says, that when he was sixteen, he lived still
ignorant of God, meaning of the devout knowledge and fervent love of
God, for he was always a Christian: he never ceased to bewail this
neglect, and wept when he remembered that he had been one moment of his
life insensible to the divine love. In his sixteenth year he was carried
into captivity by certain barbarians, together with many of his father's
vassals and slaves, taken upon his estate. They took him into Ireland,
where he was obliged to keep cattle on the mountains and in the forests,
in hunger and nakedness, amidst snows, rain, and ice. While he lived in
this suffering condition, God had pity on his soul, and quickened him to
a sense of his duty by the impulse of a strong interior grace. The young
man had recourse to him with his whole heart in fervent prayer and
fasting; and from that time, faith and the love of God acquired
continually new strength in his {600} tender soul. He prayed often in
the day, and also many times in the night, breaking off his sleep to
return to the divine praises. His afflictions were to him a source of
heavenly benedictions, because he carried his cross with Christ, that
is, with patience, resignation, and holy joy. St. Patrick, after six
months spent in slavery under the same master, was admonished by God in
a dream to return to his own country, and informed that a ship was then
ready to sail thither. He repaired immediately to the sea-coast, though
at a great distance, and found the vessel; but could not obtain his
passage, probably for want of money. Thus new trials ever await the
servants of God. The saint returned towards his hut, praying as he went,
but the sailors, though pagans, called him back, and took him on board.
After three days' sail, they made land, probably in the north of
Scotland: but wandered twenty-seven days through deserts, and were a
long while distressed for want of provisions, finding nothing to eat.
Patrick had often entertained the company on the infinite power of God:
they therefore asked him, why he did not pray for relief. Animated by a
strong faith, he assured them that if they would address themselves with
their whole hearts to the true God, he would hear and succor them. They
did so, and on the same day met with a herd of swine. From that time
provisions never failed them till on the twenty-seventh day they came
into a country that was cultivated and inhabited. During their distress,
Patrick refused to touch meats which had been offered to idols. One day
a great stone from a rock happened to fall upon him, and had like to
have crushed him to death, while he was laid down to take a little rest.
But he invoked Elias, and was delivered from the danger. Some years
afterwards, he was again led captive; but recovered his liberty after
two months. When he was at home with his parents, God manifested to him,
by divers visions, that he destined him to the great work of the
conversion of Ireland. He thought he saw all the children of that
country from the wombs of their mothers, stretching out their hands, and
piteously crying to him for relief.[2]

Some think he had travelled into Gaul before be undertook his mission,
and we find that, while he preached in Ireland, he had a great desire to
visit his brethren in Gaul, and to see those whom he calls the saints of
God, having been formerly acquainted with them. The authors of his life
say, that after his second captivity, he travelled into Gaul and Italy,
and had seen St. Martin, St. Germanus of Auxerre, and pope Celestine,
and that he received his mission, and the apostolical benediction, from
this pope, who died in 432. But it seems, from his Confession, that he
was ordained deacon, priest, and bishop, for his mission in his own
country. It is certain that he spent many years in preparing himself for
those sacred functions. Great opposition was made against his episcopal
consecration and mission, both by his own relations and by the clergy.
These made him great offers in order to detain him among them, and
endeavored to affright him by exaggerating the dangers to which he
exposed himself amidst the enemies of the Romans and Britons, who did
not know God. Some objected, with the same view, the fault which he had
committed thirty years before as an obstacle to his ordination. All
these temptations threw the saint into great perplexities, {601} and had
like to have made him abandon the work of God. But the Lord, whose will
he consulted by earnest prayer, supported him, and comforted him by a
vision; so that he persevered in his resolution. He forsook his family,
sold, as he says, his birthright and dignity, to serve strangers, and
consecrated his soul to God, to carry his name to the end of the earth.
He was determined to suffer all things for the accomplishment of his
holy design, to receive in the same spirit both prosperity and
adversity, and to return thanks to God equally for the one as for the
other, desiring only that his name might be glorified, and his divine
will accomplished to his own honor. In this disposition he passed into
Ireland, to preach the gospel, where the worship of idols still
generally reigned. He devoted himself entirely for the salvation of
these barbarians, to be regarded as a stranger, to be contemned as the
last of men, to suffer from the infidels imprisonment and all kinds of
persecution, and to give his life with joy, if God should deem him
worthy to shed his blood in his cause. He travelled over the whole
island, penetrating into the remotest corners, without fearing any
dangers, and often visited each province. Such was the fruit of his
preachings and sufferings, that he consecrated to God, by baptism, an
infinite number of people, and labored effectually that they might be
perfected in his service by the practice of virtue. He ordained
everywhere clergymen, induced women to live in holy widowhood and
continence, consecrated virgins to Christ, and instituted monks. Great
numbers embraced these states of perfection with extreme ardor. Many
desired to confer earthly riches on him who had communicated to them the
goods of heaven; but he made it a capital duty to decline all
self-interest, and whatever might dishonor his ministry. He took nothing
from the many thousands whom he baptized, and often gave back the little
presents which some laid on the altar, choosing rather to mortify the
fervent than to scandalize the weak or the infidels. On the contrary, he
gave freely of his own, both to pagans and Christians, distributed large
alms to the poor in the provinces where he passed, made presents to the
kings--judging that necessary for the progress of the gospel--and
maintained and educated many children, whom he trained up to serve at
the altar. He always gave till he had no more to bestow, and rejoiced to
see himself poor, with Jesus Christ, knowing poverty and afflictions to
be more profitable to him than riches and pleasures. The happy success
of his labors cost him many persecutions.

A certain prince named Corotick, a Christian, though in name only,
disturbed the peace of his flock. He seems to have reigned in some part
of Wales, after the Britons had been abandoned by the Romans. This
tyrant, as the saint calls him, having made a descent into Ireland,
plundered the country where St. Patrick had been just conferring the
holy chrism, that is, confirmation, on a great number of Neophytes, who
were yet in their white garments after baptism. Corotick, without paying
any regard to justice, or to the holy sacrament, massacred many, and
carried away others, whom he sold to the infidel Picts or Scots. This
probably happened at Easter or Whitsuntide. The next day the saint sent
the barbarian a letter by a holy priest whom he had brought up from his
infancy, entreating him to restore the Christian captives, and at least
part of the booty he had taken, that the poor people might not perish
for want; but was only answered by railleries, as if the Irish could not
be the same Christians with the Britons: which arrogance and pride sunk
those barbarous conquerors beneath the dignity of men, while by it they
were puffed up above others in their own hearts.. The saint, therefore,
to prevent the scandal which such a flagrant enormity gave to his new
converts, wrote with his own hand a public circular letter. In it he
styles himself a sinner and an ignorant man; for such is the sincere
{602} humility of the saints, (most of all when they are obliged to
exercise any acts of authority,) contrary to the pompous titles which
the world affects. He declares, nevertheless, that he is established
bishop of Ireland, and pronounces Corotick and the other parricides and
accomplices separated from him and from Jesus Christ, whose place he
holds, forbidding any to eat with them, or to receive their alms, till
they should have satisfied God by the tears of sincere penance, and
restored the servants of Jesus Christ to their liberty. This letter
expresses his most tender love for his flock and his grief for those who
had been slain, yet mingled with joy, because they reign with the
prophets, apostles, and martyrs. Jocelin assures us, that Corotick was
overtaken by the divine vengeance. St. Patrick wrote his Confession as a
testimony of his mission, when he was old.[3] It is solid, full of good
sense and piety, expresses an extraordinary humility and a great desire
of martyrdom, and is written with spirit. The author was perfectly
versed in the holy scriptures. He confesses everywhere his own faults
with a sincere humility, and extols the great mercies of God towards him
in this world, who had exalted him, though the most undeserving of men:
yet, to preserve him in humility, afforded him the advantage of meeting
with extreme contempt from others, that is, from the heathens. He
confesses, for his humiliation, that, among other temptations, he felt a
great desire to see again his own country, and to visit the saints of
his acquaintance in Gaul; but durst not abandon his people; and says,
that the Holy Ghost had declared to him that to do it would be criminal.
He tells us, that a little before he wrote this, he himself and all his
companions had been plundered and laid in irons for his having baptized
the son of a certain king against the will of his father: but were
released after fourteen days. He lived in the daily expectation of such
accidents, and of martyrdom; but feared nothing, having his hope as a
firm anchor fixed in heaven, and reposing himself with an entire
confidence in the arms of the Almighty. He says, that he had lately
baptized a very beautiful young lady of quality, who some days after
came to tell him that she had been admonished by an angel to consecrate
her virginity to Jesus Christ, that she might render herself the more
acceptable to God. He gave God thanks, and she made her vows with
extraordinary fervor six days before he wrote this letter.

St. Patrick held several councils to settle the discipline of the church
which he had planted. The first, the acts of which are extant under his
name in the editions of the councils, is certainly genuine. Its canons
regulate several points of discipline, especially relating to
penance.[4] St. Bernard and the tradition of the country testify, that
St. Patrick fixed his metropolitan see at Armagh. He established some
other bishops, as appears by his Council and other monuments. He not
only converted the whole country by his preaching and wonderful
miracles, but also cultivated this vineyard with so fruitful a
benediction and increase from heaven, as to render Ireland a most
flourishing garden in the church of God, and a country of saints. And
those nations, which had for many ages esteemed all others barbarians,
did not blush to receive from the utmost extremity of {603} the
uncivilized or barbarous world, their most renowned teachers and guides
in the greatest of all sciences, that of the saints.

Many particulars are related of the labors of St. Patrick, which we pass
over. In the first year of his mission he attempted to preach Christ in
the general assembly of the kings and states of all Ireland, held yearly
at Taraghe, or Themoria, in East-Meath, the residence of the chief king,
styled the monarch of the whole island, and the principal seat of the
Druids or priests, and their paganish rites. The son of Neill, the chief
monarch, declared himself against the preacher: however, he converted
several, and, on his road to that place, the father of St. Benen, or
Benignus, his immediate successor in the see of Armagh. He afterwards
converted and baptized the kings of Dublin and Munster, and the seven
sons of the king of Connaught, with the greatest part of their subjects,
and before his death almost the whole island. He founded a monastery at
Armagh; another called Domnach-Padraig, or Patrick's church; also a
third, named Sabhal-Padraig, and filled the country with churches and
schools of piety and learning; the reputation of which, for the three
succeeding centuries, drew many foreigners into Ireland.[5] Nennius,
abbot of Bangor, in 620, in his history of the Britons,[6] published by
the learned Thomas Gale, says, that St. Patrick took that name only when
he was ordained bishop, being before called Maun; that he continued his
missions over all the provinces of Ireland, during forty years; that he
restored sight to many blind, health to the sick, and raised nine dead
persons to life.[7] He died and was buried at Down in Ulster. His body
was found there in a church of his name in 1185, and translated to
another part of the same church. His festival is marked on the 17th of
March, in the Martyrology of Bede, &c.

       *       *       *       *       *

The apostles of nations were all interior men, endowed with a sublime
spirit of prayer. The salvation of souls being a supernatural end, the
instruments ought to bear a proportion to it, and preaching proceed from
a grace which is supernatural. To undertake this holy function, without
a competent stock of sacred learning, and without the necessary
precautions of human prudence and industry, would be to tempt God. But
sanctity of life, and the union of the heart with God, are
qualifications far more essential than science, eloquence, and human
talents. Many almost kill themselves with studying to compose elegant
sermons, which flatter the ear yet reap very little fruit. Their hearers
applaud their parts, but very few are converted. Most preachers,
now-a-days, have learning, but are not sufficiently grounded in true
sanctity, and a spirit of devotion. Interior humility, purity of heart,
recollection, and the spirit and the assiduous practice of holy prayer,
are the principal preparation for the ministry of the word, and the true
means of acquiring the science of the saints. A short devout meditation
and fervent prayer, which kindle a fire in the affections, furnish {604}
more thoughts proper to move the hearts of the hearers, and inspire them
with sentiments of truer virtue, than many years employed barely in
reading and study. St. Patrick, and other apostolic men, were dead to
themselves and the world, and animated with the spirit of perfect
charity and humility, by which they were prepared by God to be such
powerful instruments of his grace, as, by the miraculous change of so
many hearts, to plant in entire barbarous nations not only the faith,
but also the spirit of Christ. Preachers, who have not attained to a
disengagement and purity of heart, suffer the petty interests of
self-love secretly to mingle themselves in their zeal and charity, and
have reason to suspect that they inflict deeper wounds in their own
souls than they are aware, and produce not in others the good which they
imagine.

Footnotes:
1.  According to Usher and Tillemont, in 372. The former places his
    death in 493: but Tillemont, about the year 455. Nennius, published
    by Mr. Gale, says he died fifty-seven years before the birth of St.
    Columba, consequently in 464.
2.  St. Prosper, in his chronicle, assures us that pope Celestine
    ordained St. Palladius bishop of the Scots in 431, and by him
    converted their country to the faith; this apostle seems to have
    preached to this nation first in Ireland, and afterwards in
    Scotland. Though Palladius be styled by St. Prosper and Bede their
    first bishop, yet the light of the faith had diffused its rays from
    Britain into Ireland before that time, as several monuments produced
    by Usher demonstrate. But the general conversion of the inhabitants
    of this Island was reserved for St. Patrick.

    The Scot are distinguished from the native Irish in the works of St.
    Patrick, and in other ancient monuments. As to their original, the
    most probable conjecture seems to be, that they were a foreign
    warlike nation, who made a settlement in Ireland before the arrival
    of St. Patrick. We find them mentioned there in the fourth century.
    Several colonies of them passed not long after into Scotland. But
    the inhabitants of Ireland were promiscuously called Scots or Irish,
    for many ages.
3.  The style is not polished; but the Latin edition is perhaps only a
    translation: or his captivities might have prevented his progress in
    polite learning being equal to that which he made in the more
    sublime and more necessary studies.
4.  A second council, extant in the same collection, ought rather to be
    ascribed to a nephew of this saint. Other Irish canons, published in
    the ninth tome of D'Achery's Spicilege, and more by Martenne,
    (Anecd. tome 4, part 2,) though they bear the name of St. Patrick,
    are judged to have been framed by some of his successors. See
    Wilkins, Conc. Britan. & Hibern. t. 1, p. 3.

    The treatise, of the Twelve Abuses, published among the works of St.
    Austin and St. Cyprian, is attributed to St. Patrick, in a
    collection of ecclesiastical ordinances made in Ireland, in the
    eighth age, by Arbedoc, and in other ancient monuments. The style is
    elegant; but it may be a translation from an Irish original. Sir
    James Ware published the works of St. Patrick at London, in 1658, in
    octavo.
5.  It seems demonstrated that the St. Patrick who flourished among the
    hermits of Glastonbury, and was there buried, was distinct from our
    saint, and somewhat older.
6.  C. 55, 56, 57, 58, 61.
7.  The popular tradition attributes the exemption of their country from
    venomous creatures to the benediction of St. Patrick, given by his
    staff, called the staff of Jesus, which was kept with great
    veneration in Dublin, as is mentioned in the year 1360, by Ralph
    Higden, in his Polychronicon, published by Mr. Gale and by others.
    The isle of Malta is said to derive a like privilege from St. Paul,
    who was there bit by a viper.

    St. Patrick's purgatory is a cave in an island in the lake Dearg, in
    the county of Donnegall, near the borders of Fermanagh. Bollandus
    shows the falsehood of many things related concerning it. Upon
    complaint of certain superstitious and false notions of the vulgar,
    in 1497, it was stopped up by an order of the pope. See Bollandus,
    Tillemont, p. 787, Alemand in his Monastic History of Ireland, and
    Thiers, Hist. des Superst. t. 4. ed. Nov. It was soon after opened
    again by the inhabitants; but only according to the original
    institution, as Bollandus takes notice, as a penitential retirement
    for those who voluntarily chose it, probably in imitation of St.
    Patrick, or other saints, who had there dedicated themselves to a
    penitential state. The penitents usually spend there several days,
    living on bread and water, lying on rushes or furze, and praying
    much, with daily stations which they perform barefoot.

MANY MARTYRS AT ALEXANDRIA, IN 892.

THEOPHILIIS, patriarch of Alexandria, obtained a rescript of the emperor
Theodosius, to convert an old deserted temple of Bacchus into a
Christian church. In clearing this place, in the subterraneous secret
caverns, called by the Greeks Adyta, and held by the pagans as sacred,
were found infamous and ridiculous figures, which Theophilus caused to
be exposed in public, to show the extravagant superstitions of the
idolaters. The heathens in tumults raised a sedition, killed many
Christians in the streets, and then retired into the great temple of
Serapis as their fortress. In sallies they seized many Christians, and
upon their refusing to sacrifice to Serapis, put them to death by cruel
torments, crucifying them, breaking their legs, and throwing them into
the sinks and jakes of the temple with the blood of their victims. The
principal ancient divinities of Egypt were Apis, called also Osiris,
once a great king and benefactor of that country, who was worshipped
under the figure of a bull, and the wife of Apis, named Isis, who is
said to have taught or improved agriculture.[1]

The temple of Serapis, in Alexandria, was most stately and rich, built
on an eminence raised by art, in a beautiful spacious square, with an
ascent of one hundred steps, surrounded with lofty edifices for the
priests and officers. The temple was built of marble, supported with
precious pillars, and the walls on the inside were covered with plates
of brass, silver, and gold. The idol was of so enormous a size, that its
arms being extended, they reached to the opposite walls of the temple:
its figure was that of a venerable old man, with a beard and long hair;
but with it was joined a monstrous figure of an animal, with three
heads: the biggest, in the middle, was that of a lion; that of a dog
fawning came out on the right side, and that of ravenous wolf on the
left: a serpent was represented twining round these three animals, and
laying its head on the right hand of Serapis: on the idol's head was
placed a bushel, an emblem of the fertility of the earth. The statue was
made of precious stones, wood, and all sorts of metal together; its
color was at first blue, but the steams or moisture of the place had
turned it black. A hole in the temple was contrived, to admit the sun's
rays upon its mouth at the hour when the idol of the sun was brought in
to visit it. Many other artifices were employed to deceive the people
into an opinion of its miracles. No idol was so much respected in Egypt;
and on its account Alexandria was looked upon as a holy city.

The emperor, being informed of the sedition, called those happy who
{605} had received by it the crown of martyrdom: and not to dishonor
their triumph, he pardoned their murderers, but sent an order to
demolish the temples in Egypt. When this letter was read at Alexandria,
the pagans raised hideous cries; many left the city, and all withdrew
from the temple of Serapis. The idol was cast down by pieces, and thrown
into a fire. The heathens were persuaded, that if any one should touch
it the heavens would fall, and the world return into the state of its
primitive chaos. Seeing no such judgment threaten, they began themselves
to deride a senseless trunk reduced to ashes. The standard of the Nile's
increase was kept in this temple, but it was on this occasion removed
into the cathedral. The idolaters expected the river would swell no
more: but finding the succeeding years very fertile, they condemned the
vanity of their superstitions, and embraced the faith. Two churches were
built on the place where this temple stood, and its metal was converted
to the use of churches. The busts of Serapis on the walls, doors, and
windows of the houses, were broken and taken away. The temples all over
Egypt were demolished, during the two following years. In pulling down
those of Alexandria, the cruel mysteries of Mithra were discovered, and
in the secret Adyta were found the heads of many infants cut off,
cruelly mangled, and superstitiously painted. The artifices of the
priests of the idols were likewise detected: there were hollow idols of
wood and brass, placed against a wall, with subterraneous passages,
through which the priests entered the hollow trunks of the idols, and
gave answers as oracles, as is related by Theodoret,[2] and Rufinus.[3]
Where the idols were cast down, figures of the cross were set up in
their places. These martyrs suffered in the year 392. See Theodoret,
Rufinus, Socrates, Sozomen, Fleury, b. 19. Tillemont in the history of
Theodosius, art. 52-55.

Footnotes:
1.  Those mistake the truth, who confound Serapis with Osiris, or who
    imagine him to have been the patriarch Joseph. Serapis was a modern
    divinity, raised by the Ptolemies. See Celmet, Banier on Mythology,
    &c.
2.  B. 5, c. 22.
3.  Ib. 2, c. 25.

ST. JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA.

HE was a member of the Jewish Sanhedrim, but a faithful disciple of
Jesus. It was no small proof of his great piety, that, though he had
riches and honors to lose, he feared not the malice of men, but at a
time when the apostles trembled, boldly declared himself a follower of
Jesus who was crucified; and with the greatest devotion embalmed and
buried his sacred body. This saint was the patron of Glastenbury, where
a church and hermitage, very famous in the times of the ancient
Britons,[1] were built by the first apostles of this island: among whom
some moderns have placed St. Joseph himself, and Aristobulus.

Footnotes:
1.  See Matthew of Westminster, and John of Glastenbury in their
    histories of that famous abbey published by Hearne; also Tanner's
    Notitia Monastica.

ST. GERTRUDE, VIRGIN,

ABBESS OF NIVELLE.

SHE was daughter of Pepin of Landen, mayor of the palace to the French
kings of Austrasia, and younger sister to St. Begga. She was born in
626. Her father's virtuous palace was the sanctuary of her innocence,
and the school of her tender piety. Being pressed to marry, she declared
in presence of king Dagobert: "I have chosen for my spouse him from
{606} whose eternal beauty all creatures derive their glory, whose
riches are immense, and whom the angels adore." The king admired her
gravity and wisdom in so tender an age, and would not suffer her to be
any more disturbed on that account. Her mother, the blessed Itta,
employed St. Amand to direct the building of a great nunnery at Nivelle,
in Brabant, for Gertrude. It is now a double chapter of canons and
canonesses. The virgin was appointed abbess when only twenty years of
age. Her mother, the blessed Itta, lived five years under her conduct,
and died in the twelfth year of her widowhood, in 652. She is honored in
the Belgic Martyrologies on the 8th of May. Gertrude governed her
monastery with a prudence, zeal, and virtue, that astonished the most
advanced in years and experience. She loved extreme holy poverty in her
person and house; but enriched the poor. By assiduous prayer and holy
meditation she obtained wonderful lights from heaven. At thirty years of
age, she resigned her abbey to her niece Wilfe{t}rude, and spent the
three years which she survived, in preparing her soul for her passage to
eternity, which happened on the 17th of March, in 659. Her festival is a
holyday at Louvain, and throughout the duchy of Brabant. It is mentioned
in the true Martyrology of Bede, &c. See her life, written by one who
was present at her funeral, and an eye-witness to the miracles, of which
there is an account in Mabillon, and the Acts of the Saints. See also
Rivet, Hist. Littér. t. 4, p. 39. An anonymous author much enlarged this
life in the tenth century, but the additions are of small authority.
This work was printed by Ryckel, abbot of St. Gertrude's, at Louvain, in
1632. See Hist. Littér. t. 6, p. 292. Also La Vie de S. Gertrude,
abbesse de Nivelle, par Gul. Descoeuvres, in 12mo. at Paris, Ann. 1612.
Consult likewise Dom Bouquet, Recueil des Hist. de France, t. 2, p. 603,
&c.


MARCH XVIII.

SAINT ALEXANDER, B.M.

BISHOP OF JERUSALEM.

From St. Jerom, Catal. c. G. Euseb. Hist. b. 6, c. 8, 10, 14, 20. See
Tillemont, t. 3, p. 415, and Le Quien Oriens Christ. t. 3, p. 150.

A.D. 251.

ST. ALEXANDER studied with Origen in the great Christian school of
Alexandria, under St. Pantenus and his successor, St. Clement. He was
chosen bishop of a certain city in Cappadocia. In the persecution of
Severus, in 204, he made a glorious confession of his faith, and though
he did not then seal it with his blood, he suffered several years'
imprisonment, till the beginning of the reign of Caracalla, in 211, when
he wrote to congratulate the church of Antioch upon the election of St.
Asclepias, a glorious confessor of Christ, to that patriarchate; the
news of which, he says, had softened and made light the irons with which
he was loaded. He sent that letter by the priest St. Clement of
Alexandria, a man of great virtue, whom God had sent into Cappadocia to
instruct and govern his people during his confinement.

{607}

St. Alexander being enlarged soon after, in 212, was commanded by a
revelation from God to go to Jerusalem to visit the holy places.[1] The
night before his arrival, St. Narcissus, bishop of Jerusalem, and some
other saints of that church, had a revelation, in which they heard a
distinct voice commanding them to go out of the city and take for bishop
him whom God sent them. St. Narcissus was then very old and decrepit: he
and his flock seized Alexander, and by the consent of all the bishops of
Palestine, assembled in a council, made him his coadjutor and joint
bishop of Jerusalem. SS. Narcissus and Alexander still governed this
church together, when the latter wrote thus to the Antinoits: "I salute
you in the name of Narcissus, who held here the place of bishop before
me, and, being above one hundred and sixteen years old, is now united
with me by prayer. He conjures you with me to live in inviolable peace
and union." St. Alexander collected at Jerusalem a great library,
consisting of the writings and letters of eminent men, which subsisted
when Eusebius wrote. He excelled all other holy prelates and apostolic
men in mildness and in the sweetness of his discourses, as Origen
testifies. St. Alexander was seized by the persecutors under Decius,
confessed Christ a second time, and died in chains at Cæsarea, about the
end of the year 251, as Eusebius testifies. He is styled a martyr by St.
Epiphanius, St. Jerom, and the Martyrologies, and honored in the Roman
Martyrology on the 18th of March; by the Greeks on the 16th of May and
the 22d of December.

       *       *       *       *       *

A pastor must first acquire a solid degree of interior virtue, before he
can safely undertake to labor in procuring the salvation of others, or
employ himself in exterior functions of the ministry. He must have
mortified the deeds of the flesh by compunction, and the habitual
practice of self-denial; and the fruits of the spirit must daily more
and more perfectly subdue his passions. These fruits of the spirit are
charity and humility, which stifle all the motions of anger, envy, and
pride: holy joy, which banishes carnal sadness, sloth, and all disrelish
in spiritual exercises; peace, which crushes the seeds of discord, and
the love and relish of heavenly things, which extinguish the love of
earthly goods and sensual pleasures. One whose soul is slothful,
sensual, and earthly, deserves not to bear the name of a Christian, much
less of a minister of the gospel. There never was a saint who did not
carry his cross, and walk in the steps of Christ crucified. St.
Alexander would have thought a day lost in which he did not add
something to the sacrifice of his penance in order to continue and
complete it. By this he prepared himself to die a victim of fidelity and
charity. This is the continued martyrdom by which every true Christian
earnestly labors to render himself every day more and more pleasing to
God, making his body a pure holocaust to him by mortification, and his
soul, by the fervor of his charity and compunction.

Footnotes:
1.  Eus. b. 6, c. 14. S. Hieron. in Catal.

SAINT CYRIL, CONFESSOR,

ARCHBISHOP OF JERUSALEM.

From the church historians, and his works collected by Dom Touttée in
his excellent edition of them at Paris, in 1720.

A.D. 386.

CYRIL was born at or near the city of Jerusalem, about the year 315. So
perfectly was he versed in the holy scriptures, that many of his
discourses,{608} and some of these pronounced extempore, are only
passages of the sacred writings connected and interwoven with each
other. He had read diligently both the fathers and the pagan
philosophers. Maximus, bishop of Jerusalem, ordained him priest about
the year 345, and soon after appointed him his preacher to the people,
likewise his catechist to instruct and prepare the catechumens for
baptism; thus committing to his care the two principal functions of his
own pastoral charge. St. Cyril mentions his sermons to the faithful
every Sunday.[1] Catechumens ordinarily remained two years in the course
of instruction and prayer, and were not admitted to baptism till they
had given proof of their morals and conduct, as well as of their
constancy in the faith.[2] This office St. Cyril performed for several
years; but we have only the course of his catechetical sermons for the
year 348, or 347. Perhaps the others were never committed to writing. He
succeeded Maximus in the see of Jerusalem about the end of the year 350.

The beginning of his episcopacy was remarkable for a prodigy by which
God was pleased to honor the instrument of our redemption. It is related
by Socrates,[3] Philostorgius,[4] the chronicle of Alexandria, &c. St.
Cyril, an eye-witness, wrote immediately to the emperor Constantius, an
exact account of this miraculous phenomenon: and his letter is quoted as
a voucher for it by Sozomen,[5] Theophanes,[6] Eutychius,[7] John of
Nice,[8] Glycas, and others. Dr. Cave has inserted it at length in his
life of St. Cyril.[9] The relation he there gives of the miracle is as
follows: "On the nones (or 7th) of May, about the third hour, (or nine
in the morning,) a vast luminous body, in the form of a cross, appeared
in the heavens, just over the holy Golgotha, reaching as far as the holy
mount of Olivet, (that is, almost two English miles in length,) seen not
by one or two persons, but clearly and evidently by the whole city. This
was not, as may be thought, a momentary transient phenomenon: for it
continued several hours together visible to our eyes, and brighter than
the sun; the light of which would have eclipsed it, had not this been
stronger. The whole city, struck with a reverential fear, tempered with
joy, ran immediately to the church, young and old, Christians and
heathens, citizens and strangers, all with one voice giving praise to
our Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, the worker of miracles;
finding by experience the truth of the Christian doctrine, to which the
heavens bear witness." He concludes his letter with wishes that the
emperor may always glorify the holy and consubstantial Trinity.[10]
Philostorgius and the Alexandrian chronicle affirm, that this cross of
light was encircled with a large rainbow.[11] The Greek church
commemorates this miracle on the 7th of May.

{609}

Some time after this memorable event, a difference happened between our
saint and Acacius, archbishop of Cæsarea, first a warm Semi-Arian,
afterwards a thorough Arian. It began on the subject of metropolitical
jurisdiction, which Acacius unjustly claimed over the Church of
Jerusalem; and what widened the breach between them was their difference
of sentiments with regard to the consubstantiality of the Son, which St.
Cyril had always most zealously asserted.[12] This was sufficient to
render him odious in the eyes of Acacius, who in a council of Arian
bishops convened by him, declared St. Cyril deposed for not appearing,
after two years' warning, to answer to the crimes alleged against him.
One of them was that he had lavished away the goods of the Church, and
had applied its sacred ornaments to profane uses. The ground of the
accusation was, that, in time of a great famine at Jerusalem, he had
sold some of the Church plate, and precious stuffs, to relieve the wants
of the poor. St. Cyril, not looking upon the members of the council as
qualified judges, appealed to higher powers,[13] but yielding to
violence withdrew to Antioch, and thence removed to Tarsus, were he was
honorably entertained by the bishop Sylvaims, and had in great respect,
notwithstanding the sentence of Acacius and his council against him.
Here living in communion with Sylvanus, Eustathius of Sebaste, Basil of
Ancyra. and others, who soon after appeared at the head of the
Semi-Arian faction, this gave rise to the calumny that St. Cyril himself
had espoused it. But nothing could be more falsely alleged against him,
he having always maintained the Catholic faith. He had accordingly, in
349, together with his predecessor Maximus, received the decrees of the
council of Sardica, and consequently those of Nice. And we have already
seen, in his letter to Constantius, that he made an undaunted profession
of the Consubstantial Trinity. To which we may add, that in the council
of Constantinople, in 381, he joined with the other bishops in
condemning the Semi-Arians and Macedonians. And the orthodox bishops
assembled in the same city, in 382, writing to pope Damasus and to the
western bishops, gave a most ample testimony to his faith, declaring,
"That the most reverend and beloved of God, Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem,
had been canonically elected by the bishops of the province, and had
suffered many persecutions-for the faith."[14] Upon the death of
Constantius, in 361, Julian the apostate, partly out of aversion to his
uncle, and partly in hopes to see the Christian sects and the orthodox
more at variance, suffered all the banished bishops to return to their
churches. Thus did God make use of the malice of his enemy to restore
St. Cyril to his see. He shortly after made him an eye-witness to the
miraculous manifestation of his power, by which he covered his
blaspheming enemies with confusion. The following most authentic history
of that remarkable event is gathered from the original records, and
vindicated against the exceptions of certain skeptics by Tillemont,[15]
and by our most learned Mr. Warburton, in his Julian. In vain had the
most furious tyrants exerted the utmost cruelty, and bent the whole
power which the empire of the world put into their hands, to extirpate,
if it had been possible, the Christian name. The faith increased under
axes, and the blood of martyrs was a fruitful seed, which multiplied
{610} the Church over all nations. The experience how weak and
ineffectual a means brute force was to this purpose, moved the emperor
Julian, the most implacable, the most crafty, and the most dangerous
instrument which the devil ever employed in that design, to shift his
ground, and change his artillery and manner of assault. He affected a
show of great moderation, and in words disclaimed open persecution; but
he sought by every foul and indirect means to undermine the faith, and
sap the foundations of the Christian religion. For this purpose he had
recourse to every base art of falsehood and dissimulation, in which he
was the most complete master. He had played off the round of his
machines to no purpose, and seemed reduced to his last expedient of the
pacific kind, the discrediting the Christian religion by bringing the
scandal of imposture upon its divine author. This he attempted to do by
a project of rebuilding the Jewish temple--which, if he could have
compassed, it would have sufficiently answered his wicked design; Christ
and the prophet Daniel having in express terms foretold not only its
destruction, which was effected by the Romans under Titus, but its final
ruin and desolation.

The Jewish religion was a temporary dispensation, intended by its divine
author, God himself, to prefigure one more complete and perfect, and
prepare men to embrace it. It not only essentially required bloody
sacrifices, but it enjoined a fixed and certain place for them to be
performed in; this was the temple at Jerusalem. Hence the final
destruction of this temple was he abolition of the sacrifices, which
annihilated the whole system of this religious institution. Whence St.
Chrysostom[16] shows that the destruction of Jerusalem is to be
ascribed, not to the power of the Romans, for God had often delivered it
from no less dangers; but to a special providence, which was pleased to
put it out of the power of human perversity to delay or respite the
extinction of those ceremonial observances. "As a physician," says that
father, "by breaking the cup, prevents his patient from indulging his
appetite in a noxious draught; so God withheld the Jews from their
sacrifices by destroying the whole city itself, and making the place
inaccessible to all of them." St. Gregory Nazianzen, Socrates,
Theodoret, and other Christian writers, are unanimous in what they say
of Julian's motive, ascribing to him the intention already mentioned, of
falsifying the scripture prophecies, those of Daniel and Christ, which
his actions sufficiently evidence. His historian, indeed, says, that he
undertook this work out of a desire of rendering the glory of his reign
immortal by so great an achievement:[17] but this was only an
after-thought or secondary motive; and Sozomen in particular assures us
that not only Julian, but that the idolaters who assisted in it, pushed
it forward upon that very motive, and for the sake thereof suspended
their aversion to the Jewish nation. Julian himself wrote a letter to
the body or community of the Jews, extant among his works,[18] mentioned
by Sozomen,[19] and translated by Dr. Cave, in his life of St. Cyril. In
it he declares them free from all exactions and taxes, and orders Julus
or Illus, (probably Hillel,) their most reverend patriarch, to abolish
the apostoli, or gatherers of the said taxes; begs their prayers, (such
was his hypocrisy,) and promises, after his Persian expedition, when
their temple should be rebuilt, to make Jerusalem his residence, and to
offer up his joint prayers together with them.

After this he assembled the chief among the Jews, and asked them why
they offered no bloody sacrifices, since they were prescribed by their
law. They replied, that they could not offer any but in the temple,
which then lay in ruins. Whereupon he commanded them to repair to
Jerusalem, rebuild {611} their temple, and re-establish their ancient
worship, promising them his concurrence towards carrying on the work.
The Jews received the warrant with inexpressible joy, and were so elated
with it, that, flocking from all parts to Jerusalem, they began
insolently to scorn and triumph over the Christians, threatening to make
them feel as fatal effects of their severity, as they themselves had
heretofore from the Roman powers.[20] The news was no sooner spread
abroad than contributions came in from all hands. The Jewish women
stripped themselves of their most costly ornaments to contribute towards
the expense of the building. The emperor also, who was no less impatient
to see it finished, in order to encourage them in the undertaking, told
them he had found in their mysterious sacred books that this was the
time in which they were to return to their country, and that their
temple and legal observances were to be restored.[21] He gave orders to
his treasurers to furnish money and every thing necessary for the
building, which would require immense sums: he drew together the most
able workmen from all quarters, and appointed for overseers persons of
the highest rank, placing at their head his intimate friend Alypius, who
had formerly been Pro-prefect of Britain; charging him to make them
labor in this great work without ceasing, and to spare no expense. All
things were in readiness, workmen were assembled from all quarters;
stone, brick, timber, and other materials, in immense quantities, were
laid in. The Jews of both sexes and of all degrees bore a share in the
labor; the very women helping to dig the ground and carry out the
rubbish in their aprons and skirts of their gowns. It is even said that
the Jews appointed some pickaxes, spades, and baskets to be made of
silver for the honor of the work. But the good bishop St. Cyril, lately
returned from exile, beheld all these mighty preparations without any
concern, relying on the infallible truth of the scripture prophecies:
as, that the desolation of the Jewish temple should last till the
end;[22] and that one stone should not be left on another;[23] and being
full of the spirit of God, he foretold, with the greatest confidence,
that the Jews, so far from being able to rebuild their ruined temple,
would be the instruments whereby that prophecy of Christ would be still
more fully accomplished than it had been hitherto, and that they would
not be able to put one stone upon another,[24] and the event justified
the prediction.

Till then the foundations and some ruins of the walls of the temple
subsisted, as appears from St. Cyril:[25] and Eusebius says,[26] the
inhabitants still carried away the stones for their private buildings.
These ruins the Jews first demolished with their own hands, thus
concurring to the accomplishment of our Saviour's prediction. Then they
began to dig the new foundation, in which work many thousands were
employed. But what they had thrown up in the day was, by repeated
earthquakes, the night following cast back again into the trench. "And
when Alypius the next day earnestly pressed on the work, with the
assistance of the governor of the province, there issued," says
Ammianus, "such horrible balls of fire out of the earth near the
foundations,[27] which rendered the place, from time to time,
inaccessible to the scorched and blasted workmen. And the victorious
element continuing in this manner obstinately and resolutely bent as it
were to drive them to a distance, Alypius thought proper to give over
the enterprise."[28] {612} This is also recorded by the Christian
authors, who, besides the earthquake and fiery eruption, mention storms,
tempests, and whirlwinds, lightning, crosses impressed on the bodies and
garments of the assistants, and a flaming cross in the heavens,
surrounded with a luminous circle. The order whereof seems to have been
as follows. This judgment of the Almighty was ushered in by storms and
whirlwinds, by which prodigious heaps of lime and sand and other loose
materials were carried away.[29] After these followed lightning, the
usual consequence of collision of clouds in tempests. Its effects were,
first the destroying the more solid materials, and melting down the iron
instruments;[30] and secondly, the impressing shining crosses on the
bodies and garments of the assistants without distinction, in which
there was something that in art and elegance exceeded all painting or
embroidery; which when the infidels perceived, they endeavored, but in
vain, to wash them out.[31] In the third place came the earthquake which
cast out the stones of the old foundations, and shook the earth into the
trench or cavity dug for the new; besides overthrowing the adjoining
buildings and porticoes wherein were lodged great numbers of Jews
designed for the work, who were all either crushed to death, or at least
maimed or wounded. The number of the killed or hurt was increased by the
fiery eruption in the fourth place, attended both with storms and
tempests above, and with an earthquake below.[32] From this eruption,
many fled to a neighboring church for shelter, but could not obtain
entrance; whether on account of its being closed by a secret invisible
hand, as the fathers state the case, or at least by a special
providence, through the entrance into the oratory being choked up by a
frighted crowd, all pressing to be foremost. "This, however," says St.
Gregory Nazianzen,[33] "is invariably affirmed and believed by all, that
as they strove to force their way in by violence, the _Fire_, which
burst from the foundations of the temple, met and stopped them, and one
part it burnt and destroyed, and another it desperately maimed, leaving
them a living monument of God's commination and wrath against sinners."
This eruption was frequently renewed till it overcame the rashness of
the most obdurate, to use the words of Socrates; for it continued to be
repeated as often as the projectors ventured to renew their attempt,
till it had fairly tired them out. Lastly, on the same evening, there
appeared over Jerusalem a lucid cross, shining very bright, as large as
that in the reign of Constantine, encompassed with a circle of light.
"And what could be so proper to close this tremendous scene, or to
celebrate this decisive victory, as the Cross triumphant, encircled with
the _Heroic_ symbol of conquest?"

This miraculous event, with all its circumstances, is related by the
writers of that age; by St. Gregory Nazianzen in the year immediately
following it; by St. Chrysostom, in several parts of his works, who says
that it happened not twenty years before, appeals to eye-witnesses still
living and young, and to the present condition of those foundations, "of
which," says he, "we are all witnesses;" by St. Ambrose in his fortieth
epistle, written in 388; Rufinus, who had long lived upon the spot;
Theodoret, who lived in the neighborhood in Syria; Philostorgius, the
Arian; Sozomen, who says many were alive when he wrote who had it from
eye-witnesses, and mentions the visible marks still subsisting;
Socrates, &c. The testimony of the heathens corroborates this evidence;
as that of Ammianus Marcellinus above quoted, a nobleman of the first
rank, who then lived in the court of Julian at Antioch and in an office
of distinction, and who probably wrote his {613} account from the letter
of Alypius to his master at the time when the miracle happened.
Libanius, another pagan friend and admirer of Julian, both in the
history of his own life, and in his funeral oration on Julian's death,
mentions these earthquakes in Palestine, but with a shyness which
discovers the disgrace of his hero and superstition. Julian himself
speaks of this event in the same covert manner. Socrates testifies, that
at the sight of the miracles, the Jews at first cried out that Christ is
God; yet returned home as hardened as ever. St. Gregory Nazianzen says,
that many Gentiles were converted upon it, and went over to the Church.
Theodoret and Sozomen say many were converted; but as to the Jews, they
evidently mean a sudden flash of conviction, not a real and lasting
conversion. The incredulous blinded themselves by various pretences: but
the evidence of the miracle leaves no room for the least cavil or
suspicion. The Christian writers of that age are unanimous in relating
it with its complicated circumstances yet with a diversity which shows
their agreement, though perfect, could not have been concerted. The same
is confirmed by the testimony of the most obstinate adversaries. They
who, when the temple at Daphne was consumed about the same time, by
lightning, pretended that it was set on fire by Christians, were not
able to suspect any possibility of contrivance in this case: nor could
the event have been natural. Every such suspicion is removed by the
conformity of the event with the prophecies: the importance of the
occasion, the extreme eagerness of Jews and Gentiles in the enterprise,
the attention of the whole empire fixed on it, and the circumstances of
the fact. The eruption, contrary to its usual nature, was confined to
one small spot; it obstinately broke out by fits, and ceased with the
project, and this in such a manner, that Ammianus himself ascribes it to
an intelligent cause. The phenomena of the cross in the air, and on the
garments, were admirably fitted, as moral emblems, to proclaim the
triumph of Christ over Julian, who had taken the cross out of the
military ensigns, which Constantine had put there to be a lasting
memorial of that cross which he had seen in the air that presaged his
victories. The same was again erected in the heavens to confound the
vanity of its impotent persecutor. The earthquake was undoubtedly
miraculous; and though its effects were mostly such as might naturally
follow, they were directed by a special supernatural providence, as the
burning of Sodom by fire from heaven. Whence Mr. Warburton concludes his
dissertation on this subject with the following corollary. "New light
continually springing up from each circumstance as it passes in review,
by such time as the whole event is considered, this illustrious miracle
comes out in one full blaze of evidence."[34] Even Jewish Rabbins, who
do not copy from Christian writers, relate this event in the same manner
with the fathers from their own traditions and records.[35] This great
event happened in the beginning of the year 363. St. Chrysostom admires
the wonderful conduct of divine providence in this prodigy, and
observes, that had not the Jews set about to rebuild their temple, they
might have pretended they could have done it: therefore did God permit
them thrice to attempt it; once under Adrian, when they brought a
greater desolation upon themselves; a second time under Constantine the
Great, who dispersed them, cut off their ears, and branded their bodies
with the marks of rebellion. He then relates this third attempt, "in our
own time," as he says, "not above twenty years ago, in which God himself
visibly baffled their endeavors, to show that no human power could
reverse his decree; and this at a time {614} when our religion was
oppressed, lay under the axes, and had not the liberty even to speak;
that impudence itself might not have the least shadow of pretence."

St. Cyril adored the divine power in this miracle, of which he had
ocular demonstration. Orosius says that Julian had destined him to
slaughter after his Persian expedition, but the death of the tyrant
prevented his martyrdom. He was again driven from his see by the Arian
emperor, Valens, in 367, but recovered it in 378, when Gratian, mounting
the throne, commanded the churches to be restored to those who were in
communion with pope Damasus. He found his flock miserably divided by
heresies and schisms under the late wolves to whom they had fallen a
prey; but he continued his labors and tears among them. In 381 he
assisted at the general council of Constantinople, in which he condemned
the Semi-Arians and Macedonians, whose heresy he had always opposed,
though he had sometimes joined their prelates against the Arians before
their separation from the church, as we have seen above; and as St.
Hilary, St. Meletius, and many others had done. He had governed his
church eight years in peace from the death of Valens, when, in 386, he
passed to a glorious immortality, in the seventieth year of his age. He
is honored by the Greeks and Latins on this day, which was that of his
death.

Footnotes:
1.  Cat. 5, 10, 14.
2.  See Fleury, Moeurs des Chrétiens, p. 42.
3.  B. 2, c. 28.
4.  Ib. 3, c. 26.
5.  Ib. 5, c. 5.
6.  Ad an. 353.
7.  Annal. p. 475.
8.  Auetuar. Combefis, t. 2, p. 382.
9.  T. 2, p. 344.
10. [Greek: Tên homousion Triada]. This is an argument of his firm
    adherence to the Nicene faith, and that by the praises which he
    bestows on an Arlan emperor in this piece, he meant not to flatter
    him in his heterodox sentiments; they being only compliments of
    course in an address to an eastern emperor, and his own sovereign.
11. Certain moderns imagine that the luminous crosses which appeared in
    the air in the reigns of Constantine and Constantius were merely
    natural solar halos; and that under Julian, which appeared in the
    night, a lunar halo, or circle of colors, usually red, round those
    celestial bodies. But in opposition to this hypothesis we must
    observe that those natural phenomena do not ordinarily appear in the
    figure of a cross, but of a ring or circle, as both experience and
    the natural cause show. We ought also to take nonce, that this
    prodigy appeared thrice in the same century, and always on
    extraordinary occasions, in which many circumstances rendered a
    miraculous manifestation of the divine power highly credible.
    Moreover, how will these secretaries and confidents of the intrigues
    of nature, as Mr. Warburton styles them, account for the
    inscription, _In this conquer_, which was formed in bright letters
    round the cross, which appeared in the air to Constantlne and his
    whole army, as that emperor himself affirmed upon oath, and as
    Eusebius assures us from his testimony, and that of other
    eye-witnesses. (l. 1, de Vit. Constant., c. 28, olim 22.) Fabricius
    very absurdly pretends that [Greek: graphên] may here signify an
    emblem, not an inscription. Mr. Jor tin, after taking much pains on
    this subject, is obliged to confess (vol. 3, p. 6) that, "After all,
    it seems more natural to interpret [Greek: graphên legousan] of a
    writing than of a picture. It is an ugly circumstance," says this
    author, "and I wish we could fairly get rid of it." Those who can
    explain the scripture account of the passage of the Israelites
    through the Red Sea by a natural strong wind, and an extraordinary
    ebbing of the waters, can find no knot too hard for them. To deny a
    supernatural interposition they can swallow contradictions, and
    build hypotheses far more wonderful than the greatest miracles.
12. Sozomen indeed says, (b. 4, c. 24,) that Acacius fought for
    Arianism, Cyril for Semi-Arianism: but this is altogether a mistake.
    For Acacius himself was at that time a Semi-Arian, and in 341, in
    the council of Antioch, affirmed Christ to be like, though not equal
    to his Father. It was only in 358, that he closed in with Eudoxius,
    and the other rigid Arians. And as to St. Cyril, it is also clear
    from the facts above mentioned, and from his writings, that he
    always professed the Catholic faith with regard to the article of
    the Consubstantiality of the Son of God. This is demonstrated by Dom
    Toutée, in his life of St. Cyril, and by his colleague Dom Mares, in
    his dissertation on the Semi-Arians, printed at Paris, in 1721, to
    vindicate this father against a certain author in the memoirs of
    Trevoux, an 1721.
13. Sozom. b. 4, c. 24.
14. Apud Theod. Hist. b. 5, c. 9.
15. Tillem. t. 7, p. 409.
16. Hom. 6, adv. Judæ, t. 1, p. 646, ed. Ben.
17. Amm. Marcell. l. 3, c. 1.
18. Ep. 25, p. 153.
19. Soz. l. 5, c. 22.
20. It was about this time that the Jews demolished the great church of
    Alexandria, two more at Damascus, and others elsewhere.
21. Naz. Or. 4, adv. Julian.
22. Dan. ix. 27.
23. Matt. xxiv. 2.
24. Rufin. Hist. l. 10, c. 37.
25. Catech. 15, n. 15.
26. Dem. Evang. l. 8, p. 406.
27. Out of the very foundations themselves, according to St. Chrysostom,
    Sozomen, and Theodoret.
28. Hocque modo elemento destinatius repellente. Amm. Marcel. l. xxiii.
    c. 1. A very emphatical expression in the mouth of a pagan. He seems
    by it to ascribe sense to the element, by which he discovers the
    finger of God visibly detesting the obstinacy of the undertaking,
    and a renewal of the eruption so often, till it overcame the
    rashness of the most obstinate.
29. Theod. Hist. l. 3, c. 20.
30. Soc. lib. 3, c. 20.
31. St. Greg. Naz Or. 4 adv. Julian. Theodoret, indeed, says that these
    crosses were shaded with s dark color: but this without any real
    contradiction to St. Gregory's relation of the matter, because, like
    the phosphorus, they were {} a darkish hue by day, and lucid by
    night.
32. St. Greg. Naz. Or. 9.
33. Or. 4. adv. Julian.
34. This learned author demonstrates, lib. 2, ch. 4, that the exceptions
    of Mr. Basnage are founded on glaring mistakes and
    misrepresentations of his authorities.
35. See Warburton, p. 88.

APPENDIX

ON

THE WRITINGS OF ST. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM

ST. MAXIMUS, bishop of Jerusalem, having appointed St. Cyril both his
preacher and his catechist, our saint diligently acquitted himself of
both these functions, the most important of the episcopal charge. St.
Cyril mentions his sermons which he made to the people every Sunday.
(Cat. 5, 10, 14.) One of these is extant in the new edition of his
works. It is a moral discourse against sin, as the source of all our
miseries, drawn from the gospel upon the sick man healed at the Probatic
pond. (John v.) He preached every year a course of catechetical sermons
for the instruction of the catechumens, to prepare them for baptism and
the holy communion. Only those which he preached in 347, or rather in
348, seem to have been committed to writing. These consist of eighteen
to the competentes, or Illuminati, that is, catechumens before baptism;
and of five mystagogic catechetical discourses, so called either because
they were addressed to the catechumens immediately after they were
initiated in the holy mysteries of Baptism, Confirmation, and the
Eucharist, or because these sacraments are fully explained in them,
which were never expounded to those who were not initiated, out of
respect, and for fear of giving occasion to their profanation by the
blasphemies of infidels. In the first eighteen St. Cyril explains the
doctrine of the church concerning the pardon of sin, prayer, and all the
articles of the Apostles' Creed. The style is clear, suitable to an
exposition of doctrine such as is here given, and the work is one of the
most important of Christian antiquity. The Latin translation of
Grodecius, canon of Warmia in Poland, printed first in 1563, though
often corrected, was very inaccurate; and the Greek editions very
incorrect and imperfect, before that given of Thomas Miller at Oxford,
in 1703, which is very valuable, though the author in part of his notes,
where he endeavors to maintain the principles of the Protestant church,
is very inconsistent. Dom Tontée, a Maurist monk, who died in 1718,
prepared an excellent and complete edition of the works of St. Cyril;
which was published by Dom Maran, in 1720, in one volume in folio. The
journalists of Trevoux, in their memoirs for December, in 1721,
criticised some of the notes concerning the Semi-Arians, and the
temporary neutrality of St. Cyril. Dom Maran answered them by a learned
and curious dissertation, Sur le Semi-Ariens, printed by Vincent, in
1722.

Three French Calvinists, Aubertin, Rivet, (Critici Sacri, l. 3, c. 8, 9,
10, and 11,) one the apostate Casimir Oudin, (De Ser. Eccl. t. {}, p.
459,) deny these catecheses, at least the {615} mystagogics, to be the
work of St. Cyril. Oudin, to his usual inaccuracy, adds many affected
blunders, and shows a dread of his unanswerable authority in favor of
many articles which he was unwilling to allow was his chief motive for
raising such a contest about the author; though if this was not St.
Cyril, these critics must confess, from six hundred passages in the
discourses, that they were delivered at Jerusalem, about the middle of
the fourth century. Other Protestants, especially the English, are more
sincere, and prove them this father's most undoubted work, as Doctor
Cave, in St. Cyril's life, Thomas Milles, in his preface and notes to
his edition of St. Cyril, Whittaker, Vossius. Bull, &c. They were
preached at Jerusalem, seventy years after Manes broached his heresy,
whom some then alive had seen, (Cat. 6,) which agrees only to the year
347. They are mentioned by St. Jerom, in the same age, (Catal. c. 112,)
quoted by Theodoret, (Dial. Inconfusus, p. 106,) and innumerable other
fathers in every age downwards. As for the five mystagogics, they are
inseparable from the rest, and as undoubted. The author promises them in
his eighteenth, and mentions his first eighteen in the first mystagogic.
(n. 9.) They are quoted by Eustrasius, (under Justinian,) by Anastius
the Sinaite, Nico the monk, and other ancients produced by Dom Touttée.
(Disc. 2, p. cv.)

In his first catechetic instructions, he commands the catechumens not to
divulge any part of our mysteries to any infidel, as unworthy, and
exhorts them to the dispositions and preparation for holy baptism,
_viz._ to a pure intention, assiduity in prayer, and at church devoutly
receiving the exorcisms, fasting, sincere repentance, confessing their
sins, whatever they had committed. (Catceh. 1, n. 5.) In the fourth he
gives a summary of the Christian faith, and reckons up the canonical
books of scripture, in which he omits the Apocalypse, and some of the
deutero-canonical books, though he quotes these in other places as God's
word. In the following discourses he explains very distinctly and
clearly every article of our creed: he teaches Christ's descent into the
subterraneous dungeons ([Greek: eis ta katachthonia]) to deliver the
ancient just. (Cat. 4, n. 11, p. 57.) The porters of hell stood
astonished to behold their conqueror, and fled: the prophets and saints,
with Moses, Abraham, David, &c., met him, now redeemed by him. (Cat. 14,
n. 19, p. 214.) He extols exceedingly the state of virginity as equal to
that of the angels. (Cat. 4, n. 24; Cat. 12, n. 33, 34.) He says it will
in the day of judgment, in the list of good works, carry off the first
crowns. (Cat. 15, n. 23.) He compares it to gold, and marriage, which is
yet good and honorable, to silver; but prescribes times of continency to
married persons for prayer. (Cat. 4, n. 26.) He calls Lent the greatest
time of fasting and penance, but says, "Thou dost not abstain from wine
and flesh as bad in themselves, as the Manichees, for so thou wilt have
no reward; but thou retrenchest them, good indeed in themselves, for
better spiritual recompenses which are promised." (Cat. 4, n. 27.) He
mentions the fasts and watchings of superposition, _i.e._ of holy week
before Easter, as most austere. (Cat. 18.) He expresses on all occasions
the tenderest devotion to the holy cross of Christ, and a great
confidence in it, with which he endeavors also to inspire others. "Let
us not be ashamed of the cross of Christ," says he: "sign it openly on
thy forehead, that the devils, seeing the royal standard, may fly far
trembling; make this sign when thou eatest or drinkest, sittest, liest,
risest, speakest, walkest, in a word, in every action [Greek: en
pantipragmati]." (Cat. 4, p. 58.) And again, "when thou art going to
dispute against an infidel, make with thy hand the sign of the cross,
and thy adversary will be struck dumb; be not ashamed to confess the
cross. The angels glory in it, saying, Whom do you seek? Jesus, the
crucified, Mat. xxviii. 6. You could have said, O Angel, My Lord: but
the cross is his crown." (Cat. 13, n. 22, p. 194.) St. Porphyry of Gaza,
instructed by St. Cyril's successor, John, following this rule, by
beginning a disputation with a famous Manichean woman, struck her
miraculously dumb. St. Cyril, in his thirteenth catechesis, thus
addresses his catechumen, (n. 36, p. 200:) "Be careful to form with your
finger on your forehead boldly, the sign of the cross for a signet and
standard, and that before every thing,--while we eat our bread, or drink
our cups, in coming in and going out, before sleep, and in rising, in
walking, and in standing still." He testifies, in his tenth catechesis,
(n. 19,) that the holy wood of the cross kept at Jerusalem, had, in the
few years since its invention by St. Helena, already filled the whole
world, being carried everywhere by those who, full of devotion, cut of
littie chips, (p. 146.) We learn from Rufin, (Hist. b. 1, c. 10,) that
the holy cross was covered by St. Helena with a silver case; and from S.
Paulinus, (Ep. 31, n. 6,) that it was kept in an inner treasury in the
church, into which the passage lay through a portico or gallery, as
appears from the Spiritual Meadow. (C. 105.) A lamp burned before the
cross, by the oil whereof St. Sabas and St. Cyriacus wrought many
miracles, as we read in their lives. A priest was appointed by the
bishop to be the guardian of this sacred treasury, which honor was
conferred on St. Porphyry of Gaza, soon after St. Cyril's death; and
then the case of the cross was of gold. St. Paulmus rays, it was exposed
to the public veneration of the people once a year, at Easter, which
some think to have been on Good Friday. St. Sophronius of Jerusalem,
(Or. 1,) besides other days, in his time, says it was on Easter Monday.
At extraordinary times the bishop gave leave for it to be shown to
pilgrims to be venerated, and for them to cut off small chips, by which,
miraculously, the cross never diminished, as St. Paulinus wrote seventy
{616} years after its invention. The devotion of St. Cyril to the holy
cross, was doubtless more inflamed by the sacred place in which he made
all his sermons, which was the church built by St. Helena and
Constantine, sometimes called of the Holy Cross, which was kept in it;
sometimes of the Resurrection, because it contained in it the sepulchre,
out of which Christ arose from death. It is curiously described as it
stood, before it was destroyed by the Saracens, in 1011, by Dom Touttée,
in a particular dissertation in the end of St. Cyril's works, (p. 423.)
It was since rebuilt, but not exactly in the same place.

St. Cyril inculcates also an honor due to the relics of saints, which he
proves (Cat. 17, n. 30, 31) from the Holy Ghost performing miracles by
the handkerchiefs of St. Paul, how much more by the saints' bodies? This
he shows (Cat. 18, n. 16, p. 293) by the man raised to life by touching
the dead body of Eliseus. (4 Reg. xiii. 21.) He gives the Blessed Virgin
the title of Mother of God, [Greek: theotokos]. (Cat. 10, n. 19, p.
146.) He is very clear in explaining the eternity and consubstantiality
of God the Son, (Cat. 4, 10, 11, 15,) which would alone justify him from
all suspicion of semi-Arianism. He is no less explicit against the
Macedonians, on the divinity of the Holy Ghost. On that article: _I
believe in the Holy Ghost_, "Believe of him," says he, "the same as of
the Father and of the Son," &c. (Cat. 4, n. 16, pp. 59, 60.) On the
article of the holy Catholic Church, he observes that the very name of
Catholic distinguishes it from all heresies, which labor in vain to
usurp it; this always remains proper to the spouse of Christ, as we see,
if a stranger ask in any city, Where is the Catholic Church? (Cat. 18,
n. 26.) That it is catholic, or universal, because spread over the whole
world, from one end to the other; and because universally and without
failing or error, [Greek: katholikôs kai anelleipôs], it teaches all
truths of things visible and invisible, (ib. n. 23, p. 296,) which he
proves from Matt. xvi. 18. _The gates of hell shall never prevail
against it._ 1 Tim. iii. 15. _It is the pillar and ground of truth._
Malach. i. 11. _From the rising of the sun to the setting, my name is
glorified._ He is very earnest in admonishing, that no book is to be
received as divine, but by the authority of the Church, and by tradition
from the apostles, end the ancient bishops, the rulers of the Church.
(Cat. 4, n. 23, 35, 36.) By the same channel of the tradition of tire
Church, he teaches the sign of the cross, the honoring of that holy wood
of our Saviour's sepulchre, and of saints' relics, exorcisms, and their
virtue, insufflations, oil sanctified by exorcisms, (Cat. 20,) holy
chrism, (Cat. 21,) blessing the baptismal water, (Cat. 3,) prayers, and
sacrifices for the dead, (Cat. 23,) the perpetual virginity of the
Virgin Mary, (Cat. 12,) &c. He made these eighteen catecheses to the
catechumens during Lent: the five following he spoke to them after they
were baptized during Easter week, to instruct them perfectly in the
mysteries of the three sacraments they had received together--baptism,
confirmation, and the eucharist--which it was thought a profanation to
explain fully to any before baptism. Hence these five are called
mystagogic catecheses. As to baptism, St. Cyril teaches (Procat. n. 16,
p. 12) that it imprints an indelible signet, or spiritual character in
the soul, which, he says, (Cat. 1, n. 2) is the mark by which we belong
to Christ's flock: he adds, this is conferred by the regeneration, by
and in the lotion with water. (Cat. 4 & 12; Cat. 16, n. 24.) He calls
the character given by confirmation the signet of the communication of
the Holy Ghost, (Cat. 18, n. 33,) and says (Cat. 22, n. 7) it is
imprinted on the soul, while the forehead is anointed with chrism, (Cat.
22, n. 7,) and after by baptism. (ib. n. 33,) by which he clearly
distinguishes the characters of these two different sacraments, though
Mr. Milles (not. in Procat.) has taken great pains to confound them. St.
Cyril teaches that baptism perfectly remits all sin; but penance, the
remedy for sins after it, does not quite efface them, as wounds that are
healed leave still scars. (Cat. 18, n. 20.) He attributes great virtue
to the exorcisms for purifying the soul, (Procat. n. 9,) and says, as
incantations give a diabolical virtue to defile the soul, so does the
invocation of the Holy Ghost give a virtue to the water, and gives it
the power to sanctify. (Cat. 3, n. 3.) He says the same of the blessed
oil, (Cat. 20, n. 3, p. 3,) and establishes clearly confirmation to be a
distinct sacrament from baptism: he calls it the chrism and the mystical
ointment, (Cat. 21,) and says it is to arm and fortify us against the
enemies of our salvation, (ib. p. 317, n. 4,) and that while the body is
anointed with this visible ointment, the soul is sanctified by the holy
and life-giving spirit. (ib. n. 3.) In his nineteenth catechesis, the
first mystagogic, he explains the force of the baptismal renunciations
of the devil and his pomps. In the twentieth, the other ceremonies of
baptism, and what they mean; in the twenty-first, the sacrament of
confirmation; in the twenty-second, that of the blessed eucharist; in
the twenty-third, or last, the liturgy or sacrifice of the mass and
communion. As to the blessed eucharist, he says, by it we are made
_concorporeal_ and _consanguineal_ with Christ by his body and blood
being distributed through our bodies. (Cat. 22, n. 1, 3.) This same
strong expression, which wonderfully declares the strict union which is
the effect of this sacrament, is used by St. Chrysostom, (Horm. 6, in
Hebr. &c.,) St. Isidore of Pelusium, (l. 3, ep. 195,) St. Cyril of
Alexandria, (l. 10, in Joan. p. 862, dial. de Trin. p. 407,) &c. Our
holy doctor explains to his neophytes the doctrine of transubstantiation
in so plain terms, that no one can doubt of its being the faith of the
Church in the fourth age. The learned Lutheran Ffaffius, (Dis. de
oblatione Euchar. c. 38, p. 327,) owns it cannot be denied that this is
Cyril's opinion. Grebe affirms the same, (not. in 1. 5, Irenæ. c. 2, p.
339.) {617} This twenty-second catechesis alone puts it out of dispute.
"Do not look apor the bread and wine as bare and common elements, for
they are the Body and Blood of Christ, as our Lord assures us. Although
thy sense suggest this to thee, let faith make thee firm and sure. Judge
not of the thing by the taste, but be certain from faith that thou hast
been honored with the gift of Christ's Body and Blood. (Cat. 22, n. 6,
p. 321.) When he has pronounced and said of the bread: 'This is my
body,' who will, after this, dare to doubt? and when he has assured and
said, 'This is my blood,' who can ever hesitate, saying it is not his
blood? (n. 1, p. 32.) He changed water into wine, which is akin to
blood, in Cana; and shall we not think him worthy our belief, when he
has changed, [Greek: metaballôn], wine into blood? (n. 2,) &c. Wherefore
let us receive them with an entire belief as Christ's Body and Blood,
for under the figure of bread is given to thee his Body, and under the
figure of wine his Blood, that when thou hast received Christ's Body and
Blood, thou be made one body and blood with him: for so we carry him
about in us, his Body and Blood being distributed through our bodies."
(n. 3, p. 320.) We learn the manner of receiving the blessed sacrament
from his Catech. 23. "Putting your left hand under your right," says he,
"form a throne of your right hand to receive the king; hold it hollow,
receiving on it the Body of Christ. Answer, Amen. Carefully sanctify
your eyes, by touching them with the holy Body, being very watchful that
no part of it fall. Approach to the cup of the Blood, bowed in a posture
of adoration and reverence; saying, Amen, take of the Blood of Christ.
While yet something of the moisture sticks on your lips, touch them with
your hand, and by applying it then to your eyes, forehead, and other
senses, sanctify them."

In his twenty-third or last catechesis, he calls the mass an unbloody
sacrifice, a victim of propitiation, a supreme worship, &c. (n. 8, p.
327.) He explains the Preface, and the other principal parts of it,
especially the Communion, and mentions the priest from the altar crying
out to the faithful, before they approached to receive, [Greek: Ta hagia
tois hagiois]. He expounds the Lord's Prayer, and mentions the
commemorations for the living and the dead. Of the latter he writes
thus: (n. 9, p. 328.) "We also pray for the deceased holy fathers,
bishops, and all in general who are dead, believing that this will be a
great succor to those souls for which prayer is offered, while the holy
and most tremendous victim lies present." And, (n. 10, ib.,) "If a king,
being offended at certain persons, had banished them, and their friends
offer him a rich garland for them, will not he be moved to release their
punishment? In like manner, we, offering prayers to God for the dead,
though they be sinners, do not make a garland, but we offer Christ
sacrificed for our sins, striving to appease and make our merciful God
propitious both to them and ourselves." This very passage is quoted out
of St. Cyril, in the sixth century, by Eustratius, a priest of
Constantinople, author of the life of the patriarch Eutychius, in his
book on praying for the dead, or on the state of the dead, published by
Leo Allatius, l. De Consensu Eccl. Orient. et Occid. De Purgat., and in
Bibl. Patr. t. 27. It is also cited by Nicon the monk, in his Pandect.

St. Cyril's famous letter to Constantius, On the Apparition of the Cross
in the Heavens, was written by him soon after he was raised to the
episcopal dignity, either in the same year, 350, or in the following.

A sermon, On the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, and
the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, bears the name of St. Cyril of
Jerusalem, in almost all the MSS.; but the custom of carrying blessed
candles in procession that day, mentioned in this discourse, was only
introduced at Jerusalem at the suggestion of a devout lady named Icelia,
about the middle of the fifth century, about sixty years after the death
of St. Cyril. Other passages in this discourse seem clearly levelled
against the heresy of Nestorius. The style is also more pompous and
adorned than that of St. Cyril, nor abounds with parenthesis like his.
It is a beautiful, eloquent, and solid piece, and was probably composed
by some priest of the church of Jerusalem, whose name was Cyril, about
the sixth century, when either Sallust or Elias was patriarch. See Dom.
Touttée, and Ceillier, t. 6, p. 544.

ST. EDWARD, KING AND MARTYR.

HE was monarch of all England, and succeeded his father, the glorious
king Edgar, in 975, being thirteen years old. He followed in all things
the counsels of St. Dunstan; and his ardor in the pursuit of all virtues
is not to be expressed. His great love of purity of mind and body, and
his fervent devotion, rendered him the miracle of princes, while by his
modesty, clemency, prudence, charity, and compassion to the poor, he was
the blessing and the delight of his subjects.' His stepmother, Elfrida,
had attempted {618} to set him aside, that the crown might fall on her
own son, Ethelred, then seven years old. Notwithstanding her treasonable
practices, and the frequent proofs of her envy and jealousy, Edward
always paid her the most dutiful respect and deference, and treated his
brother with the most tender affection. But the fury of her ambition
made her insensible to all motives of religion, nature, and gratitude.
The young king had reigned three years and a half, when, being one day
weary with hunting in a forest near Wareham, in Dorsetshire, he paid a
visit to his stepmother at Corfesgeate, now Corfe-castle, in the isle of
Purbeck, and desired to see his young brother at the door. The
treacherous queen caused a servant to stab him in the belly while he was
stooping, out of courtesy, after drinking. The king set spurs to his
horse, but fell off dead, on the 18th of March, 979, his bowels being
ripped open so as to fall out. His body was plunged deep into a marsh,
but discovered by a pillar of light, and honored by many miraculous
cures of sick persons. It was taken up and buried in the church of our
Lady at Wareham; but found entire in three years after, and translated
to the monastery at Shaftesbury. His lungs were kept at the village
called Edwardstow, in 1001; but the chiefest part of his remains were
deposited at Wareham, as the Saxon Chronicle and Florence of Worcester
say: but part was afterwards removed to Shaftesbury, not Glastenbury, as
Caxton mistakes. The long thin knife with which he was stabbed, was kept
in the church at Faversham, before the suppression of the monasteries,
as Hearne mentions. His name is placed in the Roman Martyrology. The
impious Elfrida, being awaked by the stings of conscience, and by the
voice of miracles, retired from the world, and built the monasteries of
Wherwell and Ambresbury, in the first of which she lived and died in the
practice of penance. The reign of her son Ethelred was weak and
unfortunate, and the source of the greatest miseries to the kingdom,
especially from the Danes. See Malmesbury, Brompton, abbot of Jorval, in
Yorkshire, and Ranulf Higden, in his Polychronicon, published by Gale.
Also an old MS. life of the saint, quoted by Hearne, on Langtoft's
Chronicle, t. 2, p. 628, and from the MS. lives of saints, in the hands
of Mr. Sheldon, of Weston.

ST. ANSELM, BISHOP OF LUCCA, C.

HE was a native of Mantua, and was educated there in grammer and
dialectics. Having entered himself among the clergy, he spent some time
in the study of theology and the canon law, and laid that foundation of
learning, which, joined with his natural genius and eminent virtue,
qualified him to rise to the highest degree of excellence. Anselm
Badagius, a Milanese, bishop of Lucca, was chosen pope in 1061, and took
the name of Alexander II. He nominated our saint his successor in the
see of Lucca; and he took a journey into Germany to the emperor, Henry
IV., but out of a scruple refused to receive the investiture of the
bishopric from that prince, so that the pope was obliged to keep in his
own hands the administration of the see of Lucca. St. Gregory VII., who
succeeded Alexander II., in 1073, ordered Anselm to receive the
investiture from Henry. This compliance gave our saint such remorse,
that he left his see, and took the monastic habit at Cluni. The pope
obliged him to return to his bishopric, which he did. His zeal soon
raised him enemies: by virtue of a decree of pope Gregory IX. he
attempted to reform the canons of his cathedral, and to oblige them to
live in community: this they obstinately refused to do, though they were
interdicted by the pope, and afterwards excommunicated in a council, in
which Peter Igneus, the famous bishop of Albano, presided in the name of
{619} his holiness. The holy countess, Maud, undertook to expel the
refractory canons, but they raised a sedition, and, being supported by
the emperor Henry, drove the bishop out of the city, in 1079. St. Anselm
retired to the countess Maud, whose director he was; for he was
eminently experienced in the paths of an interior life, and, in the
greatest hurry of business, he always reserved several hours in the day,
which he consecrated to prayer, and attended only to God and himself.
While he studied or conversed with others, his heart was virtually
united to God, and every object served as it were naturally to raise his
affections afresh to his Creator. Pope Gregory suffered him not to bury
himself in his retreat, but, during his exile, appointed him apostolic
legate in Lombardy, charging him with the care of several dioceses in
those parts, which, through the iniquity of the times, had continued
long vacant. St. Anselm wrote an apology for Gregory VII., in which he
shows that it belongs not to temporal princes to give pastors to the
church of Christ, and to confute the pretensions of the antipope,
Guibert.[1] In another work he proves, that temporal princes cannot
dispose of the revenues of the church. St. Anselm died at Mantua on the
18th of March, in 1086. His name occurs on this day in the Roman
Martyrology, and he is honored at Mantua as patron of that city. Baldus,
his penitentiary, has written his life, in which he ascribes to him
several miracles. See it in Canisius's Lect. Antiq. t. 3, p. 372.

Footnotes:
1.  This work is published by Canisius, Lect. Antiq. t. 3, p. 389, and
    Bibl. Patr. Lugdun, t. 18, Colon. t. 1{2}.

ST. FRIDIAN, ERIGDIAN, OR FRIGDIAN, C.

BISHOP OF LUCCA.

HE is said to have been son to a king of Ulster in Ireland, at least he
is looked upon as of Irish extraction. Travelling into Italy, to improve
himself in ecclesiastical learning and virtue, he made such progress
that, upon the death of Geminian, bishop of Lucca, he was chosen bishop
of that extensive diocese, the eleventh from St. Paulinus, founder of
that church, said to have been a disciple of St. Peter. St. Gregory the
Great assures us, that he miraculously checked an impetuous flood of the
river Auser, now called the Serchio, when it threatened to drown great
part of the city. St. Fridian died in 578, and was buried in a place
where the church now stands, which bears his name. Pope Alexander II.
sent for some regular canons from this church to establish that order in
the churches of St. John Lateran, and of the cross of Jerusalem, at
Rome, but, in 1507, the congregation of St. Frigdian was united to that
of St. John Lateran.[1] See St. Gregory the Great, l. 3, Dial. c. 9,
Bede, Notker, Raban, Usuard, and the Roman Martyrology, on the 18th of
March. Also Innocent III. c. 34, de Testibus et Attestationibus. In
Decreto Gregoriano. Rursus id c. 8, de Testibus cogendis. Ib. iterum, de
Verborum Significatione. See also Dempster (of the family of the barons
of Muresk, a Scotchman, public professor, first in several towns in
Flanders, afterwards at Pisa, and lastly, at Bononia, where he died in
1625) in his Etruria Regalis, t. 2, l. 5, c. 6, p. 299, which work was
printed with many cuts, in two volume, folio, at Florence, in 1723, at
the expense of Thomas Coke, late earl of Leicester, then on his travels.
And principally, see the Ecclesiastical History of Lucca, printed in
that city, in 1736, and again in 1741, in 12mo.

Footnotes:
1.  See F. Hebb{oi}, t. 2, p. 50.

{620}


MARCH XIX.

ST. JOSEPH.

THE glorious St. Joseph was lineally descended from the greatest kings
of the tribe of Juda, and from the most illustrious of the ancient
patriarchs; but his true glory consisted in his humility and virtue. The
history of his life hath not been written by men; but his principal
actions are recorded by the Holy Ghost himself. God intrusted him with
the education of his divine Son, manifested in the flesh. In this view
he was espoused to the Virgin Mary. It is an evident mistake of some
writers, that by a former wife he was the father of St. James the Less,
and of the rest who are styled in the gospels the brothers of our Lord;
for these were only cousin-germans to Christ, the sons of Mary, sister
to the Blessed Virgin, wife of Alphæus, who was living at the time of
our Redeemer's crucifixion. St. Jerom assures us,[1] that St. Joseph
always preserved his virgin chastity; and it is of faith that nothing
contrary thereto ever took place with regard to his chaste spouse, the
blessed Virgin Mary. He was given her by heaven to be the protector of
her chastity, to secure her from calumnies in the birth of the Son of
God, and to assist her in his education, and in her journeys, fatigues,
and persecutions. How great was the purity and sanctity of him who was
chosen the guardian of the most spotless Virgin! This holy man seems,
for a considerable time, to have been unacquainted that the great
mystery of the Incarnation had been wrought in her by the Holy Ghost.
Conscious therefore of his own chaste behavior towards her, it could not
but raise a great concern in his breast, to find that, notwithstanding
the sanctity of her deportment, yet he might be well assured that she
was with child. But being _a just man_, as the scripture calls him, and
consequently possessed of all virtues, especially of charity and
mildness towards his neighbor, he was determined to leave her privately,
without either condemning or accusing her, committing the whole cause to
God. These his perfect dispositions were so acceptable to God, the lover
of justice, charity, and peace, that before he put his design in
execution, he sent an angel from heaven not to reprehend any thing in
his holy conduct, but to dissipate all his doubts and fears, by
revealing to him this adorable mystery. How happy should we be if we
were as tender in all that regards the reputation of our neighbor; as
free from entertaining any injurious thought or suspicion, whatever
certainty our conjectures or our senses may seem to rely on; and as
guarded in our tongue! We commit these faults only because in our hearts
we are devoid of that true charity and simplicity, whereof St. Joseph
sets us so eminent an example on this occasion.

In the next place we may admire in secret contemplation, with what
devotion, respect, and tenderness, he beheld and adored the first of all
men, the new-born Saviour of the world, and with what fidelity he
acquitted himself of his double charge, the education of Jesus, and the
guardianship of his blessed mother. "He was truly the faithful and
prudent servant," says St. Bernard,[2] "whom our Lord appointed the
master of his household, the comfort and support of his mother, his
fosterfather, and most faithful co-operator to the execution of his
deepest counsels on earth." "What a happiness," {621} says the same
father, "not only to see Jesus Christ, but also to hear him, to carry
him in his arms, to lead him from place to place, to embrace and caress
him, to feed him, and to be privy to all the great secrets which were
concealed from the princes of this world!"

"O astonishing elevation! O unparalleled dignity!" cries out the pious
Gerson,[3] in a devout address to St. Joseph, "that the mother of God,
queen of heaven, should call you her lord; that God himself, made man,
should call you father, and obey your commands. O glorious Triad on
earth, Jesus, Mary, Joseph, how dear a family to the glorious Trinity in
heaven, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! Nothing is on earth so great, so
good, so excellent." Amidst these his extraordinary graces, what more
wonderful than his humility! He conceals his privileges, lives as the
most obscure of men, publishes nothing of God's great mysteries, makes
no further inquiries into them, leaving it to God to manifest them at
his own time, seeks to fulfil the order of providence in his regard,
without interfering with any thing but what concerns himself. Though
descended from the royal family which had long been in possession of the
throne of Judaea, he is content with his condition, that of a mechanic
or handicraftsman,[4] and makes it his business, by laboring in it, to
maintain himself, his spouse, and the divine Child.

We should be ungrateful to this great saint, if we did not remember that
it is to him, as the instrument under God, that we are indebted for the
preservation of the infant Jesus from Herod's jealousy and malice,
manifested in the slaughter of the Innocents. An angel appearing to him
in his sleep, bade him arise, take the child Jesus, and fly with him
into Egypt, and remain there till he should again have notice from him
to return. This sudden and unexpected flight must have exposed Joseph to
many inconveniences and sufferings in so long a journey, with a little
babe and a tender virgin, the greater part of the way being through
deserts, and among strangers; yet he alleges no excuses, nor inquires at
what time they were to return. St. Chrysostom observes that God treats
thus all his servants, sending them frequent trials, to clear their
hearts from the rust of self-love, but intermixing seasons of
consolation.[5] "Joseph," says he, "is anxious on seeing the Virgin with
child; an angel removes that fear; he rejoices at the child's birth, but
a great fear succeeds; the furious king seeks to destroy the child, and
the whole city is in an uproar to take away his life. This is followed
by another joy, the adoration of the Magi; a new sorrow then arises; he
is ordered to fly into a foreign unknown country, without help or
acquaintance." It is the opinion of the fathers, that upon their
entering Egypt, at the presence of the child Jesus, all the oracles of
that superstitions country were struck dumb, and the statues of their
gods trembled, and in many places fell to the ground, according to that
of Isaiah xix. _And the statues of the Egyptians shall be shaken in his
presence._[6] The fathers also attribute to this holy visit the
spiritual benediction poured on that country, which made it for many
ages most fruitful in saints.[7]

After the death of king Herod, which was notified to St. Joseph by a
vision, God ordered him to return with the child and his mother into the
land of Israel, which our saint readily obeyed. But when he arrived in
Judæa, {622} hearing that Archelaus succeeded Herod in that part of the
country, apprehensive he might be infected with his father's
vices--cruelty and ambition--he feared on that account to settle there,
as he would otherwise probably have done, for the more commodious
education of the child. And, therefore, being directed by God in another
vision, he retired into the dominions of his brother, Herod Antipas, in
Galilee, to his former habitation in Nazareth, where the wonderful
occurrences of our Lord's birth were less known. St. Joseph being a
strict observer of the Mosaic law, in conformity to its direction,
annually repaired to Jerusalem to celebrate the passover. Archelaus
being banished by Augustus, and Judæa made a Roman province, he had now
nothing more to fear at Jerusalem. Our Saviour being advanced to the
twelfth year of his age, accompanied his parents thither; who having
performed the usual ceremonies of the feast, were now returning with
many of their neighbors and acquaintance towards Galilee, and never
doubting but that Jesus had joined himself with some of the company,
they travelled on for a whole day's journey without further inquiry
after him, before they discovered that he was not with them. But when
night came on, and they could hear no tidings of him among their kindred
and acquaintance, they, in the deepest affliction, returned with the
utmost speed to Jerusalem: where, after an anxious search of three days,
they found him in the temple, sitting among the learned doctors of the
law, hearing them discourse, and asking them such questions as raised
the admiration of all that heard him, and made them astonished at the
ripeness of his understanding: nor were his parents less surprised on
this occasion. And when his mother told him with what grief and
earnestness they had sought him, and to express her sorrow for that,
though short, privation of his presence, said to him: "Son, why hast
thou thus dealt with us? Behold, thy father and I sought thee in great
affliction of mind;" she received for answer, that being the Messias and
Son of God, sent by his Father into the world in order to redeem it, he
must be about his Father's business, the same for which he had been sent
into the world; and therefore that it was most likely for them to find
him in his Father's house: intimating that his appearing in public on
this occasion was to advance his Father's honor, and to prepare the
princes of the Jews to receive him for their Messias; pointing out to
them from the prophets the time of his coming. But though in thus
staying in the temple, unknown to his parents, he did something without
their leave, in obedience to his heavenly Father, yet in all other
things he was obedient to them, returning with them to Nazareth, and
there living in all dutiful subjection to them.

Aelred, our countryman, abbot of Rieval, in his sermon on losing the
child Jesus in the temple, observes that this his conduct to his parents
is a true representation of that which he shows us, while he often
withdraws himself for a short time from us to make us seek him the more
earnestly. He thus describes the sentiments of his holy parents on this
occasion.[8] "Let us consider what was the happiness of that blessed
company, in the way to Jerusalem, to whom it was granted to behold his
face, to hear his sweet words, to see in him the signs of divine wisdom
and virtue; and in their mutual discourse to receive the influence of
his saving truths and example. The old and young admire him. I believe
boys of his age were struck with astonishment at the gravity of his
manners and words. I believe such rays of grace darted from his blessed
countenance as drew on him the eyes, ears, and hearts of every one. And
what tears do they shed when he is not with them." He goes on
considering what must be the grief of his parents when they had lost
him; what their sentiments, and how earnest their {623} search: but what
their joy when they found him again. "Discover to me," says he, "O my
Lady, Mother of my God, what were your sentiments, what your
astonishment and your joy when you saw him again, and sitting, not among
boys, but amidst the doctors of the law: when you saw every one's eyes
fixed on aim, every one's ears listening to him, great and small,
learned and unlearned, intent only on his words and motions. You now
say: I have found him whom I love. I will hold him, and will no more let
him part from me. Hold him, sweet Lady, hold him fast; rush on his neck,
dwell on his embraces, and compensate the three days' absence by
multiplied delights in your present enjoyment of him. You tell him that
you and his father sought him in grief. For what did you grieve? not for
fear of hunger or want in him whom you knew to be God: but I believe you
grieved to see yourself deprived of the delights of his presence even
for a short time; for the Lord Jesus is so sweet to those who taste him,
that his shortest absence is a subject of the greatest grief to them."
This mystery is an emblem of the devout soul, and Jesus sometimes
withdrawing himself, and leaving her to dryness, that she may be more
earnest in seeking him. But, above all, how eagerly ought the soul which
has lost God by sin, to seek him again, and how bitterly ought she to
deplore her extreme misfortune!

As no further mention is made of St. Joseph, he must have died before
the marriage of Cana, and the beginning of our divine Saviour's
ministry. We cannot doubt but he had the happiness of Jesus and Mary
attending at his death, praying by him, assisting and comforting him in
his last moments. Whence he is particularly invoked for the great grace
of a happy death, and the spiritual presence of Jesus in that tremendous
hour. The church reads the history of the patriarch Joseph on his
festival, who was styled the saviour of Egypt, which he delivered from
perishing by famine; and was appointed the faithful master of the
household of Potiphar, and of that of Pharaoh and his kingdom. But our
great saint was chosen by God the saviour of the life of him who was the
true Saviour of the souls of men, rescuing him from the tyranny of
Herod. He is now glorified in heaven, as the guardian and keeper of his
Lord on earth. As Pharaoh said to the Egyptians in their distress: "Go
to Joseph;" so may we confidently address ourselves to the mediation of
him to whom God, made man, was subject and obedient on earth.

The devout Gerson expressed the warmest devotion to St. Joseph, which he
endeavored by letters and sermons to promote. He composed an office in
his honor, and wrote his life in twelve poems, called Josephina. He
enlarged on all the circumstances of his life by pious affection, and
meditations. St. Teresa chose him the chief patron of her order. In the
sixth chapter of her life she writes thus: "I chose the glorious St.
Joseph for my patron, and I commend myself in all things singularly to
his intercession. I do not remember ever to have asked of God any thing
by him which I did not obtain. I never knew any one, who, by invoking
him, did not advance exceedingly in virtue: for he assists in a
wonderful manner all who address themselves to him." St. Francis of
Sales, throughout his whole nineteenth entertainment, extremely
recommends devotion to him, and extols his merits, principally his
virginity, humility, constancy, and courage. The Syrians and other
eastern churches celebrate his festival on the 20th of July; the western
church, on the 19th of March. Pope Gregory XV., in 1621, and Urban
VIII., in 1642, commanded it to be kept a holyday of obligation.

The holy family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, presents to us the most
perfect model of heavenly conversation on earth. How did those two
seraphims, Mary and Joseph, live in their poor cottage! They always
enjoyed {624} the presence of Jesus, always burning with the most ardent
love for him: inviolably attached to his sacred person, always employed
and living only for him. What were their transports in beholding him,
their devotion it, listening to him, and their joy in possessing him!
heavenly life! anticipation of the heavenly bliss! divine conversation!
We may imitate them, and share some degree of this advantage, by
conversing often with Jesus, and by the contemplation of his most
amiable goodness, kindling the fire of his holy love in our breasts. The
effects of this love, if it be sincere, will necessarily appear in our
putting on his spirit, and imitating his example and virtues; and in our
studying to walk continually in the divine presence, finding God
everywhere, and esteeming all the time lost which we do not spend with
God, or for his honor.

Footnotes:
1.  L. adv. Helvid. c. 9.
2.  Hom. 2. super missus est, n. 16, p. 742.
3.  Serm. de Nativ.
4.  This appears from Mat. xiii. 55. St. Justin, (Dial. n. 89, ed. Ben.
    p. 186,) St. Ambrose, (in Luc. p. 3,) and Theodoret (b. 3, Hist. c.
    18) say he worked in wood, as a carpenter. St. Hilary (in Mat. c.
    14, p. 17) and St. Peter Chrysologus (Serm. 48) say he wrought in
    iron as a smith; probably he wrought both in iron and in wood; which
    opinion St. Justin favors, by saying: "He and Jesus made ploughs and
    yokes for oxen."
5.  Hom. 8, in Mat. t. 7, p. 123, ed. Ben.
6.  This is affirmed by St. Athanasius, (l. de Incarn.) Eusebius,
    (Demonstrat. Evang. l. 6, c. 20.) St. Cyril (Cat. 10,) St. Ambrose,
    (in Ps. 118, Octon. 5,) St. Jerom, (in Isai. 19,) St. Chrysostom, St.
    Cyril of Alexandria, (in Isai.) Sozomen, (l. 5. c. 20,) &c.
7.  See the Lives of the Fathers of the desert.
8.  Bibl. Patr. t. 13.

ST. ALCMUND, M.

HE was son of Eldred, and brother of Osred, kings of the Northumbrians.
During his temporal prosperity, the greater he was in power, so much the
more meek and humble was he in his heart, and so much the more affable
to others. He was poor amidst riches, because he knew no greater
pleasure than to strip himself for the relief of the distressed. Being
driven from his kingdom, together with his father, by rebellious
subjects, in league with Danish plunderers, he lived among the Picts
above twenty years in banishment; learning more heartily to despise
earthly vanities, and making it his whole study to serve the King of
kings. His subjects, groaning under the yoke of an insupportable
tyranny, took up arms against their oppressors, and induced the royal
prince, upon motives of compassion for their distress and a holy zeal
for religion, to put themselves at their head. Several battles were
prosperousiy fought; but at length the pious prince was murdered by the
contrivance of king Eardulf, the usurper, as Matthew of Westminster,
Simeon of Durham, and Florence of Worcester, say. Dr. Brown Willis, in
his Notitia of parliamentary boroughs, writes, with some ancients, that
he was slain by the Danes, about the year 819. His body was interred at
Lilleshult, in Shropshire; but afterwards translated to Derby, where he
was honored with great devotion as patron of the town, on the 19th of
March. An old manuscript sermon preached in his church at Derby, about
the year 1140, extant in a manuscript collection of sermons of that age
in my hands, folio 138, gives a particular history of this translation
of his relies to Derby, where his church became famous for miracles, and
for the resort of pilgrims. See on this saint the history of John of
Glastonbury, Matthew of Westminster, the manuscript sermon above
mentioned, and Henschenius t. 3, Mart. p. 47.

{625}


MARCH XX.

ST. CUTHBERT, CONFESSOR.

BISHOP OF LINDISFARNE.

From his life written by Bede, and from that author's Church-History, b.
4 c. 27 to c. 32. Simeon Dunelm, or rather Turgot, Hist. Dunelm,
published by Bedford: the old Latin hymn On St. Cuthbert, MS. in Bibl.
Cotton. n. 41, spud Wanley, p. 184, and four Latin prayers, in honor of
St. Cuthbert, MS. n. 190 in the library of Durham church. Warmley,
Catal. t. 2, p. 297. Harpsiald, sæc. 7, c. 34. Hearne on Langtoft, t. 2,
p. 687. N.B. The history of Durham, which is here quoted, was compiled
by Turgot, prior of Durham, down to the year 1104, and continued to the
year 1161 by Simeon.

A.D. 687.

WHEN the Northumbrians, under the pious king Oswald, had, with great
fervor, embraced the Christian faith, the holy bishop St. Aidan founded
two monasteries, that of Mailros, on the bank of the Tweed, and another
in the isle of Lindisfarne, afterwards called Holy Island, four miles
distant from Berwick. In both he established the rule of St. Columba;
and usually resided himself in the latter. St. Cuthbert[1] was born not
very far from Mailros, and in his youth was much edified by the devout
deportment of the holy inhabitants of that house, whose fervor in the
service of God, and the discharge of the duties of a monastic life, he
piously endeavored to imitate on the mountains where he kept his
father's sheep. It happened one night, that, while he was watching in
prayer, near his flock, according to his custom, he saw the soul of St.
Aidan carried up to heaven by angels, at the very instant that holy man
departed this life in the isle of Lindisfarne. Serious reflections on
the happiness of such a death determined the pious young man to repair,
without delay, to Mailros, where he put on the monastic habit, while
Eata was abbot, and St. Boisil prior. He studied the holy scriptures
under the latter, and in fervor surpassed all his brethren in every
monastic exercise. Eata being called to govern the new monastery of
Rippon, founded by king Alcfrid, he took with him St. Cuthbert, and
committed to him the care of entertaining strangers; which charge is
usually the most dangerous in a religious state. Cuthbert washed the
feet of others and served them with wonderful humility and meekness,
always remembering that Christ himself is served in his members. And he
was most careful that the functions of Martha should never impair his
spirit of recollection. When St. Wilfred was made abbot of Rippon, St.
Cuthbert returned with Eata to Mailros; and St. Boisil dying of the
great pestilence, in 664, he was chosen provost or prior in his place.

In this station, not content by word and example to form his monks to
perfect piety, be labored assiduously among the people to bring them off
from several heathenish customs and superstitious practices which still
obtained among them. For this purpose, says our venerable historian, he
often went out, sometimes on horseback, but oftener on foot, to preach
the way of life to such as were gone astray. Parochial churches being at
this time very scarce in the country, it was the custom for the country
people to flock about a priest or ecclesiastical person when he came
into any village, for the sake of his instructions; hearkening willingly
to his words, and more willingly practising the good lessons he taught
them. St. Cuthbert {626} excelled all others by a most persuasive and
moving eloquence; and such a brightness appeared in his angelical face
in delivering the word of God to the people, that none of them durst
conceal from him any part of their misbehavior, but all laid their
conscience open before him, and endeavored by his injunctions and
counsels to expiate the sins they had confessed, by worthy fruits of
penance. He chiefly visited those villages and hamlets at a distance,
which, being situate among high and craggy mountains, and inhabited by
the most rustic, ignorant, and savage people, were the less frequented
by other teachers. After St. Cuthbert had lived many years at Mailros,
St. Eata, abbot also of Lindisfarne, removed him thither, and appointed
him prior of that larger monastery. By the perfect habit of
mortification and prayer the saint had attained to so eminent a spirit
of contemplation, that he seemed rather an angel than a man. He often
spent whole nights in prayer, and sometimes, to resist sleep, worked or
walked about the island while he prayed. If he heard others complain
that they had been disturbed in their sleep, he used to say, that he
should think himself obliged to any one that awaked him out of his
sleep, that he might sing the praises of his Creator, and labor for his
honor. His very countenance excited those who saw him to a love of
virtue. He was so much addicted to compunction, and inflamed with
heavenly desires, that he could never say mass without tears. He often
moved penitents, who confessed to him their sins, to abundant tears, by
the torrents of his own, which he shed for them. His zeal in correcting
sinners was always sweetened with tender charity and meekness. The saint
had governed the monastery of Lindisfarne, under his abbot, several
years, when earnestly aspiring to a closer union with God, he retired,
with his abbot's consent, into the little isle of Farne, nine miles from
Lindisfarne, there to lead an austere eremitical life. The place was
then uninhabited, and afforded him neither water, tree, nor corn.
Cuthbert built himself a hut with a wall and trench about it, and, by
his prayers, obtained a well of freshwater in his own cell. Having
brought with him instruments of husbandry, he sowed first wheat, which
failed; then barley, which, though sowed out of season, yielded a
plentiful crop. He built a house at the entry of the island from
Lindisfarne, to lodge the brethren that came to see him, whom he there
met and entertained with heavenly conferences. Afterwards he confined
himself within his own wall and trench, and gave spiritual advice only
through a window, without ever stirring out of his cell. He could not,
however, refuse an interview with the holy abbess and royal virgin
Elfleda, whom her father, king Oswi, had dedicated to God from her
birth, and who, in 680, succeeded St. Hilda in the government of the
abbey of Whitby. This was held in the isle of Cocket, then filled with
holy anchorets. This close solitude was to our saint an uninterrupted
exercise of divine love, praise, and compunction; in which he enjoyed a
paradise of heavenly delights, unknown to the world.

In a synod of bishops, held by St. Theodorus at Twiford, on the river
Alne, in the kingdom of Northumberland, it was resolved that Cuthbert
should be raised to the episcopal see of Lindisfarne. But as neither
letters nor messengers were of force to obtain his consent to undertake
the charge, king Egfrid, who had been present at the council, and the
holy bishop Trumwin, with many others, sailed over to his island, and
conjured him, on their knees, not to refuse his labors, which might be
attended with so much advantage to souls. Their remonstrances were so
pressing, that the saint could not refuse going with them, at least to
the council, but weeping most bitterly. He received the episcopal
consecration at York, the Easter following, from the hands of St.
Theodorus, assisted by six other bishops. In {627} this new dignity the
saint continued the practice of his former austerities; but remembering
what he owed to his neighbor, he went about preaching and instructing
with incredible fruit, and without any intermission. He made it
everywhere his particular care to exhort, feed, and protect the poor. By
divine revelation he saw and mentioned to others, at the very instant it
happened, the overthrow and death of king Egfrid, by the Picts, in 685.
He cured, by water which he had blessed, the wife of a noble Thane, who
lay speechless and senseless at the point of death, and many others. For
his miracles he was called the Thaumaturgus of Britain. But the most
wonderful of his miracles was that which grace wrought in him by the
perfect victory which it gave him over his passions. His zeal for
justice was most ardent; but nothing seemed ever to disturb the peace
and serenity of his mind. By the close union of his soul with God, whose
will alone he sought and considered in all things, he overlooked all
temporal events, and under all accidents his countenance was always
cheerful, always the same; particularly in bearing all bodily pains, and
every kind of adversity with joy, he was invincible. His attention to,
and pure view of God in all events, and in all his actions, arose from
the most tender and sweet love, which was in his soul a constant source
of overflowing joy. Prayer was his centre. His brethren discovered
sometimes that he spent three or four nights together in that heavenly
exercise, allowing himself very little or no sleep. When St. Ebba, the
royal virgin, sister to the kings St. Oswald and Oswi, abbess of the
double monastery of Coldingham, invited him to edify that house by his
exhortations, he complied, and stayed there some days. In the night,
while others were asleep, he stole out to his devotions according to his
custom in other places. One of the monks who watched and followed him
one night, found that the saint, going down to the seashore, went into
the water up to the armpits, and there sung praises to God. In this
manner he passed the silent time of the night. Before the break of day
he came out, and having prayed awhile on the sands, returned to the
monastery, and was ready to join in morning lauds.

St. Cuthbert, foreseeing his death to approach, resigned his bishopric,
which he had held two years, and retired to his solitude in Farne
Island, to prepare himself for his last passage. Two months after he
fell sick, and permitted Herefrid, the abbot of Lindisfarne, who came to
visit him, to leave two of his monks to attend him in his last moments.
He received the viaticum of the body and blood of Christ from the hands
of the abbot Herefrid, at the hour of midnight prayer, and immediately
lifting up his eyes, and stretching out his hands, sweetly slept in
Christ on the 20th day of March, 687. He died in the island of Farne:
but, according to his desire, his body was buried in the monastery of
St. Peter in Lindisfarne, on the right side of the high altar. Bede
relates many miracles performed at his tomb; and adds, that eleven years
after his death, the monks taking up his body, instead of dust which
they expected, found it unputrefied, with the joints pliable, and the
clothes fresh and entire.[2] They put it into a new coffin, placed above
the pavement, over the former grave: and several miracles were there
wrought, even by touching the clothes which covered the coffin. William
of Malmesbury[3] writes, that the body was again found incorrupt four
hundred and fifteen years afterwards at Durham, and publicly shown. In
the Danish invasions, the monks carried it away from Lindisfarne; and,
after several removals on the continent, settled with their treasure on
a woody hill almost surrounded by the river Were, formed by nature for a
place of, defence. They built there a church of stone, which {628}
Aldhune, bishop of Lindisfarne, dedicated in 995, and placed in it the
body of St. Cuthbert with great solemnity, transferring hither his
episcopal see.[4] Many princes enriched exceedingly the new monastery
and cathedral, in honor of St. Cuthbert. Succeeding kings, out of
devotion to this saint, declared the bishop a count palatine, with an
extensive civil jurisdiction.[5] The great king Alfred, who honored St.
Cuthbert as his particular patron, and ascribed to his intercession some
of his greatest victories, and other blessings which he received, was a
special benefactor to this church.[6] The present cathedral was built in
1080. When the shrine of the saint was plundered and demolished by the
order of king Henry VIII., the body of St. Cuthbert, which was found
still entire, as Harpsfield testifies, met with greater regard than many
others; for it was not burnt, as were those of St. Edmund, king and
martyr, St. Thomas, and others. After the king's officers had carried
away the plunder of his shrine, it was privately buried under the place
where the shrine before stood, though the spot is now unknown. His ring,
in which a sapphire is enchased, was given by lord viscount Montaigne to
the bishop of Chalcedon,[7] who had long been sheltered from the
persecution in the house of that nobleman,[8] and was by him left in the
monastery of English canonesses at Paris, which is also possessed of a
tooth of St. Cuthbert. A copy of St. John's gospel, which, after the
example of his master St. Poisil, he often read to nourish the fire of
divine love in his soul, was put into his coffin when he was buried, and
found in his tomb. It is now in the possession of Mr. Thomas Philips,
canon of, Tongres, on whom the present earl of Litchfield bestowed it.
The copy is judged undoubtedly genuine by our ablest Protestant
antiquaries, who carefully examined it.

       *       *       *       *       *

The life of St. Cuthbert was almost a continual prayer. There was no
business, no company, no place, how public soever, which did not afford
him an opportunity, and even a fresh motive to pray. Not content to pass
the day in this exercise, he continued it constantly for several hours
of the night, which was to him a time of light and interior delights.
Whatever he saw seemed to speak to him of God, and to invite him to his
love. His conversation was on God or heavenly things, and he would have
regretted a single moment, which had not been employed with God or for
his honor, as utterly lost. The inestimable riches which he found in
God, showed him how precious every moment is, in which he had it in his
power to enjoy the divine converse. The immensity of God, who is present
in us and in all creatures, and whom millions of worlds cannot confine
or contain; his eternity, to which all time coexists, and which has
neither beginning, end, nor succession; the unfathomed abyss of his
judgments; the sweetness of his providence; his adorable sanctity; his
justice, wisdom, goodness, mercy, and love, especially as displayed in
the wonderful mystery of the Incarnation, and in the doctrine, actions,
and sufferings of our Blessed Redeemer, in a word, all the
incomprehensible attributes of the Divinity, and the mysteries of his
grace and mercy, successively filled his mind and heart, and kindled in
his soul the most sweet and ardent affections, in which his thirst {629}
and his delight, which were always fresh and always insatiable, gave him
a kind of anticipated taste of paradise. For holy contemplation
discovers to a soul a new and most wonderful world, whose beauty,
riches, and pure delights, astonish and transport her out of herself.
St. Teresa, coming from prayer, said she came from a world greater and
more beautiful beyond comparison, than a thousand worlds, like that
which we behold with our corporal eyes, could be. St. Bernard was always
torn from this holy exercise with regret, when obliged to converse with
men in the world, in which he trembled, lest he should contract some
attachment to creatures, which would separate him from the chaste
embraces of his heavenly spouse. The venerable priest, John of Avila,
when he came from the altar, always found commerce with men insipid and
insupportable.

Footnotes:
1.  Cuthbert signifies Illustrious for skill: or G{}bbertus, Worthy of
    God.
2.  Bede, Hist. b. 4, c. 30.
3.  L. 4, Pontif. Angl.
4.  Dunelm, or Durham, signifies a hill upon waters, from the Saxon
    words Dun, a bill, and Holme, a place situate in or among the
    waters.
5.  See Dugdale's history of the cathedral of Durham; and Dr. Brown
    Willis on the same.
6.  See Hickes, Thes. Ling. Septentr. Præf. p. 8.
7.  Bp. Smith, Flores Hist. Eccles. p. 120.
8.  Dr. Richard Smith, bishop of Chalcedon, relates in his life of
    Margaret lady Montaigne, that queen Elizabeth, out of her singular
    regard for this lady, from the time she had been lady of honor in
    the court of queen Mary and king Philip, tacitly granted her house a
    kind of privilege, by never, allowing it to be searched on account
    of religious persecution; so that sometimes sixty priests at once
    lay hid in it.

ST. WULFRAN, ARCHBISHOP OF SENS.

AND APOSTOLIC MISSIONARY IN FRISELAND.

HIS father was an officer in the armies of king Dagobert, and the saint
spent some years in the court of king Clotaire III., and of his mother
St. Bathildes, but occupied his heart only on God, despising worldly
greatness as empty and dangerous, and daily advancing in virtue in a
place where virtue is often little known. His estate of Maurilly he
bestowed on the abbey of Fontenelle, or St. Vandrille, in Normandy. He
was chosen and consecrated archbishop of Sens, in 682, which diocese he
governed during two years and a half with great zeal and sanctity. A
tender compassion for the blindness of the idolaters of Friseland, and
the example of the English zealous preachers in those parts, moved him
to resign his bishopric with proper advice, and, after a retreat at
Fontenelle, to enter Friseland in quality of a poor missionary priest.
He baptized great multitudes, with a son of king Radbod, and drew the
people from the barbarous custom of sacrificing men to idols. The lot
herein decided, on great festivals, who should be the victim; and the
person was instantly hanged, or cut in pieces. The lot having fallen on
one Ovon, St. Wulfran earnestly begged his life of king Radbod: but the
people ran tumultuously to the palace, and would not suffer what they
called a sacrilege. After many words, they consented that if the God of
Wulfran should save Ovon's life, he should ever serve him, and be
Wulfran's slave. The saint betook himself to prayer, and the man, after
hanging on the gibbet two hours, being left for dead, by the cord
breaking, fell to the ground; and being found alive was given to the
saint, and became a monk and priest at Fontenelle. Wulfran also
miraculously rescued two children from being drowned in the sea, in
honor of the idols. Radbod, who had been an eye-witness to this last
miracle, promised to become a Christian, and was instructed among the
catechumens. But his criminal delays rendered him unworthy such a mercy.
As he was going to step into the baptismal font, he asked where the
great number of his ancestors and nobles were in the next world. The
saint replied, that hell is the portion of all who die guilty of
idolatry. At which the prince drew back, and refused to be baptized,
saying, he would go with the greater number. This tyrant sent afterwards
to St. Willebrord, to treat with him about his conversion; but before
the arrival of the saint, was found dead. St. Wulfran retired to
Fontenelle, that he might prepare himself for death, and died there on
the 20th of April, in 720. His relies were removed to Abbeville, where
he is honored as patron. See his life, written by Jonas, monk of
Foutenelle, eleven years after his death, purged from spurious additions
by Mabillon, {630} sæc. 3, Ben. Fleury, b. 41, t. 9, p. 190. See also
the history of the discovery of his relics at St. Vandrille's,
accompanied with miracles, and their translation to Rouen in 1062, well
written by an anonymous author who assisted at that ceremony, several
parts of which work are published by D'Achery, Spicil. t. 3, p. 248, the
Bollandists, and Mabillon. The Bollandists have added a relation of
certain miracles, said to have been performed by the relics of this
saint at Abbeville.


MARCH XXI.

ST. BENEDICT, ABBOT,

PATRIARCH OF THE WESTERN MONKS.

From St. Gregory, (Dial. l. 2, c. 1,) who assures us that he received
his account of this saint from four abbots, the saint's disciples;
namely, Constantine, his successor at Monte Cassino, Simplicius, third
abbot of that house, Valentinian, the first abbot of the monastery of
Lateran, and Honoratus, who succeeded St. Benedict at Subiaco. See the
remarks of Mabillon, Annal. Ben. l. 1, p. 3, and l. 2, p. 38. and Act.
Sanct. Bened. t. 1, p. 80. Also Dom. Mege, Vie de St. Benoit, avec one
Histoíre Abrégée de son Ordre, in 4to. An. 1690. Hæften's Disquisitions,
and abbot Steingelt's abridgment of the same, and Ziegelbauer and
Legipont, Historia Literaria Ord. S. Benedicti, Ann. 1754, t. 1, p. 3,
and principally t. 3, p. 2.

A.D. 543.

ST. BENEDICT, or KENNET, was a native of Norcia, formerly an episcopal
see in Umbria, and was descended from a family of note, and born about
the year 480. The name of his father was Eutropius, and that of his
grandfather, Justinian. When he was fit for the higher studies, he was
sent by his parents to Rome, and there placed in the public schools. He,
who till that time knew not what vice was, and trembled at the shadow of
sin, was not a little shocked at the licentiousness which he observed in
the conduct of some of the Roman youth, with whom he was obliged to
converse; and he was no sooner come into the world, but he resolved to
bid an eternal farewell to it, not to be entangled in its snares. He
therefore left the city privately, and made the best of his way towards
the deserts. His nurse, Cyrilla, who loved him tenderly, followed him as
far as Afilum, thirty miles from Rome, where he found means to get rid
of her, and pursued his journey alone to the desert mountains of
Sublacum,[1] near forty miles from Rome. It is a barren, hideous chain
of rocks, with a river and lake in the valley. Near this place the saint
met a monk of a neighboring monastery, called Romanus, who gave him the
monastic habit, with suitable instructions, and conducted him to a deep
narrow cave in the midst of these mountains, almost inaccessible to men.
In this cavern, now called the Holy Grotto, the young hermit chose his
abode: and Romanus, who kept his secret, brought him hither, from time
to time, bread and the like slender provisions, which he retrenched from
his own meals, and let them down to the holy recluse with a line,
hanging a bell to the cord to give him notice. Bennet seems to have been
about fourteen or fifteen years old when he came to Sublacum; St.
Gregory says, he was yet a child. He lived three years in this manner,
known only to Romanus. But God was pleased to manifest his servant to
men, that he might shine forth as a light to many. In 497, a certain
pious priest in that country, while he was preparing a dinner for {631}
himself on Easter-Sunday, heard a voice which said: "You are preparing
for yourself a banquet, while my servant Bennet, at Sublacum, is
distressed with hunger." The priest immediately set out in quest of the
hermit, and with much difficulty found him out. Bennet was surprised to
see a man come to him; but before he would enter into conversation with
him, he desired they might pray together. They then discoursed for some
time on God and heavenly things. At length the priest invited the saint
to eat, saying it was Easter-day, on which it is not reasonable to fast;
though St. Bennet answered him, that he knew not that it was the day of
so great a solemnity, nor is it to be wondered at, that one so young
should not be acquainted with the day of a festival, which was not then
observed by all on the same day, or that he should not understand the
Lunar Cycle, which at that time was known by very few. After their
repast the priest returned home. Soon after certain shepherds discovered
the saint near his cave, but at first took him for a wild beast; for he
was clad with the skins of beasts, and they imagined no human creature
could live among those rocks. When they found him to be a servant of
God, they respected him exceedingly, and many of them were moved by his
heavenly discourses to embrace with fervor a course of perfection. From
that time he began to be known, and many visited him, and brought him
such sustenance as he would accept: in requital for which he nourished
their souls with spiritual instructions. Though he lived sequestered
from the world, he was not yet secure from the assaults of the tempter.
Wherever we fly the devil still pursues us, and we carry a domestic
enemy within our own breasts. St. Gregory relates, that while St. Bennet
was employed in divine contemplation, the fiend endeavored to withdraw
his mind from heavenly objects, by appearing in the shape of a little
black-bird; but that, upon his making the sign of the cross, the phantom
vanished. After this, by the artifices of this restless enemy, the
remembrance of a woman whom the saint had formerly seen at Rome,
occurred to his mind, and so strongly affected his imagination, that he
was tempted to leave his desert. But blushing at so base a suggestion of
the enemy, he threw himself upon some briers and nettles which grew in
the place where he was, and rolled himself a long time in them, till his
body was covered with blood. The wounds of his body stifled all
inordinate inclinations, and their smart extinguished the flame of
concupiscence. This complete victory seemed to have perfectly subdued
that enemy; for he found himself no more molested with its stings.

The fame of his sanctity being spread abroad, it occasioned several to
forsake the world, and imitate his penitential manner of life. Some time
after, the monks of Vicovara,[2] on the death of their abbot, pitched
upon him to succeed him. He was very unwilling to take upon him that
charge, which he declined in the spirit of sincere humility, the beloved
virtue which he had practised from his infancy, and which was the
pleasure of his heart, and is the delight of a God humbled even to the
cross, for the love of us. The saint soon found by experience that their
manners did not square with his just idea of a monastic state. Certain
sons of Belial among them carried their aversion so far as to mingle
poison with his wine: but when, according to his custom, before he drank
of it he made the sign of the cross over the glass, it broke as if a
stone had fallen upon it. "God forgive you, brethren," said the saint,
with his usual meekness and tranquillity of soul, "you now see I was not
mistaken when I told you that your manners and mine would not agree." He
therefore returned to Sublacum; which desert he soon peopled with monks,
for whom be built twelve monasteries, {632} placing in each twelve monks
with a superior.[3] In one of these twelve monasteries there lived a
monk, who, out of sloth, neglected and loathed the holy exercise of
mental prayer, insomuch that after the psalmody or divine office was
finished, he every day left the church to go to work, while his brethren
were employed in that holy exercise; for by this private prayer in the
church, after the divine office, St. Gregory means pious meditation, as
Dom. Mege demonstrates. This slothful monk began to correct his fault
upon the charitable admonition of Pompeian, his superior; but, after
three days, relapsed into his former sloth. Pompeian acquainted St.
Benedict, who said, "I will go and correct him myself." Such indeed was
the danger and enormity of this fault, as to require the most effectual
and speedy remedy. For it is only by assiduous prayer that the soul is
enriched with the abundance of the heavenly water of divine graces,
which produces in her the plentiful fruit of all virtues. If we consider
the example of all the saints, we shall see that prayer was the
principal means by which the Holy Ghost sanctified their souls, and that
they advanced in perfection in proportion to their progress in the holy
spirit of prayer. If this be neglected, the soul becomes spiritually
barren, as a garden loses all its fruitfulness, and all its beauty, if
the pump raises not up a continual supply of water, the principle of
both. St. Benedict, deploring the misfortune and blindness of this monk,
hastened to his monastery, and coming to him at the end of the divine
office, saw a little black boy leading him by the sleeve out of the
church. After two days' prayer, St. Maurus saw the same, but Pompeian
could not see this vision, by which was represented that the devil
studies to withdraw men from prayer, in order that, being disarmed and
defenceless, they may easily be made a prey. On the third day, St.
Benedict finding the monk still absent from church in the time of
prayer, struck him with a wand, and by that correction the sinner was
freed from the temptation. Dom. German Millet[4] tells us, from the
tradition and archives of the monastery of St. Scholastica, that this
happened in St. Jerom's. In the monastery of St. John, a fountain sprung
up at the prayers of the saint; this, and two other monasteries, which
were built on the summit of the mountain, being before much distressed
for want of water. In that of St. Clement, situate on the bank of a
lake, a Goth, who was a monk, let fall the head of a sickle into the
water as he was cutting down thistles and weeds in order to make a
garden; but St. Maur, who with St. Placidus lived in that house, holding
the wooden handle in the water, the iron of its own accord swam, and
joined it again, as St. Gregory relates. St. Benedict's reputation drew
the most illustrious personages from Rome and other remote parts to see
him. Many, who came clad in purple, sparkling with gold and precious
stones, charmed with the admirable sanctity of the servant of God, {633}
prostrated themselves at his feet to beg his blessing and prayers, and
some imitating the sacrifice of Abraham, placed their sons under his
conduct in their most tender age, that they might be formed to perfect
virtue from their childhood. Among others, two rich and most illustrious
senators, Eutychius, or rather Equitius, and Tertullus, committed to his
care their two sons Maurus, then twelve years old, and Placidus, also a
child, in 522.[5] The devil, envying so much good, stirred up his wicked
instruments to disturb the tranquillity of the servant of God.
Florentius, a priest in the neighboring country, though unworthy to bear
that sacred character, moved by a secret jealousy, persecuted the saint,
and aspersed his reputation with grievous slanders. Bennet, being a true
disciple of Christ, knew no revenge but that of meekness and silence:
and not to inflame the envy of his adversary, left Sublacum, and
repaired to Mount Cassino. He had not got far on his journey, when he
heard that Florentius was killed by the fall of a gallery in which he
was. The saint was much afflicted at his sudden and unhappy death, and
enjoined Maurus a penance for calling it a deliverance from persecution.

Cassino is a small town, now in the kingdom of Naples, built on the brow
of a very high mountain, on the top of which stood an old temple of
Apollo, surrounded with a grove in which certain idolaters still
continued to offer their abominable sacrifices. The man of God having,
by his preaching and miracles, converted many of them to the faith,
broke the idol to pieces, overthrew the altar, demolished the temple,
and cut down the grove. Upon the ruins of which temple and altar he
erected two oratories or chapels; one bore the name of St. John the
Baptist, the other of St. Martin. This was the origin of the celebrated
abbey of Mount Cassino, the foundation of which the saint laid in 529,
the forty-eighth year of his age, the third of the emperor Justinian:
Felix IV. being pope, and Athalaric king of the Goths in Italy. The
patrician, Tertullus, came about that time to pay a visit to the saint,
and to see his son Placidus; and made over to this monastery several
lands which he possessed in that neighborhood, and also a considerable
estate in Sicily. St. Bennet met on Mount Cassino one Martin, a
venerable old hermit, who, to confine himself to a more austere
solitude, had chained himself to the ground in his cell, with a long
iron chain. The holy abbot, fearing this singularity might be a mark of
affectation, said to him: "If you are a servant of Jesus Christ, let the
chain of his love, not one of iron, hold you fixed in your resolution."
Martin gave proof of his humility by his obedience, and immediately laid
aside his chain. St. Bennet governed also a monastery of nuns, situate
near Mount Cassino, as is mentioned by St. Gregory: he founded an abbey
of men at Terracina, and sent St. Placidus into Sicily to establish
another in that island. Though ignorant of secular learning, he was
eminently replenished with the Spirit of God, and an experimental
science of spiritual things: on which account he is said by St. Gregory
the Great to have been "learnedly ignorant and wisely unlettered."[6]
For the alphabet of this great man is infinitely more desirable than all
the empty science of the world, as St. Arsenius said of St. Antony. From
certain very ancient pictures of St. Benedict, and old inscriptions,
{634} Mabillon proves this saint to have been in holy orders, and a
deacon. Several moderns say he was a priest; but, as Muratori observes,
without grounds.[7] By the account which St. Gregory has given us of his
life, it appears that he preached sometimes in neighboring places, and
that a boundless charity opening his hand, he distributed among the
needy all that he had on earth, to lay up his whole treasure in heaven.
St. Bennet, possessing perfectly the science of the saints, and being
enabled by the Holy Ghost to be the guide of innumerable souls in the
most sublime paths of Christian perfection, compiled a monastic rule,
which, for wisdom and discretion, St. Gregory the Great preferred to all
other rules; and which was afterwards adopted, for some time, by all the
monks of the West. It is principally founded on silence, solitude,
prayer, humility, and obedience.[8]

St. Bennet calls his Order a school in which men learn how to serve God:
and his life was to his disciples a perfect model for their imitation,
and a transcript of his rule. Being chosen by God, like another Moses,
to conduct faithful souls into the true promised land, the kingdom of
heaven, he was enriched with eminent supernatural gifts, even those of
miracles and prophecy. He seemed, like another Eliseus, endued by God
with an extraordinary power, commanding all nature; and like the ancient
prophets, foreseeing future events. He often raised the sinking courage
of his monks, and baffled the various artifices of the devil with the
sign of the cross, rendered the heaviest stone light in building his
monastery by a short prayer, and, in presence of a multitude of people,
raised to life a novice who had been crushed by the fall of a wall at
Mount Cassino. He foretold, with {635} many tears, that this monastery
should be profaned and destroyed; which happened forty years after, when
the Lombards demolished it about the year 580. He added, that he had
scarce been able to obtain of God that the inhabitants should be
saved.[9] It was strictly forbid by the rule of St. Benedict, for any
monk to eat out of his monastery, unless he was at such a distance {636}
that he could not return home that day, and this rule, says Saint
Gregory, was inviolably observed. Indeed, nothing more dangerously
engages monks in the commerce of the world; nothing more enervates in
them the discipline of abstinence and mortification, than for them to
eat and drink with seculars abroad. St. Gregory tells us, that St.
Bennet knew by revelation the fault of one of his monks who had accepted
of an invitation to take some refreshment when he was abroad on
business.[10] A messenger who brought the saint a present of two bottles
of wine, and had hid one of them, was put in mind by him to beware of
drinking of the other, in which he afterwards found a serpent. One of
the monks, after preaching to the nuns, had accepted of some
handkerchiefs from them, which he hid in his bosom; but the saint, upon
his return, reproved him for his secret sin against the rule of holy
poverty. A novice, standing before him, was tempted with thoughts of
pride on account of his birth: the saint discovered what passed in his
soul, and bid him make the sign of the cross on his breast.

When Belisarius, the emperor's general, was recalled to Constantinople,
Totila, the Arian king of the Goths, invaded and plundered Italy. Having
heard wonders of the sanctity of St. Bennet, and of his predictions and
miracles, he resolved to try whether he was really that wonderful man
which he was reported to be. Therefore, as he marched through Campania,
in 542, he sent the man of God word that he would pay him a visit. But
instead of going in person, he dressed one of his courtiers, named
Riggo, in his royal purple robes, and sent him to the monastery,
attended by the three principal lords of his court, and a numerous train
of pages. St. Bennet, who was then sitting, saw him coming to his cell,
and cried out to him at some distance: "Put off, my son, those robes
which you wear, and which belong not to you." The mock king, being
struck with a panic for having attempted to impose upon the man of God,
fell prostrate at his feet, together with all his attendants. The saint,
coming up, raised him with his hand; and the officer returning to his
master, related trembling what had befallen him. The king then went
himself, but was no sooner come into the presence of the holy abbot, but
he threw himself on the ground and continued prostrate till the saint,
going to him, obliged him to rise. The holy man severely reproved him
for the outrages he had committed, and said: "You do a great deal of
mischief, and I foresee you will do more. You will take Rome: you will
cross the sea, and will reign nine years longer: but death will overtake
you in the tenth, when you shall be arraigned before a just God to give
an account of your conduct." All which came to pass as St. Benedict had
foretold him. Totila was seized with fear, and recommended himself to
his prayers. From that day the tyrant became more humane; and when he
took Naples, shortly after, treated the captives with greater lenity
than could be expected from an enemy and a barbarian.[11] When the
bishop of Canusa afterwards said to that saint, that Totila would leave
Rome a heap of stones, and that it would be no longer inhabited, he
answered "No: but it shall be beaten with storms and earthquakes, and
shall be like a tree which withers by the decay of its root." Which
prediction St. Gregory observes to have been accomplished.

The death of this great saint seems to have happened soon after that of
his sister St. Scholastica, and in the year after his interview with
Totila. He foretold it his disciples, and caused his grave to be opened
six days before. When this was done he fell ill of a fever, and on the
sixth day would be carried into the chapel, where he received the body
and blood of our {637} Lord,[12] and having given his last instructions
to his sorrowful disciples, standing and leaning on one of them, with
his hands lifted up, he calmly expired, in prayer, on Saturday, the 21st
of March, probably in the year 543, and of his age the sixty-third;
having spent fourteen years at Mount Cassino. The greatest part of his
relics remains still in that abbey; though, some of his bones were
brought into France, about the close of the seventh century, and
deposited in the famous abbey of Fleury, which, on that account, has
long borne the name of St. Bennet's on the Loire.[13] It was founded in
the reign of Clovis II., about the year 640, and belongs at present to
the congregation of St. Maur.

       *       *       *       *       *

St. Gregory, in two words, expresses the characteristical virtue of this
glorious patriarch of the monastic order, when he says, that, returning
from Vicovara to Sublaco, he dwelt alone with himself;[14] which words
comprise a great and rare perfection, in which consists the essence of
holy retirement. A soul dwells not in true solitude, unless this be
interior as well as exterior, and unless she cultivates no acquaintance
but with God and herself, admitting no other company. Many dwell in
monasteries, or alone, without possessing the secret of living with
themselves. Though they are removed from the conversation of the world,
their minds still rove abroad, wandering from the consideration of God
and themselves, and dissipated amid a thousand exterior objects which
their imagination presents to them, and which they suffer to captivate
their hearts, and miserably entangle their will with vain attachments
and foolish desires. Interior solitude requires the silence of the
interior faculties of the soul, no less than of the tongue and exterior
senses: without this, the enclosure of walls is a very weak fence. In
this interior solitude, the soul collects all her faculties within
herself, employs all her thoughts on herself and on God, and all her
strength and affections in aspiring after him. Thus, St. Benedict dwelt
with himself, being always busied in the presence of his Creator, in
bewailing the spiritual miseries of {638} his soul and past sins, in
examining into the disorders of his affections, in watching over his
senses, and the motions of his heart, and in a constant attention to the
perfection of his state, and the contemplation of divine things. This
last occupied his soul in the sweet exercises of divine love and praise;
but the first-mentioned exercises, or the consideration of himself, and
of his own nothingness and miseries, laid the foundation by improving in
him continually the most profound spirit of humility and compunction.
The twelve degrees of humility, which he lays down in his Rule,[15] are
commended by St. Thomas Aquinas.[16] The first is a deep compunction of
heart, and holy fear of God and his judgments, with a constant attention
to walk in the divine presence, sunk under the weight of this confusion
and fear. 2. The perfect renunciation of our own will. 3. Ready
obedience. 4. Patience under all sufferings and injuries. 5. The
manifestation of our thoughts and designs to our superior or director.
6. To be content, and to rejoice, in all humiliations; to be pleased
with mean employments, poor clothes, &c., to love simplicity and
poverty, (which he will have among monks, to be extended even to the
ornaments of the altar,) and to judge ourselves unworthy, and bad
servants in every thing that is enjoined us. 7. Sincerely to esteem
ourselves baser and more unworthy than every one, even the greatest
sinners.[17] 8. To avoid all love of singularity in words or actions. 9.
To love and practise silence. 10. To avoid dissolute mirth and loud
laughter. 11. Never to speak with a loud voice, and to be modest in our
words. 12. To be humble in all our exterior actions, by keeping our eyes
humbly cast down with the publican,[18] and the penitent Manasses.[19]
St. Benedict adds, that divine love is the sublime recompense of sincere
humility, and promises, upon the warrant of the divine word, that God
will raise that soul to perfect charity, which, faithfully walking in
these twelve degrees, shall have happily learned true humility.
Elsewhere he calls obedience with delay the first degree of
humility,[20] but means the first among the exterior degrees; for he
places before it interior compunction of soul, and the renunciation of
our own will.

Footnotes:
1.  Called by the Italians, who frequently soften _l_ into _i_, Subiaco.
2.  Vicovara, anciently Varronis Vicus, a village between Subiaco and
    Tivoli.
3.  These twelve monasteries were situated in the same neighborhood, in
    the province Valeria. Moderns disagree in their names and
    description; according to the account of Dom. Mege, which appears
    most accurate, the first was called Columbaria, now St. Clement's,
    and stood within sixty paces from the saint's cave, called the Holy
    Grotto; the second was named of SS. Cosmos and Damian, now St.
    Scholastica's; the third, St. Michael's; the fourth, of St. Donatus,
    bishop and martyr; the fifth, St. Mary's, now St. Laurence's; the
    sixth, St. John Baptist's, situated on the highest part of the rock,
    but from a fountain which St. Bennet produced there by his prayers,
    and which still subsists, it is at present called St. John dell'
    Acqua; the seventh, St. Jerom's; the eighth, Vita Æterna; the ninth,
    St. Victorian or Victorin's, called from a martyr of that name, who
    is patron of the province of Valeria; the tenth, at the neighboring
    village Trebare; the eleventh, at St. Angelus's; the twelfth, at a
    fountain near the ancient castle, called Roca de Bore. These
    monasteries have been all united in that of St. Scholastica, which
    remains in a very flourishing condition, and is regarded as the
    mother-house of the whole Order, being certainly more ancient than
    that of Mount Cassino. It is a member of the Congregation of St.
    Justina, and though it is usually given in commendam, by a peculiar
    distinction, it is governed by a regular abbot chosen by the General
    Chapter. Of the rest of these twelve monasteries, only some cells or
    ruins remain. Besides the hundred and forty-four monks which were
    distributed in these twelve monasteries, St. Gregory tells us that
    the holy patriarch retained a small number with himself, by which it
    appears that he continued to live ordinarily in a distinct little
    monastery or hermitage about his grotto, though he always
    superintended and governed all these houses.
4.  See Dom. Mege, p. 84.
5.  It has been related in the life of St. Maurus, how he walked on the
    water to save the life of Placidus, then a child, who, going to the
    lake to fetch water, had fallen in; for to monasteries no
    distinction was shown to noblemen or their children, nor were they
    exempted from their share in manual labor, or other severities of
    the Rule. Such exemptions and privileges granted to many on pretence
    of health, first opened the door to a relaxation of monastic
    discipline. Placidus said, that when he was drawn by Maurus out of
    the water, he saw over his head the melotes of the abbot, and seemed
    to be saved by it, whence the miracle was by the disciples ascribed
    to St. Benedict. Dom Hæften thinks by the melotes is meant a cowl,
    to which that name is given by Paul the deacon, and the Roman Order
    or Ceremonial. But most understand a habit made of skins of goats,
    such as the Eastern monks wore, in imitation of the ancient
    prophets, as Cassian describes. (Instit. l. 1, c. 8.)
6.  Scienter nesciens, et sapienter indoctus.
7.  {Footnote not in text} Annal. Bened. t. 5, p. 122, ad an. 543. See
    also Muratori, Script. Ital. t. 4, p. 217.
8.  By it the abbot is charged with the entire government of the
    monastery. Seven hours a day are allotted the monks for manual
    labor, and two for pious reading, besides meditation from matins
    till break or day. But manual labor has been exchanged in most
    places for sacred studies and spiritual functions. The rule commands
    perpetual abstinence from flesh-meat, not only of four-footed
    animals, but also of fowls, which at that time were only served at
    the tables of princes as most exquisite dainties, as Mabillon shows
    from the testimony of St. Gregory of Tours. This law of abstinence
    is restored in the reformed congregation of St. Maur, and others.
    The hemina of wine allowed by St. Bennet per day, in countries where
    wine and water are only drunk, has been the subject of many
    dissertations, this measure having not been the same at all times,
    nor in all countries. The Roman hemina, which was half a sextarius,
    contained ten ounces, as Montfaucon demonstrates, (Antiqu. expl. t.
    3, l. 4, c. 7, pp. 149, 152,) and as Mabillon allows. (Præf. in Sæc.
    4.) Lancelot endeavors to show, in a dissertation on this subject,
    that St. Bennet is to be understood of this Roman hemina. Menard
    takes it to have been only seven ounces and a half. Mabillon (Pr. in
    Sæc. 4, p. cxv.) and Martenne (in c. 40, Règ.) think the holy
    founder speaks not of the ordinary of Roman hemina, and understand
    him of the Grecian, which contained a pound and a half, or eighteen
    ounces. Calmet looks upon Lancelot's opinion as most probable. He
    shows from the clear tradition of Benedictin writers and monuments,
    that St. Benedict's hemina contained three glasses or draughts. See
    Calmet, (in c. 40, Règ. t. 2, p. 62.) But St. Benedict allows and
    commends a total abstinence from wine. The portion of bread allowed
    by this holy patriarch to each monk, was a pound and a half, or
    eighteen ounces a day, as it is explained by the famous council held
    at Aix-la-Chapelle in the reign of Charlemagne.

    The holy rule of St. Benedict, which the great Cosmus of Medicis,
    and other wise legislators read frequently, in order to learn the
    maxims of perfect government, has been explained by a great number
    of learned and pious commentators, of whom Calmet gives a list, (t.
    1. p. 1.) The principal among the moderns are Hæften, prior of
    Affligem, in twelve books of monastic disquisitions, &c. Steingelt,
    abbot of Anhusen, gave a judicious abridgment of this work. Dom.
    Menard has written upon this rule in his Comments on the Concord of
    Rules of St. Benedict of Anian. Dom. Mege's Commentaires sur le Rège
    de St. Benoít, in 4to. printed at Paris in 1687, have been much
    blamed by his brethren for laxity. Dom. Martenne published with more
    applause his Commentarius in Regulam S. Benedicti, in 4to., in 1690.
    Son édition de la Règle est la plus exacte qu'on nous a donné; et
    son Commentaire également judicieux et scavant. Il ne parle pas de
    celui de Dom. Mege, qui avoit parut trois ans avant le sien;
    parceque ses sentiments relâchés ses confreres, de sorte qu'en
    plusiers monastères reformés de cet ordre on ne le met pas entre les
    mains des jeunes religieux Voyez le Cerf, Bibl. des Ecr. de la
    Congr. de St. Maur, p. 348. Hist. Literaria Ord. St. Bened. t. 3, p.
    21. Dom. Calmet printed in 1734, in two volumes, in 4to.,
    Commentaire Litéral Historique et Moral sur la Règle de St. Benoít,
    a work which, both for edification and erudition, is far superior to
    all the former, and is the masterpiece of this laborious writer,
    though not entirely exempt from little slips of memory, as when St.
    Cuthbert is called in it the founder of the monastery of
    Lindisfarne, (p. 18, t. 1.) The chief modern ascetical treatise on
    this subject is, La Règle de St. Benoít, traduite et expliquée par M.
    de Rancé, abbé de la Trappe, 2 vols. 4to. 1690, an excellent work
    for those who are, bound to study, and imbibe the spirit of this
    holy rule. It is reduced into meditations; which, as Calmet was
    informed by Mabillon, was done by a Benedictin nun. We have also
    Meditations on the Rule of St. Benedict, compiled by Dom. Morelle,
    author of many other works of piety and devotion. We have also very
    devout reflections on the prayers used in the religious profession
    of this order, under the following title: Sentiments de Piété sur la
    Profession religieuse, par un religieux Bènédictin de la
    Congrégation de St. Maur. Dom. Berthelet, of the congregation of St.
    Vannes, proves abstinence from flesh to have been anciently an
    essential duty of the monastic state, by an express book, entitled,
    Traíté Historique et Moral de l'Abstinence de la Viande, 1731.
9.  When the Lombards destroyed this famous abbey, in 580, St. Bennet,
    the abbot, escaped with all his monks to Rome, carrying with him
    only a copy of the Rule, written by St. Benedict himself, some of
    the habits which he and his sister St. Scholastica had worn, and the
    weight of the bread and measure of the wine which were the daily
    allowance for every monk. Pope Pelagius II. lodged these fathers
    near the Lateran church, where they built a monastery. In the
    pontificate of Gregory II., about the year 720, they were conducted
    back by abbot Petronax to Mount Cassino. This abbey was again ruined
    by the Saracens in 884: also by the Normans in 1046, and by the
    emperor Frederick II. in 1239. But was as often rebuilt. It is at
    this day very stately, and the abbot exercises an eplscopal
    jurisdiction over the town of San Germano, three little miles
    distant, and over twenty-one other parishes. The regular abbot of
    Saint Scholastica at Subiaco, is temporal and spiritual lord of
    twenty-five villages. The Benedictins reckon in their order,
    comprising all its branches and filiations, thirty-seven thousand
    houses. As to the number of emperors, kings, queens, princes, and
    princesses, who embraced this order, and that of saints, popes, and
    writers of note, which it has given the church, see F. Helyot, Dom.
    Mege, Calmet, and especially F. Ziegellaver, Hist. Liter. Ord. S.
    Bened., 4 vol. folio, Aug. Vindel. An. 1754.

    The monastic order settled by St. Athanasius at Milan and Triers,
    during his banishment into the West; by St. Eusebius of Vercelli, in
    his diocese, and by St. Hilary and St. Martin in Gaul, was founded
    upon the plan of the Oriental monasteries: being brought by those
    holy prelates from Egypt and Syria. The same is to be said of the
    first monasteries founded in Great Britain and Ireland. After the
    coming of St. Columban from Ireland into France, his Rule continued
    long most in vogue, and was adopted by the greater part of the
    monasteries that flourished in that kingdom. But it was customary in
    those ages, for founders of great monasteries frequently to choose
    out of different rules such religious practices and regulations, and
    to add such others as they judged most expedient: and the Benedictin
    Rule was sometimes blended with that of St. Columban, or others. In
    the reigns of Charlemagne and Louis the Débonnaire. for the sake of
    uniformity, it was enacted by the council of Aix-la-Chapelle in 802,
    and several other decrees, that the Rule of St. Benedict should
    alone be followed in all the monasteries in the dominions of those
    princes. F. Reyner, a most learned English Benedictin, in his
    Apostolatus Benedictinorum in Anglia, has, with profound erudition,
    produced all the monuments and authorities by which it can be made
    to appear that St. Gregory the Great established the Rule of St.
    Benedict in his monastery of St. Andrew at Rome, and was settled by
    St. Austin and the other monks who were sent by St. Gregory to
    convert the English in all the monasteries which they founded in
    this island. These proofs were abridged by Mabillon, Natalia
    Alexander, and others, who have judged that they amount to
    demonstration. Some, however, still maintain that the monastic rule
    brought hither by St. Austin, was a compilation from several
    different rules: that St. Bennet Biscop, and soon after St. Wilfrid,
    introduced several new regulations borrowed from the Rule of St.
    Benedict; that St. Dunstan established it in England more perfectly,
    still retaining several of the ancient constitutions of the English
    monasteries, and that it was not entirely adopted in England before
    Lanfranc's time. This opinion is warmly abetted by Dr. Lay, in his
    additions to Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire, and Tanner's
    Pref. to Notitia Monastica, in folio.

    The Order of St. Benedict has branched out, since the year 900, into
    several independent congregations, and the Orders of Camaldoly,
    Vallis Umrosa, Fontevrault, the Gilbertins, Silvestrins,
    Cistercians, and some others, are no more than reformations of the
    same, with certain particular additional constitutions.

    Among the Reformations or distinct Congregations of Benedictins, the
    first is that of Cluni, so called from the great monastery of that
    name, in the diocese of Macon, founded by William the Pious, duke of
    Aquitaine, about the year 910. St. Berno, the first abbot, his
    successor St. Odo, afterwards St. Hugh, St. Odilo, St. Mayeul, Peter
    the Venerable, and other excellent abbots, exceedingly raised the
    reputation of this reform, and propagated the same. A second
    Reformation was established in this Congregation in 1621, by the
    Grand Prior de Veni, resembling those of St. Vanne and St. Maur.
    Those monks who would not adopt it in their houses, are called
    Ancient monks of Cluni. The Congregation of Cava was called from the
    great monastery of that name in the province of Salerno, founded in
    980, under the observance of Cluni: it was the head of a
    Congregation of twenty-nine other abbeys, and ninety-one conventual
    priories; but a bishopric being erected in the town of Cava, by
    Boniface IX. in 1394, and the abbot's revenue and temporal
    jurisdiction being united to it by Leo X. in 1514, the monastery of
    the Blessed Trinity of Cava was much diminished, but is still
    governed by a regular abbot. In 1485, it was united, with all its
    dependencies, to the Congregation of St. Justina and Mount Cassino.
    The church of St. Justina at Padua, was founded by the Consul
    Opilius, in the fifth century, and the great monastery of Benedictin
    monks was built there in the ninth. The Reformation which was
    established in this house by Lewis Barbus, a patrician of Venice, in
    1409, was soon adopted by a great number of monasteries in Italy:
    but when in 1504 the abbey of Mount Cassino joined this
    Congregation, it took the name of this mother-house. The
    Congregation of Savigni, founded by St. Vitalis, a disciple of B.
    Robert of Arbrissel, in the forest of Savigni, in Normandy in 1112,
    was united to the Cistercians in 1153. The Congregation of Tiron,
    founded by B. Bernard of Abbeville, another disciple of B. Robert of
    Arbrissel, in 1109, in the forest of Tiron, in Le Perche. It parsed
    into the Congregation of St. Maur, in 1629. These of Savigni and
    Tiron had formerly several houses in England. The Congregation of
    Bursfield in Germany, was established by a Reformation in 1461: that
    of Molck, vulgarly Mock, in Austria, in the diocese of Passaw, in
    1418: that of Hirsauge, in the diocese of Spire, was instituted by
    St. William, abbot of S. Aurel, in 1080. The history of this abbey
    was written by Trithemius. After the change of religion it was
    secularized, and, by the treaty of Westphalia, ceded to the duke of
    Wirtemberg. The independent great Benedictin abbeys in Flanders,
    form a Congregation subject only to the Pope, but the abbots hold
    assemblies to judge appeals, in which the abbot of St. Vaast of Arms
    is president. The Congregation of Monte-Virgine, in Italy, was
    instituted by St. William, in 1119. That of St. Benedict's of
    Valladolid, in Spain, dates its establishment in 1390. In England,
    archbishop Lanfranc united the Benedictin monasteries in one
    Congregation, which began from that time to hold regular general
    chapters, and for some time bore his name. This union was made
    stricter by many new regulations in 1335, under the name of the
    Black Monks. It is one of the most illustrious of all the orders, or
    bodies of religious men, that have ever adorned the Church, and, in
    spite of the most grievous persecutions, still subsists. The
    congregation of Benedictin nuns of Mount Calvary owes it original to
    a Reformation, according to the primitive austerity of this order,
    introduced first in the nunnery at Poitiers, in 1614, by the abbess
    Antoinette of Orleans, with the assistance of the famous F. Joseph,
    the Capuchin. It has two houses at Paris, and eighteen others in
    several parts of France. See Helyot, t. {} and 6. Calmet, Comment.
    sur la Règle de St. Benoít, t. 2, p. 525. Hermant Schoonbeck, &c.
10. St. Greg. Dial. l. 2, c. 12; Dom. Mege, p. 180.
11. Procop. l. 3, de Bello Gothico. Baronius, &c.
12. Exitum suum Dominici corporis et sanguinis perceptione communivit.
    St. Greg. Dial. b. 2, c.37.
13. Some have related that Aigulph, a monk of Fleury, and certain
    citizens from Mans, going to Mount Cassino in 653, when that
    monastery lay in ruins, brought thence the remains of St. Benedict
    and St. Scholastics, and placed those of the former at Fleury, and
    those of the latter at Mans. The author of this relation is either
    Adrevald or rather Adalbert, a monk of Fleury, whom some imagined
    contemporary with Aigulph, but he certainly lived at least two
    hundred years later, as he himself declares, and his account is in
    many capital circumstances inconsistent with those of the life of
    Aigulph, and with the authentic and certain history of that age, as
    is demonstrated by F. Stilting, the Bollandist, in the life of St.
    Aigulph, (t. 1, Sept. p. 744,) and by others. It is printed in the
    Bibliotheca Floriacensis, (or of Fleury,) t. 1, p. 1, and more
    correctly in Mabillon's Acta Ben. t. 2, p. 337, and the Bollandists,
    21 Martij, p. 300. Soon after this relation was compiled by
    Adalbert, we find it quoted by Adrevald, a monk of the same house,
    in his history of several miracles wrought by the relics of this
    holy patriarch. (See Dom. Clemencez, Hist. Liter. t. 5, p. 516.)
    This Adrevald wrote also the life of St. Aigulph, who, passing from
    Fleury to Lerins, and being made abbot of that house, established
    there an austere reformation of the order: but by the contrivance of
    certain rebellious monks, joined in a conspiracy with the count of
    Usez, and some other powerful men, was seized by violence, and
    carried to the isle Caprasia, (now called Capraia,) situated between
    Corsica and the coast of Tuscany, where he was murdered, with three
    companions, about the year 679, on the 3rd day of September, on
    which he is honored as a martyr at Lerins. The relics of these
    martyrs were honorably conveyed thither soon after their death. F.
    Vincent Barrali, in his History of Lerins, affirms that they still
    remain there; but this can be only true of part, for the body of St.
    Aigulph was translated to the Benedictin priory at Provins, in the
    diocese of Sens, and is to this day honored there, as Mabillon (Sæc.
    2 Ben. pp. 666 and 742) and Stilting (t. 1. Sept.) demonstrate, from
    the constant tradition of that monastery, and the authority of Peter
    Cellensis and several other irrefragable vouchers.

    That the greatest part at least of the relics of St. Benedict and
    St. Scholastica still remain at Mount Casino, is demonstrated by
    Angelus de Nuce, in his dissertation on this subject, by F.
    Stilting, in his comments on the life of St. Aigulph, t. 1. Sept.,
    by pope Benedict XIV., De Servor. Dei Beatif. and Canoniz. l. 4,
    part 2, c. 24, n. 53, t. 5, p. 245, and Macchiarelli, the monk of
    Camaldoli. Soon after Mount Cassino was restored, pope Zachary
    visited that monastery and devoutly venerated the relics of St.
    Benedict and St. Scholastica in 746, as he testifies in his Bull.
    When pope Alexander II. consecrated the new church of that abbey in
    1071, these sacred bones were inspected and found all to remain
    there, as we learn from his Bull, and by Leo of Ostia, and Peter the
    deacon. The same is affirmed in the acts of two visitations made of
    them in 1545 and 1650. Nevertheless, Angelus de Nuce (who relates in
    his Chronicle of Mount Cassino, that, in 1650, he saw these relics,
    with all the monks of that house, in the visitation then made) and
    Stilting allow that some of the bones of this saint were conveyed
    into France, not by St. Aigulph, but soon after his time, and this
    is expressly affirmed by Paul the Deacon, in his History of the
    Lombards, l. 6, c. 2.
14. Habitavit secum.
15. S. Bened. Reg. c. 7.
16. S. Thos. 2. 2. qu. 161. a. 6.
17. No one can, without presumption, pride, and sin, prefer himself
    before the worst of sinners; first, because the judgments of God are
    always secret and unknown to us. (See St. Aug. de Virginit. St. Thos
    2.2. qu. 161. ad 1. Cassian, St. Bern., &c.) Secondly, the greatest
    sinners, had they received the graces with which we have been
    favored, would not have been so ungrateful; and if we had been in
    their circumstances, into what precipices should not we have fallen?
    Thirdly, instead of looking upon notorious sinners, we ought to turn
    our eyes towards those who serve God with fervor, full of confusion
    to see how far so many thousands are superior to us in every virtue.
    Thus we must practise the lesson laid down by St. Paul, never to
    measure ourselves with any one so as to prefer ourselves to another;
    but to look upon all others as superior to us, and less ungrateful
    and base than ourselves. Our own wretchedness and sinfulness we are
    acquainted with; but charity inclines us to judge the best of
    others.
18. Luke xviii. 18.
19. Orat. ejus inter Apocryph.
20. St. Bened. Règ. p. 210.

ST. SERAPION,

CALLED the Sindonite, from a single garment of coarse linen which he
always wore. He was a native of Egypt. Exceeding great was the austerity
of his penitential life. Though he travelled into several countries, he
always lived in the same poverty, mortification, and recollection. In a
certain town, commiserating the spiritual blindness of an idolater, who
was also a comedian, he sold himself to him for twenty pieces of money.
His only sustenance in this servitude was bread and water. He acquitted
himself at the same time of every duty belonging to his condition with
the utmost diligence and fidelity, joining with his labor assiduous
prayer and meditation. Having converted his master and the whole family
to the faith, and induced him to quit the stage, he was made free by
him, but could not be {639} prevailed upon to keep for his own use, or
even to distribute to the poor, the twenty pieces of coin he had
received as the price of his liberty. Soon after this he sold himself a
second time, to relieve a distressed widow. Having spent some time with
his new master, in recompense of signal spiritual services, besides his
liberty, he also received a cloak, a tunic, or undergarment, and a book
of the gospels. He was scarce gone out of doors, when, meeting a poor
man, he bestowed on him his cloak; and shortly after, to another
starving with cold, he gave his tunic; and was thus reduced again to his
single linen garment. Being asked by a stranger who it was that had
stripped him and left him in that naked condition, showing his book of
the gospels, he said: "This it is that hath stripped me." Not long
after, he sold the book itself for the relief of a person in extreme
distress. Being met by an old acquaintance, and asked what was become of
it, he said "Could you believe it? this gospel seemed continually to cry
to me: Go, sell all thou hast, and give it to the poor. Wherefore I have
also sold it, and given the price to the indigent members of Christ."
Having nothing now left but his own person, he disposed of that again on
several other occasions, where the corporal or spiritual necessities of
his neighbor called for relief: once to a certain Manichee at Lacedæmon,
whom he served for two years, and before they were expired, brought both
him and his whole family over to the true faith. St. John the Almoner
having read the particulars of this history, called for his steward, and
said to him, weeping: "Can we flatter ourselves that we do any great
matters because we give our estates to the poor? Here is a man who could
find means to give himself to them, and so many times over." St.
Serapion went from Lacedæmon to Rome, there to study the most perfect,
models of virtue, and, returning afterwards into Egypt, died in the
desert, being sixty years old, some time before Palladius visited Egypt
in 388. Henschenius, in his Notes on the Life of St. Auxentius,[1] and
Bollandus[2] take notice that in certain Menæa he is honored on the 21st
of March; yet they have not given his acts on that day. Baronius
confounds him with St. Serapion, the Sidonian martyr. See Pallad.
Lausiac. ch. 83, and Leontius in the Life of St. John the Almoner.

Footnotes:
1.  Henschen. Not. in Vit. S. Auxentii, ad 24 Feb {} 3 Febr.
2.  Bolland ad 23 Jan. p. 508, t. 2, Jan.

ST. SERAPION,

ABBOT of Arsinoe, in Upper Egypt. He governed ten thousand monks,
dispersed in the deserts and monasteries near that town. These religious
men hired themselves to the farmers of the country to till their lands
and reap their corn; joining assiduous prayer and other exercises of
their state with their labor. Each man received for his wages twelve
artabes, or about forty Roman bushels or modii, says Palladius: all
which they put into the hands of their holy abbot. He gave to every one
a sufficient allowance for his subsistence during the ensuing year,
according to their abstemious manner of living. The remainder was all
distributed among the poor. By this economy, all the necessities of the
indigent in that country were supplied, and several barges loaded with
corn were sent yearly by the river to Alexandria, for the relief of the
poor of that great city. St. Serapion was honored with the priesthood,
and with admirable sanctity applied himself to the sacred functions of
the ministry: yet found time to join his brethren in their penitential
labor, not to lose his share in their charity. His name is inserted by
Canisius in his Germanic Martyrology on this day, from certain copies of
the Greek Menæa. See Palladius, c. 76, p. 760; Rufin. Vit. Patr. l. 2,
c. 18; Sozomen, l. 6, c. 28.

{640}

ST. SERAPION, BISHOP OF THMUIS IN EGYPT, C.

THE surname of the Scholastic, which was given him, is a proof of the
reputation which he acquired, by his penetrating genius, and by his
extensive learning, both sacred and profane. He presided for some time
in the catechetical school of Alexandria, but, to apply himself more
perfectly to the science of the saints, to which he had always
consecrated himself, his studies, and his other actions, he retired into
the desert, and became a bright light in the monastic state. St.
Athanasius assures us, in his life of St. Antony, that in the visits
which Serapion paid to that illustrious patriarch, St. Antony often told
on his mountain things which passed in Egypt at a distance; and that at
his death, he left him one of his tunics of hair. St. Serapion was drawn
out of his retreat, to be placed in the episcopal see of Thmuis, a
famous city of Lower Egypt, near Diospolis, to which Stephanus and
Ptolemy give the title of a metropolis. The name in the Egyptian tongue
signified a goat, which animal was anciently worshipped there, as St.
Jerom informs us. St. Serapion was closely linked with St. Athanasius in
the defence of the Catholic faith, for which he was banished by the
emperor Constantius; whence St. Jerom styles him a confessor. Certain
persons, who confessed God the Son consubstantial to the Father, denied
the divinity of the Holy Ghost. This error was no sooner broached, but
our saint strenuously opposed it, and informed St. Athanasius of this
new inconsistent blasphemy; and that zealous defender of the adorable
mystery of the Trinity, the fundamental article of the Christian faith,
wrote against this rising monster. The four letters which St. Athanasius
wrote to Serapion, in 359, out of the desert, in which at that time he
lay concealed, were the first express confutation of the Macedonian
heresy that was published. St. Serapion ceased not to employ his labors
to great advantage, against both the Arians and Macedonians. He also
compiled an excellent book against the Manichees, in which he shows that
our bodies may be made the instruments of good, and that our souls may
be perverted by sin; that there is no creature of which a good use may
not be made; and that both just and wicked men are often changed, the
former by falling into sin, the latter by becoming virtuous. It is,
therefore, a self-contradiction to pretend with the Manichees that our
souls are the work of God, but our bodies of the devil, or the evil
principle.[1] St..Serapion wrote several learned letters, and a treatise
on the Titles of the Psalms, quoted by St. Jerom, which are now lost. At
his request, St. Athanasius composed several of his works against the
Arians; and so great was his opinion of our saint, that he desired him
to correct, or add to them what he thought wanting. Socrates relates[2]
that St. Serapion gave an abstract of his own life, and an abridged rule
of Christian perfection, in very few words, which he would often repeat,
saying: "The mind is purified by spiritual knowledge, (or by holy
meditation and prayer,) the spiritual passions of the soul by charity,
and the irregular appetites by abstinence and penance." This saint died
in his banishment in the fourth age, and is commemorated on this day in
the Roman Martyrology. See his works, those of St. Athanasius in several
places, St. Jerom, Catall. c. 99; Socrates {641}, l. 4, c. 23; Sozom. l.
4, c. 9; Photius, Col. 85; Tillem. t. 8; Ceillier, t. 6, p. 36.

Footnotes:
1.  A Latin translation of St. Serapion's book against the Manichees,
    given F. Turrianus the Jesuit, is published in the Bibliotheca
    Patrum, printed at Lyons. and in F. Canisius's Lectiones Antiquæ, t.
    5, part 1, p. 35. The learned James Basnage, who republished this
    work of Canisius with curios additions and {notes}, has added the
    Greek text, t. 1, p. 37.
2.  Socrat. Hist. l. 4, c. 23.

ST. ENNA, OR ENDEUS, ABBOT

HIS father, Conall Deyre, was lord of Ergall, a large territory in
Ulster, in which principality Enna succeeded him; but by the pious
exhortations of his sister, St. Fanchea, abbess of Kill-Aine, at the
foot of mount Bregh, in the confines of Meath, he left the world, and
became a monk. Going abroad, by her advice, he lived some time in the
abbey of Rosnal, or the vale of Ross, under the abbot Mansenus. At
length returning home, he obtained of Ængus, king of Munster, a grant of
the isle of Arra, or Arn, wherein he founded a great monastery, in which
he trained up many disciples, illustrious for sanctity, insomuch that
the island was called Arran of the Saints. His death must have happened
in the beginning of the sixth century. The chief church of the island is
dedicated to God in his name, and called Kill-Enda. His tomb is shown in
the churchyard of another church, in the same island, named
Teglach-Enda. See F. Colgan, March 21.


MARCH XXII.

ST. BASIL OF ANCYRA, PRIEST, M.

From the authentic acts of his martyrdom in Ruinart, Henschenius, and
Tillemont, t. 7, p. 375.

A.D. 362.

MARCELLUS, bishop of Ancyra, distinguished himself by his zeal against
the Arians, on which account he was banished by Constantius in 336.[1]
Basil, a ringleader of the Semi-Arians, was intruded into that see, but
was himself deposed by the stanch Arians, in 360; and is mentioned by
Socrates to have survived our saint, though he continued still in
banishment under Jovian. The holy martyr of whom we speak was also
called Basil. He was priest of Ancyra under the bishop Marcellus, and a
man of a most holy life, and unblemished conversation, and had been
trained up by saints in the practices of perfect piety. He preached the
word of God with great assiduity, and when the Arian wolf, who bore his
name, attempted to plant his heresy in that city, he never ceased to cry
out to the people, with the zeal and intrepidity of a prophet, exhorting
their to beware of the snares which {642} were laid for them, and to
remain steadfast in the Catholic faith. He was forbidden by the Arian
bishops, in 360, to hold ecclesiastical assemblies: but he despised the
unjust order; and as boldly defended the Catholic faith before
Constantius himself. When Julian the Apostate re-established idolatry,
and left no means untried to pervert the faithful, Basil ran through the
whole city, exhorting the Christians to continue steadfast, and not
pollute themselves with the sacrifices and libations of the heathens,
but fight manfully in the cause of God. The heathens laid violent hands
on him; and dragged him before Saturninus the proconsul, accusing him of
sedition, of having overturned altars, that he stirred up the people
against the gods, and had spoken irreverently of the emperor and his
religion. The proconsul asked him if the religion which the emperor had
established was not the truth? The martyr answered: "Can you yourself
believe it? Can any man endued with reason persuade himself that dumb
statues are gods?" The proconsul commanded him to be tortured on the
rack, and scoffing, said to him, under his torments: "Do not you believe
the power of the emperor to be great, who can punish those who disobey
him? Experience is an excellent master, and will inform you better. Obey
the emperor, worship the gods, and offer sacrifice." The martyr, who
prayed during his torments with great earnestness, replied: "It is what
I never will do." The proconsul remanded him to prison, and informed his
master Julian of what he had done. The emperor approved of his
proceedings, and dispatched Elpidius and Pegasus, two apostate
courtiers, in quality of commissaries, to assist the proconsul in the
trial of the prisoner. They took with them from Nicomedia one Aslepius,
a wicked priest of Esculapius, and arrived at Ancyra. Basil did not
cease to praise and glorify God in his dungeon, and Pegasus repaired
thither to him in hopes, by promises and entreaties, to work him into
compliance: but came back to the proconsul highly offended at the
liberty with which the martyr had reproached him with his apostacy. At
the request of the commissaries, the proconsul ordered him to be again
brought before them, and tormented on the rack with greater cruelty than
before; and afterwards to be loaded with the heaviest irons, and lodged
in the deepest dungeon.

In the mean time Julian set out from Constantinople for Antioch, in
order to prepare for his Persian expedition. From Chalcedon he turned
out of his road to Pessinunte, a town in Galatia, there to offer
sacrifice in a famous temple of Cibele. In that town he condemned a
certain Christian to be beheaded for the faith, and the martyr went to
execution with as much joy as if he had been called to a banquet. When
Julian arrived at Ancyra, St. Basil was presented before him, and the
crafty emperor, putting on an air of compassion, said to him: "I myself
am well skilled in your mysteries; and I can inform you, that Christ, in
whom you place your trust, died under Pilate, and remains among the
dead." The martyr answered: "You are deceived; you have renounced Christ
at a time when he conferred on you the empire. But he will deprive you
of it, together with your life. As you have thrown down his altars, so
will he overturn your throne: and as you have violated his holy law,
which you had so often announced to the people, (when a reader in the
church,) and have trodden it under your feet, your body shall be cast
forth without the honor of a burial, and shall be trampled upon by men."
Julian replied: "I designed to dismiss thee: but thy impudent manner of
rejecting my advice, and uttering reproaches against me, force me to use
thee ill. It is therefore my command, that every day thy skin be torn
off thee in seven different places, till thou hast no more left." He
then gave it in charge to count Frumentinus, the captain of his guards,
to see this barbarous sentence executed. The saint, after having
suffered with wonderful patience the first incisions, desired to speak
to the emperor. {643} Frumentinus would be himself the bearer of this
message to Julian, not doubting but Basil intended to comply and offer
sacrifice. Julian instantly ordered that the confessor should meet him
in the temple of Esculapius. He there pressed him to join him in making
sacrifices. But the martyr replied, that he could never adore blind and
deaf idols. And taking a piece of his flesh which had been cut out of
his body that day, and still hung to it by a bit of skin, he threw it
upon Julian. The emperor went out in great indignation: and count
Frumentinus, fearing his displeasure, studied how to revenge an insult,
for which he seemed responsible to his master. He therefore mounted his
tribunal, and ordered the torments of the martyr to be redoubled; and so
deep were the incisions made in his flesh, that his bowels were exposed
to view, and the spectators wept for compassion. The martyr prayed aloud
all the time, and at evening was carried back to prison. Next morning
Julian set out for Antioch, and would not see Frumentinus. The count
resolved to repair his disgrace, or at least to discharge his resentment
by exerting his rage upon the servant of Christ. But to his thundering
threats Basil answered: "You know how many pieces of flesh have been
torn from my body: yet look on my shoulders and sides; see if any wounds
appear? Know that Jesus Christ this night hath healed me. Send this news
to your master Julian, that he may know the power of God whom he hath
forsaken. He hath overturned his altars, who was himself concealed under
them when he was sought by Constantius to be put to death. But God hath
discovered to me that his tyranny shall be shortly extinguished with his
life." Frumentinus seemed no longer able to contain his rage, and
commanded the saint to be laid upon his belly, and his back to be
pierced with red-hot iron spikes. The martyr expired under these
torments on the 29th of June, in 362. But his name is honored both by
the Latins and Greeks on the 22d of March.

The love of God, which triumphed in the breasts of the martyrs, made
them regard as nothing whatever labors, losses, or torments they
suffered for its sake, according to that of the Canticles: _If a man
shall have given all that he possesses, he will despise it as nothing._
If the sacrifice of worldly honors, goods, friends, and life be required
of such a one, he makes it with joy, saying with the royal prophet,
_What have I desired in heaven, or on earth, besides thee, O God! Thou
art my portion forever._ If he lives deprived of consolation and joy, in
interior desolation and spiritual dryness, he is content to bear his
cross, provided he be united to his God by love, and says, My God and my
all, if I possess you, I have all things in you alone: whatever happens
to me, with the treasure of your love I am rich and sovereignly happy.
This he repeats in poverty, disgraces, afflictions, and persecutions. He
rejoices in them, as by them he is more closely united to his God, gives
the strongest proof of his fidelity to him, and perfect submission to
his divine appointments, and adores the accomplishment of his will. If
it be the property of true love to receive crosses with content and joy,
to sustain great labors, and think them small, or rather not to think of
them at all, as they bear no proportion to the prize, to what we owe to
God, or to what his love deserves: to suffer much, and think all
nothing, and the longest and severest trials short: is it not a mark of
a want of this love, to complain of prayer, fasts, and every Christian
duty? How far is this disposition from the fervor and resolution of all
the saints, and from the heroin courage of the martyrs!

Footnotes:
1. Marcellus wrote a famous book against the Arians, which Eusebius of
Cæsarea and all the Arians condemned, as reviving the exploded heresy
of Sabellius. But Sabellianism was a general slander with which they
aspersed all orthodox pastors. It is indeed true, that St. Hilary, St.
Basil, St. Chrysostom, and Sulpicius Severus charge Marcellus with
that error; but were deceived by the clamors of the Arians. For
Marcellus appealing to pope Julius, and repairing to Rome, was
acquitted, and his book declared orthodox by that pope in 341, and
also by the council of Sardica in 347; as St. Hilary (fragm. 3,
pp. 1308, 1311) and St. Athanasins (Apol. contra Arianos, p. 165)
testify. It was a calumny of the Arians, though believed by
St. Hilary, that St. Athanasius at length abandoned and condemned him.
It is demonstrated by Dom Montfaucon from the works of St. Athanasius,
that he ever defended the innocence of Marcellus, (t. 2 Collect Patr.)
Moreover, Marcellus being informed that St. Basil had suggested to St.
Athanasius certain suspicions of his faith, in 372, towards the end of
his life, sent St. Athanasius his most orthodox confession of faith,
in which he explicitly condemns Sabellianism; which authentic monument
was published by Montfaucon, (t. 2, Collect Patr. p. 55.) If Patavius,
Bull, and others, who censure Marcellus, had seen this confession,
they would have cleared him of the imputation of Sabellianism, and
expounded favorably certain ambiguous expressions which occurred in
his book against the Arises, which is now lost, and was compiled
against a work of Asterius the Sophist, surnamed the advocate of the
Arians.

{644}

ST. PAUL, BISHOP OF NARBONNE, C.

ST. GREGORY of Tours informs us,[1] that he was sent with other
preachers from Rome to plant the faith in Gaul. St. Saturninus of
Thoulouse, and St. Dionysius of Paris, were crowned with martyrdom:
but St. Paul of Narbonne, St. Trophimus of Arles, St. Martial of
Limoges, and St. Gatian of Tours, after having founded those churches,
amidst many dangers, departed in peace. Prudentius says,[2] that the
name of Paul had rendered the city of Narbonne illustrious.

Footnotes:
1.  Hist. Franc. l. 1, c. 30.
2.  Hymn. 4.

ST. LEA. WIDOW.

SHE was a rich Roman lady; after the death of her husband she mortified
her flesh by wearing rough sackcloth, passed whole nights in prayer, and
by humility seemed every one's menial servant. She died in 384, and is
honored on this day in the Roman Martyrology. St. Jerom makes an elegant
comparison between her death and that of Prætextatus, a heathen, who was
that year appointed consul, but snatched away by death at the same time.
See St. Jerom, Ep. 20, (olim 24,) to Marcella, t. 4, p. 51, Ed. Ben.

ST. DEOGRATIAS, BISHOP OF CARTHAGE, C.

GENSERIC, the Arian king of the Vandals, took Carthage in 439, filled
the city with cruelties, and caused Quodvultdeus, the bishop, and many
others, to be put on board an old leaky vessel, who, notwithstanding,
arrived safe at Naples. After a vacancy of fourteen years, in 454, St.
Deogratias was consecrated archbishop. Two years after, Genseric
plundered Rome, and brought innumerable captives from Italy, Sicily,
Sardinia, and Corsica, into Africa, whom the Moors and Vandals shared
among them on the shore, separating without any regard or compassion
weeping wives from their husbands, and children from their parents.
Deogratias sold every thing, even the gold and silver vessels of the
church, to redeem as many as possible; he provided them with lodgings
and beds, and furnished them with all succors, and though in a decrepit
old age, visited those that were sick every day, and often in the night.
Worn out by these fatigues, he died in 457, to the inexpressible grief
of the prisoners, and of his own flock. The ancient calendar of
Carthage, written in the fifth age, commemorates him on the 5th of
January; but the Roman on the 22d of March. See St. Victor Vitensis, l.
1, c. 3.

ST. CATHARINE OF SWEDEN, VIRGIN.

SHE was daughter of Ulpho, prince of Nericia, in Sweden, and of St.
Bridget. The love of God seemed almost to prevent in her the use of her
reason. At seven years of age she was placed in the nunnery of Risburgh,
and educated in piety under the care of the holy abbess of that house.
Being very beautiful, she was, by her father, contracted in marriage to
Egard {645} a young nobleman of great virtue: but the virgin persuaded
him to join with her in making a mutual vow of perpetual chastity. By
her discourses he became desirous only of heavenly graces, and, to draw
them down upon his soul more abundantly, he readily acquiesced in the
proposal. The happy couple, having but one heart and one desire, by a
holy emulation excited each other to prayer, mortification, and works of
charity. After the death of her father, St. Catharine, out of devotion
to the passion of Christ, and to the relies of the martyrs, accompanied
her mother in her pilgrimages and practices of devotion and penance.
After her death at Rome, in 1373, Catherine returned to Sweden, and died
abbess of Vadzstena, or Vatzen,[1] on the 24th of March, in 1381.[2] For
the last twenty-five years of her life she every day purified her soul
by a sacramental confession of her sins. Her name stands in the Roman
Martyrology on the 22d of March. See her life written by Ulpho, a
Brigittine friar, thirty years after her death, with the remarks of
Henschenius.

Footnotes:
1.  The great monastery of our Saviour at Wasten, or Vatzen, in the
    diocese of Lincopen, was first founded by St. Bridget, in 1344; but
    rebuilt in a more convenient situation in 1384, when the nuns and
    friars were introduced with great solemnity by the bishop of
    Lincopen. This is called its foundation in the exact chronicle of
    Sweden, published by Benzelius, Monum. Suec. p. 94.
2.  St. Catharine of Sweden compiled a pious book, entitled, Sielinna
    Troëst, that is, Consolation to the Soul, which fills one hundred
    and sixty-five leaves in folio, in a MS., on vellum, mentioned by
    Starnman, Sur l'Etat des Sciences en Suède, dans les temps reculés.
    The saint modestly says in her preface, that as a bee gathers honey
    out of various flowers, and a physician makes choice of medicinal
    roots for the composition of his remedies, and a virgin makes up a
    garland out of a variety of flowers, so she has collected from the
    holy scriptures and other good books, chosen rules and maxims of
    virtue.


MARCH XXIII.

ST. ALPHONSUS TURIBIUS, ARCHBISHOP OF LIMA,

CONFESSOR.

From his life by F. Cyprian de Herrera, dedicated to pope Clement X.,
and the acts of his canonization.

A.D. 1606.

ST. TORIBIO, or TIIRIBIUS ALPHONSUS MOGROBEJO, was second son to the
lord of Mogrobejo, and born in the kingdom of Leon, on the 16th of
November, in 1538. From his infancy he discovered a strong inclination
to piety; and, in his childhood, it was his delight, at times of
recreation, to erect and adorn altars, and to serve the poor. He
trembled at the very shadow of sin. One day, seeing a poor pedler-woman
angry because she had lost something out of her pack, he most movingly
entreated and exhorted her, that she would not offend God by passion;
and, in order to appease her, gave her the value of her loss, which he
had begged of his mother for that purpose. He was very devout to the
Blessed Virgin, said every day her Office and Rosary, and fasted every
Saturday in her honor. While at school, he usually gave part of his
slender dinner to the poor, and was so much addicted to fasting, that
his superiors were obliged, by strict commands, to compel him to
moderate his austerities. He began his higher studies at Valladolid, but
completed them at Salamanca. He was introduced early to the notice of
king Philip II., honored by him with several dignities, and made
president or chief judge at Granada. This office he discharged during
five years with so much integrity, prudence, and virtue, that the eyes
of the whole kingdom were fixed on him, and his life in the world {646}
was a holy noviceship to the pastoral charge. The pressing necessities
of the infant church of Peru required a prelate who inherited, in a
distinguished manner, the spirit of the apostles; and the archbishopric
of Lima falling vacant, Turibius was unanimously judged the person of
all others the best qualified to be an apostle of so large a country,
and to remedy the scandals which obstructed the conversion of the
infidels. The king readily nominated him to that dignity, and all
parties concerned applauded the choice. Turibius was thunderstruck at
this unexpected news, and had no sooner received the message, but he
cast himself on the ground at the foot of his crucifix, praying with
many tears that God would deliver him from so heavy a burden, which he
thought absolutely above his strength. He wrote the most urgent letters
to the king's council, in which he pleaded his incapacity, and other
impediments, and laid great stress on the canons, which forbid laymen to
be promoted to such dignities in the church. This humility it was that
obtained the succor of heaven by which he performed wonders in the
service of souls. Being compelled by obedience to acquiesce, he at
length testified his submission by falling on his knees and kissing the
ground.

After a suitable preparation, he received the four minor orders on four
successive Sundays, the better to dispose himself for the functions of
each; and after passing through the other orders, he was consecrated
bishop. Immediately after which he set out for Peru, and landed at Lima,
in the year 1581, of his age the forty-third. That diocese is extended
one hundred and thirty leagues along the coast, comprising three cities,
and many towns and villages, with innumerable cottages scattered over
two ridges of the mountains of the Andes, esteemed the highest and the
most rugged in the whole world. Some of the European generals, who first
invaded that country, were men who seemed to measure every thing by
their insatiable avarice and ambition, and had so far lost all
sentiments of humanity towards the poor savages, that they deserved the
name rather of tyrants and plunderers than of conquerors. Civil wars and
dissensions completed the misfortune of that country; and covetousness,
cruelty, treachery, fraud, and debauchery, seemed triumphant. Nor were
the repeated orders of the Spanish court able to redress these evils.
The sight of these disorders moved the good pastor often to tears, but
his prudence and zeal overcame all difficulties, extirpated public
scandals, and made that kingdom a flourishing portion of the Christian
church. Upon his arrival he immediately began a visitation of his vast
diocese: an undertaking of incredible fatigue, and attended with many
dangers. He often crept over the steepest and most rugged mountains,
covered with ice or snow, to visit some poor hut of Indians, and give
them suitable comfort and instruction. He travelled often on foot, and
sometimes barefoot, and by fasting and prayer never ceased to implore
the divine mercy for the salvation of the souls committed to his charge.
He placed everywhere able and zealous pastors, and took care that no one
in the most remote corners of the rocks should be left destitute of the
means of instruction and of the benefit of the sacraments. To settle and
maintain discipline, he appointed diocesan synods to be held every two
years, and provincial synods every seven; and was vigilant and severe in
chastising the least scandal, especially of avarice, in the clergy.
Without respect of persons, he reproved injustice and vice, and made use
of all the means which his authority put into his hands, to check the
insolence of public sinners, and to protect the poor from oppression.
Many of the first conquerors and governors of Peru, before the arrival
of the most virtuous viceroy Francis of Toledo, were men who often
sacrificed every thing to their passions, and for their private ends.
From some of these saint suffered many persecutions, and was {647} often
thwarted by them in the discharge of his duty. But by the arms of
meekness and patience he overcame all affronts and injuries, and with an
invincible constancy he maintained the rights of justice and truth. He
showed that many sinners misconstrued the law of God to make it favor
their passions; but that, as Tertullian observes, "Christ calls himself
the truth, not custom," and will weigh our actions not in the false
balance of the world, but in the true scales of the sanctuary. Thus he
extirpated the most inveterate abuses,[1] and established with so great
fervor the pure maxims of the gospel, as to revive in many the primitive
spirit of Christianity. To extend and perpetuate the advantages of
religion, which by his zeal he had procured, he filled this country with
seminaries, churches, and many hospitals; but would never suffer his own
name to be recorded in any of his munificent charities or foundations.
When he was at Lima, he every day visited several hospitals, comforted
and exhorted the sick, and administered the sacraments. When a
pestilence, though that calamity is seldom known in Peru, raged in some
parts of his diocese, Turibius distributed his own necessaries in
relieving the afflicted: he preached penance, because sins are the cause
of chastisements, and infinitely the worst of evils. He walked in the
processions, bathed in tears, with his eyes always fixed on a crucifix,
and offering himself to God for his flock; fasted, watched, and prayed
for them, without intermission, till God was pleased to remove his
scourge.

Nothing gave the saint so much pleasure as the greatest labors and
dangers, to procure the least spiritual advantage to one soul. Burning
with the most vehement desire of laying down his life for his flock, and
of suffering all things for him who died for us, he feared no dangers.
When he heard that poor Indians wandered in the mountains and deserts,
he sought them out; and to comfort, instruct, or gain one of them, he
often suffered incredible fatigues, and dangers in the wildernesses, and
boldly travelled through the haunts of lions and tigers. He spent seven
years in performing his first visitation: his second employed him four
years, but the third was shorter. He converted innumerable infidels, and
left everywhere monuments of his charity. In travelling, he either
prayed or discoursed on heavenly things. On his arrival at a place, it
was his custom to repair first to the church to pray before the altar.
To catechise the poor, he would sometimes stay two or three days in
places where he had neither bed nor any kind of food. He visited every
part of his vast diocese: and when others suggested to him the dangers
that threatened him from rocks, precipices, marshes, rivers, robbers,
{648} and savages, his answer was that Christ came from heaven to save
man, we ought not therefore to fear dangers for the sake of immortal
glory. He preached and catechised without intermission, having for this
purpose learned, in his old age, all the various languages of the
barbarous nations of that country. Even on his journeys he said mass
every day with wonderful fervor and devotion. He always made a long
meditation before and after it, and usually went to confession every
morning; though they who best knew his interior, testified, that they
were persuaded he had never in his whole life forfeited his baptismal
innocence by any mortal sin. He seemed to have God and the divine honor
alone before his eyes in all his words and actions, so as to give little
or no attention to any thing else; by which means his prayer was
perpetual. He retired in private to that exercise often in the day, and
for a long time together. In it his countenance seemed often to shine
with a divine light. The care with which he studied to disguise and
conceal his great mortifications and works of piety, was the proof of
his sincere humility. His munificence in relieving the poor of every
class, especially those who were too bashful to make their necessities
publicly known, always exhausted his revenues. The decrees of his
provincial councils are monuments of his zeal, piety, learning, and
discretion: they have been ever since esteemed, not only in the new
world, but also in Europe, and at Rome itself, as oracles. The
flourishing state of the church of Peru, the great number of saints and
eminent pastors with which it abounded, and the establishment of
innumerable seminaries of piety and learning, and hospitals for the
poor, were the fruit of his zeal. If he did not originally plant the
faith, he was at least the great propagator of it, and the chief
instrument of God in removing scandals and advancing true piety in that
vast country, which till then had been a land of abominations; while
Francis of Toledo, the great viceroy, first settled the civil government
in peace and tranquillity by salutary laws, which have procured him the
title of the Legislator of Peru. St. Turibius, in the sixty-eighth year
of his age, in 1606, during the visitation of his diocese, fell sick at
Santa, a town one hundred and ten leagues distant from Lima. He foretold
his death, and ordered him to be rewarded who should bring him the first
account from his physician, that his recovery was despaired of. The
ardor of his faith, his hope, his love of his Creator and Redeemer, his
resignation and perfect sacrifice of himself, gathered strength in the
fervent exercises and aspirations which he repeated almost without
ceasing in his illness. By his last will he ordered what he had about
him to be distributed among his servants, and whatever else he otherwise
possessed to be given to the poor. He would be carried to the church,
there to receive the holy viaticum: but received extreme unction in his
sick bed. He often repeated those words of St. Paul: _I desire to be
dissolved, and to be with Christ._ And in his last moments he ordered to
be sung, by his bedside, those of the Psalmist: _I rejoiced in the ibwgs
that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord._ He died
on the 23d of March, repeating those other words of the same prophet:
_Into thy hands I commend my spirit._ His body being translated the year
after to Lima, was found incorrupt, the joints flexible, and the skin
soft. His historian, and the acts of the canonization, mention many sick
restored to their health, and a girl raised to life by him while he was
living: also many miracles wrought through his intercession after his
death. He was beatified by Innocent XI. in 1679,[2] and solemnly
canonized by pope Benedict XIII. in 1726. On the miracles wrought by his
intercession, see Benedict XIV.,[3] and especially the acts of his
canonization.

{649}

A pastor of souls must be careful to animate all his exterior actions
and labors in the service of his neighbor, with the interior spirit of
compunction, humility, zeal, charity, and tender devotion. Without this
he loses the fruit of all the pains he takes, and by them will often
deserve only chastisements in the world to come; so much will his
intention and the affections of his heart be infected with self-love,
and depraved by various imperfections, and secret sinister desires even
in the most holy functions. Therefore, a fervent novitiate, employed in
the exercises of an interior life, ought to be a part of the preparation
for this state; and in the discharge of his duties, a person ought
always to unite contemplation with action, and reserve to himself
sufficient time for conversing with God and his own soul, and taking a
frequent review of his own interior. From his labors he must return
frequently to prayer, and constantly nourish in his soul a spirit of
fervent devotion, which will thus accompany all his exterior actions,
and keep his thoughts and affections always united to God. Those who are
not faithful in thus maintaining and improving in themselves an interior
spirit of piety, and in watching with fear and compunction over the
motions of their own hearts, will generally advance very little the
kingdom of Christ in the souls of others, and are in great danger of
losing their own. This is what St. Bernard feared in his disciple pope
Eugeuius III., whom he conjured with tears never to give himself up
entirely to the care of others, so as not to live also for himself; so
to communicate a spirit of piety to others, as not to suffer it to be
drained in his own heart; to be a basin to hold it, not a pipe for it to
run through.[4] This lesson is applicable, with due proportion, to other
states, especially that of teaching the sciences, in which the exercises
of an interior life are so much the more necessary, as the employment is
more distracting, more tumultuous, and more exposed to the waves of
vanity, jealousy, and other secret petty passions.

Footnotes:
1.  The Indians were infamous for their debaucheries, and became so fond
    of the Spanish wines, after having once tasted them, that to
    purchase a small quantity they would give all their gold, and were
    never sober as long as they had wine to drink. But their crimes,
    which justly provoked the anger of heaven, could not justify the
    cruelty of their European enemies, in whom avarice seemed to have
    extinguished the sentiments both of humanity and religion. The
    missionary priests endeavored in vain to put a stop to the outrages
    of their countrymen; and the Dominicans carried repeated complaints
    against them to the kings of Spain. At their remonstrances,
    Ferdinand, king of Castile, declared the Indians free, and forbade
    the Spaniards to employ them in carrying burdens, or to use a stick
    or whip in chastising them. The emperor, Charles V., was prevailed
    upon to send into America severe orders and regulations in their
    favor, but to very little effect. The officers, who assumed the
    haughty titles of conquerors of Mexico and Peru, would not be
    controlled. Bartholomew de las Casas, a Dominican, and bishop of
    Chiapa, in New Spain, made four fruitless voyages into Castile to
    plead the cause of the poor Indians; he obtained ample rescripts
    from the king, and was constituted by him protector-general of the
    Indians in America. But these expedients proved too weak against men
    that were armed. He therefore resigned his bishopric into the hands
    of the pope, in 1551, and returned into the convent of his order at
    Valhutolid; where he wrote his books, On the Destruction of the
    Indians by the Spaniards, and On the Tyranny of the Spaniards in the
    Indies, both dedicated to king Philip II. The archbishop of Seville,
    and the universities of Salamanca and Alcala, forbade the impression
    of the answers which some wrote to defend the Spanish governors, on
    principles repugnant to the law of nature and of nations. These
    books of las Casas, being translated into French, were scattered
    among the people in the Low Countries, who had taken up arms against
    the Spaniards, and animated them exceedingly in their revolt. But
    the crimes of some ought not to be imputed to a nation: and the same
    country which gave birth to some monsters was most fruitful in
    saints, and produced the most zealous apostles and defenders of the
    Indians. The great principle which las Casas defended in the
    emperor's council, and in his writings, was, that the conquered
    Indians could not, without injustice, be made slaves to the
    Spaniards, which the king's council and the divines agreed to with
    regard to those who had not been taken armed in just wars. See the
    history of the Isle of St. Domingo, by {} Charlevoix.
2.  Bened. XIV. De Beatif. et Canoniz. {} 1. Append. p. 496.
3.  De Servor. Dei Canoniz. Roma. 1728. {}4. Tr. de Miraculis, c. 16, p.
    196.
4.  Tuus esto ubique: concha esto non canalis. S. Bern. l. d. Consid.

SS. VICTORIAN, PROCONSUL OF CARTHAGE,

AND OTHERS, MARTYRS UNDER THE VANDALS.

HUNERIC, the Arian king of the Vandals in Africa, succeeded his father
Genseric in 477. He behaved himself at first with moderation towards the
Catholics, so that they began to hold their assemblies in those places
where they had been prohibited by Genseric: but in 480, he began a
grievous persecution of the clergy and holy virgins, which, in 484,
became general, and occasioned vast numbers of the Catholics to be put
to death. Victorian, a citizen of Adrumetum, one of the principal lords
of the kingdom, had been made by him governor of Carthage with the Roman
title of proconsul. He was the wealthiest subject the king had, who
placed great confidence in him, and he had ever behaved with an
inviolable fidelity. The king, after he had published his cruel edicts,
sent a message to the proconsul in the most obliging terms, promising,
if he would conform to his religion, and execute his orders, to heap on
him the greatest wealth and the highest honors which it was in the power
of a prince to bestow. The proconsul, who amidst the glittering pomp of
the world perfectly understood its emptiness, made on the spot this
generous answer: "Tell the king that I trust in Christ. If his majesty
pleases, he may condemn me to the flames, or to wild beasts, or to any
torments: but I shall never consent to renounce the Catholic church in
which I have been baptized. Even if, there were no other life after
this, I would never be ungrateful and perfidious to God, who hath
granted me the {650} happiness of knowing him, and who hath bestowed on
me his most precious graces." The tyrant became furious at this answer:
nor can the tortures be imagined which he caused the saint to endure.
Victorian suffered them with joy, and amidst them finished his glorious
martyrdom. The Roman Martyrology joins with him on this day four others
who were crowned in the same persecution. Two brothers of the city of
Aquæ-regiæ, in the province of Byzacena, were apprehended for the faith,
and conducted to Tabaia in the same province. They had promised each
other, if possible, to die together; and they begged it of God, as a
favor, that they might both suffer the same torments. The persecutors
hung them in the air with great weights at their feet. One of them,
under the excess of pain, begged to be taken down for a little ease. His
brother, fearing this desire of ease might by degrees move him to deny
his faith, cried out from the rack on which he was hanging: "God forbid,
dear brother, that you should ask such a thing. Is this what we promised
to Jesus Christ? Should not I accuse you at his terrible tribunal? Have
you forgotten what we have sworn upon his body and blood, to suffer
death together for his holy name?" By these words the other was so
wonderfully encouraged that he cried out: "No, no; I ask not to be
released: on the contrary, add new weights, if you please, increase my
tortures, exert all your cruelties till they are exhausted upon me."
They were then burnt with red-hot plates of iron, and tormented so long,
and by so many new engines of torture, that the executioners at last
left them, saying: "Everybody follows their example, no one now embraces
our religion." This they said, chiefly because, notwithstanding they had
been so long and so grievously tormented, there were no scars or bruises
to be seen upon them. Two merchants of Carthage, who both bore the name
of Frumentius, suffered martyrdom about the same time, and are joined
with St. Victorian in the martyrologies. Among many glorious confessors
at that time, one Liberatus, an eminent physician, was sent into
banishment with his wife. He only grieved to see his infant children
torn from him. His wife checked his tears by these generous words:
"Think no more of them, Jesus Christ himself will have care of them, and
protect their souls." While in prison, she was told by the heretics that
her husband had conformed: accordingly, when she met him at the bar
before the judge she upbraided him in open court for having basely
abandoned God: but discovered by his answer that a cheat had been put
upon her, to deceive her into her ruin. Twelve young children, when
dragged away by the persecutors, held their companions by the knees till
they were torn away by violence. They were most cruelly beaten and
scourged every day for a long time; yet by God's grace every one of them
persevered to the end of the persecution firm in the faith. See St.
Victor, De Persec. Vandal. l. 5, n. 4.

ST. EDELWALD,[1] PRIEST, C.

HE was, for his eminent sanctity, honored with the priesthood while he
lived in the monastery of Rippon. Afterwards he led an eremitical life
in the isle of Farne, where he died in 669, about eleven years after St.
Cuthbert. His body was translated to Lindisfarne, afterwards to Durham.
See Bede in vita S. Cuthberti, n. 68.

Footnotes:
1.  Edelwald, or Ethelwald. signifies _noble, potent_.

{651}


MARCH XXIV.

ST. IRENÆUS, BISHOP OF SIRMIUM, M

From the original authentic acts of his trial in Henschenius, Ruinart,
p. 403. Tillemont. t. 4, p. 248. Ceillier, t. 3, p. 497.

A.D. 304.

ST. IRENÆUS, bishop of Sirmium, capital of part of Pannonia, (now
Sirmisch, a village in Hungary, twenty-two leagues from Buda to the
south,) in the persecution of Dioclesian was apprehended and conducted
before Probus, the governor of Pannonia, who said to him: "The divine
laws oblige all men to sacrifice to the gods." Irenæus answered: "Into
hell fire shall be thrown, whoever shall sacrifice to the gods." PROBUS.
"The edicts of the most clement emperors ordain that all sacrifice to
the gods, or suffer according to law." IRENÆUS. "But the law of my God
commands me rather to suffer all torments than to sacrifice to the
gods." PROBU.. "Either sacrifice, or I will put you to the torture."
IRENÆUS. "You cannot do me a greater pleasure; for by that means you
will make the partake of the sufferings of my Saviour." The proconsul
commanded him to be put on the rack; and while he was tortured, he said
to him: "What do you say now, Irenæus? Will you sacrifice?" IRENÆUS. "I
sacrifice to my God, by confessing his holy name, and so have I always
sacrificed to him." All Irenæus's family was in the utmost concern for
him. His mother, his wife, and his children surrounded him. His children
embraced his feet, crying out: "Father, dear father, have pity on
yourself and on us." His wife, dissolved in tears, cast herself about
his neck, and, tenderly embracing him, conjured him to preserve himself
for her, and his innocent children, the pledges of their mutual love.
His mother, with a voice broken with sobs, sent forth lamentable cries
and sighs, which were accompanied with those of their servants,
neighbors, and friends; so that all round the rack on which the martyr
was hanging, nothing was heard but sobs, groans, and lamentations.
Irenæus resisted all these violent assaults, opposing those words of our
Lord: _If any one renounce me before men, I will renounce him before my
Father who is to Heaven_. He made no answer to their pressing
solicitations, but raised his soul above all considerations of flesh and
blood to him who was looking down on his conflict from above, waiting to
crown his victory with immortal glory; and who seemed to cry out to him
from his lofty throne in heaven: "Come, make haste to enjoy me." The
governor said to him: "Will you be insensible to such marks of
tenderness and affection? can you see so many tears shed for you without
being moved? It is not beneath a great courage to be touched with
compassion. Sacrifice, and do not destroy yourself in the flower of your
age." Irenæus said: "It is that I may not destroy myself that I refuse
to sacrifice." The governor sent him to prison, where he remained a long
time, suffering divers torments. At the second time of examination, the
governor, after having pressed him to sacrifice, asked him if he had a
wife, parents, or children, alive. The saint answered all these
questions in the negative. "Who then were those that wept for you at
your first examination?" Irenæus made answer: "Our Lord Jesus Christ
hath said: _He that loveth father or mother, wife or children, brothers
or relations more than me, is not worthy of {652} me_. So, when I lift
up my eyes to contemplate that God whom I adore, and the joys he hath
promised to those who faithfully serve him, I forget that I am a father,
a husband, a son, a master, a friend." Probus said: "But you do not
therefore cease to be so. Sacrifice at least for their sakes." Irenmus
replied: "My children will not lose much by my death; for I leave them
for father that same God whom they adore with me; so let nothing hinder
you from executing the orders of your emperor upon me." PROBUS. "Throw
not yourself away. I cannot avoid condemning you." IRENÆUS. "You cannot
do me a greater favor, or give me a more agreeable pleasure." Then
Probus passed sentence after this manner: "I order that Irenæus, for
disobeying the emperor's commands, be cast into the river."[1] Irenæus
replied: "After so many threats, I expected something extraordinary, and
you content yourself with drowning me. How comes this? You do me an
injury; for you deprive me of the means of showing the world how much
Christians, who have a lively faith, despise death, though attended with
the most cruel torments." Probus, enraged at this, added to the sentence
that he should be first beheaded. Irenæus returned thanks to God as for
a second victory. When arrived on the bridge of Diana, from which he was
to be thrown, stripping off his clothes, and lifting up his hands to
heaven, he prayed thus: "Lord Jesus Christ, who condescendedst to suffer
for the salvation of the world, command the heavens to open, that the
angels may receive the soul of thy servant Irenæus, who suffers for thy
name, and for thy people of the Catholic church of Sirmium." Then, his
head being struck off, he was thrown into the river, on the 25th of
March, on which day his name occurs in the Roman Martyrology. He
suffered in the year 304. He was married before he was ordained bishop;
but lived continent from that time, as the laws of the church required.

The martyrs most perfectly accomplished the precept of renouncing all
things for Christ; but all who desire truly to become his disciples, are
bound to do it in spirit. Many aspire to perfection by austere practices
of exterior mortification and long exercises of devotion; yet make
little progress, and, after many years, remain always subject to many
imperfections and errors in a spiritual life. The reason is, because
they neglected to lay the foundation by renouncing themselves. This
requires constant watchfulness, courageous self-denial, a perfect spirit
of humility, meekness and obedience, and sincere compunction, in which a
soul examines and detects her vices, bewails her past sins and those of
the whole world, sighs at the consideration of its vanity and slavery,
and of her distance from heaven, labors daily to cleanse her mind from
all idle thoughts, and her heart from all sin, all irregular
attachments, and superfluous desires, flies the vain joys of the world,
and often entertains herself on the bloody passion of Christ. If the
affections are thus purified, and this cleanness of heart daily more and
more cultivated, the rest costs very little, and the soul makes quick
progress in the paths of holy love, by the assiduous exercises of
contemplation and prayer, a constant fidelity in all her actions, and
the most fervent and pure attention to the divine will and presence.
Voluntary imperfections and failings, especially if habitual, both blind
and defile the soul, disquiet her, extremely weaken her, and damp the
fervor of her good desires and resolutions. They must therefore be
retrenched with the utmost resolution and vigilance, especially those
which arise from any secret vanity, sensuality, or want of the most
perfect sincerity, candor, and simplicity. An habitual attachment to any
failing, how trifling soever it may appear, how subtle and secret {653}
soever it may be, and under whatever pretences it may be disguised,
exceedingly obstructs the operations of the Holy Ghost, and the effusion
of divine grace in a soul.

Footnotes:
1.  Meaning the Boswethe, which runs through Sirmisch, and falls into
    the sea five leagues lower.

ST. SIMON, AN INFANT, MARTYR AT TRENT.

IN the year 1472, when the Jews of Trent (famous for the last general
council held there) met in their synagogue on Tuesday in Holy Week, to
deliberate on the preparations for the approaching festival of the
Passover, which fell that year on the Thursday following, they came to a
resolution of sacrificing to their inveterate hatred of the Christian
name, some Christian infant on the Friday following, or Good Friday. A
Jewish physician undertook to procure such an infant for the horrid
purpose. And while the Christians were at the office of Tenebræ on
Wednesday evening, he found a child called Simon, about two years old,
whom, by caresses, and by showing him a piece of money, he decoyed from
the door of a house, the master and mistress whereof were gone to
church, and carried him off. On Thursday evening the principal Jews shut
themselves up in a chamber adjoining to their synagogue, and at midnight
began their cruel butchery of this innocent victim. Having stopped his
mouth with an apron, to prevent his crying out, they made several
incisions in his body, gathering his blood in a basin. Some, all this
while, held his arms stretched out in the form of a cross: others held
his legs. The child being half dead, they raised him on his feet, and
while two of them held him by the arms, the rest pierced his body on all
sides with their awls and bodkins. When they saw the child had expired,
they sung round it: "In the same manner did we treat Jesus, the God of
the Christians: thus may our enemies be confounded forever." The
magistrates and parents making strict search after the lost child, the
Jews hid it first in a barn of hay, then in a cellar, and at last threw
it into the river. But God confounded all their endeavors to prevent the
discovery of the fact, which being fully proved upon them, with its
several circumstances, they were put to death: the principal actors in
the tragedy being broke upon the wheel and burnt. The synagogue was
destroyed, and a chapel was erected on the spot where the child was
martyred. God honored this innocent victim with many miracles. The
relics lie in a stately tomb in St. Peter's church at Trent: and his
name occurs in the Roman Martyrology. See the authentic account of
Tiberinus, the physician who inspected the child's body; and the
juridical acts in Surius and the Bollandists, with Henschenius's notes
on this day: also Martenne, Ampl. Collectio Vet. t. 2, p. 1516, and
Bened. XIV. de Canoniz. l. 1, c. 14, p. 105.

ST. WILLIAM OF NORWICH, M.

THIS martyr was another victim of the implacable rage of the Jews
against our holy religion. He suffered in the twelfth year of his age.
Having been not long bound an apprentice to a tanner in Norwich, a
little before Easter, in 1137, the Jews of that city having enticed him
into their houses, seized and gagged him: then they bound, mocked, and
crucified him, in derision of Christ: they also pierced his left side.
On Easter-day they put the body into a sack, and carried it into
Thorp-wood, now a heath, near the gates of the city, there to bury it;
but being discovered, left it hinging on a tree. The body was honored
with miracles, and, in 1144, {654} removed into the churchyard of the
cathedral of the Holy Trinity, by the monks of that abbey; and in 1150,
into the choir. On the place in Thorpwood, where the body of the
martyred child was found, a chapel was built, called St. William in the
wood. Mr. Weever writes, that "the Jews in the principal cities of the
kingdom, did use sometimes to steal away, circumcise, crown with thorns,
whip, torture, and crucify some neighbor's male-child, in mockery and
scorn of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. St. Richard of Pontoise, in
France, was martyred by them in that manner. As also St. Hugh,
(according to Matthew Paris and John Capgrave,) a child crucified at
Lincoln, in 1255." Nevertheless, it is a notorious slander of some
authors, who, from these singular and extraordinary instances, infer
this to have been at any time the custom or maxim of that people. The
English calendars commemorated St. William on the 24th of March. See the
history of his martyrdom and miracles by Thomas of Monmouth, a
contemporary monk; also the Saxon Chronicle of the same age, and
Bloomfield's History of Norfolk.[1]

Footnotes:
1.  Pope Benedict XIV., l. 1, de Canon. c. 14, p. 103, shows that
    children who die after baptism before the use of reason, though
    saints, ought not to be canonized, because they never practised any
    heroic degree of virtue; and because this was never authorized by
    tradition in the church. Martyrs only, or infants, whether baptized
    or not, which were slain out of hatred to the name of Christ, are to
    be accepted, as is clear from the example of the Holy Innocents, who
    are styled martyrs by St. Irenæus, Origen, and other fathers; and
    the most ancient missals and homilies of fathers on their festival,
    prove them to have been honored as such from the primitive ages.
    Hence infants murdered by Jews, out of hatred to Christ, have been
    ranked among the martyrs, as St. Simon of Trent, by the authority of
    the bishop of that city, afterwards confirmed by the decrees of the
    popes Sixtus V. and Gregory XIII.; also St. William of Norwich in
    England, (though this child having attained to the use of reason, is
    rather to be called an adult martyr.) And St. Richard of Pontoise,
    also about twelve years old, murdered in 1182 by certain Jews in the
    reign of Philip Augustus, who for this and other crimes banished the
    Jews out of France, in April, that same year. The body of St.
    Richard was translated to Paris, and enshrined in the parish church
    of the Holy Innocents, where his feast is kept on the 30th of March,
    but at Pontoise on the 25th. The celebrated F. Gaguin has written
    the history of his martyrdom, with an account of several miracles
    wrought at his shrine. His head is still shown in that church; the
    rest of his relics are said to have been carried off by the English,
    when they were masters of Paris.


MARCH XXV.

THE ANNUNCIATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY.

THIS great festival takes its name from the happy tidings brought by the
angel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mary, concerning the incarnation of
the Son of God. It commemorates the most important embassy that was ever
known: an embassy sent by the King of kings, performed by one of the
chief princes of his heavenly court; directed, not to the kings or
emperors of the earth, but to a poor, unknown, retired virgin, who,
being endowed with the most angelic purity of soul and body, being
withal perfectly humble and devoted to God, was greater in his eyes than
all the sceptres in the world could make a universal monarch. Indeed
God, by the choice which he is pleased to make of a poor virgin, for the
accomplishment of the greatest of all mysteries and graces, clearly
demonstrates that earthly diadems, dignities, and treasures are of no
consideration with him; and that perfect humility and sanctity alone
constitute true greatness. God, who is almighty, can do all things by
himself, without making use of the concurrence of creatures Nevertheless
he vouchsafes, in his exterior works, {655} most frequently to use their
co-operation. If he reveals his will and speaks to men, it is by the
intervention of his prophets, and these he then enlightens by the
ministry of angels. Many of the ancient patriarchs were honored by him
with the most sublime commissions. By Moses he delivered his people from
the Egyptian slavery, by him he gave them his law, and he appointed him
mediator in his alliance with them. When the Son of God became man, he
could have taken upon him our nature without the co-operation of any
creature; but was pleased to be born of a woman. In the choice of her
whom he raised to this most sublime of all dignities to which any pure
creature could be exalted, he pitched upon her who, by the riches of his
grace and virtues, was of all others the most holy and the most perfect.
The design of this embassy of the archangel is as extraordinary as the
persons concerned in it. It is to give a Saviour to the world, a victim
of propitiation to the sinner, a model to the just, a son to this
Virgin, remaining still a virgin, and a new nature to the Son of God,
the nature of man, capable of suffering pain and anguish in order to the
satisfaction of God's justice for our transgressions. And the Son of God
being to take a human body formed of her substance, the Holy Ghost, who,
by a power all-divine, was to her in place of a spouse, was not content
to render her body capable of giving life to a Man-God, but likewise
enriched her soul with a fulness of grace, that there might be a sort of
proportion between the cause and the effect, and she the better
qualified to co-operate towards this mystery of sanctity.

The angel begins his address to her with _Hail! full of grace_.[1] This
is not the first time that angels appeared to women. But we find not
that they were ever treated with that respect which the angel Gabriel
shows to Mary. Sarah and Agar were visited by these celestial spirits,
but not with an honor like that wherewith the angel on this occasion
addresses the Blessed Virgin, saying, _Hail! full of grace_. He
considers her as the greatest object among creatures of God's favor,
affection, and complacency. He admires in her those wonderful effects of
the divine liberality, those magnificent gifts and graces, those exalted
virtues, which have placed the very foundation of her spiritual edifice
on the holy mountains,[2] in a degree of perfection surpassing that of
all pure creatures. He admires that perfect gratitude with which she
always received God's grace, and her perfect fidelity in corresponding
with it, and advancing in sanctity by the help thereof, with a
solicitude answerable to her love and gratitude for the preservation and
increase of so inestimable a treasure. _Full of grace_. The first
encomium which St. John gives us of the glory of the Word made flesh is,
that he was _full of grace and truth_.[3] God forbid that we should say
that Mary was full of grace in the same manner as her Son; for he is the
very source and origin of it, _from whose fulness all_ the saints, Mary
not excepted, _have received_[4] whatever degree they possess of grace
and sanctity. St. Luke assures us also, that St. Stephen was full of
grace and the Holy Ghost,[5] but it was a fulness in regard to a less
capacity, and in relation to a lower function. Moreover, to St. Stephen
and other saints, who have received large portions of heavenly grace, we
may say, in those other words of the angel, _You have found favor with
God_; but those very favors, though very great in themselves, were not
to be compared with that which from all eternity was reserved for Mary.
God made the saints the object of his gratuitous election, and he
qualified them with his graces to be the messengers of his Son, the
preachers and witnesses of his gospel; but Mary, was his choice, and was
furnished with his graces to bear the most illustrious, {656} the most
exalted title of honor that heaven could bestow on a pure creature to
conceive of her proper substance the divine Word made man. If then the
grace of God so raises a person in worth and merit, that there is not
any prince on earth who deserves to be compared with a soul that is
dignified with the lowest degree of sanctifying grace; what shall we say
or think of Mary, in whom the fulness of grace was only a preparation to
her maternity? What shall we think of ourselves, (but in an opposite
light,) who wilfully expose this greatest of all treasures on so many
occasions to be lost, whereas we ought wilfully to forego and renounce
all the advantages and pleasures of this world, rather than hazard the
loss of the least degree of it, and be most fervent in our supplications
to God for the gaining, preserving, and increasing so great a treasure:
forasmuch as it is a pledge of God's love, a participation of his
Spirit, and a title to the possession of his heavenly kingdom.

But who can be surprised at those inestimable treasures which God, on
this occasion, with so liberal a hand, bestows on Mary, if he considers
the purport of the following words of the angel to her: _The Lord is
with thee_. He is with her in a manner more intimate, more perfect, and
more divine, than he ever was or will be with any other creature. He is
with her, not only by his essence, by his presence, by his power; for he
is thus with all his creatures: He is with her, not only by his actual
grace touching her heart and enlightening her understanding; he is thus
many times with the sinner: He is with her, not only with his
sanctifying grace, making her agreeable in his sight, and placing her in
the number of his children; he is present in this manner with all the
just: He is with her, not only by a special protection guiding her in
his ways, and leading her securely to the term of salvation; this he
does for the elect: but he is also with her by a substantial and
corporeal presence, residing personally and really in her. In her, and
of her substance, is this day formed his adorable body; in her he
reposes for nine months, with his whole divinity and humanity. It is in
this ineffable manner that he is with Mary, and with none but Mary. O
glorious Virgin, thrice happy Mother, from this source and ocean of all
grace what heavenly blessings in so long a space of time must have
flowed upon you! and what honors must be due to one so nearly allied to
our great Creator! What intercession so prevalent as that of the _Mother
of divine grace!_

The angel concludes his address with these words: _Blessed art thou
among women_.[6] _Blessed_, as being chosen preferably to all of her
sex, to be the glorious instrument, in the hand of God, for removing the
maledictions laid on mankind in punishment of their sins, and in
communicating to them the source of all good. And on this account it
was, that _all_ succeeding _generations_, as she foretold of herself,
_should call her Blessed_;[7] regarding her as the centre in which all
the blessings of the Old and New Testament are drawn together.

Though we are obliged to consider the eminent quality of Mother of God
as the source of all other graces bestowed on the Blessed Virgin, it
must yet be owned it is not the greatest, and that she was happier in
loving Jesus Christ, than in having conceived him and brought him forth.
She is blessed among women and above the rest of creatures, not
precisely on account of her maternity, but because she received a
fulness of grace proportioned to the dignity to which she was chosen. So
that, according to the remark of the holy fathers, she was happier for
her sanctity than for her dignity: for her virtues, than for her
privileges. Among her virtues, that of purity seems particularly
deserving of notice on this solemnity, as the epistle for this festival
{657} records that memorable prophecy of Isaias, _That a Virgin should
conceive and bring forth a son_;[8] the most remarkable of all the signs
God had promised the world for making known the accomplishment of the
mystery of man's redemption. And, indeed, right reason seemed to require
that she, who was to be the mother of God, should be of an integrity
above reproach, and incapable of yielding to any solicitation: it was
highly fit her virginity should be perfectly pure, and removed as far as
possible from the least suspicion of blemish. For this reason, the
moment God had chosen her to be his mother, he exacted from her the most
authentic proofs of an inviolable attachment to purity. Thus, it is not
in a crowd, or in idle conversation, but in a retreat, that the angel
finds her. It is not from the distraction of diversions and
entertainments that he calls her aside to deliver his message: no; she
is alone in her house, with the door shut; "and," as St. Ambrose says,
"he must be an angel that gets entrance there."[9] Hence, according to
the same holy father, it was not the angel's appearance that gave her
trouble, for he will not have it to be doubted but heavenly visions and
a commerce with the blessed spirits had been familiar to her. But what
alarmed her, he says, was the angel's appearing in human form, in the
shape of a young man. What might add to her fright on the occasion, was
his addressing her in the strain of praise, which kind of words flattery
often puts in the mouths of ill-designing men. And how few, alas! are
able to withstand such dangers? But Mary, guarded by her modesty, is in
confusion at expressions of this sort, and dreads the least appearance
of deluding flattery. Such high commendations make her cautious how she
answers, till in silence she has more fully considered of the matter:
_She revolved in her mind_, says St. Luke, _what manner of salutation
this should be_.[10] Ah! what numbers of innocent souls have been
corrupted for want of using the like precautions! Mary is retired, but
how seldom now-a-days are young virgins content to stay at home! Mary is
silent when commended, and answered not a word till she had well
considered what she ought to say: but now it is to be feared that young
women never think so little as when they are entertained with flattery.
Every soothing word is but too apt to slide from the ear to the heart;
and who can tell what multitudes, by their unwary methods, suffer
shipwreck of their modesty, and then of their purity. For how can this
be long-lived after having lost all its guardians? No, it cannot be.
Unless a virgin be assiduous in prayer and spiritual reading, modest in
her dress, prudent and wary in her choice of company, and extremely
careful in the government of her eyes and tongue when she happens to be
in conversation with the other sex, there is but too much reason to
apprehend that either her heart is already betrayed, or in danger of
being vanquished by the next assault of her spiritual enemy. A dread of,
and a speedy flight from all dangerous occasions is the only security of
virtue and innocence. Presumption wants no other tempter. Even Mary,
though confirmed in grace, was only secure by this fear and distrust in
herself.

A second cause why Mary was disturbed at the words of the angel was,
because they contained her praises. Humble souls always tremble and sink
with confusion in their own minds when they hear themselves commended;
because they are deeply penetrated with a sense of their own weakness
and insufficiency, and they consider contempt as their due. They know
that the glory of all gifts belongs solely to God, and they justly fear
lest the poison of praise should insinuate itself into their minds;
being sensible how infinitely dangerous honors and flattery are to
humility. Are {658} these our sentiments? Do we never speak of ourselves
to our own advantage? Do we never artfully praise ourselves, or
willingly lend an ear to what flatterers say to applaud us? Are we
troubled when we hear ourselves praised? What gives trouble but to too
many is, that men give them not what they take to be their right; and
that their praises equal not the notion they have framed of their
merits. The high eulogiums bestowed on Mary by the angel she answers no
otherwise than by a profound silence, by a saintly trouble of mind,
which, with a modest blush, appears in her countenance. The angel, to
calm her disquiets, says to her: _Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found
favor before God_. He then informs her that she is to conceive and bring
forth a son whose name shall be Jesus, who shall be great, and the son
of the Most High, and possessed of the throne of David, her illustrious
ancestor. Mary, who, according to St. Austin,[11] had consecrated her
virginity to God by vow, is not at all weakened by the prospect of such
a dignity, in her resolution of living a virgin: but, on the contrary,
out of a just concern to know how she may comply with the will of God
without prejudice to her vow, neither moved by curiosity, nor doubting
of the miracle or its possibility, she inquires, _How shall this be_?
Nor does she give her consent till the heavenly messenger acquaints her
that it is to be a work of the Holy Ghost, who, in making her fruitful,
will not intrench in the least upon her virginal purity, but cause her
to be a mother, still remaining, as she desires, a pure virgin.

Moreover, had not Mary been deep-rooted in humility, what impression
must not these great promises have made in her heart, at a time
especially when the first transports are so apt to overflow the soul on
the sudden news of an unexpected glory. The world knows, from too
frequent experience, how strongly the promise and expectation of new
dignities raise the spirits, and alter the words, the looks, and the
whole carriage of proud men. But Mary is still the same, or rather much
more lowly and meek in spirit upon the accession of this unparalleled
dignity. She sees no cause to pride herself in her virtues, graces, and
privileges, knowing that the glory of all these are due only to the
divine Author and Bestower of them. In submission, therefore, to God's
will, without any further inquiries, she expresses her assent in these
humble but powerful words: _Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done
to me according to thy word_. What faith and confidence does her answer
express! What profound humility and perfect obedience! She was saluted
mother of God, yet uses no word of dignity, but styles herself nothing
more than his handmaid, to be commanded and employed by him as he shall
think fittest. The world, as heaven had decreed, was not to have a
Saviour till she had given her consent to the angel's proposal; she
gives it, and behold the power and efficacy of her submissive Fiat. That
moment, the mystery of love and mercy promised to mankind four thousand
years before, foretold by so many prophets, desired by so many saints,
is wrought on earth. That moment, the Word of God is forever united to
humanity: the soul of Jesus Christ, produced from nothing, begins to
enjoy God, and to know all things past, present, and to come: that
moment, God begins to have an adorer, who is infinite, and the world a
mediator, who is omnipotent; and, to the working of this great mystery,
Mary alone is chosen to co-operate by her free assent. The prophets
represent the earth as moved out of its place, and the mountains as
melting away before the very countenance of God looking down upon the
world. Now that he descends in person, who would not expect that the
whole heavens should be moved? But another kind of appearance best
suited his coming on this occasion, which was with {659} the view of
curing our pride by his wonderful humiliations, and thereby repair the
injury the Godhead had suffered from our unjust usurpation; and not to
show forth his grandeur, and display his all-glorious majesty. How far
are the ways of God above those of men! how greatly does divine wisdom
differ from human folly! how does every circumstance in this mystery
confound the pride, the pomp, and the vain titles of worldly grandeur,
and recommend to us the love of silence and sincere humility! Shall the
disciples of Christ have other sentiments?

But what tongue can express the inward feelings and affections which
then filled the glowing heart of the most pure Mother of God? What light
shone in her understanding to penetrate the mysteries and the excess of
the unfathomed goodness of God! what ardors of holy love inflamed her
will! what jubilee filled her soul! Let men redeemed exult and praise,
returning to God their best homages of adoration, thanksgiving, and
love. It is for this duty that the church has appointed this present
festival, which we ought chiefly to consecrate to the contemplation of
this adorable mystery with hymns of love, praise, and thanksgiving. It
was the hope and comfort of all the ancient saints, and the great object
of all their earnest prayers, tears, and sighs. The prophets had a view
to it in all their predictions, this being the principal point in all
the wonderful revelations of God made to his church since the fall of
Adam in Paradise, whom he immediately comforted with a promise and
glimpse of this glorious mercy. Every ordinance in the law which he gave
the Jews was typical, and had either an immediate, or at least an
indirect relation to Christ, and our redemption by him. Among the
numberless religious rites and sacrifices which were prescribed them,
there was not one which did not in some manner represent or allude to
this mystery. How high an idea ought this circumstance to give us of its
incomprehensible greatness, which its nature and wonderful effects and
fruits must enhance beyond the power of words! We are lost in
astonishment when we contemplate this prodigy of omnipotence, and
infinite wisdom and mercy, and adore it in raptures and silence.

Gerson cries out on this mystery: "What ought every heart to say or
think! every religious, every loving and faithful heart? It ought to
rejoice exceedingly in this singular comfort, and to salute you with
Gabriel: _O blessed among women_. On this day is accomplished the great
desire of the holy ancient patriarchs and prophets, who often languished
to hasten it, in their sighs, prayers, and writings, crying out aloud to
_the desire of the eternal hills_. On this day is the Saviour of
mankind, true God and man, conceived in the womb of Mary. This day our
Lady received a name more sublime than can be understood, and the most
noble of all names possible after that of her Son, by which she is
called the Mother of God. On this day the greatest of miracles is
wrought. Hear the wonders of love and mercy on this festival: God is
made man; and man, in the divine person, God: he that is immortal is
become mortal, and the Eternal is born in time. A virgin is a mother, a
woman the mother of God; a creature has conceived her Creator!" St.
Peter Chrysologus expresses the fruits of this mystery as follows: "One
virgin so receives and contains God in the lodging of her breast as to
procure peace for the earth, glory for heaven, salvation for the lost,
life for the dead, an alliance of those on earth with the blessed in
heaven, and the commerce of God with the flesh."[12]

From the example of the Virgin Mary in this mystery, how ardent a love
ought we to conceive of purity and humility! According to St. Gregory of
Nyssa, and St. Jerom,[13] she would rather be the spouse of God in
spirit, by {660} spotless virginity, than his mother in the flesh; and
so acceptable was this her disposition to God, that she deserved
immediately to hear, that she should bring forth the Son of the Most
High, still remaining a most pure virgin: nor would God have otherwise
raised her to this astonishing honor. The Holy Ghost is invited by
purity to dwell in souls, but is chased away by the filth of the
contrary vice. The dreadful havoc which it now-a-days makes among
Christian souls, calls for torrents of tears, and is the source of the
infidelity and universal desolation which spreads on every side.
Humility is the foundation of a spiritual life. By it Mary was prepared
for the extraordinary graces, and all virtues with which she was
enriched, and for the eminent dignity of Mother of God.

St. Austin says, that according to an ancient tradition, this mystery
was completed on the 25th of March.[14] Both eastern and western
churches celebrate it on this day, and have done so at least ever since
the fifth century. This festival is mentioned by pope Gelasius I., in
492. The council of Constantinople, in 692, orders the missa
præsanctificatorum, as on Good-Friday, to be said on all days in Lent,
except Saturdays, Sundays, and the feast of the Annunciation.[15] The
tenth council of Toledo, in 656, calls this solemnity, The festival of
the Mother of God,[16] by way of excellence. To praise the divine
goodness for this incomprehensible mystery of the incarnation, Urban
II., in the council of Clermont, in 1095, ordered the bell to be rung
every day for the triple Angelical Salutation, called Angelus Domini, at
morning, noon, and night. Which practice of devotion several popes have
recommended by indulgences; as John XXII., Calixtus III., Paul III.,
Alexander VII., and Clement X. The late Benedict XIII. has augmented
them to those who at the aforesaid hours shall devoutly recite this
prayer kneeling.

Footnotes:
1.  Luke i. 28.
2.  Ps. lxxxvi.
3.  John 1. 14.
4.  Ibid. 16.
5.  Acts iv. 8.
6.  Luke i. 22.
7.  Ibid. 48.
8.  Isai. vii. 14.
9.  O hospitium solis angelis pervium: S. Amb. in Luc.
10. Luke i. 29.
11. Quid profecto non diceret nisi se virginem ante vovisset. L. de
    Virg. c. 4, t. 6, p. 343.
12. Serm. 146.
13. St. Greg. Nyss. Tr. de Nativ.
14. L. 4. de Trin. c. 5.
15. See Thomasin des Fêtes, p. 229.
16. Festum Sanctæ Virginis Genitricis dies, festivitas matris--nam quod
    festum est matris nisi incarnatio Verbi? Conc. Folêt X.

ST. CAMMIN, ABBOT.

AMONG the most celebrated saints of Ireland, published by Usher, is
placed St. Cammin, who in his youth retired from the noise of the world
into the island of Irish-Kealtair, in the lake of Derg-Derch, or Dergid,
in the confines of Thomond and Galway. Here several disciples resorting
to him, he built a monastery, which, out of veneration for his
extraordinary sanctity, was long very famous among the Irish. The church
of that place still retains, from him, the name of Tempul-Cammin. His
happy death is placed in the Inis-Fallen annals, about the year 653. See
Usher's Antiqu. p. 503.

{661}


MARCH XXVI.

ST. LUDGER, BISHOP OF MUNSTER,

APOSTLE OF SAXONY.

From his life, written by Altfrid, one of his successors, and another
compiled by a monk of Werden, about sixty years after the death of St.
Ludger, of inferior authority to the former, both extant in Mabillon,
Act. Bened. t. 4, p. 489: also a third life in Surius and the
Bollandists, written by the monks of Werden perhaps twenty years after
the latter. See Hist. Littér. Fr. t. 5, p. 660.

A.D. 809.

ST. LUDGER was born in Friseland, about the year 743. His father, who
was a nobleman of the first rank in that country, at the child's own
request, committed him very young to the care of St. Gregory, the
disciple of St. Boniface, and his successor in the government of the see
of Utrecht. Ludger had the happiness to have seen that holy martyr, and
received from him strong impressions of virtue. Gregory educated him in
his monastery, and admiring his progress in learning and piety, gave him
the clerical tonsure. Ludger, desirous of further improvement, passed
over into England, and spent four years and a half under Alcuin, who was
rector of a famous school at York. He was careful to employ his whole
time in the exercises of piety, and the study of the holy scriptures and
fathers. In 773 he returned home, and St. Gregory dying in 776, his
successor, Alberic, compelled our saint to receive the holy order of
priesthood, and employed him for several years in preaching the word of
God in Friseland, where he converted great numbers, both among the
pagans and vicious Christians, founded several monasteries, and built
many churches. This was the state of affairs, when the pagan Saxons,
ravaging the country, obliged him to leave Friseland. Whereupon he
travelled to Rome, to consult pope Adrian II. what course to take, and
what he thought God required of him. He then retired for three years and
a half to Mount Cassino, where he wore the habit of the Order, and
conformed to the practice of the rule during his stay, but made no
religious vows. In 787, Charlemagne overcame the Saxons and conquered
Friseland, and the coast of the Germanic ocean as far as Denmark. Ludger
hearing that by this revolution the mission was again opened, returned
into east Friseland, where he converted the Saxons to the faith; as he
also did the province of Sudergou, now called Westphalia. He founded the
monastery of Werden,[1] in the county of La Mark, twenty-nine miles from
Cologne. His old master Alcuin being come into France, made his merit
known to the emperor Charlemagne. In 802, Hildebald, archbishop of
Cologne, not regarding his strenuous resistance, ordained him bishop of
Mimigardeford, (or ford of the river Mimigard,) a city which afterwards
changed this name for that of Munster, from the great monastery of
regular canons which St. Ludger built there, to serve for his cathedral.
He joined to his diocese five cantons of Friseland, which he had
converted, and also founded the monastery of Helmstad, afterwards called
Lodger-Clooster, or Ludger's cloister, in the duchy of Brunswick.

He was very learned in the holy scriptures, and read daily lectures
thereon to his disciples. He fasted and watched much, and always wore a
hair shirt, but secretly, se that no one knew of it till a little before
his death. {662} He ate some flesh at certain times, chiefly to conform
to others, but always observing a strict temperance. When invited to any
entertainment, his discourse the whole time was on religious subjects,
and he withdrew immediately after. To the poor he was affable and
courteous, but firm and resolute to the proud rich. He exerted an
episcopal vigor against impenitent sinners, and refused all manner of
presents from an incestuous lady, and at length excommunicated her.
Except what was absolutely necessary for his subsistence, he employed
the revenues of his own estate, and those of his bishopric, in
charities. He was accused to the emperor Charlemagne, among other
things, of wasting his income, and neglecting the embellishment of
churches within his jurisdiction. And this prince, who loved to see
churches magnificent, giving ear to the information, ordered him to
appear at court. The morning after his arrival, the emperor's
chamberlain brought him word that his attendance was required. The
saint, being then at his prayers, told the officer that he would follow
him as soon as he had finished them. He was sent for three several times
before he was ready, which the courtiers represented as a contempt of
his majesty; and the emperor, with some emotion, asked him why he had
made him wait so long, though he had sent for him so often. The bishop
answered, that though he had the most profound respect for his majesty,
yet God was infinitely above him; that while we are occupied with him,
it is our duty to forget every thing else; and that in this he judged he
had rather obeyed than neglected his majesty's orders, who, when he was
chosen bishop, had recommended to him ever to prefer the service of God
to that of men. This answer made such an impression on the emperor, in
favor of the saint, that he looked upon it as a complete justification
of his conduct as to every particular that had been laid to his charge:
he accordingly dismissed him with honor, and disgraced his accusers. The
saint took this liberty with a religious prince, that he might condemn
the sloth of many who suffer distractions or earthly trifles to
interrupt their commerce with God; but they who leave prayer for
necessary works of charity or obedience, find God still in the exercises
of those virtues. St. Ludger required so devout an attention at divine
service, that being at prayers one night with his clergy, and one of
them stooping down to mend the fire and hinder it from smoking, the
saint after prayer severely rebuked him for it, and inflicted on him a
penance for some days. St. Ludger was favored with the gift of miracles
and prophecy. He foretold the invasions of the Normans from Denmark and
Norway, and what ravages they would make in the French empire, and this
at a time when there was not the least apprehension of any such thing.
His great zeal inclined him to go and preach the faith to these northern
nations, but the king would not allow of it. His last sickness, though
violent did not hinder him from continuing his functions to the very
last day of his life, which was Passion-Sunday, on which day he preached
very early in the morning, said mass towards nine, and preached again
before night, foretelling withal to those that were about him, that he
should die the following night; and fixing upon a place in his monastery
of Werden where he chose to be interred. He died accordingly on the 26th
of March, at midnight. His relics are still kept at Werden. Joseph, an
Englishman, a disciple of Alcuin, whom he attended into France, wrote,
in sixteen verses, an eulogium of St. Ludger, published by Vossius[2]
and Mabillon, as a specimen of good poetry for that age.

       *       *       *       *       *

Nothing so much scandalizes the very infidels, or shows the decay of
piety, and loss of all sense of religion among Christians, as their
disrespectful {663} behavior in the house of God and at the time of
prayer. An awful, strict silence, the most profound exterior respect,
and penetrating inward devotion of heart, must essentially accompany our
homages when we present them before the throne of God, in whose presence
the highest seraphims annihilate themselves. This silence we must
observe not only with our tongues, but also with our bodies and all our
limbs, both out of respect to the presence of God and his altar, and
also not to give the least occasion of distraction to others. Prayer is
an action so sublime and supernatural, that the church in her canonical
hours teaches us to begin it by a fervent petition of grace to perform
it well. What an insolence and mockery is it to join with this petition
an open disrespect and a neglect of all necessary precautions against
distractions! We ought never to appear before God, to tender him our
homages or supplications, without trembling, and without being deaf to
all creatures, and shutting all our senses to every object that can
distract our minds from God. In the life of F. Simon Gourdan, a regular
canon of St. Victor's at Paris, who died in the odor of sanctity, in the
year 1729, the eighty-fifth of his age, it is related that king Louis
XIV. came to see him, and to recommend himself to his prayers. The
servant of God made him wait till he had finished his thanksgiving after
mass, which edified that great prince, who said, "he does well; for he
is employed in attending on a much greater king." Though St. Francis of
Sales on the like occasions chose rather to forego or defer his own
private devotions, than not to be ready immediately to wait on others,
in order to give them all the spiritual advice they desired; yet at
prayer at least he and all truly religious persons seemed in some degree
to rival the heavenly spirits in their awe and reverence. Silence at
that holy time, or place, has always been esteemed a thing so sacred,
that when the temple of Solomon was building, God commanded that there
should not be heard so much as the sound of a hamster, or any other
instrument. Even when we come from conversing with God, we ought to
appear all penetrated with the divine presence, and rather as angels
than men. Sanctity, modesty, and the marks of a heavenly spirit, ought
to shine in our exterior, and to inspire others by our very sight with
religious awe and devotion.

Footnotes:
1.  Some have, by mistake, confounded this place with Ferden, or Werden,
    beyond the Weser.
2.  Voss. de histor. lat. l. 2, c. 3.

ST. BRAULIO, BISHOP OF SARAGOSSA, C.

HE was the great assistant of St. Isidore of Seville in settling the
discipline of the church of Spain, and is one of those holy pastors to
whose zeal, learning, and labors it has always professed itself much
indebted. He died in 646, in the twentieth year of his episcopacy. He
has left us two letters to St. Isidore, an eulogium of that saint, and a
catalogue of his works; also a hymn in Iambic verse in honor of St.
Emilian, and the life of that servant of God, who, after living long a
hermit, was called to serve a parish in the diocese of Tarragon, where a
famous monastery now bears his name.

{664}


MARCH XXVII.

ST. JOHN OF EGYPT, HERMIT.

From Rufinus, in the second book of the lives of the fathers; and from
Pallaudius in his Lausiaca; the last had often seen him. Also St. Jerom,
St. Austin, Cassian, &c. See Tillemont, t. 10, p. 9. See also the
Wonders of God in the Wilderness, p. 160.

A.D. 394.

ST. JOHN was born about the year 305, was of a mean extraction, and
brought up to the trade of a carpenter. At twenty-five years of age he
forsook the world, and put himself under the guidance and direction of
an ancient holy anchoret with such an extraordinary humility and
simplicity as struck the venerable old man with admiration; who inured
him to obedience by making him water a dry stick for a whole year as if
it were a live plant, and perform several other things as seemingly
ridiculous, all which he executed with the utmost fidelity. To the
saint's humility and ready obedience, Cassian[1] attributes the
extraordinary gifts he afterwards received from God. He seems to have
lived about twelve years with this old man, till his death, and about
four more in different neighboring monasteries.

Being about forty years of age, he retired alone to the top of a rock of
very difficult ascent, near Lycopolis.[2] His cell he walled up, leaving
only a little window through which he received all necessaries, and
spoke to those who visited him what might be for their spiritual comfort
and edification. During five days in the week he conversed only with
God: but on Saturdays and Sundays all but women had free access to him
for his instructions and spiritual advice. He never ate till after
sunset, and then very sparingly; but never any thing that had been
dressed by fire, not so much as bread. In this manner did he live from
the fortieth or forty-second to the ninetieth year of his age. For the
reception of such as came to him from remote parts, he permitted a kind
of hospital to be built near his cell or grotto, where some of his
disciples took care of them. He was illustrious for miracles, and a
wonderful spirit of prophecy, with the power of discovering to those
that came to see him, their most secret thoughts and hidden sins. And
such was the fame of his predictions, and the lustre of his miracles
which he wrought on the sick, by sending them some oil which he had
blessed, that they drew the admiration of the whole world upon him.

Theodosius the Elder was then emperor, and was attacked by the tyrant
Maximus, become formidable by the success of his arms, having slain the
emperor Gratian in 383, and dethroned Valentinian in 387. The pious
emperor, finding his army much inferior to that of his adversary, caused
this servant of God to be consulted concerning the success of the war
against Maximus. Our saint foretold him that he should be victorious
almost without blood. The emperor, full of confidence in the prediction,
marched into the West, defeated the more numerous armies of Maximus
twice in Pannonia; crossed the Alps, took the tyrant in Aquileia, and
suffered {665} his soldiers to cut off his head. He returned triumphant
to Constantinople, and attributed his victories very much to the prayers
of St. John, who also foretold him the events of his other wars, the
incursions of barbarians, and all that was to befall his empire. Four
years after, in 392, Eugenius, by the assistance of Arbogastes, who had
murdered the emperor Valentinian the Younger, usurped the empire of the
West. Theodosius sent Eutropius the Eunuch into Egypt, with instructions
to bring St. John with him to Constantinople, if it was possible; but
that if he could not prevail with him to undertake the journey, to
consult whether it was God's will that he should march against Eugenius,
or wait his arrival in the East. The man of God excused himself as to
his journey to court, but assured Eutropius that his prince should be
victorious, but not without loss and blood: as also that he would die in
Italy, and leave the empire of the West to his son; all which happened
accordingly. Theodosius marched against Eugenius, and in the first
engagement lost ten thousand men, and was almost defeated: but renewing
the battle on the next day, the 6th of September, in 394, he gained an
entire victory by the miraculous interposition of heaven, as even
Claudian, the heathen poet, acknowledges. Theodosius died in the West,
on the 17th of January, in 395, leaving his two sons emperors, Arcadius
in the East, and Honorius in the West.

This saint restored sight to a senator's wife by some of the oil he had
blessed for healing the sick. It being his inviolable custom never to
admit any woman to speak to him, this gave occasion to a remarkable
incident related by Evagrius, Palladius, and St. Austin in his treatise
of Care for the Dead. A certain general officer in the emperor's service
visiting the saint, conjured him to permit his wife to speak to him; for
she was come to Lycopolis, and had gone through many dangers and
difficulties to enjoy that happiness. The holy man answered, that during
his stricter enclosure for the last forty years since he had shut
himself up in that rock, he had imposed on himself an inviolable rule
not to see or converse with women; so he desired to be excused the
granting her request. The officer returned to Lycopolis very melancholy.
His wife, who was a person of great virtue, was not to be satisfied. The
husband went back to the blessed man, told him that she would die of
grief if he refused her request. The saint said to him: "Go to your
wife, and tell her that she shall see me tonight, without coming hither
or stirring out of her house." This answer he carried to her, and both
were very earnest to know in what manner the saint would perform his
promise. When she was asleep in the night, the man of God appeared to
her in her dream, and said: "Your great faith, woman, obliged me to come
to visit you; but I must admonish you to curb the like desires of seeing
God's servants on earth. Contemplate only their life, and imitate their
actions. As for me, why did you desire to see me? Am I a saint, or a
prophet like God's true servants? I am a sinful and weak man. It is
therefore only in virtue of your faith that I have had recourse to our
Lord, who grants you the cure of the corporal diseases with which you
are afflicted. Live always in the fear of God, apd never forget his
benefits." He added several proper instructions for her conduct, any
disappeared. The woman awaking, described to her husband the person she
had seen in her dream, with all his features, in such a manner as to
leave no room to doubt but it was the blessed man that had appeared to
her. Whereupon he returned the next day to give him thanks for the
satisfaction he had vouchsafed his wife. But the saint on his arrival
prevented him, saying: "I have fulfilled your desire, I have seen your
wife, and satisfied her in all things she had asked: go in peace." The
officer received his benediction, and continued his journey to Seyne.
What the man of God foretold happened to him, as, {666} among other
things, that he should receive particular honors from the emperor.
Besides the authors of the saint's life, St. Austin relates this history
which he received from a nobleman of great integrity and credit, who had
it from the very persons to whom it happened. St. Austin adds, had he
seen St. John, he would have inquired of him, whether he himself really
appeared to this woman, or whether it was an angel in his shape, or
whether the vision only passed in her imagination.[3]

In the year 394, a little before the saint's death, he was visited by
Palladius, afterwards bishop of Helenopolis, who is one of the authors
of his life. Several anchorets of the deserts of Nitria, all strangers,
the principal of whom were Evagrius, Albinus, Ammonius, had a great
desire to see the saint. Palladius, one of this number, being young, set
out first in July, when the flood of the Nile was high. Being arrived at
this mountain, he found the door of his porch shut, and that it would
not be open till the Saturday following. He waited that time in the
lodgings of strangers. On Saturday, at eight o'clock, Palladius entered
the porch, and saw the saint sitting before his window, and giving
advice to those who applied to him for it. Having saluted Palladius by
an interpreter, he asked him of what country he was, and what was his
business, and if he was not of the company or monastery of Evagrius:
Palladius owned he was. In the mean time arrived Alypius, governor of
the province, in great haste. The saint, on the arrival of Alypius,
broke off his discourse with Palladius, who withdrew to make room for
the governor to discourse with the saint. Their conversation was very
long, and Palladius being, weary, murmured within himself against the
venerable old man, as guilty of exception of persons. He was even just
going away, when the saint, knowing his secret thoughts, sent Theodorus,
his interpreter, to him, saying: "Go, bid that brother not to be
impatient: I am going to dismiss the governor, and then will speak to
him." Palladius, astonished that his thoughts should be known to him,
waited with patience. As soon as Alypius was gone, St. John called
Palladius, and said to him: "Why was {sic} you angry, imputing to me in
your mind what I was no way guilty of? To you I can speak at any other
time, and you have many fathers and brethren to comfort and direct you
in the paths of salvation. But this governor being involved in the hurry
of temporal affairs, and being come to receive some wholesome advice
during the short time his affairs will allow him time to breathe in, how
could I give you the preference?" He then told Palladius what passed in
his heart, and his secret temptations to quit his solitude; for which
end the devil represented to him his father's regret for his absence,
and that he might induce his brother and sister to embrace a solitary
life. The holy man bade him despise such suggestions; for they had both
already renounced the world, and his father would yet live seven years.
He foretold him that he should meet with great persecutions and
sufferings, and should be a bishop, but with many afflictions: all which
came to pass, though at that time extremely improbable.

The same year, St. Petronius, with six other monks, made a long journey
to pay St. John a visit. He asked them if any among them was in holy
orders. They said: No. One, however, the youngest in the company, was a
deacon, though this was unknown to the rest. The saint, by divine
instinct, knew this circumstance, and that the deacon had concealed his
orders out of a false humility, not to seem superior to the others, but
their inferior, as he was in age. Therefore, pointing to him, he said:
"This man is a deacon." The other denied it, upon the false persuasion
that to lie with a view to one's own humiliation was no sin. St. John
took him by {667} the hand, and kissing it, said to him: "My son, take
care never to deny the grace you have received from God, lest humility
betray you into a lie. We must never lie, under any pretence of good
whatever, because no untruth can be from God." The deacon received this
rebuke with great respect. After their prayer together, one of the
company begged of the saint to be cured of the tertian ague. He
answered: "You desire to be freed from a sickness which is beneficial to
you. As nitre cleanses the body, so distempers and other chastisements
purify the soul." However, he blessed some oil and gave it to him: he
vomited plentifully after it, and was from that moment perfectly cured.
They returned to their lodgings, where, by his orders, they were treated
with all proper civility, and cordial hospitality. When they went to him
again, he received them with joyfulness in his countenance, which
evidenced the interior spiritual joy of his soul; he bade them sit down,
and asked them whence they came. They said, from Jerusalem. He then made
them a long discourse, in which he first endeavored to show his own
baseness; after which he explained the means by which pride and vanity
are to be banished out of the heart, and all virtues to be acquired. He
related to them the examples of many monks, who, by suffering their
hearts to be secretly corrupted by vanity, at last fell also into
scandalous irregularities; as of one, who, after a most holy and austere
life, by this means fell into fornication, and then by despair into all
manner of disorders: also of another, who, from vanity, fell into a
desire of leaving his solitude; but by a sermon he preached to others,
in a monastery on his road, was mercifully converted, and became an
eminent penitent. The blessed John thus entertained Petronius and his
company for three days, till the hour of None. When they were leaving
him, he gave them his blessing, and said: "Go in peace, my children; and
know that the news of the victory which the religious prince Theodosius
has gained over the tyrant Eugenius, is this day come to Alexandria: but
this excellent emperor will soon end his life by a natural death." Some
days after their leaving him to return home, they were informed he had
departed this life. Having been favored by a foresight of his death, he
would see nobody for the last three days. At the end of this term he
sweetly expired, being on his knees at prayer, towards the close of the
year 394, of the beginning of 395. It might probably be on the 17th of
October, on which day the Copths, or Egyptian Christians, keep his
festival: the Roman and other Latin Martyrologies mark it on the 27th of
March.

       *       *       *       *       *

The solitude which the Holy Ghost recommends, and which the saints
embraced, resembled that of Jesus Christ, being founded in the same
motive or principle, and having the same exercises and employments, and
the same end. Christ was conducted by the Holy Ghost into the desert,
and he there spent his time in prayer and fasting. Woe to those whom
humor or passion leads into solitude, or who consecrate it not to God by
mortification, sighs of penance, and hymns of divine praise. To those
who thus sanctify their desert, or cell, it will be an anticipated
paradise, an abyss of spiritual advantages and comforts, known only to
such as have enjoyed them. _The Lord will change the desert into a place
of delights, and will make the solitude a paradise and a garden worthy
of himself._[4] In it only joy and jubilee shall be seen, nothing shall
be heard but thanksgiving and praise. It is the dwelling of a
terrestrial seraph, whose sole employment is to labor to know, and
correct, all secret disorders of his own soul, to forget the world, and
all objects of vanity which could distract or entangle him; to subdue
his senses, to purify the faculties of his soul, and entertain in his
{668} heart a constant fire of devotion, by occupying it assiduously on
God, Jesus Christ, and heavenly things, and banishing all superfluous
desires and thoughts; lastly, to make daily progress in purity of
conscience, humility, mortification, recollection, and prayer, and to
find all his joy in the most fervent and assiduous adoration, love, and
praise of his sovereign Creator and Redeemer.

Footnotes:
1.  Coll. b. 4, c. 21, p. 81.
2.  A city in the north of Thebais, in Egypt.
3.  S. Aug. l. pro curâ de mortuis, c. 17, p. 294.
4.  Isa. lxiii.

ST. RUPERT, OR ROBERT, C.

BISHOP OF SALTZBOURG.

HE was by birth a Frenchman, and of royal blood; but still more
illustrious for his learning, and the extraordinary virtues he practised
from his youth. He exercised himself is austere fasting, watching, and
other mortifications; was a great lover of chastity and temperance; and
so charitable as always to impoverish himself to enrich the poor. His
reputation drew persons from remote provinces to receive his advice and
instructions. He removed all their doubts and scruples, comforted the
afflicted, cured the sick, and healed the disorders of souls. So
distinguished a merit raised him to the episcopal see of Worms. But that
people, being for the most part idolaters, could not bear the lustre of
such a sanctity, which condemned their irregularities and superstitions.
They beat him with rods, loaded him with all manner of outrages, and
expelled him the city. But God prepared for him another harvest.
Theodon, duke of Bavaria, hearing of his reputation and miracles, sent
messengers to him, earnestly beseeching him to come and preach the
gospel to the Baioarians, or Bavarians. This happened two years after
his expulsion from Worms: during which interval he had made a journey to
Rome. He was received at Ratisbon by Theodon and his court with all
possible distinction, in 697, and found the hearts both of the nobles
and people docile to the word of God. The Christian faith had been
planted in that country two hundred years before, by St. Severinus, the
apostle of Noricum. After his death, heresies and heathenish
superstitions had entirely extinguished the light of the gospel.
Bagintrude, sister of duke Theodon, being a Christian, disposed her
brother and the whole country to receive the faith. Rupert, with the
help of other zealous priests, whom he had brought with him, instructed,
and, after a general fast, baptized, the duke Theodon and the lords and
people of the whole country. God confirmed his preaching by many
miracles. He converted also to Christianity the neighboring nations.
After Ratisbon, the capital, the second chief seat of his labors was
Laureacum, now called Lorch,[1] where he healed several diseases by
prayer, and made many converts. However, it was not Lorch, nor the old
Reginum, thence called Regensbourg, now Ratisbon, the capital of all
those provinces, that was pitched upon to be the seat of the saint's
bishopric, but old Juvavia, then almost in ruins, since rebuilt and
called Saltzbourg. The duke Theodon adorned and enriched it with many
magnificent donations, which enabled St. Rupert to found there several
rich churches and monasteries. After the prince's death, his son
Theodebert, or Diotper, inheriting his zeal and piety, augmented
considerably the revenues of this church. St. Rupert took a journey into
France to procure a new supply of able laborers, and brought back to
Saltzbourg twelve holy missionaries, with his niece St. Erentrude, a
virgin consecrated to God, for whom he built a great monastery, called
Nunberg, of which {669} she was the first abbess.[2] St. Rupert labored
several years in this see, and died happily on Easter-day, which fell
that year on the 27th of March, after he had said mass and preached; on
which day the Roman and other Martyrologies mention him. His principal
festival is kept with the greatest solemnity in Austria and Bavaria on
the 25th of September, the day of one of the translations of his relics,
which are kept in the church under his name in Saltzbourg. Mabillon and
Bulteau, upon no slight grounds, think this saint to have lived a whole
century later than is commonly supposed, and that he founded the church
of Saltzbourg about the year 700. See his life, published by Canisius,
Henschenius, and Mabillon, with the notes of the last-mentioned editor.

Footnotes:
1.  A village on the Danube in the midway between Ratisbon and Vienna,
    the capital of eastern Bavaria, at present Austria.
2.  The bishop of Saltzbourg was, under Charlemagne, made an archbishop
    and metropolitan of Bavaria, Austria, and its hereditary
    territories. He is one of the first ecclesiastical princes of the
    empire, and is elected by the canons of the cathedral, who are all
    of noble extraction.


MARCH XXVIII.

PRISCUS, MALCHUS, AND ALEXANDER, MARTYRS.

From Eus. Hist. b. 7, c. 12, p. 262.

A.D. 260.

THESE eminent Christians, Priscus, Malchus, and Alexander, led a retired
holy life in the country near Cæsarea, in Palestine. During the fury of
the persecution under Valerian, they often called to mind the triumphs
of the martyrs, and secretly reproached themselves with cowardice, as
living like soldiers who passed their time in softness and ease, while
their brethren and fellow-warriors bore all the heat of the battle. They
could not long smother these warm sentiments in their breast; but
expressed them to one another. "What," said they, "while the secure gate
of heaven is open, shall we shut it against ourselves? Shall we be so
faint-hearted as not to suffer for the name of Christ, who died for us?
Our brethren invite us by their example: their blood is a loud voice,
which presses us to tread in their steps. Shall we be deaf to a cry
calling us to the combat, and to a glorious victory?" Full of this holy
ardor, they all, with one mind, repaired to Cæsarea, and of their own
accord, by a particular instinct of grace, presented themselves before
the governor, declaring themselves Christians. While all others were
struck with admiration at the sight of their generous courage, the
barbarous judge appeared not able to contain his rage. After having
tried on them all the tortures which he employed on other martyrs, he
condemned them to be exposed to wild beasts. They are honored on this
day in the Roman Martyrology.

       *       *       *       *       *

In consecrating ourselves to the service of God, and to his pure love,
the first and most essential condition is that we do it without reserve,
with an earnest desire of attaining to the perfection of our state, and
a firm resolution of sparing nothing, and being deterred by no
difficulties from pursuing this end with our whole strength; and it must
be our chief care constantly to maintain, and always increase this
desire in our souls. Upon this condition {670} depends all out spiritual
progress. This is more essential in a religious state than the vows
themselves; and it is this which makes the difference betwixt the
fervent and the lukewarm Christian. Many deceive themselves in this
particular, and flatter themselves their resolution of aspiring after
perfection, with all their strength, is sincere, whereas it is very
imperfect. Of this we can best judge by their earnestness to advance in
a spirit of prayer, and in becoming truly spiritual; in crucifying
self-love, overcoming their failings, and cutting off all occasions of
dissipation, and all impediments of their spiritual advancement.
Mortification and prayer, which are the principal means, present usually
the greatest difficulties: but these, as St. Terasa observes, are better
than half vanquished and removed by a firm resolution of not being
discouraged by any obstacles, but of gathering from them fresh vigor and
strength. Patience and fortitude crown in the saints what this fervent
resolution began.

ST. SIXTUS III., POPE.

HE was a priest among the Roman clergy in 418, when pope Zozimus
condemned the Pelagian heretics. Sixtus was the first, after this
sentence, who pronounced publicly anathema against them, to stop their
slander in Africa that he favored their doctrine, as we are assured by
St. Austin and St. Prosper in his chronicle. The former sent him two
congratulatory letters the same year, in which he applauds this
testimony of his zeal, and in the first of these letters professes a
high esteem of a treatise written by him in defence of the grace of God
against its enemies. It was that calumny of the Pelagian heretics that
led Garnier into the mistake that our saint at first favored their
errors. But a change of this kind would not have been buried in silence.
After the death of St. Celestine, Sixtus was chosen pope in 432. He
wrote to Nestorius to endeavor to reclaim him after his condemnation at
Ephesus, in 431: but his heart was hardened, and he stopped his ears
against all wholesome admonitions. The pope had the comfort to see a
happy reconciliation made, by his endeavors, between the Orientals and
St. Cyril: in which he much commended the humility and pacific
dispositions of the latter. He says "that he was charged with the care
and solicitude of all the churches in the world,[1] and that it is
unlawful for any one to abandon the faith of the apostolic Roman church,
in which St. Peter teaches in his successors what he received from
Christ."[2] When Bassus, a nobleman of Rome, had been condemned by the
emperor, and excommunicated by a synod of bishops for raising a grievous
slander against the good pope, the meek servant of Christ visited and
assisted him in person, administered him the viaticum in his last
sickness; and buried him with his own hands. Julian of Eclanum or
Eculanum, the famous Pelagian, earnestly desiring to recover his see,
made great efforts to be admitted to the communion of the church,
pretending that he was become a convert, and used several artifices to
convince our saint that he really was so: but he was too well acquainted
with them to be imposed on. This holy pope died soon after, on the 28th
of March, in 440, having sat in the see near eight years. See his
letters, Anastasius's Pontifical, with the notes of Bianchini, &c.

Footnotes:
1.  Ep. 1, ad Episc. Orient. p. 1236. Ep. decret. t. 1.
2.  Ep. 6, and Joan. Antioch. contra Nestor.

{671}

ST. GONTRAN, KING AND CONFESSOR.

HE was son of king Clotaire, and grandson of Clovis I. and St.
Clotildis. Being the second son, while his brothers Charibert reigned at
Paris, and Sigebert in Austrasia, residing at Metz, he was crowned king
of Orleans and Burgundy in 561, making Challons on the Saone his
capital. When compelled to take up arms against his ambitious brothers
and the Lombards, he made no other use of his victories under the
conduct of a brave general called Mommol, than to give peace to his
dominions. He protected his nephews against the practices of the wicked
dowager queens, Brunehault of Sigebert, and Fredegonde of Chilperic, the
firebrands of France. The putting to death the physicians of the queen,
at her request, on her death-bed, and the divorcing his wife Mercatrude,
are crimes laid to his charge, in which the barbarous manners of his
nation involved him: but these he effaced by tears of repentance. He
governed his kingdom, studying rather to promote the temporal happiness
of others than his own, a stranger to the passions of pride, jealousy,
and ambition, and making piety the only rule of his policy. The
prosperity of his reign, both in peace and war, condemn those who think
that human policy cannot be modelled by the maxims of the gospel,
whereas nothing can render a government more flourishing. He always
treated the pastors of the church with respect and veneration, regarding
them as his fathers, and honoring and consulting them as his masters. He
was the protector of the oppressed, and the tender parent of his
subjects, whom he treated as his children. He poured out his treasures
among them with a holy profusion; especially in the time of a pestilence
and famine. He gave the greatest attention to the care of the sick. He
fasted, prayed, wept, and offered himself to God night and day, as a
victim ready to be sacrificed on the altar of his justice, to avert his
indignation, which he believed he himself had provoked, and drawn down
upon his innocent people. He was a severe punisher of crimes in his
officers and others, and, by many wholesome regulations, restrained the
barbarous licentiousness of his troops, but no man was more ready to
forgive offences against his own person. He contented himself with
imprisoning a man who, through the instigation of queen Fredegonde, had
attempted to stab him, and he spared another assassin sent by the same
wicked woman, because he had taken shelter in a church. With royal
magnificence he built and endowed many churches and monasteries. St.
Gregory of Tours relates many miracles performed by him both before and
after his death, to some of which he was an eye-witness. This good king,
like another penitent David, having spent his life after his conversion,
though on the throne, in the retirement and penance of a recluse, (as
St. Hugh of Cluny says of him, exhorting king Philip I. to imitate his
example,) died on the 28th of March, in 593, in the sixty-eighth year of
his age, having reigned thirty-one and some months. He was buried in the
church of St. Marcellus, which he had founded. The Huguenots scattered
his ashes in the sixteenth century: only his skull escaped their fury,
and is now kept there in a silver case. He is mentioned in the Roman
Martyrology. See St. Gregory of Tours, Fredegarius, and Baillet.

{672}


MARCH XXIX.

SS. JONAS, BARACHISIUS, AND THEIR COMPANIONS,

MARTYRS.

From their genuine acts compiled by Esalas, a noble Armenian knight in
the troops of king Sapor, an eye witness; published in the original
Chaldaic, by Stephen Assemani, Act. Mart. Orient. t. 1, p. 211. They
were much adulterated by the Greeks in Metaphrastes. Ruinart and
Tillemont think Sapor raised no persecution before his fortieth year:
but Assemani proves from these acts, and several other monuments, a
persecution in his eighteenth year. See Præf. Gen. and p. 214, app.

A.D. 327.

KING SAPOR, in the eighteenth year of his reign, raised a bloody
persecution against the Christians, and demolished their churches and
monasteries. Jonas and Barachisius, two brothers of the city Beth-Asa,
hearing that several Christians lay under sentence of death at Hubaham,
went thither to encourage and serve them. Nine of that number received
the crown of martyrdom. After their execution, Jonas and Barachisius
were apprehended for having exhorted them to die. The president mildly
entreated the two brothers to obey the king of kings, meaning the king
of Persia, and to worship the sun, moon, fire, and water. Their answer
was, that it was more reasonable to obey the immortal King of heaven and
earth than a mortal prince. The Magians were much offended to hear their
king called mortal. By their advice the martyrs were separated, and
Barachisius was cast into a very narrow close dungeon. Jonas they
detained with them, endeavoring to persuade him to sacrifice to fire,
the sun, and water. The prince of the Magians, seeing him inflexible,
caused him to be laid fiat on his belly with a stake under his navel,
and to be beaten both with knotty clubs and with rods. The martyr all
the time continued in prayer, saying: "I thank you, O God of our father
Abraham. Enable me, I beseech you, to offer to you acceptable
holocausts. _One thing I have asked of the Lord: this will I seek
after_.[1] The sun, moon, fire, and water I renounce: I believe and
confess the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." The judge ordered him next to
be set in a frozen pond, with a cord tied to his foot. After supper, and
a short nap, he sent for Barachisius, and told him his brother had
sacrificed. The martyr said it was impossible that he should have paid
divine honors to fire, a vile creature, and spoke much on the immensity
and power of God, and with such, eloquence and force that the Magians
were astonished to hear him, and said one to another, that if he were
permitted to speak in public, he would draw over many from their
religion. Whereupon they concluded for the future to hold his
interrogatories in the night. In the mean time they caused two red-hot
iron plates, and two red-hot hammers, to be applied under each arm, and
said to him: "If you shake off either of these, by the king's fortune,
you deny Christ." He meekly replied: "I fear not your fire; nor shall I
throw off your instruments of torture. I beg you to try without delay
all your torments on me. He who is engaged in combat for God is full of
courage." They ordered melted lead to be dropped into his nostrils and
eyes; and that he should then be carried to prison, and there hung up by
one foot. Jonas, after this, being brought out of his pool, the Magians
said to him: "How do you find yourself this morning? We imagine you
passed the {673} last night out very uncomfortably." "No," replied
Jonas; "from the day I came into the world, I never remember a night
more sweet and agreeable: for I was wonderfully refreshed by the
remembrance of Christ's sufferings." The Magians said: "Your companion
hath renounced." The martyr, interrupting them, answered: "I know that
he hath long ago renounced the devil and his angels." The Magians urged:
"Take care lest you perish, abandoned both by God and man." Jonas
replied: "If you are really wise, as you boast, judge if it be not
better to sow the corn than to keep it hoarded up. Our life is a seed
sown to rise again in the world to come, when it will be renewed by
Christ in immortal light." The Magians said: "Your books have drawn many
aside." Jonas answered: "They have indeed drawn many from worldly
pleasures. When a servant of Christ is in his sufferings inebriated with
love from the passion of his Lord, he forgets the transitory state of
this short life, its riches, estates, gold, and honors; regardless of
kings and princes, lords and noblemen, where an eternity is at stake, he
desires nothing but the sight of the only true King, whose empire is
everlasting, and whose power reaches to all ages." The judges commanded
all his fingers and toes to be cut off, joint by joint, and scattered
about. Then they said to him: "Now wait the harvest to reap other hands
from this seed." To whom he said: "Other hands I do not ask. God is
present, who first framed me, and who will give me new strength." After
this, the skin was torn off the martyr's head, his tongue was cut out,
and he was thrown into a vessel of boiling pitch; but the pitch by a
sudden ebullition running over, the servant of God was not hurt by it.
The judges next ordered him to be squeezed in a wooden press till his
veins, sinews, and fibres burst. Lastly, his body was sawn with an iron
saw, and, by pieces, thrown into a dry cistern. Guards were appointed to
watch the sacred relics, lest Christians should steal them away. The
judges then called upon Barachisius to spare his own body. To whom he
said: "This body I did not frame, neither will I destroy it. God its
maker will again restore it and will judge you and your king."
Hormisdatscirus, turning to Maharnarsces, said: "By our delays we
affront the king. These men regard neither words nor torments." They
therefore agreed that he should be beaten with sharp-pointed rushes;
then that splinters of reeds should be applied to his body, and by cords
strait drawn and pulled, should be pressed deep into his flesh, and that
in this condition his body, pierced all over with sharp spikes, armed
like a porcupine, should be rolled on the ground. After these tortures,
he was put into the screw or press, and boiling pitch and brimstone were
poured into his mouth. By this last torment he obtained a crown equal to
that of his brother. Under their most exquisite tortures they thought
they bought heaven too cheap. Upon the news of their death, Abtusciatus,
an old friend, came and purchased their bodies for five hundred drachms
and three silk garments, binding himself also by oath never to divulge
the sale. The acts are closed by these words: "This book was written
from the mouths of witnesses, and contains the acts of the saints,
Jonas, Barachisius, and others, martyrs of Christ, who by his succor
fought, triumphed, and were crowned, in whose prayers we beg place may
be found, by Esaias, son of Adabus of Arzun, in Armenia, of the troop of
royal horsemen, who was present at their interrogatories and tortures,
and who wrote the history of their conflicts." They were crowned on the
29th of the moon of December. This was the 24th of that month, in the
year of Christ 327, of Sopar II. the 18th. The Roman Martyrology
mentions them on the 29th of March.

       *       *       *       *       *

Those powerful motives which supported the martyrs under the sharpest
{674} torments, ought to inspire us with patience, resignation, and holy
joy, under sickness and all crosses or trials. These are the times of
the greatest spiritual harvest, by the exercise of the most perfect
virtues. For nothing is more heroic in the practice of Christian virtue,
nothing more precious in the sight of God, than the sacrifice of
patience, submission, constant fidelity and charity in a state of
suffering. Under sickness we are too apt eagerly to desire health, that
we may be able to do something for God, and to discharge the obligations
of our profession, as we persuade ourselves. This is a mere invention of
self-love, which is impatient under the weight of humiliation. Nothing,
indeed, is more severe to nature than such a state of death, and there
is nothing which it is not desirous of doing, to recover that active
life, which carries an air of importance by making an appearance in the
tumultuous scene of the world. But how much does the soul generally lose
by such an exchange! Ah! did we but truly know how great are the
spiritual advantages and riches, and how great the glory of patience
founded upon motives of true charity, and how precious the victories and
triumphs are which it gains over self-love, we should rejoice too much
in a state of suffering and humiliation ever to entertain any inordinate
desires of changing it. We should only ask for health in sickness under
this condition, if it be more expedient for God's honor and our
spiritual advancement. With St. Paul, we should find a joy and delight
in a state of privation and suffering, in which we enter into a true
sense of our absolute weakness, feel that we are nothing, and have no
reliance but on God alone.

Footnotes:
1.  Psa. xxvi 4.

SS. ARMOGASTES, ARCHINIMUS, AND SATURUS,

MARTYRS.

GENSERIC, the Arian king of the Vandals, to Africa, having, on his
return out of Italy, in 457, enacted new penal laws, and severer than
any he had till then put in force against Catholics, count Armogastes
was on that occasion deprived of his honors and dignities at court, and
most cruelly tortured. But no sooner had the jailers bound him with
cords, but they broke of themselves, as the martyr lifted up his eyes to
heaven; and this happened several times. And though they afterwards hung
him up by one foot with his head downwards for a considerable time, the
saint was no more affected by this torment than if he had lain all the
while at his ease on a feather-bed. Theodoric, the king's son, thereupon
ordered his head to be struck off: but one of his Arian priests diverted
him from it, advising him to take other measures with him to prevent his
being looked upon as a martyr by those of his party, which would be of
disservice to the opposite cause. He was therefore sent into Byzacena to
work in the mines; and some time after, for his greater disgrace, he was
removed thence into the neighborhood of Carthage, and employed in
keeping cows. But he looked upon it as his glory to be dishonored before
men in the cause of God. It was not long before he had a revelation that
his end drew near. So having foretold the time of his death, and given
orders to a devout Christian about the place where he desired to be
interred, the holy confessor, a few days after, went to receive the
rewards of those that suffer in the cause of truth.

Archinimus, of the city Mascula, in Numidia, resisted all the artifices
which the king could use to overcome his faith, and was condemned to be
beheaded, but was reprieved while he stood under the axe. Satur, or
Saturus, was master of the household to Huneric, by whom he was
threatened to be deprived of his estate, goods, slaves, wife, and
children for his faith. {675} His own wife omitted nothing in her power
to prevail with him to purchase his pardon at the expense of his
conscience. But he courageously answered her in the words of Job: "_You
have spoken like one of the foolish women_.[1] If you loved me, you
would give me different advice, and not push me on to a second death.
Let them do their worst: I will always remember our Lord's words: _If
any man come to me, and hate not his father and mother, his wife and
children, his brethren and sisters, and his own life also, he cannot be
my disciple_."[2] He suffered many torments, was stripped of all his
substance, forbid ever to appear in public, and reduced to great
distress. But God enriched him with his graces, and called him to
himself. See St. Victor Vitensis, Hist. Persec. Vandal, l. 1, n. 14.

Footnotes:
1.  Job ii. 9.
2.  Luke xiv. 26.

ST. EUSTASIUS, OR EUSTACHIUS,

ABBOT OF LUXEU,

SUCCEEDED his master St. Columban in that charge, in 611. He sanctified
himself by humility, continual prayer, watching, and fasting; was the
spiritual father of six hundred monks, and of many holy bishops and
saints, and died in 625. He is named in the Martyrologies of Ado, and in
the Roman. See his life by Jonas, his colleague, in the Bollandists, and
in Mabillon.

ST. GUNDLEUS, CONFESSOR.

THIS saint, who was formerly honored with great devotion in Wales, was
son to the king of the Dimetians in South-Wales. After the death of his
father, though the eldest son, he divided the kingdom with his six
brothers who nevertheless respected and obeyed him as if he had been
their sovereign. He married Gladusa, daughter of Braghan, prince of that
country, which is called from him Brecknockshire, and was father of St.
Canoe and St. Keyna. St. Gundleus had by her the great St. Cadoc, who
afterwards founded the famous monastery of Llancarvan, three miles from
Cowbridge, in Glamorganshire. Gundleus lived so as to have always in
view the heavenly kingdom for which we are created by God. To secure
this, he retired wholly from the world long before his death, and passed
his time in a solitary little dwelling near a church which he had built.
His clothing was sackcloth, his food barley-bread, upon which he usually
strewed ashes, and his drink was water. Prayer and contemplation were
his constant occupation, to which he rose at midnight, and he subsisted
by the labor of his hands: thus he lived many years. Some days before
his death he sent for St. Dubritius and his son St. Cadoc, and by their
assistance, and the holy rites of the church, prepared himself for his
passage to eternity. He departed to our Lord towards the end of the
fifth century, and was glorified by miracles. See his life in Capgrave
and Henschenius, from the collection of John of Tinmouth. See also
bishop Usher.

ST. MARK, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR.

SOME Greeks rank among the saints on this day, Mark, bishop of Arethusa,
in Syria, in the fourth age. When Constantius put to death his uncle,
{676} Julius Constantius, brother of Constantine the Great, with his
eldest son; the two younger, Gallus and Julian, narrowly escaped the
sword. In that danger Mark concealed Julian, and secretly supplied him
with necessaries for his subsistence. When Julian became emperor, he
commanded that the temples which had been demolished by Christians,
during the two preceding reigns, should be rebuilt at their expense.
Mark had, by the authority of Constantius, demolished a very magnificent
temple which was held in great veneration by the idolaters: he had also
built a church, and converted a great number of infidels. Authorized by
the law of Julian, the heathens of Arethusa, when they saw themselves
uppermost, fell on the Christians; and Mark, finding that they were
ready to show their resentment against him in particular, which they had
long concealed, he at first, pursuant to the gospel precept, betook
himself to flight to escape their fury. But understanding that they had
apprehended some of his flock instead of him, he returned and delivered
himself up to the persecutors, to animate others in the same cause by
his example and instructions. They seized him soon after his return,
dragged him through the streets by the hair, or any part they could lay
hold of, without the least compassion for his age, or regard for his
virtue and learning. Having stripped him, and scourged him all over his
body, joining ignominy and insults with cruelty, they threw him into the
stinking public jakes. Having taken him from thence, they left him to
the children, ordering them to prick and pierce him, without mercy, with
their writing-styles, or steel pencils. They bound his legs with cords
so tight as to cut and bruise his flesh to the very bone; they wrung off
his ears with small strong threads; and in this maimed, bloody
condition, they pushed him from one to another. After this they rubbed
him over with honey and fat broth; and shutting him up in a kind of
cage, hung him up in the air where the sun was most scorching, at
noonday, in the midst of summer, in order to draw the wasps and gnats
upon him, whose stings are exceeding sharp and piercing in those hot
countries. He was so calm in the midst of his sufferings, that, though
so sorely wounded and covered with flies and wasps, he bantered them as
he hung in the air; telling them, that while they were grovelling on the
earth, he was raised by them towards heaven. They frequently solicited
him to rebuild their temple, but though they reduced their demands by
degrees to a trifling sum, he constantly answered, that it would be an
impiety to give them one farthing towards such a work. This indeed would
be to concur to idolatrous worship; but his demolishing the temple would
have been against the order of law and justice, had he done it without
public authority. At length the fury of the people was turned into
admiration of his patience, and they set him at liberty; and several of
them afterwards begged of him to instruct them in the principles of a
religion which was capable of inspiring such a resolution. Having spent
the remainder of his life in the faithful discharge of the duties of his
station, he died in peace under Jovian or Valens. He is not named in the
Roman Martyrology, nor venerated by the church among the saints. He had
been long engaged in the errors and intrigues of the Semi-Arians; but
the encomiums given him by St. Gregory Nazianzen, Theodoret, and
Sozomen, when they relate his sufferings, show that towards the end of
the reign of Constantius, he joined in the orthodox communion.

{677}


MARCH XXX.

ST. JOHN CLIMACUS, ABBOT.

From his life written by Daniel, a monk of Raithu, soon after his death,
and from his own works. See Bulteau, Hist Monast. d'Orient, and
d'Andilly, or rather his nephew, Le Maître, in his life prefixed to the
French translation of his works. See also Jos. Assemani, in Cal. Univ.
ad 30 Martii, t. 6, p. 213.

A.D. 605.

ST. JOHN, generally distinguished by the appellation of Climacus, from
his excellent book entitled Climax, or the Ladder to Perfection, was
born about the year 525, probably in Palestine. By his extraordinary
progress in the arts and sciences, he obtained very young the surname of
the Scholastic. But at sixteen years of age he renounced all the
advantages which the world promised him, to dedicate himself to God in a
religious state, in 547. He retired to Mount Sinai, which, from the time
of the disciples of St. Antony and St. Hilarion, had been always peopled
by holy men, who, in imitation of Moses, when he received the law on
that mountain, lived in the perpetual contemplation of heavenly things.
Our novice, fearing the danger of dissipation and relaxation, to which
numerous communities are generally more exposed than others, chose not
to live in the great monastery on the summit, but in a hermitage on the
descent of the mountain, under the discipline of Martyrius, a holy
ancient anchoret. By silence, he curbed the insolent itch of talking
about every thing, an ordinary vice in learned men, but usually a mark
of pride and self-sufficiency. By perfect humility and obedience, he
banished the dangerous desire of self-complacency in his actions. He
never contradicted, never disputed with any one. So perfect was his
submission, that he seemed to have no self-will. He undertook to sail
through the deep sea of this mortal life securely, under the direction
of a prudent guide, and shunned those rocks which he could not have
escaped, had he presumed to steer alone, as he tells us.[1] From the
visible mountain he raised his heart, without interruption, in all his
actions, to God, who is invisible; and, attentive to all the motions of
his grace, studied only to do his will. Four years he spent in the trial
of his own strength, and in learning the obligations of his state,
before he made his religious profession, which was in the twentieth year
of his age. In his writings, he severely condemns engagements made by
persons too young, or before a sufficient probation. By fervent prayer
and fasting he prepared himself for the solemn consecration of himself
to God, that the most intense fervor might make his holocaust the more
perfect: and from that moment he seemed to be renewed in spirit; and his
master admired the strides with which, like a mighty giant, the young
disciple advanced, daily more and more, towards God by self-denial,
obedience, humility, and the uninterrupted exercises of divine love and
prayer.

In the year 560, and the thirty-fifth of his age, he lost Martyrius by
death, having then spent nineteen years in that place in penance and
holy contemplation. By the advice of a prudent director, he then
embraced an eremitical life in a plain called Thole, near the foot of
Mount Sinai. His cell was five miles from the church, probably the same
which had been built a little {678} before, by order of the emperor
Justinian, for the use of the monks, at the bottom of this mountain, in
honor of the Blessed Virgin, as Procopius mentions.[2] Thither he went
every Saturday and Sunday to assist, with all the other anchorets and
monks of that desert, at the holy office and at the celebration of the
divine mysteries, when they all communicated. His diet was very sparing,
though, to shun ostentation and the danger of vain-glory, he ate of
every thing that was allowed among the monks of Egypt, who universally
abstained from flesh, fish, &c. Prayer was his principal employment; and
he practised what he earnestly recommends to all Christians, that in all
their actions, thoughts, and words, they should keep themselves with
great fervor in the presence of God, and direct all they do to his holy
will.[3] By habitual contemplation he acquired an extraordinary purity
of heart, and such a facility of lovingly beholding God in all his
works, that this practice seemed in him a second nature. Thus he
accompanied his studies with perpetual prayer. He assiduously read the
holy scriptures, and fathers, and was one of the most learned doctors of
the church. But, to preserve the treasure of humility, he concealed, as
much as possible, both his natural and acquired talents, and the
extraordinary graces with which the Holy Ghost enriched his soul. By
this secrecy he fled from the danger of vain-glory, which, like a leech,
sticks to our best actions, and sucking from them its nourishment, robs
us of their fruit. As if this cell had not been sufficiently remote from
the eyes of men, St. John frequently retired into a neighboring cavern,
which he had made in the rock, where no one could come to disturb his
devotions, or interrupt his tears. So ardent were his charity and
compunction, that his eyes seemed two fountains, which scarce ever
ceased to flow; and his continual sighs and groans to heaven, under the
weight of the miseries inseparable from his moral pilgrimage, were not
to be equalled by the vehemency of the cries of those who suffer from
knives and fire. Overcome by importunities, he admitted a holy anchoret
named Moyses to live with him as his disciple.

God bestowed on St. John an extraordinary grace of healing the spiritual
disorders of souls. Among others, a monk called Isaac, was brought
almost to the brink of despair by most violent temptations of the flesh.
He addressed himself to St. John; who perceived by his tears how much he
underwent from that conflict and struggle which he felt within himself.
The servant of God commended his faith, and said: "My son, let us have
recourse to God by prayer." They accordingly prostrated themselves
together on the ground in fervent supplication for a deliverance, and
from that time the infernal serpent left Isaac to peace. Many others
resorted to St. John for spiritual advice: but the devil excited some to
jealousy, who censured him as one who, out of vanity, lost much time in
unprofitable discourse. The saint took this accusation, which was a mere
calumny, in good part, and as a charitable admonition; he therefore
imposed on himself a rigorous silence for near a twelvemonth. This his
humility and modesty so much astonished his calumniators, that they
joined the rest of the monks in beseeching him to reassume his former
function of giving charitable advice to all that resorted to him for it,
and not to bury that talent of science which he had received for the
benefit of many. He who knew not what it was to contradict others, with
the same humility and deference again opened his mouth to instruct his
neighbor in the rules of perfect virtue: in which office, such was the
reputation of his wisdom and experience, that he was regarded as another
Moses in that holy place.

St. John was now seventy-five years old, and had spent forty of them in
{679} his hermitage, when, in the year six hundred, he was unanimously
chosen abbot of Mount Sinai, and superior-general of all the monks and
hermits in that country. Soon after he was raised to this dignity, the
people of Palestine and Arabia, in the time of a great drought and
famine, made their application to him as to another Elias, begging him
to intercede with God in their behalf. The saint failed not with great
earnestness to recommend their distress to the Father of mercies, and
his prayer was immediately recompensed with abundant rains. St. Gregory
the Great., who then sat in St. Peter's chair, wrote to our holy
abbot,[4] recommending himself to his prayers, and sent him beds, with
other furniture and money, for his hospital, for the use of pilgrims
near Mount Sinai. John, who had used his utmost endeavors to decline the
pastoral charge, when he saw it laid upon him, neglected no means which
might promote the sanctification of all those who were entrusted to his
care. That posterity might receive some share in the benefit of his holy
instructions, John, the learned and virtuous abbot of Raithu, a
monastery-situate towards the Red Sea, entreated him by that obedience
he had ever practised, even with regard to his inferiors, that he would
draw up the most necessary rules by which fervent souls might arrive at
Christian perfection. The saint answered him, that nothing but extreme
humility could have moved him to write to so miserable a sinner,
destitute of every sort of virtue; but that he received his commands
with respect, though far above his strength, never considering his own
insufficiency. Wherefore, apprehensive of falling into death by
disobedience, he took up his pen in haste, with great eagerness mixed
with fear, and set himself to draw some imperfect outlines as an
unskilful painter, leaving them to receive from him, as a great master,
the finishing strokes. This produced the excellent work which he called
Climax, or the ladder of religious perfection. This book being written
in sentences, almost in the manner of aphorisms, abounds more in sense
than words. A certain majestic simplicity, an inexpressible unction and
spirit of humility, joined with conciseness and perspicuity, very much
enhance the value of this performance: but its chief merit consists in
the sublime sentiments, and perfect description of all Christian
virtues, which it contains. The author confirms his precepts by several
edifying examples, as of obedience and penance.[5] In describing a
monastery of three hundred and thirty monks, which he had visited near
Alexandria in Egypt, he mentions one of the principal citizens of that
city, named Isidore, who, petitioning to be admitted into the house,
said to the abbot: "As iron is in the hands of the smith, so am I in
your hands." The abbot ordered him to remain without the gate, and to
prostrate himself at the feet of everyone that passed by, begging their
prayers for his soul struck with a leprosy. Thus he passed seven years
in profound humility and patience. He told St. John, that during the
first year he always considered himself as a slave condemned for his
sins, and sustained violent conflicts. The second year he passed in
tranquillity and confidence; and the third with relish and pleasure in
his humiliations. So great was his virtue, that the abbot determined to
present him to the bishop in order to be promoted to the priesthood, but
the humility of the holy penitent prevented the execution of that
design; for having begged at least a respite, he died within ten days.
St. John could not help admiring the cook of this numerous community,
who seemed always recollected, and generally bathed in tears amidst his
continual occupation, and asked him by what means he nourished so
perfect a spirit of compunction, in the midst of such a dissipating
laborious employment. He said, that serving the monks, he represented to
himself that he was serving not men, but God in his servants {680} and
that the fire he always had before his eyes, reminded him of that fire
which will burn souls for all eternity. The moving description which our
author gives of the monastery of penitents called the Prison, above a
mile from the former, hath been already abridged in our language. John
the Sabaite told our saint, as of a third person, that seeing himself
respected in his monastery, he considered that this was not the way to
satisfy for his sins. Wherefore, with the leave of his abbot, he
repaired to a severe monastery in Pontus, and after three years saw in a
dream a schedule of his debts, to the amount in appearance of one
hundred pounds of gold, of which only ten were cancelled. He therefore
repeated often to himself: "Poor Antiochus, thou hast still great debt
to satisfy." After passing over thirteen years in contempt and the most
fervent practices of penance, he deserved to see in a vision his whole
debt blotted out. Another monk, in a grievous fit of illness, fell into
a trance, in which he lay as if he had been dead for the space of an
hour: but recovering, he shut himself up in his cell, and lived a
recluse twelve years, almost continually weeping, in the perpetual
meditation of death. When he was near death, his brethren could only
extort from him these words of edification: "He who hath death always
before his eyes, will never sin." John, abbot of Raithu, explained this
book of our saint by judicious comments, which are also extant. We have
likewise a letter of St. John Climacus to the same person, concerning
the duties of a pastor, in which he exhorts him in correcting others to
temper severity with mildness, and encourages him zealously to fulfil
the obligations of his charge; for nothing is greater or more acceptable
to God than to offer him the sacrifice of rational souls sanctified by
penance and charity.

St. John sighed continually under the weight of his dignity, during the
four years that he governed the monks of Mount Sinai: and as he had
taken upon him that burden with fear and reluctance, he with joy found
means to resign the same a little before his death. Heavenly
contemplation, and the continual exercise of divine love and praise,
were his delight and comfort in his earthly pilgrimage: and in this
imitation of the functions of the blessed spirits in heaven he placeth
the essence of the monastic state.[6] In his excellent maxims concerning
the gift of holy tears, the fruit of charity,[7] we seem to behold a
lively portraiture of his most pure soul. He died in his hermitage on
the 30th day of March, in 605, being fourscore years old. His spiritual
son George, who had succeeded him in the abbacy, earnestly begged of God
that he might not be separated from his dear master and guide, and
followed him by a happy death within a few days. On several Greek
commentaries on St. John Climacus's ladder, see Montfaucon, Biblioth.
Coisliana, pp. 305, 306.

       *       *       *       *       *

St. John Climacus, speaking of the excellence and the effects of
charity, does it with a feeling and energy worthy of such a subject. "A
mother," says he,[8] "feels less pleasure when she folds within her arms
the dear infant whom she nourishes with her own milk, than the true
child of charity does, when united, as he incessantly is, to his God,
and folded as if were in the arms of his heavenly Father.[9]--Charity
operates in some persons so as to carry them almost entirely out of
themselves. It illuminates others, and fills them with such sentiments
of joy, that they cannot help crying out: _The Lord is my helper and my
protector: in him hath my heart confided, and I have been helped. And my
flesh hath flourished again, and with my will I will give praise to
him_.[10] This joy which they feel in their hearts, is reflected on
their countenances; and when once God has united, or, as we may say,
{681} incorporated them with his charity, he displays in their exterior,
as in the reflection of a mirror, the brightness and serenity of their
souls: even as Moses, being honored with a sight of God, was encompassed
round by his glory." St. John Climacus composed the following prayer to
obtain the gift of charity: "My God, I pretend to nothing upon this
earth, except to be so firmly united to you by prayer, that to be
separated from you may be impossible: let others desire riches and
glory; for my part, I desire but one thing, and that is, to be
inseparably united to you, and to place in you alone all my hopes of
happiness and repose."

Footnotes:
1.  Gr. l.
2.  Procop. l. 5 de ædif. Justin.
3.  S. Jo. Clim. gr. 27, n. 67.
4.  St. Greg. l. 11; Ep. 1, l. 12; Ep. 16, t. 2, p. 1091.
5.  Gr. 4 and 5.
6.  Gr. 1.
7.  Gr. 7, 27, 30.
8.  Grad. 30, n. 12.
9.  Gr {} n. 14.
10. Ps. xxvii.

S. ZOZIMUS, BISHOP OF SYRACUSE,

WAS successor to the holy bishop Peter; and faithfully discharged all
the duties of a worthy pastor until his death, which happened in 660.
His, name is mentioned in the Roman and Sicilian Martyrologies. See the
Bollandists and Baillet.

ST. REGULUS, OR RIEUL,

WHO having converted the country of Senlis to the faith, about the same
time that St. Dionysius preached in France, was made first bishop of
Senlis, and died in peace in the midst of his flock. See the Bollandists
and Tillem. t. 4, p. 719.


MARCH XXXI.

SAINT BENJAMIN, DEACON, M.

From Theodoret, Hist. Eccles. l. 5, c. 39, &c.

A.D. 429.

ISDEGERDES, son of Sapor III., put a stop to the crael persecutions
against the Christians in Persia, which had been begun by Sapor II., and
the Church had enjoyed twelve years' peace in that kingdom, when, in
420, it was disturbed by the indiscreet zeal of one Abdas, a Christian
bishop, who burned down the Pyræum, or temple of fire, the great
divinity of the Persians. King Isdegerdes threatened to demolish all the
churches of the Christians, unless he would rebuild it. Abdas had done
ill in destroying the temple, but did well in refusing to rebuild it;
for nothing can make it lawful to contribute to any act of idolatry, or
to the building a temple, as Theodoret observes. Isdegerdes therefore
demolished all the Christian churches in Persia, put to death Abdas, and
raised a general persecution against the Church, which continued forty
years with great fury. Isdegerdes died the year following, in 421. But
his son and successor, Varanes, carried on the persecution with greater
inhumanity. The very description which Theodoret, a contemporary writer,
and one that lived in the neighborhood gives of the cruelties he
exercised on the Christians, strikes us with {682} horror: some were
flayed alive in different parts of the body, and suffered all kinds of
torture that could be invented: others, being stuck all over with sharp
reeds, were hauled and rolled about in that condition; others were
tormented divers other ways, such as nothing but the most hellish malice
was capable of suggesting. Among these glorious champions of Christ was
St. Benjamin, a deacon. The tyrant caused him to be beaten and
imprisoned. He had lain a year in the dungeon, when an ambassador from
the emperor obtained his enlargement, on condition he should never speak
to any of the courtiers about religion. The ambassador passed his word
in his behalf that he would not: but Benjamin, who was a minister of the
gospel, declared that he could not detain the truth in captivity,
conscious to himself of the condemnation of the slothful servant for
having hid his talent. He therefore neglected no opportunity of
announcing Christ. The king, being informed that he still preached the
faith in his kingdom, ordered him to be apprehended; but the martyr made
no other reply to his threats than by putting this question to the king:
What opinion he would have of any of his subjects who should renounce
his allegiance to him, and join in war against him. The enraged tyrant
caused reeds to be run in between the nails and the flesh both of his
hands and feet, and the same to be thrust into other most tender parts,
and drawn out again, and this to be frequently repeated with violence.
He lastly ordered a knotty stake to be thrust into his bowels to rend
and tear them, in which torment he expired in the year 424. The Roman
Martyrology places his name on the 31st of March.

       *       *       *       *       *

St. Ephrem, considering the heroic constancy of the martyrs, makes on
them the following pious reflections: "The wisdom of philosophers, and
the eloquence of the greatest orators, are dumb through amazement, when
they contemplate the wonderful spectacle and glorious actions of the
martyrs: the tyrants and judges were not able to express their
astonishment when they beheld the faith, the constancy, and the
cheerfulness of these holy champions. What excuse shall we have in the
dreadful day of judgment, if we who have never been exposed to any cruel
persecutions, or to the violence of such torments, shall have neglected
the love of God and the care of a spiritual life? No temptations, no
torments, were able to draw them from that love which they bore to God:
but we, living in rest and delights, refuse to love our most merciful
and gracious Lord. What shall we do in that day of terror, when the
martyrs of Christ, standing with confidence near his throne, shall show
the marks of their wounds? What shall we then show? Shall we present a
lively faith? true charity towards God? a perfect disengagement of our
affections from earthly things? souls freed from the tyranny of the
passions? silence and recollection? meekness? alms-deeds? prayers poured
forth with clean hearts? compunction, watchings, tears? Happy shall he
be whom such good works shall attend. He will be the partner of the
martyrs, and, supported by the treasure of these virtues, shall appear
with equal confidence before Christ and his angels. We entreat you, O
most holy martyrs, who cheerfully suffered most cruel torments for God
our Saviour and his love, on which account you are now most intimately
and familiarly united to him, that you pray to the Lord for us miserable
sinners, covered with filth, that he infuse into us the grace of Christ,
that it may enlighten our souls that we may love him, &c."[1]

Footnotes:
1.  St. Ephrem. Hom. In SS. Martyres. t. 3. Op. Gr. et Lat. p. 251. ed
    Vatic. an. 1746.

{683}

ST. ACACIUS, OR ACHATES, BISHOP OF ANTIOCH IN ASIA MINOR, C.

ST. ACACIUS was bishop of Antioch, probably the town of that name in
Phrygia, where the Marcionites were numerous. He was surnamed
Agathangel, or Good-angel, and extremely respected by the people for his
sanctity. It was owing to his zeal that not one of his flock renounced
Christ by sacrificing to idols during the persecution of Decius, a
weakness which several of the Marcionite heretics had betrayed. Our
saint himself made a glorious confession of his faith; of which the
following relation, transcribed from the public register, is a voucher.

Martian, a man of consular dignity, arriving at Antioch, a small town of
his government, ordered the bishop to be brought before him. His name
was Acacius, and he was styled the buckler and refuge of that country
for his universal charity and episcopal zeal. Martian said to him: "As
you have the happiness to live under the Roman laws, you are bound to
love and honor our princes, who are our protectors." Acacius answered:
"Of all the subjects of the empire, none love and honor the emperor more
than the Christians. We pray without intermission for his person, and
that it may please God to grant him long life, prosperity, success, and
all benedictions; that he may be endowed by him with the spirit of
justice and wisdom to govern his people; that his reign be auspicious,
and prosperous, blessed with joy, peace, and plenty, throughout all the
provinces that obey him." MARTIAN.-"All this I commend; but that the
emperor may be the better convinced of your submission and fidelity,
come now and offer him a sacrifice with me." ACACIUS.-"I have already
told you that I pray to the great and true God for the emperor; but he
ought not to require a sacrifice from us, nor is there any due to him or
to any man whatsoever." MARTIAN.-"Tell us what God you adore, that we
may also pay him our offerings and homages." ACACIUS.-"I wish from my
heart you did but know him to your advantage." MARTIAN.-"Tell me his
name." ACACIUS.-"He is called the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of
Jacob." MARTIAN.-"Are these the names of gods?" ACACIUS.-"By no means,
but of men to whom the true God spoke; he is the only God, and he alone
is to be adored, feared, and loved." MARTIAN.-"What is this God?"
ACACIUS.-"He is the most high Adonia, who is seated above the cherubims
and seraphims." MARTIAN.-"What is a seraph?" ACACIUS.-"A ministering
spirit of the most high God, and one of the principal lords of the
heavenly court." MARTIAN.-"What chimeras are these? Lay aside these
whims of invisible beings, and adore such gods as you can see."
ACACIUS.-"Tell me who are those gods to whom you would have me
sacrifice?" MARTIAN.-"Apollo, the saviour of men, who preserves us from
pestilence and famine, who enlightens, preserves, and governs the
universe." ACACIUS.-"Do you mean that wretch that could not preserve his
own life: who, being in love with a young woman, (Daphne,) ran about
distracted in pursuit of her, not knowing that he was never to possess
the object of his desires? It is therefore evident that he could not
foresee things to come, since he was in the dark as to his own fate: and
as clear that he could be no god, who was thus cheated by a creature.
All know likewise that he had a base passion for Hyacinth, a beautiful
boy, and was so awkward as to break the head of that minion, the fond
object of his criminal passion, with a quoit. Is not he also that god
who, with Neptune, turned mason, hired himself to a king, (Laomedon of
Troy,) and built the walls of a city? Would you {684} oblige me to
sacrifice to such a divinity, or to Esculapius, thunderstruck by
Jupiter? or to Venus, whose life was infamous, and to a hundred such
monsters, to whom you offer sacrifice? No, though my life itself
depended on it, ought I to pay divine honors to those whom I should
blush to imitate, and of whom I can entertain no other sentiments than
those of contempt and execration? You adore gods, the imitators of whom
you yourselves would punish." MARTIAN.-"It is usual for you Christians
to raise several calumnies against our gods; for which reason I command
you to come now with me to a banquet in honor of Jupiter and Juno, and
acknowledge and perform what is due to their majesty." ACACIUS.-"How can
I sacrifice to a man whose sepulchre is unquestionably in Crete? What!
Is he risen again?" MARTIAN.-"You must either sacrifice or die."
ACACIUS.-"This is the custom of the Dalmatian robbers; when they have
taken a passenger in a narrow way, they leave him no other choice but to
surrender his money or his life. But, for my part, I declare to you that
I fear nothing that you call do to me. The laws punish adulterers,
thieves, and murderers. Were I guilty of any of those things, I should
be the first man to condemn myself. But if my whole crime be the adoring
of the true God, and I am on this account to be put to death, it is no
longer a law but an injustice." MARTIAN.-"I have no order to judge but
to counsel you to obey. If you refuse, I know how to force you to a
compliance." ACACIUS.-"I have a law which I will obey: this commands me
not to renounce my God. If you think yourself bound to execute the
orders of a man who in a little time hence must leave the world, and his
body become the food of worms, much more strictly am I bound to obey the
omnipotent God, who is infinite and eternal, and who hath declared,
_Whoever shall deny me before men, him will I deny before my Father_."
MARTIAN.-"You now mention the error of your sect which I have long
desired to be informed of: you say then that God hath a son?"
ACACIUS.-"Doubtless he hath one." MARTIAN.-"Who is this son of God?"
ACACIUS.-"The Word of truth and grace." MARTIAN.-"Is that his name?"
ACACIUS.-"You did not ask me his name, but what he is." MARTIAN.-"What
then is his name?" ACACIUS.-"Jesus Christ." Martian having inquired of
the saint by what woman God had this son, he replied, that the divine
generation of the Word is of a different nature from human generation,
and proved it from the language the royal prophet makes use of in the
forty-fourth psalm. MARTIAN.-"Is God then corporeal?" ACACIUS.-"He is
known only to himself. We cannot describe him; he is invisible to us in
this mortal state, but we are sufficiently acquainted with his
perfections to confess and adore him." MARTIAN.-"If God hath no body,
how can he have a heart or mind?" ACACIUS.-"Wisdom hath no dependence or
connection with an organized body. What hath body to do with
understanding?" He then pressed him to sacrifice from the example of the
Cataphrygians, or Montanists, and engage all under his care to do the
same. Acacius replied: "It is not me these people obey, but God. Let
them hear me when I advise them to what is right; but let them despise
me, if I offer them the contrary and endeavor to pervert them."
MARTIAN.-"Give me all their names." ACACIUS.-"They are written in
heaven, in God's invisible registers." MARTIAN.-"Where are the
magicians, your companions, and the teachers of this cunningly devised
error?" by which he probably meant the priests. ACACIUS.-"No one in the
world abhors magic more than we Christians." MARTIAN.-"Magic is the new
religion which you introduce." ACACIUS.-"We destroy those gods whom you
fear, though you made them yourselves. We, on the contrary, fear not him
whom we have made with our hands, but him who created us, and who is the
Lord and Master of all nature: who {685} loved us as our good father,
and redeemed us from death and hell as the careful and affectionate
shepherd of our souls." MARTIAN.-"Give the names I require, if you would
avoid the torture." ACACIUS.-"I am before the tribunal, and do you ask
me my name, and, not satisfied with that, you must also know those of
the other ministers? Do you hope to conquer many; you, whom I alone am
able thus to confound? If you desire to know our names, mine is Acacius.
If you would know more, they call me Agathangelus, and my two companions
are Piso, bishop of the Trojans, and Menander, a priest. Do now what you
please." MARTIAN.-"You shall remain in prison till the emperor is
acquainted with what has passed on this subject, and sends his orders
concerning you."

The emperor Decius having read the interrogatory, recompensed Martian by
making him governor of Pamphilia, but admired so much the prudence and
constancy of Acacius, that he ordered him to be discharged, and suffered
him to profess the Christian religion.

This his glorious confession is dated on the 29th of March, and happened
under Decius in 250, or 251. How long St. Acacius survived does not
appear. The Greeks, Egyptians, and other oriental churches, honor his
name on the 31st of March; though his name occurs not in the Roman
Martyrology. See his authentic acts in Ruinart, p. 152; Tillemont, t. 2,
p. 357; Fleury, t. 2; Ceillier, t. 3, p. 560.

ST. GUY, C.

HE is called by the Germans Witen, and was forty years abbot of Pomposa,
in the dutchy of Ferrara, in Italy, a man eminent in all virtues,
especially patience, the love of solitude, and prayer. He died in 1046.
The emperor, Henry III., caused his relics to be translated to Spire,
which city honors him as its principal patron. See his life, by a
disciple, in the Acta Sanctorium of Henschenius, and another, shorter,
of the same age.

END OF VOLUME ONE.